Knitting Celebrity Visits Chicago!

In yet another example of why it's great to be in the Windy City, I got to see the famous Yarn Harlot last night!


As you can see, I wasn't the only one who was excited about this.


For all that I'm good at math, I'm really bad at estimating numbers, like of people in a room, or whatever. I think I counted some 75 people in the 2 photos, plus probably more who showed up later. (Later I was really glad that I drove from where the talk was to the LYS where the signing was, because getting in at the beginning of the line, in front of all the other people who walked from one place to the other, meant I could get home at a reasonable time.)


Look! It's the traveling sock! (Stephanie isn't this blurry in real life, I promise.)

She's just as funny in person as you could hope, and I enjoyed every minute of her talk. She's got really great comic timing when she speaks, as well as when she writes. I particularly enjoyed the story about the guy who misheard when she said she was going to a "fiber arts" festival (I would love to go to a Macgyver arts retreat too, but only if a 30-year-old Richard Dean Anderson could be there.)

There was also a great imaginary play-by-play color commentary on knitting as a sport, and fabulous methods for identifying fellow knitters, and tons of other great stuff that made it worth the drive over in just the first 5 minutes.


If you're reading this, Stephanie, thanks for making the trip! It was great fun to see you and I'll look forward to the next bookbookbook tour!

If this were in German, I could make up a word for it.

One of the great things about the German language is that if you don't know the word for the concept you're trying to express, you can just make one up. I need to make up a word to describe the feeling of being on a bus, which you have taken instead of waiting 45 more minutes for the next train, only to find yourself stuck in traffic long enough to helplessly watch that train that you didn't wait the 45 minutes for go past where you are stuck in traffic, and you realize that waiting that extra 45 minutes actually would have saved you time in the long run. There ought to be a word for that, because that word would explain why, for the first time in my 4 summers in Chicago, I missed the Independence Eve concert that goes along with the fireworks.

I ended up by the aquarium, where I figured I could at least get a different view of things, and that was actually pretty cool. A few people had brought along radios and I could hear tiny bits of the concert as it was broadcast, but unfortunately the closest radio to me was on a blues station. Nevertheless, I got to play around with the "fireworks" setting on my digital camera, and I really love that feature. It lengthens the exposure so you get to see more of the bloom. I've promised myself that by next year, I'll have a tripod so the pictures are even better. On the other hand, I do sort of enjoy the whole "abstract art" of it all, especially that first picture. Meanwhile, enjoy!



I still haven't figured out how to post consecutive photos and be sure they don't do anything weird when they overlap. If the post looks strange, just consider it more abstract art.