Yarn Harlot

As you've probably heard if you're from around here, the Yarn Harlot was in town yesterday to do a book reading. We have about 30 different yarn stores (literally) in the Twin Cities, but it took this long to get the Harlot to town. We have so many knitters around here that they had to have the reading in an auditorium instead of a yarn store or book store. In fact, the auditorium (capacity 400) was full and there was a waiting list of people who wanted to get in. That's a lot of love for the knitting and the blogger.

Stephanie's reading was really entertaining. She reads with a great inflection and sense of timing, so her stuff is even funnier aloud than it is on paper. The Harlot love gets to be a little over the top sometimes, so I was considering not going, but I'm really glad I did. I quite enjoyed seeing everyone and hearing her talk.

For those who haven't been to one of these things, she talked about how popular knitting is, but how society hasn't yet quite caught on. She had many lists - about the stereotypes about knitting and knitters, about how we can combat those stereotypes and about how we can respond if someone catches sight of the stash. She talked about some of her own experiences on the book tour and meeting people who think writing these knitting books is "cute" and "small". I had to chuckle when I was in Barnes & Noble today and her latest book was on the big new releases table right up front - prime real estate in their world. These books are funny and enjoyable, but they're definitely not cute or small.

I brought my camera, but I didn't take any pictures. In part, because I was sitting toward the back, so really the only good picture I could have gotten was just a big crowd shot showing how many people were there. I didn't get a book signed, so I didn't have a personal encounter with Ms. Pearl-McPhee. Plus, y'all know what Stephanie looks like by now, right?

I knit on the other project I've been working on lately:



You may remember that this is a baby sweater for my new nephew, knit out of Tofutsies yarn. I originally started it back in February as a hoodie, but it was really small and he would have grown out of it soon. So, I ripped it out and started it over with more stitches and as a raglan cardigan. I'm about halfway done with the yoke, so I'm coming close to finishing this one up. I really want to get some cute buttons to make this pretty plain knit special.

The Yarnery hosted the Yarn Harlot's visit and I think they did a really good job of organizing the whole thing. At first, I thought it was silly that they were requiring reservations to the talk (even I underestimated the power of the knitters), but since it was full and had a pretty lengthy waiting list, it's good that they did. They gave each of us a canvas tote bag, which was a nice surprise. They gave away a lot of door prizes, though as usual I won nothing (I have terrible luck). The evening started on time and I really didn't notice any major hiccups. They had a nice big basket of Fleece Artist for sale, so I did my part and bought this lovely skein (all I do is give!):



I was just drawn to that spring green. No one local had been carrying the Fleece Artist sock yarn before, so I had just recently bought this skein on sale at Little Knits:



LOVE the blue and the green and the brown. And it was on sale! So it's ok that I restocked my sock yarn collection with more Fleece Artist.