Of Harlots and Heathens
I'm sorry for the delay in posting the pictures of my amazing trip to Eau Claire to meet the Yarn Harlot, but it was I think around midnight when the van dropped me off at home, and I was exhausted from all the crazy excitement. I did a few things to get ready for Julie's first day at preschool and headed straight to bed. Anyway, the girls are in bed (for the moment at least) and now is my chance.
Let's go back to yesterday around 2 p.m. The living room was a mess. Julie was strewing her toys around faster than we could pick them up, and Sophie was scooting around the floor on her belly trying to grab all the toys, leading to many shouts of "MINE!" from Julie.
My fellow knitter-carpoolers started to show up, and I ran around alternately clearing spaces on the couch for them to sit and grabbing my daughters for last-minute squishes and kisses before leaving them behind with Daddy for wanton knitterly fun. We all piled into the van, drove off to pick up the last of us, and hit the open road on our way to Eau Claire and a meeting with the Harlot and lots of other insanely obsessed knitters. I have to tell you that at this point I realized that I was away from my responsibilities as a Mommy and free to really relax and enjoy myself for the next few hours. The sheer excitment of that fact was almost more than the actual plans of the evening. I had all kinds of adrenaline pumping through my body, and I'm afraid I was more than a little irrationally exhuberant.
We arrived at the Yellow Dog, a lovely little yarn shop in Eau Claire that was sponsoring Stephanie's appearance, and took a few minutes to look around. Only, I didn't really get a chance to look much because I started seeing people I know (from knitting camp, from the Guild, from the blog), and people who know me from the blog and just couldn't stop talking to them and showing off the blankie. People couldn't stop coming up and petting the blankie, and I was honestly a bit surprised that they were so impressed by it. I had a brief freak-out when I realized the pendant from my necklace was missing, and everyone in the store took a look around their feet - but we found it five minutes later on the sidewalk outside. Whew!
I took a minute to go talk to Dixie, the owner of the store, about where I could use my breast pump later in the evening when the need should arise. She was SO accomodating, and let me leave the thing in her office and told me to just go on in and make myself comfortable in there whenever I was ready. Dixie was super-nice and I could tell she was a little nervous, but seemed to be handling it all really well. I loved all her little touches for the evening, from chairs set up for people to hang out in while waiting to go see the show, to the pens handed out while signing up for door prizes, to the fact that she had a six-pack of Leinies ready for Stephanie, to the cute arrow-line made out of yarn directing people to the book signing, to the basket full of chocolates she circulated to those waiting in line among many other things. That Dixie, she's a planner!
Somewhere during this time at the store, a very nice knitter came up and told me she had a bit of yarn to contribute to the blanket and handed me a pretty little chunk of Koigu. See?
Because I'm an idiot who can't remember names, and because I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement at just being around so many cool knitters, I have forgotten who she was. If you're her and you're reading, would you please tell me so in the comments? For that matter, if you're any of the many people I met and/or handed a card to that night, I would love to hear from you in the comments. The whole thing is like a very pleasant dream that is already fading out of memory.
Our little travel-group headed over to the sandwich shop across the street and snarfed down some food, then headed over to the Masonic temple where Stephanie was scheduled to speak. We made sure to get over there in plenty of time so that we scored a row of good seats all together. While we waited, we worked ourselves up with a few innocent hijinks that attracted much more attention than I expected. I said "Let's get a group picture of us before we forget!" Someone said "How about we take a picture of all our handknit socks together?" (That may have been me as well, but I don't want to take the credit if it was someone else.) So we sat down on the floor in a circle and asked a very nice gentleman who was sitting behind us to do the honors, and here is what we got:
Tipper has a picture on her blog with identification of all the feet, but I'll just say that mine are the brown-toed ones at the top, and no, that's not self-striping yarn. Pattern is available on request. Okay, and here is the nice gentleman who took the photo for us - I thought he deserved a public thanks for climbing up on the chairs for us, and for being such a good sport about it. So, thanks, Paul Rogovich! Nice legs.
Here is our little group of the van-pool, holding up the blankie (upside down - oops!). From left to right, back row is Meleah, Tipper, me, then in front is Stephania, Roxanne, and Kellee (who really should update her blog more often). These ladies are great! Thanks to Rox for driving, and to all the rest of you for making the trip so much fun. And for putting up with my insane exitement.
Okay, so Stephanie finally came on stage and I laughed so hard for so long that not only did my face hurt from smiling too hard, but my throat was sore as well. I love Stephanie's blog, and I like her books, but the woman is hilarious in person. Especially considering that this was the last stop on the current leg of her tour, and I know she must have been exhausted. I mean, I recognized a lot of the material from having read her books, but hearing her tell the stories out loud and on the fly was so much better. She is not as short as I expected, and her voice is different than I expected, although I can't tell you exactly what I was expecting or why.
Too soon, the talk was over, and we all headed back to the store for the signing. My friends got in line, and I headed into the office to do a little business with the breast pump. [And here I have to add a little aside. If you have a problem hearing about a nursing woman expressing her milk while away from her baby - Get the hell over it! It's part of life. This hostility brought to you by the one snotty knitter in line who got all pissy on me for mentioning in her presence the fact that I had been pumping when I came back out and explained to one of my friends where I had been and how I had gotten separated from them. I do apologize, however, for saying it so loudly because I hope I didn't hurt anyone's ears. I was trying to compromise between shouting over the crowd and pushing my way through the crowd while carrying a knitting bag, a cooler, and a breast pump. Oh my!]
Okay, so I came out and I got in line with my friends, and before I knew it I was meeting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee herself, in person in the flesh. It was a funny little conversation that we had. She saw the blanket and asked me if it had been inspired by the yarn-burial. So I said, "well, no, I'm Shelly". And here comes the funny part. In my excitement, I said, "I'm the Yarn Harlot. Oops, no, I mean, I'm the Heathen Housewife. You're the Yarn Harlot." And a couple of minutes later when someone took this picture, my face was still red with embarrassment. So then I fumbled around, and I gave Stephanie the homebrewed beer sent by my husband, along with a pint glass for properly pouring it. I dug out my book to be signed, we chatted for a moment about just exactly how much yarn I received, and then....
We took a couple of pictures. The blanket even got to meet the sock.
And then it was over, and I went back out into the main room of the store and looked around some more. Dixie came thisclose to selling me some cashmere. It was beautiful and soft, and came in cute little tiny balls of lace weight. But I am a little overwhelmed with recently-acquired stash at the moment, so instead I chose as my souvenir a bag. Because I love buying bags, and I really liked this one. Plus, I get to use it right away and it doesn't have to hide in the closet for months or years waiting its turn for my attention.
We went and had a beer and some greasy food at the pizza joint next door, then headed on back to the cities. The adrenaline subsided as we came closer to home, and by the time we tumbled out of the van, I was exhausted. It was probably the best day of adult fun I've had since Julie was born.
Oh, and one other thing about the trip. This is what I knit while I was out. I had one toe started before we left, and tried to knit the second toe in the van, but kept messing up because I was distracted talking. So I ripped it out and went back to knitting the plain stockinette, which I know very well is just about all I can do while distracted without making some fatal error. On the way home, things were a bit more subdued and I did get the second toe started again without much trouble. Till I started to get car sick, when I put the toe away and brought the stockinette back out again. I'm loving the yarn - it's ONLine, in a cotton-wool-nylon blend. The duck was just sitting on the counter and Julie wanted it to be in the picture.
So today was Julie's first day of pre-school, and I think she had a good time. I forgot to take the first-day-of-school picture when I dropped her off, so here she is with her teacher Kari when I picked her up.
Okay, and now it's time to face the music. I mentioned a few days ago that my office room is a disaster. I normally keep it pretty neat, and I have a hard time concentrating on anything when it gets cluttered. I have never had this much mess out at one time before, and my top priority for the rest of the evening is to clear some of it up. Are you ready to see the mess?
There is a bag of trash on top of the trash can, there are bins of yarn stacked up by the bed, with some baby junk thrown on top of that. There is a play gym that needs to be folded up and gotten rid of, there is the bag from yesterday's trip waiting to be put away, plus the new bag waiting to be filled and used. There are Julie's birthday presents waiting for me to write thank-you notes so I can put them away, there are huge piles, bags, and bins of baby and maternity clothes waiting to be disposed of, the table is covered with leftover goodie bags from the party, more blankie yarn, an empty box, an empty bag, and miscellaneous papers that need some sort of attention before they can be put away or other wise disposed. I'm not even showing you the desk, which is even scarier. Somewhere buried around here is the prescription slip for Julie's epi-pens which I either need to find and turn in or give up as lost and call the allergist so they can call in another one directly to the pharmacy. I guess I better get started.
Let's go back to yesterday around 2 p.m. The living room was a mess. Julie was strewing her toys around faster than we could pick them up, and Sophie was scooting around the floor on her belly trying to grab all the toys, leading to many shouts of "MINE!" from Julie.
My fellow knitter-carpoolers started to show up, and I ran around alternately clearing spaces on the couch for them to sit and grabbing my daughters for last-minute squishes and kisses before leaving them behind with Daddy for wanton knitterly fun. We all piled into the van, drove off to pick up the last of us, and hit the open road on our way to Eau Claire and a meeting with the Harlot and lots of other insanely obsessed knitters. I have to tell you that at this point I realized that I was away from my responsibilities as a Mommy and free to really relax and enjoy myself for the next few hours. The sheer excitment of that fact was almost more than the actual plans of the evening. I had all kinds of adrenaline pumping through my body, and I'm afraid I was more than a little irrationally exhuberant.
We arrived at the Yellow Dog, a lovely little yarn shop in Eau Claire that was sponsoring Stephanie's appearance, and took a few minutes to look around. Only, I didn't really get a chance to look much because I started seeing people I know (from knitting camp, from the Guild, from the blog), and people who know me from the blog and just couldn't stop talking to them and showing off the blankie. People couldn't stop coming up and petting the blankie, and I was honestly a bit surprised that they were so impressed by it. I had a brief freak-out when I realized the pendant from my necklace was missing, and everyone in the store took a look around their feet - but we found it five minutes later on the sidewalk outside. Whew!
I took a minute to go talk to Dixie, the owner of the store, about where I could use my breast pump later in the evening when the need should arise. She was SO accomodating, and let me leave the thing in her office and told me to just go on in and make myself comfortable in there whenever I was ready. Dixie was super-nice and I could tell she was a little nervous, but seemed to be handling it all really well. I loved all her little touches for the evening, from chairs set up for people to hang out in while waiting to go see the show, to the pens handed out while signing up for door prizes, to the fact that she had a six-pack of Leinies ready for Stephanie, to the cute arrow-line made out of yarn directing people to the book signing, to the basket full of chocolates she circulated to those waiting in line among many other things. That Dixie, she's a planner!
Somewhere during this time at the store, a very nice knitter came up and told me she had a bit of yarn to contribute to the blanket and handed me a pretty little chunk of Koigu. See?
Because I'm an idiot who can't remember names, and because I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement at just being around so many cool knitters, I have forgotten who she was. If you're her and you're reading, would you please tell me so in the comments? For that matter, if you're any of the many people I met and/or handed a card to that night, I would love to hear from you in the comments. The whole thing is like a very pleasant dream that is already fading out of memory.
Our little travel-group headed over to the sandwich shop across the street and snarfed down some food, then headed over to the Masonic temple where Stephanie was scheduled to speak. We made sure to get over there in plenty of time so that we scored a row of good seats all together. While we waited, we worked ourselves up with a few innocent hijinks that attracted much more attention than I expected. I said "Let's get a group picture of us before we forget!" Someone said "How about we take a picture of all our handknit socks together?" (That may have been me as well, but I don't want to take the credit if it was someone else.) So we sat down on the floor in a circle and asked a very nice gentleman who was sitting behind us to do the honors, and here is what we got:
Tipper has a picture on her blog with identification of all the feet, but I'll just say that mine are the brown-toed ones at the top, and no, that's not self-striping yarn. Pattern is available on request. Okay, and here is the nice gentleman who took the photo for us - I thought he deserved a public thanks for climbing up on the chairs for us, and for being such a good sport about it. So, thanks, Paul Rogovich! Nice legs.
Here is our little group of the van-pool, holding up the blankie (upside down - oops!). From left to right, back row is Meleah, Tipper, me, then in front is Stephania, Roxanne, and Kellee (who really should update her blog more often). These ladies are great! Thanks to Rox for driving, and to all the rest of you for making the trip so much fun. And for putting up with my insane exitement.
Okay, so Stephanie finally came on stage and I laughed so hard for so long that not only did my face hurt from smiling too hard, but my throat was sore as well. I love Stephanie's blog, and I like her books, but the woman is hilarious in person. Especially considering that this was the last stop on the current leg of her tour, and I know she must have been exhausted. I mean, I recognized a lot of the material from having read her books, but hearing her tell the stories out loud and on the fly was so much better. She is not as short as I expected, and her voice is different than I expected, although I can't tell you exactly what I was expecting or why.
Too soon, the talk was over, and we all headed back to the store for the signing. My friends got in line, and I headed into the office to do a little business with the breast pump. [And here I have to add a little aside. If you have a problem hearing about a nursing woman expressing her milk while away from her baby - Get the hell over it! It's part of life. This hostility brought to you by the one snotty knitter in line who got all pissy on me for mentioning in her presence the fact that I had been pumping when I came back out and explained to one of my friends where I had been and how I had gotten separated from them. I do apologize, however, for saying it so loudly because I hope I didn't hurt anyone's ears. I was trying to compromise between shouting over the crowd and pushing my way through the crowd while carrying a knitting bag, a cooler, and a breast pump. Oh my!]
Okay, so I came out and I got in line with my friends, and before I knew it I was meeting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee herself, in person in the flesh. It was a funny little conversation that we had. She saw the blanket and asked me if it had been inspired by the yarn-burial. So I said, "well, no, I'm Shelly". And here comes the funny part. In my excitement, I said, "I'm the Yarn Harlot. Oops, no, I mean, I'm the Heathen Housewife. You're the Yarn Harlot." And a couple of minutes later when someone took this picture, my face was still red with embarrassment. So then I fumbled around, and I gave Stephanie the homebrewed beer sent by my husband, along with a pint glass for properly pouring it. I dug out my book to be signed, we chatted for a moment about just exactly how much yarn I received, and then....
We took a couple of pictures. The blanket even got to meet the sock.
And then it was over, and I went back out into the main room of the store and looked around some more. Dixie came thisclose to selling me some cashmere. It was beautiful and soft, and came in cute little tiny balls of lace weight. But I am a little overwhelmed with recently-acquired stash at the moment, so instead I chose as my souvenir a bag. Because I love buying bags, and I really liked this one. Plus, I get to use it right away and it doesn't have to hide in the closet for months or years waiting its turn for my attention.
We went and had a beer and some greasy food at the pizza joint next door, then headed on back to the cities. The adrenaline subsided as we came closer to home, and by the time we tumbled out of the van, I was exhausted. It was probably the best day of adult fun I've had since Julie was born.
Oh, and one other thing about the trip. This is what I knit while I was out. I had one toe started before we left, and tried to knit the second toe in the van, but kept messing up because I was distracted talking. So I ripped it out and went back to knitting the plain stockinette, which I know very well is just about all I can do while distracted without making some fatal error. On the way home, things were a bit more subdued and I did get the second toe started again without much trouble. Till I started to get car sick, when I put the toe away and brought the stockinette back out again. I'm loving the yarn - it's ONLine, in a cotton-wool-nylon blend. The duck was just sitting on the counter and Julie wanted it to be in the picture.
So today was Julie's first day of pre-school, and I think she had a good time. I forgot to take the first-day-of-school picture when I dropped her off, so here she is with her teacher Kari when I picked her up.
Okay, and now it's time to face the music. I mentioned a few days ago that my office room is a disaster. I normally keep it pretty neat, and I have a hard time concentrating on anything when it gets cluttered. I have never had this much mess out at one time before, and my top priority for the rest of the evening is to clear some of it up. Are you ready to see the mess?
There is a bag of trash on top of the trash can, there are bins of yarn stacked up by the bed, with some baby junk thrown on top of that. There is a play gym that needs to be folded up and gotten rid of, there is the bag from yesterday's trip waiting to be put away, plus the new bag waiting to be filled and used. There are Julie's birthday presents waiting for me to write thank-you notes so I can put them away, there are huge piles, bags, and bins of baby and maternity clothes waiting to be disposed of, the table is covered with leftover goodie bags from the party, more blankie yarn, an empty box, an empty bag, and miscellaneous papers that need some sort of attention before they can be put away or other wise disposed. I'm not even showing you the desk, which is even scarier. Somewhere buried around here is the prescription slip for Julie's epi-pens which I either need to find and turn in or give up as lost and call the allergist so they can call in another one directly to the pharmacy. I guess I better get started.
posted by Shelly Kang at 8:35 PM
18 Comments:
I'm the one who gave the Koigu! Sorry for running around like I was nuts. . . I have a tendency to bowl people over when I'm excited. . . (you couldn't guess, could you. . )
My name is Sarah R and I live in Eau Claire. I haven't had a computer online for a long time, so I have a lot of blogs to catch up on, you are the second one next to Yarn Harlot that I am reading.
I have to tell you, after everyone left the shop last night except for Dixie, the workers, Joyce Williams and her friend Karen, Stephanie did say she was also a bit overwhelmed by the response of your sock yarn burial.
It was so very very cool to see so many knitters on Sunday. I can't wait to keep reading about everyone else!!
Isn't it great to meet the Yarn Harlot? You got to make a whole day of it, and it sounds so fun!
Thanks for the blankie picture update, its good to keep me motivated to start mine sometime soon, when I get a plan.
Congrats to Julie on starting pre-school. She is adorable in that dress.
Wow! Sounds like such a fun day. I don't blame you for being ovewhelmed and flustered, I think I would be too... especially if she knew who I was! Good luck with your office. Just take it one bit at a time.
Some people are so weird about things like breastfeeding! I'm afraid I would have been tempted to describe in great detail what would have happened if I had NOT pumped... ;-) Sounds like you had a great time otherwise, though. It's so nice to get those adult non-mommy moments when you have little kids!
I'd have been tempted to breastpump right in front of her, after her snide comments!! Good for you.
The blankie looks amazing. I'm glad you enjoyed your escape into knitterly abandon with the Yarn Harlot. The photos are great.
Those socks - I'm speechless. Wow - I have enough difficulty mastering the self-striping sock.
I'm sorry the breat-pumping offense in line was misconstrued ... it was a friend of mine who was percieved to be offended at the pumping. I can assure you it was NOT about the pumping, it was the yelling right next to her ear that she was bothered by.
Any way you cut it, it was still a pissy comment. It came right after I apologized for talking loudly in a crowd of people while moving away from her and closer to my friends. She emphasized the word pumping as if it were dirty, or at least that is the way I heard it.
I will admit that I made an equally pissy comment back on the way out the door, to the effect of "I'm sorry if I offended your delicate sensibilities. Maybe you'll understand if you ever have kids." In retrospect, I would take that comment back if I could. It wasn't very nice. I think we all had a little too much excitement that evening, or at least I did, and that doesn't necessarily excuse our behavior.
So fun to see you again. I'm sure we'll bump into one another at another fiber event!
Dianne from Knitting Camp
It was I who suggested the group sock photo. I was definitely surprised at the reaction we got! :)
Hanging out with knitters is always a fun experience! Anyone who can talk about yarn for hours upon end is awesome in my book.
I am also glad you do not hate me. ;) I apologize (I don't think I apologized the other day!)if anything I said about the Knit-Out thing came across as too vitriolic; I wasn't that bent out of shape, but I am also a bit of a harsh writer, so it't like anyone would know that! :)
Shelly,
It was great to see you in Eau Claire Sunday! How many years has it been since the "toxic" experience at camp??
The pictures of your children are beautiful! You are one busy lady...blogging, knitting and being a mom.
You call that a mess? Amateur.
I can't take credit for the beer in the fridge, and I can't remember who brought it but they were gracious and told be to help myself! Believe me as the last person left I cracked it open and glug glug down it went!! Thanks for coming and I hope you can make it again soon!
Your socks are amazing! (Of course they're not self-striping... self-striping doesn't do anything that cool.) The sock yarn blanket is looking great too. :)
Okay, I still feel like such a dork for being too freaked out to go back and ask for a picture. THANK YOU for making me do it and butting in for me. I got a great shot!
Wasn't Dixie great? She let us use her big comfy office chair to nurse in too.
I'm so glad you had the chance to meet Stephanie as well! She's the best. I laughed a lot, too, when I heard her speak. I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading her books (I bought my first one the night she was in Eugene, shh ^_~), so for me it was all new and sooooo funny! I don't care what her daughters say, she's cool!
I'm glad that you had the chance to just be out of the house and off "mommy-duty" for a few hours. Just enjoy yourself. Every woman, mother or not, needs that every now and then ^_^.
Sarah,
You very polite to the nasty lady in the hall. She was not a nice person. Which was a bit disapointing. I thought all knitters were suppose to be cheerful and happy to be among their own kind. I loved the blankie!
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Pardon me, but I was wondering if I could get a copy of the pattern for those lovely socks you were wearing :) my email is kalikabaharan at yahoo dot com
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