definitely not normal
27 was my best birthday ever.
why? i finally got to see the yarn harlot! that has to be some sort of a milestone in my life as a knitter. friday afternoon, i left work early and drove down to pittsburgh. everything was going well, i made it to town in just under three hours.. then i turned onto bates street and found traffic not moving at all. after 5 minutes without moving more than two car lengths, i started thinking that maybe everyone in town was going to see the harlot too. five minutes later, i started to worry that maybe the store was already full, even though it was only 4:30, and the event wasn't until 7, and maybe i wouldn't even be able to get into the store. finally, some people coming up the hill said there was a truck broken down that was blocking traffic, so i decided to wait it out.
turns out it wasn't just a little pickup truck.
after getting past the truck, i got to the store just a few minutes later, picked up our books, and staked out seats for emily and i (in the second row)! my sock went from being barely started, to being ready for a heel.
7 o'clock came around pretty quickly, and out came the harlot, wearing her beautiful bohus sweater (photos just don't do it justice), and looking a little anxious about having to speak in front of all of us. she was great though - funny, charming, and clever, just as expected.
after her talk, we got into line to have our books signed, and i brought out my wee token of appreciation for her - cheese curds! there is a cheese factory just a few blocks from where i live, so before hitting the road that afternoon, i bought a pound of them and packed them into a little cooler. i hadn't blogged about it, just in case she read my blog or something (totally impossible, i know).. but then i was next in line, and handed her the book, and a bag of cheese curds. (please note that at this point, i was so excited that i'm amazed i didn't just fall over). she asked who i was, and if i had kept the cheese curd plan a secret, because she hadn't seen it in my blog. oh my god. she read my blog. eep! i got to hold the sock, and the curds, and she grabbed her own camera to take a picture. at this point i think i lost the ability to form complete sentences. she was taking my picture? the squeaky goodness went over well? was my picture going onto her blog? (it did. and i look about as completely excited as i felt.)
the store employee didn't get a picture of the harlot taking a picture of me, but emily did. and i look far less dorky from this angle, though i'm not sure why i'm leaning so far back.
after getting our books signed and pictures taken, we left the store and went to the library, a new bar/restaurant on east carson street. our table was out on the sidewalk, and during our meal, suddenly emily said, "oh look, there's the yarn harlot." apparently i hadn't quite regained my senses yet, because i yelled out "yarn harlot!" and when that didn't work, tried "cheese curds!" i don't think she heard me, which probably is for the best, as i didn't really have anything else to say - yelling just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
the rest of the weekend flew by - we went to bonnie knits, where i got these - a lone ball of sale yarn looking for a home, and a shiny ball of sock yarn. (i had the boy hold the sock yarn, to see if it caused any sort of allergic reaction. apparently whatever he is allergic to in shellfish isn't present in high enough amounts to cause him any problems. maybe if he ate it, there would be a problem, but eating yarn probably isn't such a smart thing to do, regardless of allergies.)
after that we went to knit one. i can't seem to go to pittsburgh without stopping in there at least once. i had hoped to find myself yarn for a full sized clapotis, but instead came out with two skeins of alchemy haiku. this stuff is gorgeous! it'll be a lace scarf, after i find a suitably fantastic lace pattern for it.
there were also cupcakes in my weekend. they look lovely when intact (and taste fantastic too). can't really say the same for them after a certain someone dropped a box of them to the sidewalk. why did pittsburgh suddenly get all this cool stuff after i left? anyhow, it was a great weekend. i wound up back in the bookstore at southside works this morning, and picked up the twisted sisters sock workbook, which fits in perfectly with my current obsession with dying yarn and knitting socks. i also got a small zippered case (a pencil case, for the muggles) which i think is much better suited as a sock transportation container. the shop clerk was worried for a moment that i was buying this knitting book, but maybe hadn't known about friday night, but i assured her i hadn't missed a thing.
aside from this having been the best birthday ever, this is kind of also the longest post ever. good night!
Comments
I'm with annieB, that's so cool that you were the one with the cheese curds, I saw that in her post too and wondered what the story was behind it!
And how very cool that you got in a picture with her famed bohus sweater, too - it looks so beautiful in all the pics :)