A while back, two friends and I decided it would be great fun to go to NYC and attend Vogue Knitting Live (a knitting conference). Then, one of the three fell pregnant….with twins. So, it seemed she was not meant to join in the great adventure. The other two friends decided to go and made arrangements. The third friend knitted up booties (one for each twin) so that the booties could visit NYC even if she could not. Eventually, there will be two pairs of booties, but for now, there are just these two. Here is their story.
They got on the plane in Austin and were flying direct to Newark. Katie’s tv wasn’t working on the plane, but the person sitting next to her seemed willing to chat a bit and thankfully, was interesting. She also spent time knitting on her “Set Fire to the Rain” test knit sock for Hunter Hammersen. In retrospect, given the deadline and lack of tv, she should have made much more progress than she did.

After arriving in NYC, they checked in at the Hiton (and checked for bed bugs) before unpacking us.


Then it was off to register and the Vogue Knitting Market. While at the market, Katie and Lisa saw many beautiful things and bought a few. They met one of the owners of Blue Heron yarn (of Rayon Metallic fame) and Katie shamelessly asked him to autograph a business card. His friend, Dennis, said that he would never be allowed to forget it while the gentleman in question asked if he was being punked. Lisa rather enjoyed the shenanigans and was not at all surprised.

Katie and Lisa also ran across a whole group of gnome and snowmen villages and met Anna Hrachovec who graciously agreed to sign a Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi book. Katie was unable to resist the charm of the tiny gnomes! Lisa was, on the other hand, able to resist sitting down to try knitting with size US THIRTY-FOUR needles!

By this time, the girls were getting hungry so they decided to find somewhere to eat. After a little snafu with the phone GPS…..pro tip: if you are going to use your GPS, make sure to have it set for walking directions rather than driving directions because you do not care about one-way streets whilst you are walking….they found a pub. There did not seem to be a waiter, so they left and went out into the cold and at Lisa’s suggestion went to the Jekyll and Hyde club. While at the bar, an animatronic zombie came out of a coffin and asked how they were. They didn’t answer. Assuming animatronic zombies do not have feeilngs to be hurt seemed like a safe assumption. However, the zombie got a little miffed and asked why they were not answering. They were stunned. Lisa had been to a J & H club before and was not expecting live zombie interaction but got her witts about her and began to chat with the zombie, whose name turned out to be Max. After asking their names, he repeatedly to call them Lisar & Julie. He seemed pretty interested in whether they were “just friends”. When he caught Lisa whispering to Katie that she was not expecting interactive zombies, he called her out and wanted to know what she was saying. She replied, “nothing”. Lisa was the clear favorite and Katie will forever refer to this as the time Lisa got hit on by a zombie.

Katie, on the other hand was too busy drinking a Blue Brain (their idea of a blue hawaii) to bother with amorous zombies. pro tip: If you haven’t eaten dinner and it is circa 9pm AND you just took a Claritin D, it is not a great idea to drink half of a delicious adult beverage and then try to navigate stairs to the basement restroom (a set of stairs, mind you, that makes one think of the basement stairs near the beginning of the movie Goonies). Evidently, Claritin D + empty stomach = cheap date. Luckily, there was no huge concern because Katie did not finish the Brains, ate dinner, and they were only two blocks from the hotel.

They also met a live customer heckler at J & H. A Madam something or other asked what they liked to do for fun. Katie responded with “knitting” and the madam suggest she check with the gift shop to see if they’d let her knit with human skin and sell it there. Lisa responded with “I like beer and I don’t have one.” hoping the Madam with the bad British accent could hook her up. Madam asked what kind of beer she was drinking. “Bass” Next thing you know, Madam is waundering off screaming “Bass” like she’s calling a fish. She was no help in the beer department, but on the upside, Katie now has an idea what she’d like to do after she retires……heckle people and comment on why they are drinking “Windex”.

We all happily arrived back in our hotel safe and sound.

Ps. Happy Birthday to Katie’s Little Brother!!