Harlotry

After two narrow misses, the third time was the charm. I finally got to see the Yarn Harlot.


I got there two hours early. Two hours. And I still didn't get to the first row. There were probably already twenty people there. Borders was totally freaked out. I don't know how to estimate numbers of people, but my guess is around 200. I met some nice people (some of whom remembered me from Fringe/the blog!) and everyone chatted about what they were working on.


After a while, I got tired of leaning up and over rows to see what people were working on. I stole the mic, and organized a show and tell. I was pretty proud of that, and glad I did it. People were working on some awesome, awesome things. Myself, I brought only boring things to work on, knowing my attention would be divided.



And it was.

The Yarn Harlot was hysterical. She had been totally freaked out by the tornado siren test that morning. To be honest, I had a little bit too. It had been thunderstorming, after all.
Here's the typical blogging me - blogging you thing that goes on at her events.



She promised us we weren't too blurry, but as you can tell, she's a bit blurry, and also dark.
Her talk was hysterical - she warned us about things - the potential of a worldwide wool blight (sad, but there are other fibers) and of CHOKE (Cultural Humilation of Knitters Everywhere) that represent the common misconceptions about knitters. Sadly, she had not only humorous social examples, but real painful examples where it caused economic harm to knitters.


I hopped up and asked a question afterwards "If you could teach any one person in the world to knit, who would it be and what to you think the effects would be?"
The answer was clearly written on her face, but she politely replied, "I try not to get involved in the politics of other countries."
But my friends, I now pose that question to you.
Afterwards, she did a book signing, and I got my copy of the Cast Off signed. I didn't know you could bring other books to get signed too, or I would have brought them all. Well, there's definitely going to be a next time. I'm never going to miss a chance to see her again.
We had to stand in line for a really, really long time to do the book signing. That was okay though, we were with friends. We talked knitting.
This is the famous Bohus up close. At first, I thought she was a little nuts when she was making it, then I saw it in person. Oh Lord. I must make this thing. I know I can't afford it, but the little old lady that runs it does it all by hand and has no apprentice. I must have this sweater. It is soft in ways you can not believe, and absolutely beautiful.

Here's an up close an personal view of the travelling sock.


Of course, when I actually met her, I became massively self aware and sounded like a complete idiot. She took a picture with me trading socks anyway.

Oh, and look at her shirt. Isn't it awesome? Nerdy knitting at its best. Of course you've seen my shirt before, here. I extolled the virtues of the Ballet T for all. I also saw some other really cool shirts there too, and everyone swears they're from cafepress. It's going to be a long time till my birthday, and all my family is going to wonder if maybe this knitting thing hasn't gone too far when all I ask for is knitting shirts.
All in all, I'm so glad I went. I will never miss another opportunity to see her, and I will continue to delight in the fact that this is one time my compulsion to always arrive early really pays off.