New York, the Yarn tree, Knitters' Review and the Nora Cuff class

I have just returned from 2 great weeks in NY visiting my children. But before I tell you more about New York, I would like to talk a little about one of the last classes we had at knit-one-one before the holidays---- the Nora Cuff Class.
This was the most silent class at knit-one-one---in other words not as much chatting and joke telling--- and that was because manipulating the stainless steel wire, the beads and the metal needles was not an easy matter ---or so I was told! Actually you can see the concentration in one of the pics. I forgot to mention that the final step in making the cuffs was doing a Kichener stitch---no wonder everyone was so focused. My friend, SoYoung, had not knit in 25 years but the day before the class she refreshed her memory by logging on to knittinghelp.com. I should mention here that SoYoung is an interior designer and so has an abundance of designy genes! Of course she produced a wonderful piece-----hers is the one with the big dark beads. Sandy and Betsy were so jazzed with their cuff that they made many others as Christmas gifts---lucky people who got those as gifts. Kathy finished hers first and seeing how great her cuff looked encouraged the others in their endeavours. ( I am trying to persuade Kathy to teach a class at knit-one-one--shhhh.....) Even Cindy who was silently moaning and groaning finished hers before the 3 hours was up and it looked wonderful. Christine's too looked very snazzy and sophisticated even though she kept muttering that this was harder than lace knitting! Robbie tried valiantly to finish hers before the end of class and she almost made it! Of course all of these creations were made possible by the great teaching of Julie Weisenberger and her terrific pattern (available soon on her website---yes, I will let you know when it launches.) Julie's next class for knit-one-one is
Julie's Jewels---Julie will teach how to create all those wonderful little brooches, pins, flowers and trims that will make your outfit pop. She really does create magic out of thin air--or at least from a few strands of yarn!

New York really does Christmas well with lights and pizazz everywhere you look. It was unseasonably warm but still everyone was wearing their black overcoats. ( Last week the NY Times had a series of photos of people in white coats and I think that the white coaters must have all left town for Christmas because I did not see one white coat!) At any rate I have sworn that my next coat will not be black! In terms of knitted do dads I didn't see anything particularly interesting. Peaked caps are in and my son gave his roommate, Sara, a particularly good version---black (but of course!) with a little leather trim on the crown. I keep forgetting to take photos---sorry!

The only yarn store I visited while there was my favorite, The Yarn Tree, in Brooklyn. I even met the fabulous Linda LaBelle and had a lovely chat about yarns, yarnstores and dogs----she has a very nice dog who actually sleeps in the window---a dog she rescued. I even bought some wonderful Frog Tree bulky alpaca and used it to teach Eoin, my son, to knit. (He picked it up very quickly and those are not the words of a proud mother!) Speaking of learning how to knit,
knit-one-one is launching the 2007 season with a beginning knitting classs. If you have friends or relatives in the Emeryville/ Oakland/ Berkeley area who want to learn how to knit, tell them to check it out. The class will be taught by the irrepresible Kate Freeman. As of this writing there are 2 spaces left in the class.

In last week's Knitters' Review there was a great summary of 2006 in the knitting world. If you don't already subscribe to this free newsletter, researched, written and edited by the terrific Clara Parkes, I would definitely encourage you to give yourself the gift of signing up for it. She and therefore Knitters Review are a mine of information.