Yarn Harlot Day - Where to Start?

Yarn Harlot Day was everything I had hoped for, and more.

We started out at 9:00am, drove to Joanns, had lunch & shopped at Wegmans, then headed off to Borders. Having called the day before, I knew they weren't handing out wrist bands (which determined the order for the book signing) until around 4:00, but we were there by 1:00 anyway. What can I say? We were excited! They politely told us go away you crazy knitters please come back at 4:00. What to do? Shopping! We went to LL Bean, Smith & Hawken, a few other stores, then drove to another shopping center and went to Trader Joes, at which time I realized I left my credit card at LL Bean. Panic! I left (blogless) Pat and Sue to conquer Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware without me while I frantically navigated the crazy traffic back to LL Bean. Luckily, they had my credit card in the safe, waiting for me to come back or give them a call. Back into traffic to pick up Pat & Sue, then back into traffic to Borders. We arrived at exactly 4:00pm!

Borders was great - everything and everyone was very well organized. I'll never understand how they got 250 chairs into that place, but they did it. There were about 7 knitters there before us, but we were still able to score excellent seats in row three, right in front of the podium. Then it was three hours of waiting, but the time flew by. We were talking with other knitters, oooh-ing and aaah-ing over yarns, patterns and FOs.

I met Donna Lee of What You Think On Grows. How cool is that? I have been reading her blog for a while now, knew that she was going to the Harlot event, and that one of her daughters is named Emily. So I overhear a woman saying something to her daughter, calling her Emily, and absolutely contrary to how I normally behave in crowds of people, I said "Excuse me, are you Donna"? I'm so glad I did, and I'm even happier that she said yes! She and her daughters are so very nice.

Here are some shots of the crowd:

These shots are courtesy of a very kind knitter named Jennifer. I didn't get her blog or Ravelry name, but she had blond hair and was sitting in the second row. I wanted shots of the crowd, but was reluctant to climb over everyone else in my row. Jennifer kindly took my camera and and got some great shots. Thanks Jennifer!

Then, it was time for the Yarn Harlot herself. My boss warned me that I was soooo excited about the Harlot that I was sure to be disappointed. Not true. Even though she was suffering from a terrible cold, and I'm sure she just wanted to crawl up somewhere and take a nap, she was fabulous. Warm and humble, and very funny. Hilarious, in fact. Disappointed? No Way!!!! She was everything I knew she would be, and so much more. She spoke for over an hour, and then took questions from the audience. After that, she signed books for who knows how long...and was gracious and posed for pictures with everyone, even though she was sick. Now that's class. Here are a couple of pictures of her signing a young spinner's spindle. (Look at that Kauni sweater - fabulous!)

I'm not including any of the pictures of me, because it was a humid, rainy, hot day in good old South Jersey, and I looked an absolute mess. I have no idea what I said to Stephanie when she was signing my books and getting pictures taken with me, but I must have been a blathering idiot. That, combined with my appearance, must be the reason that she said "Oh, thanks very much, that means a lot to me, thank you, thank you," in a very gentle tone of voice. Kind of like the tone you would use when talking someone down from the ledge of a 50 storey building.

If knitters ruled the world, I have no doubt that we would all declare an International Yarn Harlot Day. Until then, my own unofficial Yarn Harlot Day was perfection. Except for the weather. And the losing of my credit card. And the blathering idiot part. Other than that, everything was perfect!