Gotta hand it to Harlot

She came, she saw, she conquered.

But first! There was knitterly fun and good will happening late yesterday afternoon at Pad Thai Grand Cafe, where a bunch of Harlot-goers gathered for supper and knitting.

Woo hoo! Standing on the left is Stumbling Over Chaos; in the white sweatshirt is Cursing Mama; the smiling face above Cursing Mama is Bead Slut; next to them is MikKnit; from left to right, the remaining knitters are Moraie Knitting, Between Loads, and (temporarily) blogless Cynthia. We dined, we knit, we pretended we knew each other's real names. But it turns out I'm much better with blog names than human names. We don't need to go into the pathology of that condition.

Then it was off to William Mitchell to gather with 400 (!) other knitters to visit the Harlot.

 

For an hour, Harlot shared many good stories and strong laughs--especially as she told the tale, also told on her blog, about arriving at a bookstore for an appearance to find only 10 chairs set up, and the bookstore staff unwilling to believe more than 10 people would come to hear a knitter talk. When she tells this story in front of 400 people, most of whom are merrily clacking needles, it is quite humorous.

Then there was the wait in line to get books signed. A wait that turned out to be much fun--besides the dinner companions, who are the other knitters I saw and talked to? Goodness, I hope I can remember all of them--I met LimeDragon, Purling Away, Cashmere Dreams (who is now my hero because she DYED HER OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER YARN--You rock, Cashmere Dreams!), CorgiMom, Heathen Housewife, A Good Yarn (who is a Very Nice Person and brought me a skein of yarn that I'd admired on her blog that she didn't want--who says knitters are stingy with yarn??), one of the Rainey Sisters, HyveTyrant Knits, and and and...I know I'm forgetting people. I saw the back of KnittyMama's head, but didn't catch up with her.

Oh--I did catch up with Kelle. Kelle's a great blogger. When she, you know, blogs. She is a tad delinquent in that department. So much so that I offered to post this picture for her, so people who have read her blog in the past will get to learn that she finally finished the scarf from hell. Understand--she knit this in colors, back and forth across the spectrum, rather than doing a huge cast on and knitting the colors one at a time.

There, Kelle--you've blogged the scarf!
So with all these fun people to talk to, standing in line for over an hour didn't seem like much of a sacrifice. But finally my turn approached.

This is Stephanie, admiring all the tidy Post-it notes I put on my books with people's names on them.

Here we are--me holding Stephanie's sock, she's holding mine. Yes, she's tiny. No, I'm not.

It was a great evening, much fun to meet people or see people I haven't seen in forever, and being surrounded by knitters. Snaps to the Yarnery, which sponsored and organized this event, which must have been a herculean task. Everything went off seemingly without a hitch. And the good sports at the Yarnery provided all attendees with a bag:

There were tons of door prizes--I won a gift certificate to the Red Balloon Bookshop--and of course there was yarny temptation lining the path to the Harlot. I stopped at the store after the event, and well, you know, it was such a fun evening, and there was no admission fee, so I just had to buy something. So I bought this:

Yummy.

All in all, a splendid way to spend an evening.

Comments

[Jackie]

Aw, I wish there were a knit community in St. Louis. My city is lame. :(

[kmkat]

Oh, I wish I could have been there. But with less than two weeks 'til Tax Day, I'm chained to my computer. Right now, for example, I catching up on bloglines while the Tax Return From Hell creates its own little pdf of itself. But I did get to see La Harlot in Eau Claire.

Second Chris's idea to have a TC Knitbloggers' and Readers' event!

[Janet]

oh, i'm so very jealous of everyone who got to see the Harlot!!

[Heather]

It's so nice to see Virginia's sock yarn travelling around and meeting so many bloggers.

[Amy Artisan]

Looks like an all around fun evening! I thoroughly enjoyed her visit in Chicago on Tuesday. :)

[knittymama]

So sorry I missed you! There were so many people there, I barely found a fraction of those I wanted to chat with.

[Dan Vera]

Dang!! That fleece artist sock yarn looks AMAZING!!
Enough to get me to reach for my sticks (it's been TOO long!)

[Guinifer]

Wow! Sounds like everyone had a blast! Spring Breakataion had us out of town! I'd definitely be in for a TC Knitbloggers event, but I am really shy when I meet online friends IRL - it's incredibly hard for me. Anyone else?

[melissa]

It was great to meet you last night!

[Rachel]

Ooh, what fun! Lucky you that you got to meet her. And that's very smart about the post-it notes -- I'm going to remember that trick.

[Eileen M.]

Ooh! I saw you! And Kelle, and her admirable scarf! (I was the one sitting right by the door with the decorative teenaged thug and patient husband) Wasn't it a grand time we had?!
:)

[limedragon :-: Harriet]

Great to meet you last night, and your pictures are terrific. Fleece Artist? Eep, good thing I stayed away from the yarn table... : )

[Kelle]

Well, there you go stealing my thunder. Now what am I suppose to blog about? It was fun to see everyone and Ms.McFee last night.
I suppose there is the cat bed that ate all my yarn.

[Kelli]

That rocks. What a great Harlot story!

[Carrie K]

And Kelle knit that more or less intarsia style? The mind boggles! It's gorgeous though.

[Carrie K]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! I know the feeling, I kept calling Peeve, well, Peeve.

Thank you for my Buffy prize! It arrived at the house yesterday.

[lv2knit]

Cool to see pics of all the bloggers! I do know "Between Loads" and have heard of some of the rest! Wasn't that a fun evening?

[Mary Lou]

Hi Amy - nice to meet you and the gang last night. I was the doorprize/choc. giver. Glad you won something. Everyone was so great and fun and patient. Thanks!

[Jeanne]

Darn. I was looking for you, but didn't see you....

[Deb]

It was a fun night! Afterward we walked over to Grand and closed down Amore *and* Cafe Latte before heading home. Knitters were still at Bonfire and the Yarnery!

[Chris]

You got great pictures! SO. MUCH. FUN.

Now we have to figure out where we can have a Twin Cities Knitbloggers (and readers!) event...