I've Been Harlotized!

Tonight, the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, spoke and signed books at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison. I hemmed and hawed a little this afternoon when I was thinking about driving all the way to Madison (a 40 minute drive on a no-traffic day) on a summer Friday afternoon. I knew that I-95 would be horrible and I'd have to take a round-about long route to get there. I'm so glad I didn't give in to acting like a too-much-traffic weenie and I'm so happy I went! I had such a great time. Yarn Harlot is an excellent speaker and she's so entertaining. I lost track of how many times I laughed. She's a riot.

The main theme of her talk was focused on how knitters don't get the respect they deserve - and she had so many funny (and serious) examples of the disrespect - and of the reasons why we should be respected. At the end, she answered a few questions from the crowd (and I do mean crowd). While she did, she took out her current sock-in-progress and began to knit. Standing up - not that big of a deal, right? But her fingers just flew and she never, ever looked at the knitting. She's way cool.
The best part, for me, came when it was finally my turn to have my book signed. I took out my one finished sock and told her it was my first sock ever and that I knit it following the sock recipe in the book she was signing for me. She said, "Oh, it works?" Then, I bravely asked her (not that I needed to be brave) if she would hold my baby - I mean sock - and let me take a picture. I told you she's way cool!