southern hospitality.

...ok, I've stressed about the title for this post for nearly 24 hours. Because the main content I have to share is about our visit last night with the Yarn Harlot. And I didn't want to copy anyone else - probably was a mistake to read the comments on her Seattle,, LA and Kansas posts anyway...without that knowledge, I wouldn't have known I was copying and then it wouldn't really be copying, right? (am I an obsessive worrier?!)...

anyway - I decided that "southern hospitality" summed up nicely what I'm proud we showed her, and the warm welcome I felt myself meeting so many knitters (sadly, I didn't ask for names or blognames but I feel certain I'll run into some of these fine ladies again). in short, it was a truly wonderful, memorable evening and I was so glad I got to spend it with Lydia, too (wished we lived a bit closer to each other so we could make "knit nights" a reality :-).

I showed the pictures to Sara this morning - all still on my camera - her comment (and boy, I hope she's not a soon-to-be CHOKE operative) "wow, look at all the knitters"...

We enjoyed the pre-talk knit-along and just a bit of the picnic that Lydia and I planned so carefully. We talked with very talented knitters who were knitting shawls, socks, boyfriend sweaters, scarves and bags - and many of them were wearing what they'd made - lots of ooohs and aaaahs. I had fun talking with two women who'd traveled from Montgomery and Birmingham - both new knitters and probably in their later 20's/early 30's - and I shared that I had been knitting for about 30 years, but more like on again, off again and most recently "on" when I realized I could knit and talk to my girls at the same time (or knit and watch football) and feel good "in the moment" and not like I should be doing something else.
yes we had good food and wine and were the envy of everyone around us!

Lydia and I were sitting on the back left side - just in front of the stairs - great seats!
Stephanie's talk was hilarious and thought-provoking ... and most of all made me glad to be a knitter. Except that I'm a US knitter and can't begin to explain (shoot, I don't even understand myself) how we number our knitting needles - can't wait til everyone does it the same way!

Then a 2 hour break - they had the book signings in two parts - first part for the folks who traveled far (Alabama, South Carolina, other parts of Georgia and North Carolina for sure) and second part for those of us lucky enough to be local. Lydia and I enjoyed a bit more of our picnic, talked to a few more knitters, knitted, ... and then headed back to Knitch to snag a place in line. Good timing for us - we were the last two to get a seat just outside the door. We grabbed coffee and chatted with a nice girl named Mary (who was wearing a beautiful green sweater she designed herself) who took our picture.

It was after 10 before we started the 2nd signing - but it was so worth the wait! We had a few minutes to talk with Stephanie and show off our washcloths. Wow!

that's my washcloth she's holding!

Turns out the coffee wasn't decaf, so we had plenty of energy for a browse through Knitch before heading home. Both of us tempted to purchase yarn for an absolutely yummy shrug - a store pattern that was knitted up in lime green, something totally soft, on size 13 needles which makes it almost a weekend project. But responsibility did prevail - I headed home and was in bed by midnight (ugh, alarm going off at 4 am is not fun!)

(I did skip out of the office at 12:30 today to get home for a quick nap between 2 and 3 - I just can't function on 4 hours sleep anymore!)