09/25/2006: "Guest Star!"

Before I get to the guest star (who can she be?), I thought I would show you my socks in progress. These socks actually were my socks in progress when I went to see today's guest star on Sept 9 (yes, I'm pitifully behind. See: broken blog, depressed Hacker, need for digital camera).

However, these socks? Are now completed. Please imagine a second sock, eerily similar to the first sock. That would be what the picture would look like if I had a picture of the finished pair. It's not so much that Dave is working on his computer right now so I don't want to bug him about giving me a picture of the finished pair (although that is true) but honestly, I am too lazy to go get the camera and take a picture that I will have to wait several hours to pull from the camera. See how that works?

So, at long last, here are the pictures from the Yarn Harlot's visit to Los Altos several weeks ago.

Stephanie was hilarious - even funnier in person than in her writing, which I didn't think was possible.

She spoke for almost an hour and a half and it was like hearing the truth from the preacher's lips. Her tips for reacting to people who look at your stash and say, "That's a lot of yarn" was priceless.

She has a dry wit and a fantastic delivery that really works with her material.

We waited about 2 hours to have her sign our books (we were in Zone 5. If I'd known there would be zones I would have driven over much earlier). But it was 2 hours in a yarn shop and that meant knitting was possible and well as being surrounded by luscious yarns, so it wasn't a bad wait.

When it was finally our turn, I gave Stephanie a dictionary that translates knitting terms into different languages. It's called, appropriately enough "Knitting Languages" and it's by Margaret Heathman. YarnMarket.com describes it thusly:

"Knitting Languages by author Margaret Heathman contains knitting terms translated into English from Danish, French, Swedish, German, British, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Spanish. The book is divided by country and listed alphabetically making it simple to use. Revised and expanded, this book is an invaluable tool for knitters who love the culture, tradition and styles beyond their own borders."

It's a cool book, but not one I felt needed to go into my own knitting library. I can't see myself trying to knit from a pattern in another language. I have enough trouble just deciphering the English knitting instructions. However, Stephanie regaled her blog readers with a hilarious tale of knitting from a pattern in Finnish and a few weeks after I read it, I stumbed across this book at Article Pract in Oakland. I'd never seen it before and I knew she was coming to town so I bought it for her.

I don't look anything like my hottest in this pic, but it's better than the one we took without a flash, so it'll have to serve as documentary evidence and not a high fashion shoot. Here I am holding my sock and Stephanie is holding her sock. I actually got to hold her sock for a picture she took of me with the book I gave her (presumably for her own blog) but it was dark and I imagine I looked even worse than I do in my own picture, so I'm grateful she didn't post it.

Finally, here is Mom with the Harlot, doing the same chin tuck thing that makes us look like we have 9 chins. Gorgeous, isn't it?

Despite not getting home until 10 pm, the KnitWits crew had a great time. Here's hoping Stephanie returns to the Bay Area soon!

Special thanks go to my brother-in-law D who defied technology's evil snare and rescued these images from my mother's digital camera. You are the bomb, D!

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09/25/2006: "Guest Star!"