Yarn Harlot and I breathed the same air!!

For an hour, the Yarn Harlot and I breathed the same air, were present in the same space and took photos of the same crowd. The place--William Mitchell Law School in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was COLD outside, and windy. Stephanie, and all the other knitters in attendance, needed as much wool on their bodies as possible.

However, the crowd gave a warm, warm welcome to the Toronto knitter/writer/humorist and friend of wool. Here is a fellow Canadian singing O Canada, in English and French, with none other than the Harlot herself!! This is the best photo I took all night!

I was very impressed with Stephanie's humor and insightful commentary on the identity of knitters/women in our society. Here is the obligatory bad photo of Stephanie taking a photo of the crowd.
And then Ms. Yarn Harlot stripped!!! That is, she took off her spectacular Bohus masterpiece and showed off her T-shirt.
I didn't get a photo of me and my knitting along with the SOCK and Ms. Harlot. The line was very, very long. And Ms. Harlot seemed upbeat but very, very tired. After her disastrous attempt to get to Detroit, I thought the woman deserved a few more minutes of sleep. Therefore, I forewent chatting with her in favor of letting her get to her hotel a few minutes early!
Because my photos of Ms. Harlot were turning out so terribly, I took photos of lovely knitted items around me in the audience.



We did not travel from Wisconsin to Minnesota just to see the Yarn Harlot,however. I know, it would have been sufficient reason for ME to drive four hours each way, but NOT sufficient reason for hubby and daughter to drive the distance. We were an inseparable team for spring break. Our daughter is in high school. She is thinking about colleges. Can you guess what we were doing for our week of travel in frozen, windblown Minnesota? Here are some pictures to help you guess.

Yes, we braced ourselves for tours of five colleges in Minnesota!! We saw lots of frozen parents meekly following undergraduate tour guides as they tried to look excited about historic or important campus buildings.

As a reward (for daughter, not for parents) we visited this place outside of Mpls.





Yes, the Mall of America, which is much overrated in my book. Aside from the unusual indoor amusement park and Legoland, the stores are predominantly the same as in shopping malls in my home town. Daughter shopped at all the stores she visits at home and purchased items she could have purchased here. The benefit of Mall of America?? No sales tax on clothing items and the thrill of being there--I guess.

Did I knit during the week? yes. I made two lovely lovely hats to donate at the Yarn Harlot's presentation. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the collection of the hats. We simply deposited them in large bags at the entrance to the auditorium. They were then whisked away someplace and we never saw them again. I would have liked to have seen a display of some sort (just spread out on a folding table) so that we could have admired our collective work.

Back at home I am still piecing together the blanket that has consumed my life!! Remind me never again to organize a group project blanket!!!!!!


As a final note about Ms. Harlot's talk--the venue was particularly important to me. The auditorium was in a law school, where presentations are not typically punctuated with uproarious laughter and good will. I attended law school in the dark ages of the early 1970's when liberated women abandoned hand craft in favor of making a difference in the world. Although I continued to knit during law school, I certainly did it in the privacy of my own home, never in public and absolutely never in law school. Knitting was not for the liberated woman. Decades later I have abandoned the practice of law and have joyously brought my knitting out of the closet, into the public eye and YES!! into a law school lecture hall. True liberation has finally arrived.