Knitting Crawl Walkabout

Susan took us to a couple of obvious places, but the real treasure was two stores that got me yarn drunk! I would never have found them on my own, and being local, plan to revisit them as soon as I can. In addition, Susan has a wealth of knowledge regarding NYC history, which made the walk very entertaining, even in the rain. It was a morning well spent.

It was a pleasant walkabout, but I would recommend the use of more busses and cabs, as we ended up losing much of our group as the day wore on. Would also recommend the tour leader accompany the attendees back to where she picked them up to start the tour!!! I am not from NYC and telling me to walk a few blocks and take the N train didn't set very well with me! Fortunately another woman in the group who is familiar with NYC was headed my way. Otherwise, the tour itself was very nice.

I booked this tour for a friend who was coming to town to celebrate a bachelorette party. She's a HUGE knitter, and this tour could not have been more perfect for her. We had a lovely day with wonderful weather, and the tour that Susan put together was so interesting, informative, and enjoyable. Our group was not all knitters, and while she and the knitters in the group were able to have lively knitting-themed converstaion, even the non-knitters were able to enjoy seeing different parts of the city. Susan is a fantastic tour guide, and provided us with some very interesting information. She took us to visit shops and see places that we likely wouldn't have otherwise been able to find on our own, and her repoire with the shop owners was an evident asset to the tour group. I can't thank Susan enough for her flexibility, hospitality, and friendliness. She helped create a truly memorable day for my friend and our group. I would enthusiastically recommend this tour, and this tour guide!

While trims, beads, wires, and buttons enhance knitted garments, the inclusion of three of those specialty craft shops on a stormy day made me impatient. I had come into NYC specifically to see YARN shops. That's what I expected of a Knitting Crawl. By 2:10 p.m. I was so drenched and hungry (without food since leaving home == very early to catch a train) that I left the dwindling group without waiting for the bus to see the fifth and final yarn shop. Three of the four I saw were worth it for me as they had fabulous yarns. The fourth was of interest to beginners as it sold only attractively packaged kits for beginners and easy knitters, and nothing else but two weights of its own single brand of yarn. Susan distributed a list of 18 yarn shops and 4 craft stores, their addresses, phone numbers, but not their websites. Calling this a NYC Walkabout tour was a misnomer. This was a Manhattan tour. We could have skipped the craft stores, concentrated on seeing as many of the 18 yarn shops as possible, taken more time to eat lunch or toured between lunch and dinner.

Wednesday was totally monsoon weather. The weather was awful, which definitely put a damper on the event. The best part of the tour really was the resource list. In better weather, the tour would be much more enjoyable. We would have accomplished more and seen more. I'd recommend the tour for a group of people who are not familiar with the city, like me and really needed a guide.

My only complaint was no time for lunch. We left NJ at 8:30, the tour started at 10:30 and ended 4 hours later --- too much time without sitting down for lunch or cold drink. All we needed was 15 minutes to 1/2 hour. Enjoyed going to out-of-way yarn stores.

We had a great time and were introduced to places we most likely would never have found on our own. A fun and very worthwhile adventure.

We thoroughly enjoyed this knitting tour. I think I bought something at every place except one. Not only was it fun to see different kinds of knitting shops it was a great way to get oriented to the city. We found a few food and shopping places we returned to that added more fun to our girls weekend.

Our group meets weekly for knitting and yaking. The stores we went to were truly amazing - none of us would ever have found most of these stores on our own. I would definately go back to at least two of them. The shop owners were friendly and enthusiastic about having us inundate their shops and took time to discuss various yarns and projects. My only complaint was we weren't told before hand that their were no stops for lunch. We met at 10:30 and didn't finish till almost 3:30 - that's major hunger and although Susan provided water and health bars it wasn't enough. We all would have brought something more substantial to nosh on had we known. We all loved the idea of taking another tour and combining it with a knitting/crochet lesson or project. This tour is a well kept secret!

the knitting crawl turned into a tour which didn't do more than just pointing out some knitting stores in Manhattan. The owners of the stores didn't know about the tour or didn't added any extra value to the tour. (no discounts and/or info about yarns). The tour guide could and should have done her homework better : maybe a little workshop in the knitting store, or at least some small talk about the yarns, Even Habu, which provides great demos, was treated as a usual shop to go in and shop. conclusion, I invited 4 knitting friends for a $170 tour which only provided address of knitting stores. (Put together with a 2 minute internet research !) A personal yarn shopper would have been cheaper ! Very disappointing Flo