twitchyKnits

Thursday, October sixteenth, I saw the Yarn Harlot at the Ramada Inn in Mandarin. She was short (as she so often is), her hair was blonder than I expected and less frizzy, and while she seemed nervous at first, she soon warmed up to the room and had us all close to tears from laughter.

This was also the first time I’d ever met a celebrity in Real Life, not counting that time my mom and I talked avocadoes in Kroger with the Sheriff of Baldwin County. I swear I tried my very best not to act like a complete and total nerd when she signed my book and I think I did okay. I didn’t stutter but I do think I may have babbled a bit.

When I first got there, I just settled quietly into the knot of knitters in the front lobby waiting for the Will Call window to open. A little while later, a pair of the Black Purls showed up so I attached myself to them. We chatted, got our tickets (and my copy of the book and Ravelry “My Name Is” pin) and found damn good seats within spitting distance of the podium.

As is the custom among knitters, we all turned up in our best hand knit and crocheted items. I wore my Red Vixen Cami, the Dragon’s Embrace shawl, and my Foot Confetti socks. I was stylin’ and profilin’, as they say. I had the whole eighties “pants rolled up to the knees” look going on so I could properly show off my socks. It was awesome.

I’m pretty sure a couple people took pictures of my tank top or my shawl while we were there, and if you see this and have pictures of me from the event, please let me know! I’d love to see them. As for my own pictures, there are none. The second thing I discovered after taking my seat was that my camera was dead. Completely. The first thing was that there were VIP seats that I hadn’t heard of, but that’s irrelevant as our seats were awesome anyways.

Beth and I each bought a drink from the bar to kill time, and even though mine was delicious I would not have ordered it if I’d known that it would cost me $7.50! Insanity and price-gouging, I tell you. It wasn’t even a double!

There was a raffle, in which so much nice stuff was given away and it’s entirely possible that my number was called while I was at the bar. Either way, I didn’t win anything, but the girls both did so good for them! After the raffle, I took my mug (bearing the remnants of my alcoholic beverage) back to the bar so that I wouldn’t have to worry about kicking it over or anything. In the lobby, knitting while she waited for seven o’clock to roll around, was STEPHANIE PEARL-MCPHEE. I said “hi” to her! I had to steel myself to keep from going over and acting like a total nerd. The entire way back to my seat I kept telling myself to be cool. I think it worked.

Then she came in and we all cheered and the talk began in earnest. It was everything I hoped it would be. She was funny, though she seemed a little shaky at first. I wanted to go up and hug her and tell her not to be nervous. We all got into the spirit of it and halfway through it I realized we were that group of culty-type people who make jokes in jargon and laugh and if anyone else had been there they would have had NO IDEA what we were talking about. At one point she was telling a story about how pubs won’t take your reservation if you “drop the K-bomb” as she said. Their reasoning is that “knitters don’t drink” and she says, “have you ever HEARD of gauge? You should be proud every time you see a sober knitter!” We’re all laughing at this, of course, because to us it’s hilarious but a non-knitter would have totally missed it. I bring this up because it means we’re never allowed to complain when computer nerds make rm –r* jokes or things like that.

We got neat little swag bags, which came with a button that says VOTE YARN HARLOT (which I wore with pride), a small pattern booklet from Berocco (nice patterns, actually), and a KnitWitz branded bag. I love bags. Bags make me oh so happy.

At the end she signed books, and I waited like a good little fan and got my book signed and I did my very best not to freak out while I was actually TALKING TO HER. I had to go grab my smelling salts afterwards. I’d always imagined I’d be cooler when meeting celebrities, but clearly I’m just as big a dork as everyone else.

Over all, it was great. I had a blast, and I cannot wait to see her again.