The Harlot Rocks!

Wow. I am completely overwhelmed by the number of responses to my little contest, and by the vast array of different knitting spots. I've checked out all the spots, and I think I've responded to everyone with a blog or email address. For those who may not know, Blogger does not provide me with your email address automatically, so I generally cannot respond via email. If you did not hear from me, please don't be offended--it is not personal, I just couldn't find a way to contact you. Thank you all for playing along. I've really enjoyed seeing all the different places we hang out and do this thing we do. I'm still getting responses, so I'm going to give the contest a few more days before I draw for the lucky winners.

But I'll bet you all want to hear about the Harlot.

Well, first, I got to meet Kathleen from Quail Hill Knits. We met through our blogs (what else?) but this was our first meeting in person. She lives in Fresno, about 4 hours north of L.A., and I live in San Diego, about 2 hours south of L.A., so we sort of met in the middle to see the Harlot. Kathleen is even more fun and interesting in person than she is in her blog. She's so talented and accomplished that she would be really intimidating, if she weren't such a warm and lovely person.

We had a bit of a wait to get into the auditorium, but as you can see in the background, that was no hardship. There was so much knitting and spinning and general crafty brilliance going on that watching everyone work was completely entertaining in itself. We did eventually get seated (front row--can you believe it?), and the Harlot Herself came out--and took pictures with The Sock.


She was hilarious. You know how you can't read her books without laughing out loud? She's better in person. I laughed so hard for so long that my stomach muscles hurt for two days. And even though I couldn't think of anything more clever to say to her than, "Oh, I just love you so much!" (yes, I'm really that much of a dork--it's amazing I got anything out), she still made me laugh like a fool when she signed my book. See?

Kathleen was far smoother than I was. She not only conversed with intelligence, but brought the Harlot a gorgeous shawl pin that she had made herself. I wish I had had the forethought to get a picture of the pin. I did get pictures of Kathleen giving it to Stephanie, but alas, on Kathleen's camera. You'll just have to imagine it.