HOT in the city

Newsflash--summer is hot. OMG. I about had a melt down at one point today where if I hadn't been able to get a bottle of water, I would have really lost my shit. Thankfully, Spanky was there, and I didn't embarrass myself too much.

We got up with the intention of getting in on the last day of Summer Streets, but Spanky couldn't get her act together in time for us to make it down there. It was only til noon, and she needs a LONG lead time.

Instead, we headed to Chelsea for brunch at Blossom, an awesome vegan restaurant on 9th ave between 21st and 22nd streets. My assistant had given me a gift card last Christmas, but we'd never made it over there during brunch hours, due to extreme laziness. Today, since we were already up for Summer Streets, we decided to make a day of it. We went to brunch, then stopped off at Printed Matter on our way over to the High Line.

At Printed Matter, which is a very awesome store (and archive, I think), for artist's publications, Spanky found this book on art and knitting, and brought me over to show me the awesome sweaters.



She didn't know I already knew about Lisa Anne Auerbach and her message sweaters, but I didn't know she had put them out in a book! OMG! It's really amazing. I bought it, of course.



Not only does it have handy charts (fetus, anybody?), but I just wanted to support her art. Also, I am in love with that blue sweater on the right in the above picture. She's basically used the 9/11 sweater pattern on the left, but instead of the words, she's inserted another one of her charts. I know that she does these sweaters on a machine (or at least she did the last time I looked into this at all), but someday I'm going to follow her directions, and figure out how to make that blue sweater for myself. So cute! (although I know you can't tell much from my crappy pic...)

Now, you have to imagine this whole day taking place in a miasma of heat, drizzly rain, overcast skies, and air so thick you can feel it brushing by you as you walk. After Printed Matter, we carried on to the High Line. I'm glad that Spanky wanted to do this, because I don't know that I would have been motivated enough to get over there on my own, and I would have really missed out. It's a beautiful space:



Sorry for all the pictures, but it was a lovely park. It stretches for about 6 or 8 blocks, and is different all the way down. We're already planning on visiting it later in the fall to see how it changes, and hopefully be able to hang out longer. It was just too damn hot this time to linger, even though the space itself it quite enticing. I made the pictures small to save space, but if you want, you can click any of them to see them bigger.

After we walked all the way down the length of the park, we carried on into the Village for gelato (which is about when I had my melt down) and settled in Washington Square Park for a bit before starting home.

All in all, a lovely summer day. I'm glad it didn't rain harder or longer, and I'm really glad I didn't pass out from the heat or kill anyone. And when we got home, after a cool shower and a short romp with the dog, I finished one side of the blankie's border!



I am about ready to be done with this project. It has been wonderful knitting, but I'm ready for it to be over, because I have all kinds of other things waiting in the wings. I have rediscovered my stash, and I've got plans, baby! Big plans! Stay tuned for more on that later...