Seeing the Yarn Harlot

Would this face cause you to burst into tears? There was a dear little baby girl at the talk who was fascinated by my hat, but if I made eye contact with her, she immediately began to wail. Her mom apologized profusely and assured me that I wasn't that scarey, really. So I kept the hat on and carefully did not make eye contact with the infant

. There was a lad, about 11, who had been forced to accompany his mom. He came around a corner, nearly ran into me, looked up, up, up - his mouth dropped open and he sighed, "Cooooool!" Many, many knitters admired my hat. The other people in the bookstore - the muggles - well, they weren't so sure.

Stephanie was scheduled to start at 7:30. I got there at 5:30. Half of the available chairs were taken. At 6:30, the bookstore people moved aside some rolling book carts and set up more chairs which instantly filled up. At 7:00, the bookstore people were asking for volunteers to give up their seats to the old, infirm and pregnant. I took myself to the back of the standing area, knowing that I could always see over the heads of the rest of the crowd. Knitters continued to arrive. They sat on the floor between the stacks where, although they couldn't see, at least they could hear. Again, the bookstore seriously underestimated the crowd that would come to see this Canadian who writes books about knitting.

And at 7:30, on the dot, the Powell's team escorted Stephanie to the front amid wild cheers and whoops of joy. Looking quite stunned, the Bookstore representative said, "Gosh, you guys are enthusiastic!" We cheered some more. When will they learn that we are a force to be reckoned with?

Stephanie was a hoot. In the center of the top of the photo you can see a column. Just to the left of it is a person on a podium. that's her!! (And this is about a quarter of the crowd. )Bless her heart, she looks like she has been sleep deprived for the better part of a week. Her people are putting her on wayyyy too many red-eye flights, but she soldiered through and gave us more than our money's worth none-the-less. What a performer! She has brilliant comic timing and such an expressive voice! We laughed ourselves silly. by the time it came to setting up for the books signing, though, I had been standing still on cement in pretty shoes for over an hour and my feet were killing me, so I packed up my kit and made my way home. but, oh, it was a marvelous time!