It's So Long Since I Expect You've Forgotten!

   

Several weeks ago I took my first trip out to San Francisco.  When I got back I posted about my visit to the Britex fabric store and left you with a promise of more to follow, then life got super busy, the way life does, and I'm only now getting around to my follow up post.

My visit to Britex was wonderful but I had another day to kill while Simon was working so I decided to explore on my own and use the time to visit a wool shop - I was getting around on foot so I set off on a 40 minute walk from Union Square to Atelier Yarns at 1945 Divisadero Street.

Welcome to Atelier Yarns, an independent, family-owned store specialising in luxurious, natural and hand-dyed fibres.  I'm not going to list the vast number of brands and yarns stocked, they are all here for you to see on their website and they do classes too, listed here.  I felt at home immediately and the staff made me incredibly welcome, even getting me a chair and setting me up in front of all the pattern books so I could enjoy looking through them all.

That's my chair and there's even a fountain running outside the back door.

Once I'd found some patterns I liked the staff helped me choose appropriate yarns.

I want to make this little jacket for my grandson-to-be

and this hat too

I'll make them to match and here's the yarn I bought - Adriafil Knitcol trends, superwash merino wool, colourway 57 - Botticelli Fancy.

After chatting with other customers I had a wander around the rest of the store

let's do a close up on this section - I spotted this fantastic rabbit fur that I just couldn't resist

I had a dilemma over what colour to buy and finally opted for the mink brown to make a cowl that matches the brown rabbit fur ear muffs I wear throughout each winter.

It's not cheap and you knit it alongside this Debbie Bliss yarn - it's $86.95 for the kit which includes the two yarns and pattern but I'm very excited to make it and wear it next winter.

When I finally left the store I'd been there over two hours and the time had flown by.

I continued walking on to Mrs Doubtfire's house

and then set off on my return journey walking down Fillmore Street, a young shopping district, where I enjoyed checking out the shops and eating an unbelievably large lunch at La Boulange that I just couldn't finish 

and later a scrummy frozen yoghurt from fraiche.

And just a few more pics from the trip to whet your appetite

I was pleased to discover the guys on Alcatraz were taught crochet as one of their activities.

Sailing past Alcatraz on the way out to Sausalito.

Walking from Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge

 Walking the Golden Gate Bridge 

'The crookedest street in the world' - Lombard Street

I also want to give a mention to Virgin America as they exceeded my every expectation in flying out to San Fran.  You may recall from my post about my last trip to Seville that being gluten free I don't particularly enjoy airplane food/snacks and breakfast in particular - rice cakes are most airlines' gluten free food of choice.

This was not the case on Virgin America so while I was still up in the air, I just had to Instagram and tweet this pic of the gluten free crackers they served me with a cheese selection and red wine.  Absolutely delish.

And look what Virgin America tweeted back to me straight away

What a fab flight, wine, scrummy food, watching trashy TV, catching up on my emails, tweeting, Instagramming

and, of course, knitting

I loved San Francisco and I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more, especially all the fabric stores and fab foodie places my new quilty friend, Christopher @The Tattooed Quilter has told me about.

 My next trip is planned for August with Flicky and I just can't wait :D

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

   

     

What Do You Think We'll Be Doing After Graduation?

This week has been far too busy for sewing, after last week's Prom we celebrated Flicky's Graduation from Dwight School at The Met Museum of Art, Manhattan.  It was a fabulous day and even the thunderstorms and flash floods couldn't spoil it!

Here's some highlights - though the photos are a little disappointing as the lighting in the auditorium didn't lend well to flash or no flash photography, hopefully the official photographer knew what he was up to far better than we did.  Check out Tatty giving Flicky her very own Grad card!

There's been several other fun things that have happened this week:

I'm a frequent visitor to the Housing Works Bookstore on Crosby Street, Soho, Manhattan, you can find me there at least twice a week as it's just the best place to grab a gluten-free wrap and a great cup of tea and at the same time supporting an incredibly worthy cause:

"OUR MISSION - Housing Works is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts."

  I'm also a member of their International Crime Book Group and if you follow this link you can see some great photos of the store itself and a few photos of me, not looking at my best, at one of our meetups!

This week I picked up a few fabulous bargains while I was at the store:

Haven't had a chance to peruse them at leisure yet, it's been a crazy week, but I'm looking forward to it :)

Always good to get a feature or two and my Burrito Pillowcases have this week been featured by Janice @Better Off Thread and also by Q @JAQS Studio.  Thanks girls, I'm thrilled as always :)

 

And I received a gorgeous parcel in the post from my friend Sarah @Quilt Candy - she's been busy shopping at Liberty, London recently and found time to think of me!  You can read about Sarah's visit on her blog here and you can read all about my visit to Liberty last July in my 'Liberty, London' post here, with lots of gorgeous photos of the building, inside and out.

Oh and maybe you just dropped by to find out what we're doing after Graduation?  Well tomorrow Flicky and I are off to Seville, Spain to visit my eldest son Jack and to meet his girlfriend, Ana and her family.  We're very excited.

I don't have any photos of Jack and Ana to share with you yet, hopefully I can rectify that very soon so instead here's a photo by Flicky ... no cat-beard photos for us, this one's our very own dog-beard!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week too and this shout out's for Flicky

Congratulations Flicky on completing your International Baccalaureate Diploma and on your Graduation 

We're all so proud of you and love you very much
xxx

 Want to find out about our trip to Seville? -
click here to check out My Top 3 Reasons For Visiting Seville post :)

Linking To:

That Was February, This Is March

So it's March and I've been buying some gorgeous new fabrics at Pins & Needles on the Upper East Side.

A couple of Ed Emberley "Picture Pie" for Cloud9 fabrics - you just have to love those raccoons and Michael Miller's black & white Clown Stripe.

2 yards of multi pom poms, white fleece and white french terry.

Some fat quarters - I haven't got a printed selvedge on any of them so I have no idea what I've bought, if anyone has any idea I'd love to know!

So that's what I've been doing in March but what about February and, for that matter, January?

Well in January this little guy came to live with us, his name's Watson and he's a Havanese.

Yep he's pretty much running the household and, as you can see, he's totally taken ownership of Tatty's bed!

Then in February Simon and I headed off for a week to Seville to see all the kids - that's right, ALL the kids - it's 2 years since we were all together!!!

The trip involved a lot of this -

there's half a bottle of Tanqueray gin with a thimble of tonic in my glass!

Need more evidence of how we passed our time?  

Here's Ana, Jack, Joe and Katie and a table full of our cocktails.

We didn't take many pics (see my post about my previous trip here) and a lot of what I do have are poor quality phone photos, but there's not a single one of us all together :( and turns out this is the only pic I've got of Flicky!

and this one's me with Simon.

It rained every day and although it wasn't warm it was most definitely warmer than NYC.  The sun did break through for a couple of hours one day as I snapped this pic of Joe and Katie dancing in Seville's Cathedral garden

and this is the sunny view from the top of the Cathedral's Giralda Tower.

I loved all the hand stitched scarves

and there was quilty inspiration on every floor.

Here I am on the flight home - knitting and stretching out as there were only 80 of us on the 335 seater plane.

Airplane food was, as always a trial for me - just because I'm gluten free doesn't mean I like rice cakes, I hate rice cakes.

So that's my dinner and below's my breakfast - another rice cake that someone's gone to the trouble of cutting in half - makes no difference, I still hate rice cakes.

Since I got home I've been working on a sampler for a potential class, late into the night I've been busy sewing together jelly roll strips.

Tomorrow I'm off to San Francisco till Monday and I'm looking forward to some potential sunshine instead of more of this.

Here's to Spring in New York - though I've got a feeling we'll be skipping Spring and going straight into another scorcher of a Summer!!!

I know it's terribly British of me but I'm wondering how the weather's treating you?  Answers on a postcard please or even in a comment.