Can't talk, comin' down...

Okay, if anything can induce a knitter's high, going to see the Harlot has to be at the top of the list. How do I even start to describe how cool and funny she is in person? Well, she's just like her blog - how's that? I'm still a little giddy just thinking about it.

She was scheduled to speak at 7:30 at Powell's Home & Garden. Which is a tiny little store in SE Portland. Um, hello? Could nobody convince them how many knitters come to see her? I got there about 5:45 (and happily was one of the first ones there, which was a good thing since I had to save an entire row of seats for my later-to-arrive cohorts) and settled in to knit my sock. I should say, settled into one of the 70 seats they had set up. Yup - 70 seats! By the time she came out (fashionably late), people were 5-deep across the back and crammed in all the aisles. Basically, there were people anywhere that had a view of the microphone (and quite a few in other places as well).



That was taken at about 6:30, and people just kept on coming. Craziness, people, sheer craziness!

The other crazy thing was the number of people I knew (or who knew me) through the ol' blog. Here are some fellow knitterly folk:


That would be Amanda and Katrina, knitting on some socks.


The two very serious-looking ladies on the right are my MomMA cohorts, Brittney and Chris. Behind them, with her extremely well-behaved little boy, is Tiffany.


Now, I didn't write any names down, so I've got pictures (like this one) of a few people I don't know. If you see yourself and you're not identified, please identify yourself! The two people in this picture who I do remember (because they commented on my blog the day before) are Kathy, second from the left, and Lori who is on the far right.


These are the lovely ladies from Hood River. From the left are Sarah, owner of Knot Another Hat, Yvonne, Jeanine and Sabrina who owns the very cool little shop So Much Fun, which is down the hall from Knot Another Hat.

The woman sitting behind them, in the green sweater and blue scarf, is Kelley Petkun from Knit Picks. She was spinning with a drop spindle, and what she was spinning looked suspiciously like it came from the dog sitting on the lap of the woman next to her...

I ran into another member of the local yarn knitterati - Tina Newton from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. She brought a little gift bag of Socks That Rock for Stephanie, but I didn't see them still around when we left so I don't know if they ever managed to give it to her. I stuck a hank of STR from my stash into my little Portland-themed gift bag (a Lantern Moon bag, another Portlandy item), so she got one hank of it out of her visit, anyway.

Here's the Harlot, photographing The Sock on its trip to Portland:



And here I am with the Harlot herself!



My MomMA shirt worked exactly how I intended - people spotted me because I was wearing it (although it's kind of weird to have people recognize you even though you've never met them...), I got tons of positive comments on our mission, and Stephanie liked it as well (I just hope the one I gave her fits - it's an XL, but the Cafe Press XL is more like a normal person's M - and she doesn't have a strong hatred of pink...).

Here's the outtake:



What am I pointing at? No idea. But the fact that we took two pictures ticked off the Powell's staff (who were expecting to close at 9:00 - this was taken about 9:15 and there were probably 75 people in line behind me). Again, why they didn't plan better for this affair is beyond me.

Anyway, it was a totally fabulous experience. I have this thought in my head now that I'm going to comment on every post Stephanie makes on her blog, so that next year she'll know who I am! Hee hee!

In fact, I was so amped after last night, I signed up for Sock Wars today. I've been resisting clicking on that button for weeks, but I finally caved. As soon as I started reading the comments and saw Abigail talking smack about how she can knit a pair of socks in 12 hours, well...that was it! Bring it on, girl! I'm sure I'll be a miserable failure in the 1st round (not to mention that I don't actually have time to knit any socks that aren't work socks, but we won't think about that), but at least I'll have that cool button for my blog! I am a knit-along ho to the nth degree.

Wait! Don't stop reading yet!

And now on to another very exciting announcement. Go back up to the picture of Brittney, Chris and Tiffany. See that black bag on the chair? See those needles pointing out of the top? That was the sock I was working on. The other sock is complete, and here it is being modeled by my fabulously slender-legged sister-in-law:



This sock is going to be one of my first self-published patterns, once I get my website redesigned and up. However, you, my lucky readers, are going to get an early crack at this pattern and a chance to help a great cause.

The lovely and wonerful Karen, who was the very first person who commented on my blog way back when I started it a year ago, is a diabetic. She is walking in America's Walk For Diabetes with her husband on October 15th. She has been raising pledges, and will be giving away some wonderful prizes to anyone who gives a donation.

I went over and made my pledge and then started trying to figure out what else I could do to help. Well...I am going to be selling the sock pattern, which I've temporarily dubbed "Karen's Sugar-Free Diabetes Walk Socks", for $5 a copy with all proceeds from patterns sold before the walk going towards Karen's walk. I'm also going to see about Bill's company matching program to see if we can do 150% of all patterns sold. Stay tuned for details about that!

Additionally, everyone who orders a copy of the pattern will be entered in a drawing for three balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (which is what the sample sock is knit in) in a color of their choice.

If you'd like to order the pattern now, you can do so here:

I'll send you a pdf of the pattern by e-mail as soon as it's ready (it's going through its final set of tech edits as we speak and should be done in the next day or so). Let's raise some money for diabetes research, boys and girls! And if you would, please help spread the word. Let's help put her pledge account over the moon!