I fucked up.
You see, when I heard that you were going to do one of your legendary appearances at Legacy Books in Plano (which, is not in Dallas, but we'll get to that) I was a smidge excited. My husband said I was hysterical. He's embellishing. Swear.
I have been following your blog for about three years now, almost as long as I've been knitting, and I've found it to be an immense resource when it comes to relating to other knitters and our extremely nutty behavior. I now know that yarn hoarding is not a disease, but instead a hobby. Nay, an artform. It should not be considered a mental illness.
I had planned to come to your signing and talk for about two weeks now.
And yet, it did not come easy. Bet you saw that one coming, right?
First, my husband and I had a grand plan: We would do some quick shopping at a nearby sports store, grab a quick dinner and then a cuppa joe, and head to Legacy Books for the signing. Only when we were making these plans, which are good plans (especially if you include a burrito in there somewhere), we didn't account for Friday rush-hour traffic heading north to Plano from East Dallas.
Eff. Ewe. See. Kay.
The trip to come visit, Steph, was an unholy nightmare. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it. I was -this- close to stabbing Dave with one of my sock needles when we finally got close to Legacy Drive. That was at about 6:30 p.m. Dave called the bookstore and the gal at the desk said that all of the seats upstairs were full, and that it was standing-room-only.
"Wow. That's a lot of knitters," I thought.
I went ahead and bought a hard-back copy of Free-Range Knitter and got my ticket in line. I was No. 3. I thought that was pretty awesome, that was, until I discovered that it was No. 3 in the second group, which was after 60 other fiber enthusiasts who were all big enough fans of yours to brave Dallas traffic on a Friday near rush-hour to come and see you. It was going to be a long night.
Nancy, a fiber fanatic, was there with her wee one, Evie. Notice the February Baby sweater...
So, I knitted.
And knitted.
And I finished my Noro stripey sock. Only I didn't. I actually made it four rows too short and I justed ripped it out.
Here Stephanie takes one of her classic sock-tourism shots. Stephanie and her sock got to hang out with Dallas knitters reluctantly in Plano and other area knitters.
But in any case, here's my take-away from your talk:
-Knitters are awesome. Fact.
-Not many people understand the awesomeness of knitters. Fact.
-Knitting does a lot of good things for your brain and your latent homicidal tendencies.
-Knitting is more artistic and complex than more people think, and it's pretty accessible, too.
-Yarn is awesome.
You, Stephanie, were much more eloquent and funny. And I laughed my ass off. Seriously. I think my ass is still somewhere in the back row of the business strategy books over at Legacy Books. The part about the "McGuyver" art festival was legendary. Also, the part about the Wal-Mart socks was ridiculously funny, too.
And then after a brief Q&A, we assembled into a line. Well, it took me a while to get into the line, but when I did, I met more great knitters, and I knew exactly what I wanted you to write in my book:
For Joanna.
Seriously.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Except, when I got up to the front of the line, I was a little starstruck, I missed out on asking you to put in "Seriously." And I hope you'll forgive me for totally arsing our dialogue. I forgot to mention that I'm deaf and I wasn't reading your lips when I went to pull out my first socks. But, hey, you were a good sport for the camera!
Third time's a charm for the book store gal!
Again, thanks for coming to Texas, and to the D-FW area, but how about next time your incredible agent finds a good bookstore near Dallas, or doesn't put us all through the hell of trying to get to Plano on a Friday. That shit's terrible.
You were awesome, though.
XOXO and K2TOG,
Jo
3 comments:
Thanks for the pix of Evie. It was great meeting you there; we'll have to get together soon.
Don't hate us Planonians (?) too hard.
I used to live in Plano, and the Legacy shops are NICE.
Do you think Stephanie will read your blog?
BTW, I meant to tell you that I saw a yarn shop in a cute little shopping center in Cape May. I said out loud, "I must tell Jo that I saw a yarn store." So I told you, like, just now. ;-)
Yarn stores are everywhere on the East Coast! You know, places where you can wear wool for more than 2 weeks out of the year and not feel foolish!
And I hopehopehope Stephanie reads it. Otherwise, besides being a little funny, the letter would be pointless...
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