The Yarn Harlot

I don’t know how many blogs have a post with this title… For those of you who are not familiar, the Yarn Harlot, a.k.a. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is an author who also keeps this blog. She writes books about knitting and knitters, and I think they are very funny, as is her blog. I had never had the illusion that I would actually get to meet her, or a book signed, especially when I was living in a little town, far, far away. But the other day, there was an announcement on her website, that she was going to visit Legacy Books, a bookstore in Plano, TX. This happens to not be terribly far away from me! So I asked my husband whether he was going to be home at a reasonable time on Friday, May 29th, because I wanted to go to this book signing, and if I had to I would have gone with 2 little children by myself. But he said he would come along! Woohoo. Well, things did not go as fast as I would have liked on Friday, and after getting dinner at a fast food place which shall not be named, we finally got to Legacy books around 7:15pm. But then we still had to find a parking place, and even though in the morning there were plenty, that evening there was absolutely nothing. After someone stole a spot we were waiting for, we finally got one after someone else left.

It was now very close to 7:30, the time Stephanie was going to appear, and I didn’t want to miss anything! So I ran ahead with the baby, and husband and toddler were “right” behind me. Of course at this point there was standing room only, but I found a spot from where I could see reasonably well. Husband told me when they finally caught up with me that there was a children reading time going to start downstairs in just a little bit, and that toddler and he were going to go there. Great, no problem. At this point I realized I had forgotten both my camera, and my knitting! Oh well, I was there, and Stephanie had not appeared yet. I could survive. I did make one really crappy picture with my phone, but I have no idea how to liberate it. If I ever manage, I will post it. I also still had baby with me, and I really did not believe he would be sleeping in his carseat the whole time.

It was wonderful to see so many people knitting and spinning. A lot of socks, but also some shawls and other objects. I saw a couple of friends, some of whom I had only met through the internet, and it was great to finally meet them in person. Finally Stephanie appeared, and first gave a wonderful and funny talk about knitting, and the fact that there are studies (one from Cambridge, England no less) that proofed that knitters are getting smarter every day, deal better with trauma, and are happier. I also learned that another term for knitting is “repetitive, visual and spatial task”.

And then Stephanie went to sign books. The Legacy Bookstore had a really good system for which they handed out colored numbers to determine the order in line. I had number 5. Going in early that day to buy my book The Free Range Knitter paid off, and not just so I made sure I had the book, and it wasn’t sold out. But Stephanie trampled all over their “rules” though, by doing some “pre-boarding”. Elderly and the very young first. Or if you had a $25 per hour baby sitter or any other good reason. I didn’t hurry, because my kids were doing well, husband had come back, with toddler, and they had made a very nice coloring picture, and apparently toddler had decided he had to have a book about the cars from the Disney movie Cars. It is one of the few movies he has ever seen, and he loves it. So he got a new book out of it. But eventually I did make it to the line, and to Stephanie, and then I made a complete fool of myself. I was holding baby, and Stephanie looks up and asks: “Did you make that your self?” I thought she was talking about baby’s clothes, which were sewn and store bought, and said eeuuhm, no. And then I realized based on her reaction that she was talking about baby, not his clothes! So I rectified my answer (Euh, yeah, I did make him), but I felt so foolish! Fortunately she still signed my book, and even took a picture of baby and me! (Stephanie loves babies, and they almost always get a picture on her blog).

All together, not counting my very foolish behavior, it was a great evening. Husband had promised toddler that he could go to the children’s section one more time before we left. I had been looking for one more lady whom I wanted to meet, the organizer of a knitting group in my area. but I was not entirely certain what she looked like, though I knew she was with her family. I had however at this point harassed every person with a child, and had not found her, and basically given up. There was a lady downstairs in the children’s section, and we got to talking a bit, and I not only discover she actually belongs to this group, she was actually the organizer, and the person I had been looking for. Her family had done like mine, and stayed downstairs. LOL We had a wonderful talk, and our kids had a wonderful time on the “Fatboy” pillows that were there. We got home pretty late, but the kids didn’t seem to mind, and I had a wonderful time.