Best Quote I've Heard All Day
"God is love...love is blind...Ray Charles is blind...Ray Charles is God?"
What'd I say? Amen.

WTF Happened to My NetComments?
They seemingly have disappeared and been absorbed into NetWeaver, but no commenting capability and no trace of them. Fuck me...and YACCS is no longer accepting anyone...so it's Haloscan and all previous NetComments have been erased. How pissed am I? Don't ask.


NYC KnitBloggers Tour de Shops, Part II

Here's how it started yesterday morning...Jen Tocker was here from Israel and we were all going to meet at 10 a.m. at Habu's on 29th St. and 7th Ave. Except that it was closed...or they weren't answering. Or something. Thank God School Products was just around the corner. 45 minutes or so there...I didn't buy much of anything...not much I wanted to buy. Next, it's uptown to The Yarn Co. on 81st and B'way.

Time: 11:30 a.m. or so. The Yarn Co. does not open until noon. Liz Hiraldo buzzes them anyway. Someone's there but they won't let us in. Then Jen gets on the intercom and announces that she's just flown more than 7,000 miles to come to THEIR shop so won't they let us up? This is New York. The one person tells us to go have coffee at Starbucks. Jen realizes that traveling Israelis are not a unique commodity in NYC and this will not be her ticket to ride.

Time: Noon. We make it upstairs finally. An insane, orgasmic plethora of fiber. Everything must be felt. Everything must be compared to everything else. I swear almost everything seemed to be handpainted. After an hour, things start to get crowded. We leave. Betseeee Edelstein will meet us in Brooklyn at StaceyJoy's RedLipstick. We're on the road again.

Time: 1:15 p.m. Haven't had lunch...but StaceyJoy had the best Black & Whites I've had in years. Such a wonderful funky shop! Stacey showed us her secret latex tape (very interesting!!!), we looked at her knitwear, chatted, milled around and so on. Ivete had just had a nifty ball of yarn and needles tattooed on her back (see pictures link further down) and Liz had the most incredible, vibrant, artistic tattoos I have ever seen. Given my distaste for needles...and the fact that I'm not of an age where I'd even consider it, I could almost see myself doing it...if I were 25 or so. Betsy showed up and we were off to Atlantic Ave. and Knitting Hands, which Liz Hiraldo promised us would be fabulous. In the meanwhile, we inhaled a slice of pizza and then jumped on the 1 train.

Time: About 2:30? We get to Knitting Hands and it's one of the best knitting shops I have ever been in. Only the old Patternworks in P'keepsie was better, IMO. They have everything from Red Heart (honest to God, I wouldn't lie!) to Koigu and beyond. A Koigu kimono hangs from the wall in the front of the shop. There is every single knitting book imaginable. A wall filled with needles and tools. Fabulous bags. Racks of magazines and patterns. Sigh. I need to move in.

Time: 3:45 p.m. Since I have about 60 miles to go to get home (got home about 6:30 in the midst of pouring rain), I split. This was one of the best Saturdays (or any day) that I have spent in a long, long time. Thanks, guys!

And here are the pictures...