Yarn Harlot

I know that the blog has been a bit neglected this past month. The fact is, though, that I had a little mini breakdown earlier in the month where I just got so overwhelmed with everything. This was quite nicely resolved by a hot stone massage by my mom, the institution of Friday night movie night with my husband and a night out to see the Yarn Harlot. It's amazing what a little personal time can do for a person.

So, anyway, I got to go see the Yarn Harlot last night. She was absolutely worth all the fussing and fretting and scheming it took to see her! I had told DH that I wanted to go several times, which apparently he took to mean "I kinda want to go to this knitting thing if you're off work" instead of what I really meant which was "I REALLY want to go to this knitting thing. Could you take off work, or something dramatic so that I can go?" So, being that we both took this differently, it inevitably lead to a close miss with tears when I realized that DH had no intention of taking the day off and really did not care that this was so important to me. I began to scheme. We only have 1 car in the family since DH sprained his knee and can't ride the motorcycle. This means that in order to go, I would need 1) a baby sitter and 2) a ride or access to another car. My mom kind of wanted to go, but she would be about an hour in the opposite direction of where I live, thus making it impossible to pick me up and get there on time. My Grandma offered to take me if my mom could bring me home (which mom eventually realized that she couldn't go at all) assuming that I could have someone watch the kids. I thought that maybe someone could pick DH up from work instead of driving me. Then I would have the car. The problem was, though, that no matter how I plotted it involved 2 very kind souls going out of there way to help me get to an event that they probably wouldn't understand.

Then it hit me. The perfect solution. My uncle lives next door. He's great with the kids. He was off that night. He was willing to watch the kids for the 1 1/2 hours until DH got home (which turned into 5 hours because DH got his schedule wrong, but I digress) AND he was willing to let me borrow his truck to go down to Denver! I was ecstatic! I already think that my uncle is a saint for doing this for me (I don't get sitters that often) and when I got home, my living room was immaculate (it was, of course, trashed when I left) and the dishes were done! He gets the babysitter of the year award. I'm really glad I filled up his gas tank all the way.

The Yarn Harlot was amazing. She is way more funny in person than she is reading her work. Even the workers at the Tattered Cover were laughing with the rest of us. I'm sure they thought we were all a little nuts, but heck, there were 200 knitters in the same room who had started waiting as early as 8:30 in the morning (The event was at 7:30pm)!! The line waiting for numbered tickets to get into the room wound through their book cases and all around. There were everywhere, sitting happily on the floor, knitting, and chatting happily with the complete strangers who were standing next to them. I walked into the bookstore at 6:15 and ended up # 116 in line! Never underestimate the desire of knitters to see the Harlot...lol

While I was # 116 in line, there were 2 seats RIGHT UP FRONT that the lady next to me in line and I snagged. How awesome! I guess just like in school, there are people who don't like to sit in the front row.








There were some really awesome people around us. There was the lady behind me who teaches spinning at Posh yarn shop in Denver. She was REALLY nice, and that alone made me want to go and visit the store.

There was the lady who ACTUALLY SPUN AND MADE the amazing socks on the cover of the newest Spin Off Magazine! I actually got to hold them! They were stunning and so very fine. I am in awe. Amazingly enough, the editor of Spin Off was there too! Who knew that we had such royalty in our midst in Denver. There were people spinning and knitting everywhere and chatting happily together since we're all really the same.

My neighbor took a picture of me in the crowd, and although, I look dorky, I am sitting next to a really awesome couple. This husband and wife BOTH knit. She was knitting a flip top mitten, and he was knitting a hat. They are from Alaska and just happened to be visiting their son in Boulder and saw that The Harlot was going to be here. How cool is that?!
(Please note that I have a new camera and after the first few yellowish pictures I decided I could adjust the white balance. I love that feature)

In this picture you can see the guys who were sitting behind me. One of the guys had several piercings and was happily knitting away on a sock. This sock to be exact. I found it very ironic that a guy happened to be knitting the phallic shaped Blue Moon sock. The lady who had been there since 8:30am was mostly through with the foot of an Entralac sock from Interweave knits, and there was a lady behind us who was working on a square for Lizard Ridge.

It was so awesome to see everyone knitting and to say "Hey! I know that pattern!"


Then the Harlot arrived! She looks a little nervous doesn't she? She's a lot smaller than she looks in pictures. Her personality is bigger though :D















The Sock Shot. Don't you just love reciprocal blogging?













And finally at about 10pm I got my book signed by the Harlot, and got to hold the sock. She held my handspun shrug, which I'm thinking of frogging for the 4th time. It needs to be perfect darn it!

I didn't get home until after 11 (which is WAY past my bed time) and DH was worried. He didn't think a knitting book signing could last that long. Silly Muggle.



PS. Knitters Without boarders has now raised over 1/2 a million dollars total for Doctors without boarders. The muggle shop keepers were astounded by that. Especially since 130k of that was in 72 hours. Fear us.

PPS. Did you know that knitters are the #1 users of bloglines?