How much? How fast?

The night after the event, when Joe and his mother and I were crammed into one wee hotel room (this is the problem with spontaneous surprises. The details tend to be a little loose.) We talked about how fabulous New York was, and I remembered that Carol had never been, and it suddenly seemed a shame to not spend a little time. We decided (if the details could be less loose) to take an extra day and show Carol the city. In the morning I went to do my thing or two (the other problem with spontaneous surprises is that the surprise-ers often don’t know the full plans of the surprise-ees) and Joe took his mum to see Grand Central Station. I took the sock to see – be still my beating heart, Vogue Knitting.

I’m a pretty big Vogue Knitting fan. It’s got a really different feel than Interweave Knits (my other favourite) but I love looking at the relationship between actual fashion and knitting patterns (No, the irony of that is not lost on me, as I sit here bra-less and unaccessorized, wearing a yarnstore tee-shirt and yoga pants.) and how can you not love a knitting magazine with a “Made in Canada” column written by our own Lee Ann? Adina Klein, who was at the launch the night before, showed me around. The place is pretty fly.

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This is Adina (who is dressed exactly like you thought all the Vogue people would be…right?) showing me the coolest thing ever. Those are all the pages with all the designs for the next issue. While I was there there were sweaters arriving and yarn arriving and it was seriously neat. Seriously. The coolest thing though, was the back rooms.

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On the left are all these bins with all the sweaters from all the last bunch of issues, so you could see a sweater “in person” if you wanted. Those bins in the back and along the right are (steady on now…) All the new yarns from All the manufacturers. Or almost all of them, sure seemed like all of them to me. (There was this one that I lost my mind over. I’d seen it at Knitty City too… it was a Tilli Thomas silk yarn with beads on it? Knitty City had a red/pink one that was astonishing, and Adina had a white/blue one that looked like ice. It was so not what I would usually knit with, but mercy. It was beautiful. I don’t remember the name – it was hard to read through the tears I shed for it’s beauty, and I didn’t look at the price, but I bet we can all guess that silk beaded yarn might run to the “luxury” end of things. Totally not an afghan yarn, if you catch my meaning.) That picture was just one of the places they were keeping their stuff. All over Vogue there are all these fabulously new and fancy yarns, products, books….bloggers. (We are everywhere.) Plus, as if all of that was not fabulous enough? Adina let me have some of the almonds on her desk. Great tour. Great almonds. Great editor.

Back at the hotel, I was released from Publisher control and left to my own devices. I found Joe and his mum and found out that they had managed to change flights, hotels and babysitters at home, and Whammo! We were seeing New York. We did it fast, and I hope the Real New Yorkers approve of what I showed them. If you have 24 hours to show someone the city….

1. We went to Curry in a hurry, in Murry Hill for lunch with Ms. TMW and That Laurie.

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Carol and That Laurie are seen here examining yarn. Lots of yarn. That Laurie has some mad shopping skills.

2. MoMA (iloveitheresomuch) is FREE on Fridays between 4 and 8.

So we showed the sock a little culture.

The sock liked Monet.

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The sock was stunned by Starry Night.

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The sock worked toward understanding some pieces.

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The sock….

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and Joe, absorbed a little Pollock. (It is very beautiful.)

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3. Walked by Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall.

4. We ate dinner at my favourite restaurant in NYC, HanGawi. Where we met some wonderful New Yorkers…

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Nicole and Steve, there celebrating Steve’s graduation from law school and very busy proving to us that New Yorkers are some of the friendliest people there are.

5. Walk from HanGawi up to the Park Central Hotel by way of the absolute insanity that is Times Square.

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(Carol loved it. Just loved it.)

6. Eat breakfast at Lindy’s

7. Walked to the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park and caught the 1 train to Wall Street. (Every Torontonian should see the NYC subway at least once. Just for comparison.)

8. Walked Wall Street to Battery Park and looked out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

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9. Visited the firefighters memorial.

10. Went to the UN (We’re Canadian. Considering our history, it’s a must see. ) where the media was all camped out because of the Security Council meeting.

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11. Went to Central park for a walk.

12. Went to the Dakota.

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Went to the airport and went home. I think. We did it fast, and furious and fun. I think Carol is a NYC fan now. What a great city.

When I got home there was some fabulous stuff about the hats that were collected in NYC. Many thanks to K. and Milissa and Knitty City. There were 250 of them. This one was knit by Kimberly (age 15) and it is her First ever complete knit object. (There is powerful mojo on the first knit thing.)

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red hat handknit by Olivia – age 13, Green and red hat handknit by Laurie, Blue hat hand knit by Carrie – Age 10

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and so much more…..Do you see yours? Click to make them bigger.

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When knitters rule the world. There will be hats for everyone.

Good job team.

I have to go pack. I’ve got until 11am tomorrow to decide what knitting I’m taking for the next 7 days and I’m fighting a wicked case of startitis.