Vogue Knitting Live—New York City 2015, Fun, Fiber, & Fashion in the heart of Times Square!

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ast Saturday I had the great pleasure of attending my first Vogue Knitting Live event. I started with the company in August and I have been looking forward to this event since my first day. Vogue Knitting live is a traveling three-day conference for knitters and crocheters, and takes place three times year. It is produced by Vogue Knitting magazine and was launched in January of 2011, with the first conference being held in New York. In fact, this year we celebrated our fifth year anniversary! The idea of Vogue Knitting Live is to bring the experience of Vogue Knitting magazine to life—to bring the pages of the magazine alive in a vibrant, fun, community setting. The events bring together thousands of knitting enthusiasts, and feature master-level hand-knitting classes, a high-end shopping experience featuring hundreds of vendors, knit-couture fashion shows, knit art galleries, lectures, book signings and plenty of knitting inspiration.

This year our New York conference was held at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Time Square. And I was excited with anticipation as I made my way through the crowds in the cold winter air, surrounded by the flashing lights and over-sized fashion billboards. The  Marriott Marquis was easy to find, and the hot pink and black, fashion forward Vogue Knitting Live entrance could not be missed. It was so much fun to be part of such a thrilling and enjoyable event.

“For more than 25 years, Vogue Knitting has brought the best of fashion knitting to our dedicated knitters. Now we’re inviting our readers to experience Vogue Knitting like never before—live and in person!” —Editor in Chief Trisha Malcolm

I had wonderful time strolling the markets which were held on two floors, and of course I had to purchase an organic catnip, yarn ball toy for my kitty. Though of course I was not there to just shop, I was there to work—I was photographing the event, and boy did I have my hands full with my camera in one hand and my iPhone in the other. It’s not easy being a paparazzi social media extraordinaire. But it was fun!

And the best part was helping out backstage and photographing the shows themselves. As soon as the music queued I would dash out from backstage, bent low like a true professional and find my way to the pit, which basically consisted of just me. Though of course, we also had a REAL professional photographer on hand as well. We had a total of eight fashion shows—with the first starting at 10:15 in the morning, and the last ending at six in the evening. The shows featured yarn makers like Rowen, Classic Elite, and Koigu and knitting designers like Stephen & Steven who are currently on their Mixed Tape tour. The fashion shows opened with an official Vogue Knitting show and ended with an official Vogue Knitting show. The Vogue Knitting shows showcased many of the garments that appeared in the magazine in 2014 and it allowed our readers to see the garments in person. Which, if the reactions of our attendees were any judge, was quite a thrill. The official fashion shows were followed by a “Readers on the Runway” show, in which our readers walked the runway in their own creations—a super fun way to end a very fun day. Saturday’s events concluded with a Gala dinner which was held in the Astor Ballroom and featured Julie Rubiner, and Eileen Fisher Director of Knitting Design. If knitting is your thing, then this is event is for you. I hope you enjoyed following along with me as I covered this event. And for my readers who like to knit or crochet be sure to check out vogueknittinglive.com as I mentioned, this a traveling event, and it could be coming to a city near you!