The Yarn Harlot is this lovely Canadian woman, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who is a knitter and a writer and somehow manages to be fabulous at combining the two. She is clever, hilarious, and a delight to read... and it turns out, it is even better to hear her speak! She's written quite a number of books about knitting and I have read all but one of them and loved them all. When I heard she was coming to Austin, I immediately stuck it in my calendar.
(That's Stephanie taking a picture of her sock in front of all us knitters!)Stephanie spoke for about an hour and had everyone - to my estimation... there were 50 or 60 odd people - in stitches (ahah, knitting... stitches... hooray, puns!!) the entire time. I even finished a sock!
One of the funniest parts about the event was how the Book People staff kept on having to bring out more chairs and creating more space... they, like so many others, completely underestimated the power of many knitters in large numbers. Originally, they had around 30 chairs set out and then spread it out into the wings and farther into the back. While it was a relatively small event (some of her events are huge), I had to wait around 45 minutes to get my book signed.
I did spend quite a bit of time considering what book I wanted her to sign. I ended up going with a book called At Knit's End, which she published in 2005. I picked this up at a yarn store in London last summer (I think it was "Stash London") for 7 pounds. (That was $14 at the time. I feel like I did get my money's worth!)
It's a small book, about the size of a hand, and fits perfectly in my purse. It's been living there ever since and I love it. It's nice to whip it out when I'm bored and read a few pages and I love that I got it signed. And when I handed it to Stephanie, she said, "It's so nice to see a copy of a book so loved."
(...And she also told me it was hard to write our name with an F instead of a PH. Likewise, Stephanie, but my spelling makes more sense.)
1 comment:
I was there too, and it looks like you were sitting just a few rows behind me. How did I not see you?!?! The talk was awesome! I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.
Post a Comment