Location New York (State)-New York New York (State)-New York-Manhattan New York (State)-Long Island New York (State)-New York-Brooklyn New York (State)-New York-Staten Island New York (State)-Fire Island (Island) New York (State)-Upstate New York Subject-Topic Gay press publications Gay bars Bars (Drinking establishments) Public baths Coffeehouses Clothing trade Hotels Discussion Motion picture theaters Nightclubs Parks Private clubs Restaurants Gay liberation movement “And wear those.New York City Gay Scene Guide Vol. “You should come pole dancing with me,” she said. He figured he would use the shorts for the gym.īut Ms. Romaguera noted that they were acrylic, and that he would be wearing underwear. “Are you going to wear them without underwear?” asked Kalliopi Aronis, who had come that night just to hang out.
Romaguera walked over to a group of women sitting at a table to show them the shorts. He had a crochet piece he needed to finish. “I told myself I wouldn’t knit this here,” he said, looping his needles through the yarn. They had a purple band, a knit drawstring, and a brightly colored body in orange, blue, green, and hot pink. Romaguera pulled out a pair of short shorts.
Romaguera arrived with a plastic bag full of projects. Richard Shen, who said he has been turned away from women’s knitting circles, wore a headlamp while he knit. Boria’s knit night at String Thing were also at Club Cumming. The evening consists of raffle prizes, a potluck dessert, and special guests, who tend to be celebrities of the fiber world like editors at “ Vogue Knitting” and London Kaye, the Yarn Bomber, whose knitted street art has appeared on fences and water pipes all over the city. Maxwell, who is known as “the Martha Stewart of drag,” to be the hosts. He tapped Josh Bennett, a knitwear designer whom he described as “the hunk of the knit world” and Ms. Brini Maxwell, one of the event’s hosts, showed off her handmade 1970s-inspired suit and yellow blouse.Īlan Cumming, the bar’s co-owner and a knitter himself, came up with the idea for Sam Benedict, the manager at Club Cumming, organized it.
By the time the bar’s weekly knitting social, started at 6, all of the seats had been taken. In a more clothed and public setting downtown, about 10 men and women waited for the doors to open at Club Cumming in the East Village. “You get dolled up and spend a ton of money and New York City is costly, and you’re like, ‘Gosh, I spent $100, and did I get what I wanted out of this? Could I spend $10 at Michaels and bring a bottle of wine to this house party and get a more genuine experience?’ Maybe so.” “We’ve reached a tipping point,” said Erik Heitz, one attendee, about the bar scene. Richman described the bar scene as “sensory deprivation,” meaning no one truly sees or hears one another. “I don’t feel like being in a bar or a club is conducive to getting to know people,” said Michael Richman, who has a business knitting jockstraps and harnesses and began a monthly nude knit night in an apartment in Harlem last year.
You couldn’t call it a knitting explosion, exactly, but in small pockets - at yarn shops, apartments and gay bars throughout the city - a new kind of knitting circle is emerging. “The social interaction is priceless,” he said.įed up with awkward small talk and impersonal interactions at bars, some gay men in New York are looking for alternative ways to connect. The men laughed loudly at the resulting image, which transformed Mr.
prevention, took out his cellphone and began taking pictures of Mr. Major stitched a black beanie, Cairo Romaguera, who works in H.I.V. Going out for drinks is too expensive and he’s sick of everyone glued to their phones, he said, so he decided to come to the guys’ knit night instead.Īs Mr. Major was having a rough week and wanted to be around people.