About a year ago Michael and I began planning a trip to New Orleans via train.  It was supposed to be a trip to celebrate Michael graduating from his Master’s program.  Unfortunately, his class schedule got changed around, and he has one class to do after the wedding.

Still, we weren’t going to cancel a trip just because of that.

This week we’re traveling via train from Washington, DC to New Orleans, then New Orleans to Chicago, and finally, Chicago back to DC again.  We’re taking sleeper cars for all the legs of the trip – which is probably Michael’s (and mine, to a lesser extent) preferred way to travel.  We get fed, sleep in comfortable beds, and best of all, don’t have to deal with US airports, which are a nightmare.

For me, I get concentrated stitching time while we are on the train.  I’m well on my way to finishing the second sock for a design I’m under contract for – the pattern is mostly written also.

The Quarter Stitch

Among the sights we’re taking in New Orleans, we visited The Quarter Stitch, a LYS in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

It’s a sweet small store – beautiful light.  They’d changed locations since the last time I visited them 5 years ago – but they have a very similar selection of yarns.  Many purples, greens and golds – nearly the colors of New Orleans, especially around Mardi Gras time.  Some solid workhorse yarns good for beginners, and then some hand dyed yarns – like Mountain Colors and Malibrigo.

The Quarter Stitch is interesting, because unlike a lot of other yarn stores, I think they rely on more tourist traffic than a typical yarn store.  As such, their selection is geared much more toward impulse buying and small projects – I would be hard pressed to find enough yarn for a something larger than a shrug.  Still, it was a treat to have a yarn store close enough to the tourist part of the city that I could go there while also exploring the rest of the Quarter.