Darn it, Harlot!

I spend the better part of my commute--from the ass-end of Brooklyn into the city all the way to the Upper West Side--knitting. But when I have to transfer trains (from the D to the 1), I stop and read a book for the next four stops until I reach my destination. This morning? Same story. Except--I missed my stop because I was so engrossed in the Yarn Harlot's new book. So I had to get off the train, walk to the other side of the tracks, and get on going in the opposite direction (luckily I didn't have to actually exit the subway station to do this). That's how good Casts Off is.

NY Knitters did the Harlot proud!

I went to the Yarn Harlot's (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) Represent/Cast Off book party tonight and it was--in a word--awesome. I was completely blown away by the sheer number of people who showed up to show some love to the knitting world's favorite blogger (not to mention how much we all love knitting). It was pretty darn cool. My favorite thing about the night? Aside from Stephanie's amazing wit and hilarious banter with knitters afterwards, her publishing company gave out swag bags with a skein of Patton's Soy Silk and #8's from Boye along with some info and directions to knit a square for Warm Up America. If that isn't one of the coolest things ever, I don't know what is.

KNYtters Unite!


The Casts Off poster:


Look at all 750 of us! That's a lot of knitters (in case you didn't know):


That's Stephanie all the way down there...fuzzy, but what can I tell you?
It's her :-)


I must say, knitters--or all yarn enthusists, are some of the nicest people. While waiting to buy a copy of Stephanie's book, I was chatting with a girl on line behind me and she was in love with my sock yarn (as am I--I made a few coworkers stroke it yesterday because I'm so enamoured of it. They didn't resist--I think they were afraid). I was fawning over her beautiful hand knit shawl (mohair and silk). I aspire to someday knit something like that, and I told her so--but when I told her how long I've been knitting (just over 6 months!), she was pretty impressed that I had forced myself out of a dpn fright. Knitters rock. I don't care what anyone says, we are cool.

I must take this moment to say how incredible my husband is for meeting me at the Represent party--being a non-knitter is reason enough for him to have not gone, but he also spend the better part of the afternoon under the needle getting his tattoo sleeve worked on, so needless to say he was in pain. But he took the train in back from Brooklyn where the tattoo shop is, all the way over to F.I.T., and sat through two hours of knitting wit. He's a good egg. I'm a lucky gal--and so is he since he's the one getting my first pair of socks!

And in related news, here I am knitting my sock on the way to work this morning:

Represent with the Yarn Harlot!

It is positively criminal to have to work on such a beautiful 60-plus degree day when I know that there are droves if yarn enthusiasts swarming the city going on various yarn crawls and getting their picture taken with la bella Yarn Harlot while I am stuck inside slaving away like a good worker bee. Fortunately, I'm heading over to F.I.T. at 5 p.m. to see/hear the Stephanie and hopefully buy the new book, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off. I actually tried to get it from my local Barnes & Noble but they said the publisher hasn't shipped them yet--drat. Luckily, they are supposed to be selling copies there, so all is not lost (maybe I'll even get that picture anyway!). I'll also be passing out flyers for my little blog, and hopefully I'll get a few new readers (because though I love my husband and girlfriends very much, most of them couldn't give two poops whether I've just figured out dpn's--though they do appreciate the presents, so that is something at least). The countdown begins!