Bring on Spring

I don't know about the rest of you but I am getting a little bored of winter. I don't mind it too much up until Christmas and the New Year but, come the end of January, I am seriously fed up of it all.

As a result I was in need of some happy easy socks in a cheerful spring colour. I had some Sundara Sock Yarn in Lilac that I wound ages ago for no apparent reason and which had been calling to me for quite a while.

At the same time I was in need of some knitting to take on my recent trip to New York. I was a bit worried about the whole 'needles on planes' thing but I don't like sitting still for 8 hours with nothing to do so I wanted a sock pattern that I could easily cast on once I had boarded (I didn't want to take anything half knitted in case someone made me leave my needles behind).

I had a good look around as I was looking for something quite easy, no techniques that would be hard, or unknown (toe up cast on is my nemesis), and finally Knitty's Spring Forward socks by Linda Welch became the clear front runner. I love them. It's one of those patterns that I didn't much like when looking at the picture on Knitty but then a quick glance on Ravelry had me wanting my own pair.

I don't much love the bamboo dpns, I think they have been used one times too many and at least one of them is quite seriously bent which annoys me no end. But never enough for me to think to replace the bent ones with straight ones when I am at home. I only ever notice on the bus in the morning. Oh well.

Can someone give me January back please

I am not quite sure what happened to January. Admittedly I got to go to NY for a week with work but still. Someone appears to have fast forwarded through some of the days in the month. Mind you, that got me closer to the payday following Christmas so I probably shouldn't complain.

I had a lovely time in NY for lots of reasons. I saw friends, work was good fun and interesting and I got to do some yarn shopping. Those of you who have followed this blog for far longer than any of us care to remember will remember that I started this blog when I was living in NY and I haven't managed to get back there since we left so this was a much anticipated trip. Here's the view from our office.

How lovely is that? The weather was quite warm by "NY in January" standards and beautifully sunny nearly the whole time I was there so that was lovely. I completely accidentally walked passed the Lion Brand Yarn Studio as I meandered back to the hotel one afternoon.

I particularly liked the knitted lion in the front window.

And also the knitted door handles.

In some ways it was a shame it was closed. In others, it was just as well.

I also spotted these huyge 'balls of yarn' when walking past a rug shop in the village so I couldn't help but take a picture.

I'll post something about my recent knitting in the next few days but, in the mean time, you have to look at this if you remember playing Mario Brothers when you were younger.