Created By Artsygal

Here in Philadelphia, last sunday was an important day for knitters. The Yarn Harlot was speaking at the Philadelphia Book Festival. I've had the good fortune to meet and briefly chat with Stephanie at the NYC Knit Out a couple of years ago, but this was my first opportunity to see her speak. So hoping that the rain would hold out, I hopped on the bus and headed from my quiet suburban part of Philadelphia in towards the city. Normally I drive everywhere - but parking in the city is not only scarce but also expensive, so public transit it was for me.

Once I was settled into my seat on the bus, I pulled out my knitting of course. A few stops later a lady gets on the bus, sits down besides me and asks if that is knitting, and if I'm making a sweater. Never one to pass up an opportunity to educate a muggle on the joys of knitting we started chatting as I tried to convince her it was perfectly normal to knit socks.

She was very amused by the fact that I was going to go listen to a woman who wrote books about knitting humor as she'd never heard of the genre - so amused that she decided that instead of going to the flea market, she'd tag along with me to hear this lady speak! (Hi Dot!)

Once at the book festival, we each bought a copy of the Harlot's new book (yep.. even the muggle bought one - and she hadn't even heard the Harlot speak yet!) and settled down in the audience. Dot was very amused by the fact that there were so many of us knitting away, able to hold conversations and look around while fingers, needles, and yarn were flying in every direction - and that none of us thought this the slightest bit unusual!

Stephanie's speech of course was fantastic. We all laughed,applauded and cheered. At one point myself and the lady in front of me considered raising our knitting in the air and waving it back and forth the way people normally do so with lighters. We also learned a lot about ourselves as knitters. Things like the fact that as knitters, we are better able to deal with stressful situations because we have an activity that in its repetitiveness helps us calm down and focus better. Seriously.. there was a study in Cambridge University about this. All about this study was well and good until the conclusion even. And this conclusion, our Yarn Harlot couldn't even read with a straight face.

She tried.. many times. And after several moments of giggling, spluttering, and pure speechlessness.. she finally read the words. 'It is impractical for people to carry around emergency knitting at all times' I'm sure you can imagine the reaction from all of us at THAT! I know I personally had in my purse TWO knitting projects as well as a drop spindle and a handful of fluff. Impractical, my ass!

Afterwards of course was the book signing. As I walked towards the back of the line that was forming, I was so engrossed in conversation with someone that I barely even noticed when someone said something along the lines of 'Hey.. that's a really great shawl' .. until it registered in my little pea brain that the someone was talking to ME as I was wearng my Shetland Tea Shawl! I turn back to see who said that.. and realize I'd just walked past the Harlot herself, and it was her who said that! Yes.. I admit, I squee'd a little!

Once we reached the front of the line, we chatted for a moment as I told her about randomly picking a non-knitting stranger off the bus to bring with me. And she had me do the full twirl around so she could admire my shawl properly. I'm sure I stammered some sort of thanks or something.. I'm not completely sure. I know that I didn't have the presence of mind to pull out my camera for a picture.. despite having removed it from my purse while we were waiting in line and shoving it into a pocket just for that purpose! I do have a witness though.. LisaDknitsinPA who as soon as she heard the comments laughed and said 'yep.. that was her who said that. You have me as a witness that it really happened!'

After that excitement, I wandered outside to look around the rest of the book festival.. only to have it start raining on me. Atleast the really heavy stuff held off long enough for me to hop on the train headed towards home.

Oh.. I did get a photo of myself in said shawl though. I've seen several posts around blogland and on ravelry asking just how you wear a lace shawl anyways, and since I just recently figured out how to wear mine, I thought I'd share a photo.

I just fold the top 1/3 or so of it over, drape it over my shoulders and use something to pin it together. In this case, it was a spare DPN I had on me! I really should get myself some shawl pins!