Summer 2012: Island Hopping, Part 5

After leaving the Ferry terminal I headed up Broadway to find the second of my "islands" for the day. I felt so welcomed by the open arms of Saint Elizabeth - who apparently was the first American born saint (according to the sign there.)

I don't feel as comfortable below 34th, or 14th, or Canal Street, for that matter - so lower Manhattan is way out of my comfort zone. Added to the fact that the landscape of lower Manhattan was changed irrevocably in 2001, there's the added psychic weight that we all try not to deal with while being downtown. Perhaps regular visitors have built up a level of comfort/coping mechanism, but I haven't been downtown often enough. Now that I know how ridiculously easy it is to do the Ferry, and how much I need to be on the water more often, I'll be down a lot more.

By the time I reached the corner of Broadway near the Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green, I was ready to be distracted by the bright colors of a street market. After being on the water, peering through the haze, bright colors were good to shock my senses back into a state of awareness.

I was initially drawn to the ruched flowers on the red scarf and that drew me into the other wares. Then I found the hand-crocheted embellished (but made in China) wraps. It's a seriously good thing I only had $12 on me for the whole day - and that was earmarked for the last part of my daytrip - so I had no money to spare. There were so many pretties and this magpie wouldn't have been able to resist.

Ooooooh. Glass. OOOOOOH. Blue baubles!

I am seriously going to have to blow this one up and frame it.

Then I found more scarf stalls. Was I in Manhattan or in India at a bazaar?

There were so many tables and racks just full of stones. I love these hanging displays. I just wanted to brush them like harp strings. I also really liked these stretchy bracelets. I have large wrists, so stretchies are better for me. Not that I would wear them. I have my heirloom that I wear every day without fail, so I don't wear additional bracelets. But don't they look inviting?

I couldn't stare at these too much. I was getting sleepy.

So many colors. So many patterns. So much fun. I think I'll play with these pics and make some new cards and prints. I'm lucky these came out. It was so hazy and bright, I wasn't able to see anything on my little screen, with my shades on or without. I had a headache from the heat, humidity, and haze and all the squinting.

I had to pull myself away from the stalls and head back up the Canyon of Heroes. I'm sure I looked like an idiot, but I was totally reading the inserts into the sidewalk. So many historical names and dates - as well as a familiar name. Why Hello Mr. Cliburn. (Yes, I was one of *those* people. I totally stopped in the middle of the flow of traffic and shot these. I do realize the irony of me acting like a tourist.)

The more north I traveled on Broadway, the more I really remembered why I don't like lower Manhattan. Narrow streets. Wall Street. Traders. Tourists. People doing obscene to the Bronze Bull. Tramps aka the Occupy Wall Street "protesters" hanging out at Trinity Church. The construction vibe due to the rebuilding of the Trade Center areas, not to mention the huge transit project expanding the Fulton Street subway hub. I think I might also have been the teensiest bit claustrophobic. The towers in my area just don't seem to hem me in the same way as the walls of this "canyon."

No matter how beautiful the skyline contrasts are (r: St. Paul's dwarfed by skyscrapers and One World Trade) it was hot and I was sticky. I was also way out of sorts to realize that a) my "island" destination, Cookie Island, had been pushed out by the Fulton Street hub construction and the website didn't tell me that [freakin' Google] -- it's a Payless now and b) I couldn't find the subway entrance because of the scaffolding for the Fulton hub and I walked around the block 3 times until I found it.

All the cheery street art in the world didn't cheer me up, but a long cool subway ride north to "island" number 3 of the day did help. I headed up to another unfamiliar area of NYC, the upper reaches of the East Side, to El Museo del Barrio for the exhibition, Caribbean: Crossroads of the World. Pardon the lack of pictures, but El Museo is wrapped up for reno of its own. They also didn't allow photography in the exhibition (which is a shame because I don't draw).

I'll have to do a review of the exhibition at a later time. It's actually a three-parter, spread out between El Museo, the Queens Museum of Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. I have a passport to the other 2 now, since I paid admission to El Museo. I can see getting to Harlem, but I don't know about Queens yet.

1 day trip = series of islands
Manhattan
Staten Island
The "lost" island - I think it's on Long Island now, but I'm not heading out there for a cookie
artistic renderings of the Caribbean Islands - Cuba, Puerto Rico, and all the St.'s etc.

Pretty good for:
unlimited trips on my monthly MetroCard
$5.00 student admission to the Museum, cash
$3.75 beverages, cash
And some plastic money in the Museum Gift Shop for trinkets for the kids and to make-up for saying I was a "student."

Better than airfare and accommodations, right?

Auntie Nettie's Attic Merchandise 2011 - August

I don't know when I'll get a chance to replace the camera, but wanted to make sure to document the productiveness that was August.

It's deceptive though; most of these projects were 1 skein. I thought I was working my way through the stash, but then, in a fit of cleaning, I made a mistake of opening a bucket to find more yarn. Plus, I found a really cheap stash at Housing Works that I couldn't resist. At the rate things are going, I may not have to,or allow myself to, buy more yarn until the end of 2012!

I actually might have gotten more done in August if I hadn't been:
~ running around preparing for Hurricane Irene and then constantly monitoring Twitter/the NYTimes, etc. on the progress of landfall and the aftermath;
~ having lunch with more of the Mannes Library crew;
~ walking half of the island of Manhattan for Summer Streets;
~ visiting the New York Botanical Garden two days in a row;
~ watching copious amounts of television, mostly catching up on USA network summer programming;
~ having a belated burst of spring cleaning, including a kitchen appliance/utensil/item purge; bookshelf inventory update and shifting; apartment scrub-down and puttering;
~ a marathon bout of ironing, like 8 hours worth, made easier by watching another season of Drop Dead Diva; and most importantly ....

~ FINALLY setting up the etsy.com shop, dealing with the PayPal portion, and then sending e-mails to everyone I knew to tell them that it was open.

That's right. Auntie Nettie's Attic is now on etsy.com.

After 15+ years of keeping my crafting hobby a semi-secret, I am pleased to announce that the crafts are moving out of the attic and on-line, to a little corner over at etsy.com. It's a little scary to move beyond my close circle of work colleagues, friends and family and out to the world wide web, but it was beyond time. I still can maintain control of content, but can expand my reach beyond those patrons within train and walking distance.

I'm trying a "soft-opening" right now, with only a few selected baby blankets and stuffed animals. However, there are literally trunks full of other treats yet to share - scarves, hats, a bag or two, pins, blankets of varying sizes, and a whole carnival of animals. My repertoire continues to expand, so who knows what I'll "hook up" with next.

If you'd like to receive special updates from Auntie Nettie's Attic about new merchandise, please me know and I'll add you to a special mailing list.

In the meantime, here's what I got done in August. They may or may not show up on the shop sometime down the road.

ANA 2011-33 & ANA 2011-43: Black Wool Skull Hat - tight fit (1 skein Lion Brand Wool each)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
 ANA 2011-34 & ANA 2011-44: Brown Wool Skull Hat - tight fit (1 skein Lion Brand Wool each)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-35: Brown Hat with Brim(1 skein Lion Brand Wool)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless) ANA 2011-36: Grey Slouchy Hat - loose fit(1 skein Lion Brand Wool)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-37: Black Slouchy Hat - loose fit(1 skein Lion Brand Wool)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-38: Brown Slouchy Hat - loose fit(1 skein Lion Brand Wool)
 (as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-39: Cream Slouchy Hat - loose fit(Part of 1 skein vintage Red Heart Sport)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-40 & ANA 2011-42: Gray Wool Skull Hat - tight fit (1 skein Lion Brand Wool each)
(as of Oct. 2011, #42 is no longer available)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless) ANA 2011-41: Cream Skull Hat - tight fit(Part of 1 skein vintage Red Heart Sport)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless)
ANA 2011-45: Brown/Cream Striped Skull Hat - tight fit (made from combo of Lion Brand Wool/vintage Red Heart sport)
(as of 11/2012, no longer available, donated to Hats for the Homeless) ANA 2011-46: Fancy Peach/Cream/Light green scarf (not available, to be a gift)(made from 3 skeins of Trendsetter Yarns, Monarch-1 yarn. Made in Italy. Polyamide/Acrylic)
Still in Progress:2010: Multi-fiber, multi-colored chevron blanket2011: Potential mobile of hearts (created as part of ANA 2011-08 group) - need hardware
Fancy Blue Scarf (finished 9/4/2011 - thank you very much)
Cream Purse, like the ones in April - but I need handles to finishBlack Infinity Scarf (finished 9/5/2011 muchas gracias)

As ever, if you see anything you'd like, just contact me for sizes, availability, and costs -- or better yet

Don't forget to go to the shop!