Knitting Crawl Walkabout

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.

Susan was an excellent guide. Not only did she know the "ins and outs" of the city, she brought us to very cool, obscure knitting shops - places we would never have experienced on our own. Her knowledge of the city's history made the walks between stores interesting and fun. We finished the day happy, tired and much poorer for buying yarn for inspired projects. We would love go with her again and see some of the other shops on her list. (And my husband wants to eat his way through the Arthur Avenue Walk she organizes!) Would highly recommend this outing!

A very entertaining day in New York for a knitter from Baltimore!

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.

The list of shops was nice to get. We visited three really nice shops (including one workshop--Habu--that was really special) and two that weren't that good. Susan is open to suggestions, so, if you have some specific wishes, let her know!. I was surprised that she apparent;ly hadn't visited some of the shops for awhile, since one was closed and one had very poor stock.

The knitting tour was a gift from me to my wife this past Christmas. I offered to go along to carry the packages! - It turned out to be a highlight of our trip to the City. Susan, our guide, took us from shop to shop and provided us with all kinds of information regarding the neighborhoods, history, etc. in between. We were able to see parts of the city that we would never have found on our own, not to mention the shops that are hidden away on the upper floors of the buildings. It was really a fantastic experience. We will arrange for another tour with Susan when we return to NYC.

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.

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.

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.

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.