The Big Adventure!!

The Big Adventure: Meeting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot!

I'm very excited I got to do this, which was only possible because my friend L offered to drive us from work to the event. (I swear, no prompting, begging or cajoling on my part. If I'd thought of it first, though, there probably would have been, so a double thank-you to her for (a) the drive and (b) sparing herself my mewling pleas.)

Lots of photos follow. First, the familiar:

The Cat Sweater, given I had a LOT of knitting time (3pm-9pm!) [YarnHarlot2007/CatSweater4b.jpg]

And look - I made it to the armhole steeks! [YarnHarlot2007/CatSweater4.jpg]

Now, the fun - the Journey Begins:
(And one of the reasons I'm less-than-fond of Blogspot's HTML interface is the fact that I can't get rid of this giant amount of white space, which isn't in MY code...)

First, look at the KILLER GOOD parking space L got. We're pulling into the lot, and I say to her, "Too bad my mom's not in the car, eh? She's got PARKMA. She'd be where we are, and that little grey car in front of the door would pull out, and we'd get..." at which moment, little grey car's person comes in and pulls out, giving us the best space in the entire lot. I must remember to invoke my mom's Parkma more often! [YarnHarlot2007/ParkmaRules1.jpg]	Then, we found ourselves at the end of the line. We were in the 25th spot when we arrived at 4 p.m. (Stephanie isn't slated to appear until 7:30 p.m.) [YarnHarlot2007/WaitinginLine1.jpg]
Naturally, lots of knitters turned out for this event. I think we were probably the first ones there, of course, because we wanted seats (darnit!!), and in this town, the Early Bird rules. (Tweet tweet!) Several had some truly incredible things they were working on, either for themselves or various charities (the Hats for Knitting Without Borders, The Red Scarf Project, etc.). Really cool things. Like this Knitted Chicken. [YarnHarlot2007/Chicken1.jpg]	Better shot of Knitted Chicken and her owner, whose name I forgot to get. (Bad, bad Gryphon.) [YarnHarlot2007/Chicken2.jpg]
Also in line, the lovely lady who blogs over at Ariadne's Thread, with her beautiful Dayflower Dream shawl, done in Lacy Lamb: [YarnHarlot2007/AriadnesShawl1.jpg]	Then, at 5:30, the line moved. We got our numbers for the signing (I was 25, L was 27), and moved to The Seats. We got GOOD seats. [YarnHarlot2007/WaitinginSeats1.jpg]
Here's me & L, waiting in our seats. I'm not sure where my extra chin came from... [YarnHarlot2007/MeL.jpg]	(See? Less chins!) Here's me, working on the Cat Sweater. [YarnHarlot2007/CatSweater4a.jpg]
Here's Cup-o-Shawl, patiently waiting for its moment of glory (to be seen below). [YarnHarlot2007/Cup-o-ShawlTravels1.jpg]	Just before 7:30, the Appointed Hour, Dan, the Man(ager) of the store began his introduction. Being a bright lad (and vastly outnumbered by people with sharp, pointy sticks), he appealed to the knitter's sense of community by producing a hat a friend had knitted for him thirty-five years ago, in 1972. He still wears the hat, proudly. And is willing to be photographed in it. [YarnHarlot2007/Dan1.jpg]
Then: Stephanie!!! [YarnHarlot2007/YarnHarlot1.jpg]	Wheee! Right there in front of us, the Yarn Harlot! [YarnHarlot2007/YarnHarlot1a.jpg]
Her talk was VASTLY entertaining. I jotted down a couple of great quotes (my favorite was something along the lines of knitting from the dawn of time until now has been "pull one loop of yarn through another loop of yarn with pointy stick"), and had my husband in stitches relating The Saga of the Pretentious Party and The Yarn Equivalent of a Corvette. [YarnHarlot2007/YarnHarlot1b.jpg]	Here, Stephanie demonstrates the proper tone and body posture for the not-to-be-overused "What yarn?" response to "Wow, you've sure got a lot of yarn..." [YarnHarlot2007/YarnHarlot1c.jpg]
Then, upstairs to the second waiting-in-line, this time to get actual signatures. [YarnHarlot2007/WaitinginLine2.jpg]	Stephanie is very cool. If you brought it, she would sign it - so many authors (in fact, most!) will only sign their current book, and frequently their venues (or publicists) only allow them to sign books bought at the store. She signed my much-loved, dog-eared copy of At Knit's End, and then the new one I bought as a Christmas present for my Boss-Who-Knits. Anyone who wanted a photo with her got one; anyone who brought up a project to be photographed with her, she held it. She got a lot of cool gifts from fans - I got to see the gift of three different sizes of mega-huge Zip-Loc bags, which fascinated her. She is so sweet to her fans, and we all appreciate it.
While waiting in this second line, we got to see an AMAZING full-lenght knitted coat, with celtic knotwork and borders and wow it was amazing (I think the knitter's name is Daphne?). This would be a picture of it, but someone stepped in to take a picture just as I clicked. But you can see a bit of it (red arrow). Also, all of Stephanie's works, conveniently located in case someone forgot something (green arrow). [YarnHarlot2007/WaitinginLine2a.jpg]	And Ariadne's shoes (I really should've read her real name... at least I remembered to get her card?). These are Birkenstocks, and she says they're now available Stateside, although she got hers in Germany. Sooooo cute! [YarnHarlot2007/AriadnesShoes.jpg]
Then, me & Stephanie, and Cup-o-Shawl's moment of glory. (Stephanie suggested I should get a Mug-o-Shawl, because she thought it would be hysterical. I must do so!) [YarnHarlot2007/MeStephanie.jpg]	And here's L and Stephanie. Here, Stephanie holds the almost-finished socks L is knitting for her husband. [YarnHarlot2007/LStephanie.jpg]

All in all, totally worth the trip, and if Stephanie comes to your town, GO SEE HER!!