Delectable Mountain fabrics, Brattleboro, Vermont

Delectable Mountain Cloth sign in window display.

An errand brought my husband and I to southern Vermont a few weeks ago; we revisited a favorite store in Brattleboro.  "Store" doesn't quite convey the immersive experience at Delectable Mountain Cloth, where the shopper is enveloped, and practically swaddled by, bolts, bundles, and rolls of luxury fibers, all  murmuring "touch me."

Owner - really, curator - Jan Norris has been sourcing the finest in silks, velvets, linens and cottons for 35 years.  Wares are displayed beautifully in a profusion of baskets and pressed glass dishes, which are in turn deployed on doilies or glimmering mirrored trays.  There's a theatrical quality to the displays, which is fitting as these fabrics are ready to make an entrance once transformed into special garments and adornments.

Bundles of fabrics in creamy tones.

Pearly buttons.

This store is an amazing resource; worth a special trip if you find yourself within striking distance.  Jan also stocks buttons of all descriptions, scarves made from her fabrics, and fun jewelry. 

Jan Norris (foreground) and assistant.

Buttons in my favorite colors - violet and lavender.

Silks are a specialty.

The quilt in the background is by Jan, who is also a talented artist.

A delightful display of special textiles.

Knitty City - getting worsted in New York

A cuddly menagerie of knitted toys.

First, I apologize for the horrible pun in this post's title. Forgive me.

Although I am loyal to my local yarn store, Puttin' on the Knitz, in the interest of research I investigate the local fiber offerings when I travel too.  During a recent trip to Manhattan, I discovered yarn emporium Knitty City, on the Upper West Side at 208 West 79th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam. Thoughtfully, proprietor Pearl Chin offers extended retail hours, until 8 pm, on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

Look for the orange banner.

We happened by on Wednesday evening, when a men's group meets. Real men do knit.  The store is compact, but features a good selection of yarn weights and fibers - wool, but also cotton, linen, silk, alpaca and even bamboo.

Wall of yarn - tactile delight!

Long, narrow space packed with goodies and nice people.

Comfy corner for browsing books and patterns.

The store was quite busy - it's obviously a community hub - but I never felt jostled or rushed as I engaged in what is for me the most difficult part of knitting:  selecting yarn.  This store has a swift, or ball winder, which converts skeins into balls of yarn, sparing my husband the chore of sitting on the couch  windmillling his arms around while trying to keep an unruly mass of yarn from tangling. Wish every yarn shop would provide this service.  In addition to yarn, this well-stocked shop offers patterns, notions, and a great selection of buttons for those cardigans. 

Guys' knitting group.

Winding my yarn purchase.

Selection of drawstring bags with words to live by.

City Quilter and High Line park, New York

Astilbes in bloom, High Line park.

The week-end of June 16, 2012, DH and I visited our offspring in New York.  I planned a trip to The City Quilter, a Manhattan fabric store, with an associated art quilt gallery, recommended by quilt friend Linda. Daughter decided to show me the High Line, as it's in the same geographical area.  The High Line is easily accessible by subway, and became our scenic route to The City Quilter.

The High Line is a defunct elevated freight rail line reborn as a linear urban park in the former meat-packing district of Manhattan. Wildly popular, if the crowds were anything to go by on a beautiful June day, there are food stalls, fixed lounge chairs, loads of special events, and flowers and foliage galore. Almost too many plants, as at times the generous planting beds squeeze the walkway to a narrow bottleneck, slowing the pace and forcing a single file passage. This is a minor quibble, however; overall it's a wonderful, unique addition to New York's open space.  Part of our subway system here in Boston is called the Green Line - the High Line is, literally,  New York's Green Line.

The High Line.

The long green line of High Line park.

 The City Quilter, which sells fabrics, books, and needlework supplies such as sashiko samplers, has an associated gallery for art quilts.  Hand-made gifts are quite reasonable; I purchased a hand-dyed rayon scarf for daughter for only $15, my Manhattan bargain.

The City Quilter and The ArtQuilt Gallery - NYC.

Lots of goodies and nice staff.

Daughter admires quilts on display.

 On our way back to the subway, we stopped for liquid refreshment at Argo Tea Cafe Chelsea location (275 7th Avenue).  Tea and light bites to stay or go, plus a wall of tea to make at home.

Argo Tea Cafe.

Got tea?

Food, fabrics and yarn in Portland, Maine

On February 25-26, DH and I blew into Portland, Maine, to visit friends. It was wicked windy, as we say here in New England, so when I say "blew into," I mean it literally, as our trusty Honda was buffeted by arctic clipper winds all the way.

While Portland is justly celebrated for its lively waterfront - still a working port - a bit of online research led us to the road (somewhat) less traveled, edgy Congress Street.  In my "A to Z" report of our trip, I'll start with Z - Z Fabrics, at 316A Congress St.  However, if you visit after March 1, please note that the store is moving to 477 Congress St., having outgrown its current sliver of retail space. A nice, edited selection of fabrics, and I found just the right backing fabric for a quilt top.

Z Fabrics store, original space.

Next on our tour of Congress St. came the Angela Adams home furnishings store. Ms. Adams is a Maine native and has done her home state proud.

Angela Adams store.

Back into the cold outdoors but not for long, as we entered the cozy, wool-lined KnitWit shop at 247A Congress St.  A busy, lively place despite the shopper-discouraging blustery cold. Of course, there's no better place in winter than a friendly yarn shop.

KnitWit yarn shop. I bought yarn to make a hat to match my teal jacket.

Foodie images - including Katie Made Bakery, and mead tasting.

From fiber to food and drink - we left Congress St. and walked two blocks to the Maine Mead Works brewery (meadery?) for a mead tasting. No appointment, just show up. We tasted nine flavors of mead, which is wine fermented from honey, and liked the Blueberry and Dry Hopped best. Evidently 30% of Maine's bees now work for Maine Mead Works. Who knew?

We fueled up at lunchtime at Katie Made Bakery, a corner storefront at 147 Cumberland Ave., and each slurped a delicious cream of broccoli soup, before sharing a roast beef and caramelized onion sandwich. The cupcakes looked delicious; maybe next time.

Grace restaurant, a former church.

After taking in a Degas show at the Portland museum, we all enjoyed dinner at Grace restaurant. In a very imaginative example of adaptive reuse, the sanctuary of a deconsecrated church has become an eating place with just the right balance of fun and formality.  We enjoyed an excellent meal, comparable to anything in Manhattan, and at one-third the ticket price.

Japanese saying - we eat first with our eyes.

 I especially have to rave about one dessert - a peanut butter roulade with candied celery (lower right in the image above.) Remember eating peanut butter on celery sticks as a child (or an adult, for that matter)? Well, this version has gone to France and received Cordon Bleu certification. Sponge cake hugs a peanut butter filling;  neither cake nor filling are too sweet, and the candied celery provides a crisp herbal note that's just right.  A delicious way to cap our trip to Portland.

Images of Portland.

PurlSoho retail therapy

Patrons finger the yarns.

The entrance, at 459 Broome St.

In August I found myself in Manhattan, to visit a family member in hospital. I took a bit of time off from the bedside vigil to meet with one of my New York-based offspring, on her last weekend of freedom before beginning graduate school. We went to PurlSoho, a sliver of a store, and found an Aladdin's cave of yarn, fabric and more.

Be still my heart! Bolts and bolts of Liberty Tana Lawn.

Liberty lawn designs in embroidery hoops -
what a great way to use scraps.

Liberty fabrics have that somewhat eccentric British design sensibility - on view in the creative hats at the televised Royal Wedding in April - and the tightly-woven, yet supple, lawn quilts up beautifully.

According to my 1959 Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, lawn is:

a fine, plain weave, relatively sheer cotton fabric made in close constructions. Generally made of fine, combed singles [single ply] although some cheaper carded yarn qualities are also produced... The term lawn was originally was used for fine, plain weave linen fabric with an open texture... The word is derived from Laon, a city in France, where linen lawn was manufactured extensively.

I stopped drooling over the Liberty bolts long enough to notice that PurlSoho also has a nice, edited yarn selection, including many tempting chunky yarns.

Yarn and, at the left, real wool felt.


Textured scarves.

I have a yarn-buying moratorium, but I did purchase a pre-printed sashiko embroidery panel. I took this back to the hospital and worked it there a bit, becoming entertainment for some of the patients at New York Presbyterian. I remember how utterly boring illness can be, and was happy to explain my project to the johnny-clad people, trailing IV poles, who approached me in the lounge. One woman sat with me for quite a while and chatted while I stitched. I think she needed to talk, and I was happy to listen.

Old Singer models - marvels of industrial design.

As we left PurlSoho on our way to the subway, we admired the window of AllSaints Spitalfields clothing company, with its display of antique sewing machines. For information about PurlSoho, the website is: www.purlsoho.com/purl

The Soho MOMA Store is nearby too, at 81 Spring Street. Get refreshed at Balthazar, across the street at 80 Spring St.