Wow - I can't believe it's taken me a week to write about the fantastic experience that was seeing the Yarn Harlot, at Webs, surrounded by hundreds of knitters. There's a variety of reasons for this, and I'll get there, but first!
- Stephanie started her speech talking about knitter stereotypes. You know, all knitters are old or all knitters are female or all knitters have twenty cats. Obviously, not the case. But there was one stereotype she mentioned I haven't seen disproved yet: all knitters are nice. Seriously, I can't imagine a thousand of any other group of people in a relatively small space (Webs is big, but not a-thousand-people big) all being so nice to each other. Case in point: we got there early enough to have our books signed and go get lunch before the speech (an excellent decision, btw). We're standing in line and I take out my camera only to see that the little door is hanging open and there are no batteries and no memory card inside (so much for my preparation). The batteries turned out to be in my bag, and the memory card turned out to be . . . in my computer. At home, two hours away. I just had to download that picture of the lace and Camaro, didn't I?? Well, the lovely Noella (she's one of the first-sock people in that post) goes into her camera bag and just gives me a memory card. Just, "hi, I've just met you, here, take this piece of electronic equipment." The niceness of knitters is unbelievable! (PS - Noella (noallatin on Ravelry), it was so nice to meet you! I'm sorry we ended up getting separated after the talk - and thanks again!!) Honestly, I'm not as "out there" as some knitters (Kimberly comes to mind - she's everywhere!), but I think I've met a fair few of the knitting species, and I haven't encountered one that wasn't very very nice.
- I'm a complete starstruck geek-type person. And I apparently listen to too many podcasts. I was all, "Ooh, Kathy and Steve!" (like I didn't expect them to be there) "Ooh, Guido!" "Ooh, a model from the catalogue!" I was mostly elbowing my mom to tell her these things, and she has no idea who these people are. Pathetic, I tell you.
- Meeting other bloggers was fantastic. Jess, Amy, MadMad, Suburban Correspondent, the aforementioned Noella - you guys were so much fun! And sporting wonderful knitwear!
- The Yarn Harlot herself, was, of course, hilarious. And so generous with her time. Jess, Amy, and I brought her a little gift bag of RI goodies and she took the time to open it and ooh and aah over all the stuff inside. Or puzzle over it, in the case of the coffee syrup. One thing totally worth oohing and aahing was the book Amy had made for her. It was this gorgeous glowing yellow color, bound with a dpn - fantastic. Take a look.
Here's another, gratuitous shot, with Stephanie, Kathy, and Steve all in the same picture. Ooh, geekiness!
- I made a list this time, which was so helpful. I ended up buying just what I had intended to buy, sticking to the amount I had allotted, and avoiding brown yarn. Really, I had written NO BROWN YARN across the bottom of my list, just to keep me in line. It worked. I still spent more than I have ever spent on yarn at once in my whole life - and it did sort of take my breath away a little when Kathy told me my total - but I didn't spend more than I planned to spend. Want to check out the stash enhancement??
Some Valley Yarns Stockbridge, in denim blue, for the Bubble Pullover from Knitting Nature (which I also bought that day). I've cast it on already. This yarn is soft and squishy and the price was really great. Also, one of Baby Sister's favorite songs has line in it about the "Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston" so it's sentimental too. Perfect.
Jo Sharp Silk Road tweed for Imogen. I really wanted to make this sweater in something tweedy, and I think this will be nice. It's awfully soft.
The classic Cascade 220 for a sweater for Baby Sister. I plan on designing this one myself, and maybe writing it up as I do so. I've got some ideas . . :) I deliberately did not get pink - she's got plenty of that as it is!
A skein of Malabrigo, bought simply because I've always wanted to try it. I love the color. I think it will be a neckwarmer, which, apparently, I've developed a little bit of a thing for.
A shawl pin for Juliet-esque, who will be getting her own post in the near future. It is modeled here by a swatch I found while engaged in the wonderful task of reorganizing the stash after a big purchase.
Maybe it's all the new yarn lying around, or being in the presence of so many knitters, but I've been really inspired lately! I just want to knit and spin all the time. I mean, more so than I already did. I will show all the stuff I've been working on, but I think there's only so much that can fit into one post, so not yet. This is one reason why it's taken me so long to post about last weekend.
Another reason is simple busy-ness. Work has been busy, I got behind on the laundry what with being away for one whole day (scary how fast that happens), and J has been out of commission this weekend. See, he had a vasectomy on Friday. I'm feeling surprisingly little angst about this, as it was a much-discussed and planned-out decision, even though - wow, it is really really final. I am, however, pretty much all done with hearing the phrase, "My balls hurt." Followed, inevitably, by, "Daddy's balls hurt." This is charming coming from a two-year-old girl, let me tell you. Not that I don't feel bad about him being in pain and all, but if he is looking for a lot of sympathy for the toll our reproductive decisions have taken on his body, he might want to look elsewhere, is all I am saying.
Today I am home with a sniffly little girl, taking the time to catch up on blogging, email, housework, and of course, knitting. I'm taking pictures and I'll post a bunch of stuff soon.
Happy Monday!
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