(Photo: Courtesy of Annie & Co)

In 2002, Annie Goodman opened up a modest second-floor needlepoint store and developed a following that included aficionadas Phoebe Cates and Joanne Woodward, who liked her roster of designers, which included Melissa Shirley, JP Needlepoint, and Caron. Knitting fans had to go elsewhere, until now: Goodman’s taken over a ground-level store below her space, and Annie & Company (1325 Madison Ave., nr. 93rd St.; 212-360-7266) is now 3,000 square feet of handwork bliss. You can go in merely to handle the chunky or hand-painted yarns by Misti Alpaca (from $15 to $20 a skein) and Artyarns (from $20 to $45 a skein), but Annie & Company is a microcommunity with private lessons ($50 an hour), workshops (the next one is October 25), and knitting-obsessed staffers. On Halloween, swing by to knit and purl while watching Arsenic and Old Lace.

Related:

• Archive: “The Storefront: Openings & Closings”
• Articles by Aja Mangum
• Table of Contents: Oct 22, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!