I failed the test...

See the gorgeous green multi-color patterned sweater on the table for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's booksigning? Now that I've had a chance to read "The Yarn Harlot" (her first book) all the way through, I know that she uses such objects as tests to find other knitters & potential knitters while out amongst the muggles.

I saw the sweater & looked at it while I was going by, but photography apparently has me much more in its clutches than knitting does, since I was more anxious to get pictures of my friends getting their books signed than I was to look at the sweater. Besides which, I was raised to believe that touching other people's knitting without asking was tatamount to touching a pregnant lady's belly without asking. It Just.Isn't.Done.

Or at least that's my excuse...

But it is a gorgeous sweater, & in retrospect I wish that I'd taken more time to look at it.

Mary Beth wants to be famous too!

Since I now have "official" permission to use her name. :-)

This is my friend, Mary Beth, having her book signed by the very funny Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author & knitter extrordinare. Mary Beth knitted the awesome felted bag that she's carrying.

I also snagged a rather better picture of me that another friend published elsewhere. As you can see, it was a bit sunny even at the back of the seating area. Those on the front few rows were in blinding sun as it was setting.

Our Good Deed of the Evening.

On our way out of the library, my friends & I found this sock-in-progress. It was laying on the ground, in the middle of an empty parking spot, & had apparently dropped out the door of its creator's vehicle. It looked so forlorn & abandoned, but was clearly quite a bit of work on someone's part. So many inches long already! Such a pretty design! What if it was the second sock of the set? How would we feel if it were our sock left all alone in a dark parking lot? We immediately decided that getting it to someone from the Knitting Guild would be the best way to get it hooked up with its owner. Alas, the door to the library was already locked. It was after their 9 o'clock closing time, & we could get out, but not back in. :( The librarian who came over when I held the sock to the window looked at me very dubiously. (Maybe it was the sharp needles, I don't know. Shedidn't seem to be one of the "initiated".) I had to just pray that she would get the sock to the people who would properly appreciate it.

Imagine my relief this morning to see pictures of the sock posted on both the Yarn Harlot blog, & on Timothy's blog. http://timothy.org.uk/blog/

I hope that the sock finds its way home soon.

(Edit: On checking Timothy's blog, I see that the owner of the sock has posted a comment. YAY! I'm happy that the lost sock will be returning home.)

Meeting the Yarn Harlot

Yesterday some friends & I met the Yarn Harlot http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

It was a lot of fun, & inspired me to start a knitting blog of my very own.

We arrived in time to get some of the very last seats. At least, until chairs started being scrounged from all sorts of other places. The folks at the library seriously underestimated how many people would be there.

The library folks did do a good job of setting up an orderly procedure for the book signing after Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was done speaking, though. Those who had been early enough to get seats on the front row got to see Stephanie first, but those of us in the back had our knitting to keep us occupied & patient while we waited. As an added bonus, there was enough time for my friends to go buy some of Stephanie's books from a nearby bookstore & make it back before our turn in line. (They had also seriously underestimated how many copies of Stephanie's book to have on hand for sale there at the library.)