Yesterday I went to my first Big Apple Knitters Guild meeting, which was very interesting and fruitful. I was probably the youngest person there by a good 20 years (if not more). Most of the ladies who were in attendance were retired. Adina, the creative director of Tahki Stacy Charles yarns was the featured speaker, and she brought along the fall trunk show for the yarns, which was lovely.
After her speech, I went to talk to her briefly about what kind of process designers went through to get published by a yarn company, and she assumed that I was a designer and started telling me how to submit things to her company and mentioned that I should send my sketches and swatches, that she was always looking for new designers, etc. Ok. So I guess I should get off my butt and start designing. I've had a design in my head for a sweater for about a week, so I suppose I should just go for it.
She said that after they look at a sketch, they then send the designer yarn (YARN! I feel much like Cookie Monster when it comes to yarn. YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRN!) and the designer then knits it up and sends the garment back. Sweet. Knitting. Free yarn. YUM.
And miles to go before we sleep
After the meeting I walked up to String, and extremely high-end yarn store on the Upper East side. They have some beautiful stuff in there, including most of the Tahki Stacy Charles yarns, so I checked those out (they're surprisingly reasonable, especially given that String carries them) and thought about various things I could make from them.
Then Bruce and Georgia met me at 86th and Lex, and we walked down Third Ave to 60th Street to take the tramway to Roosevelt Island. We walked the entire northern half of the island, saw the Octagon Tower and the lighthouse, decided that the island itself is its own special kind of hell, and went home. All in all about six miles of walking for me yesterday, and 4.5 for Bruce and Georgia. The kid was a total trooper.
The one good thing I have to say about the island is that it has some truly outstanding views of Manhattan. Here are some pix from our walks (all taken from my crappy camera phone, excuse the quality):
That second photo of the view of Manhattan is fantastic, I love the colours of the water and sky!
ReplyDeleteYou should go for it too with getting your design on paper, there's nothing to lose, and like you say who wouldn't want the chance to get more yarn!!
Good luck.
Thanks, Susanne! Your encouragement is much welcome. I'm feeling a little shaky on the whole designing thing, but am compelled to do it none-the-less.
ReplyDeleteYou SO soft-pedaled the grim misery (MISERY!) that is Roosevelt Island. Combine the architectural delicacy of East Berlin, circa 1975, with the vague sense of unease that one gets from an Edward Gorey sketch (M is for Mary, who fished off a pier).
ReplyDeleteAnd who can forget the river, that looks like it's begging to swallow the bodies of suicidal day-trippers?
The whole place feels like it was either recently the site of a crime, or it's about to be.
Still, it was fun with you, babe.
Potential crime scenes are always the most fun with someone you love.
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