The Harlot at the Calvin

Before I show you the event, I have to say, there was plenty to see in Northampton (as always). The building next to the Calvin used to be a bank I would say... My sweet husband pointed out this on the side of the building:



After taking that picture I snapped one of the line... we showed up about 20 minutes before they opened the doors. Sweet husband and I actually walked to a toy store down the road and looked around while my mom and sister held our spots in line.



We were very close to the front though. After us, the line snaked around the corner and down between the buildings (this was not the longest line of the evening though).


Since I was with my family I tried to curb the blogger-picture-snapping. I did receive a Ravelry button (still in the bag I brought, so no picture) from someone who I assume was Jessica. Webs had handed out bags that had several flyers, a ball of debbie bliss cashmerino aran (mine was red), and pair of US 8 straight needles. They wanted us to knit up a 7 inch square for Warm Up America. I thought this was interesting on so many levels...

No one thought we would have a hard time knowing how big 7 inches was
No one handed out a pattern
No one even said about how many we should cast on

...and that's because we were in a room full of knitters - if you had a question, or needed a tape measure, you just asked the person next to you.

I also thought it was amusing - since our hands were busy with our knitting there was a lot less clapping then there would have been otherwise.

I didn't want to fiddle with gauge, so I knit my square from corner to corner (increasing a stitch every row until one side was 7 inches and then decrease a stitch every row) and did a seed row instead of plain knitting. My square wasn't quite square... It was going fine until Stephanie came out and then I started laughing and the gauge shifted and... yeah. I stretched it a bit and it reverted to almost square... I enjoyed a little conversation with the woman sitting next to me - blogless Sharon from Brattleboro, VT if I remember correctly (comment if you found your way here!) I was enjoying myself a lot, as was everyone I brought with me - I did remember to snap a picture or two though....



I enjoyed the speech, and the questions, and the answers... I laughed muchly. After the speech was over, I walked to the back and found Robyn (my SP10 hostess who traveled down from Canada). She snapped a picture of us. I think I look a little off, but then again, I had just laughed for most of an hour.... It was very cool to meet up with her and her group - very cute little one there!

At that point we walked back to the car and drove to Webs. Now that was the long line. Through the store and into the warehouse and halfway down the aisle is where we joined it, and many others kept walking past us to go to the end of the line. Kathy and Steve (all their staff really) did a great job - getting fans set up and bringing us cups of water - even reminding us that they had pre-signed books waiting at the front if we wanted to give up. We were joking in line that they had put all the nice yarn along the path of the line and along the path to the restroom... and the yarn kept getting softer as we got closer to getting back inside the store. I enjoyed chatting with others and then watching Robyn try to acclimate herself to the size of Webs and try to find something in there - has anyone found anything in there without *asking* someone? Finally we made it up to the table. My mom and sister went first, getting the last copy of At Knit's End in the whole store (well, there were still audio books left) and a copy of Casts Off of course. My mother, who had finished two squares for Warm Up America, had broken out her netting. As she signed their books Stephanie commented on it and I had to nudge my mom and suggest she leave a card with all her internet info on it. She dug it out and left one.

I then blinded Stephanie with my flash:



After which she kindly created a sock sculpture with our socks:



Yes, that's the Yarn Pirate that I had received that afternoon from my SP10 Pal and had wound it up before leaving home, and then started my toe-up sock in the car on the drive up. It's a bit small in the picture, but it's pretty :)

While at Webs I also picked up a copy of the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. They used it as a KAL on their pod cast and have a copy of just that pattern available (rather than buying a whole book) plus their tips and helps.

We then fled back to our homes, and recovered. I look forward to reading both the Yarn Harlot blog and the Webs blog. I think we all had a great time!