The Trip to New York

I had a great trip to New York. I stayed with my grandmother and got to see my uncles, aunt, and little cousin who is now significantly taller than I am. He took me to see the second Pirates of the Carribean, and to demonstrate how impressed I was that little Mikey is now driving me places and six-foot-something, I got a picture.



I made out at the GAP (I found two pairs of jeans that fit me. Two!) and went with my aunt Carol and Grandma to The Shoe Store of All Shoe Stores. Warehouse size. Two levels. All shoes. (As Carol pointed out, half of the upper level is mens, so it's really only 1.5 floors ...) I've beend driven around by Carol before, but here we are on our way to the Shoe Mecca. (Val, you jealous yet?)



Here is a shoe I adored, but really needed to be open toe. It just isn't good without the open toe.



I also gave Carol the dishrag I'd made for her. Here is the washcloth, languishing in situ.



Here is my aunt Carol, who, when I said "Demonstrate the functionality!," obligingly made scrubbing motions with the dish cloth, which were captured here on film.



And here we both are, giving the washcloth our stamp of aproval.



I told my grandmother I'd make her a purse if she found a pattern she liked, and to get the yarn, we visited -- get this -- a yarn store where everything was 50% off! Wow. We got some linen to make the purse (she likes neutral colors) and I set to work on the chosen pattern. I quickly realized that I had no idea how to "knit into the back of the second stitch and the front of the first" without getting an extra yarn over in there which made it impossible to do the same purling on the second row. So I came up with my Own Pattern.

Yes, that's right. I invented my first pattern. It's just a rectangle that can be folded into two squares, each with a seed stitch border and a purled square in the middle, but I'm really pleased with it (and, more importantly, I think my grandmother is, too). Here we are, holding the finished rectangle before it got all stitched together.



Because of my grandmother's hand problems, she wanted a bag with a drawstring rather than a clasp, button, or zipper. I made a couple braids, threaded them through the top, and voila!



It closes ...



... and opens again!



Here it is, so you can see the design.



I will, at some point, post the simple pattern. So exciting!