The Best I Ever Had

Picture heavy post! You have been warned.

Following are the details of my weekend and it was oh, so good. We started off Friday night and had the long drive up into Michigan. The weather was, well, warm and the drive was pleasant. After we checked in and had a good night's sleep it was time for me to judge rabbits. The Monroe, MI fair was nice, if a little muggy. I was finished judging at a decent hour and we made our way to Dundee, MI. What's in Dundee you ask? This statue for one.

You know, the statue. The one outside of Cabela's.

It was cool. I don't like to hunt. I don't like hunting. I'm not usually impressed by taxidermically stuffed animals. This was flat out awesome. For a person who really doesn't enjoy the killing of small defenseless animals, I'm ashamed to say that I actually liked Cabela's. ( I would like to note that they do help with wildlife conservation and education.)

I did get a picture of something very important as well. Yep, that little guy sitting in front of the statue, that's Will.

After Cabela's we headed up to Ann Arbor and checked into our hotel. Will took a nap while I spoiled myself with some knitting. I dressed up (yep, I even wore a skirt). I shaved my legs, (like actually paid attention and tried to shave my knees and everything). We ate at this great little restaurant called Carson's.

I had the pecan chicken and almost lost it when the girl asked me if I wanted the "pea-can" chicken. Hee hee hee. I say it a little bit differently. Will was even kind enough to let me take his picture.

We had a nice evening and I amused myself by knitting and watching the CBC. Canadian sketch comedy, it kills me. ( I will admit to a slight obsession with the "Kids in the Hall." Comedy Central used to play reruns of the show and I watched it obsessively. I love Dave Foley in drag. )

We slept late as I stayed up knitting a little too long the night before, had a lazy lunch, and then headed downtown. We wandered through a cute little art fair where I purchased some red raspberry/blackberry syrup from Kern Road Farm. I also found a little Christmas present for Will.

We wandered by the fire department as Will is a volunteer firefighter at home and he has to check out everyone else's equipment. The firefighters were on a fire run so I was spared having to go into the station and chit chat.

I convinced him that it was time to go wait for the Harlot and we made for the library. We were among the first people there to see Stephanie. I met some great knitters like Rebecca (sorry if I misspelled your name!). See her pretty hat. You guessed right if you thought she knit it. It's a pattern from Meg Swansen's a Gathering of Lace.

Here are some other knitters playing with Rebecca's Shawl, also knit from Meg Swansen's a Gathering of Lace.

There were a lot of knitters there, I'm confident in saying at least 200. There were so many people that they had to divert some to an overflow room on the fourth floor where they could watch via television.

These two lovely ladies are Mouse and Amanda. They both made Snowdrop Shawls from the Harlot's pattern. Beautiful aren't they?

We were all busy knitting as we waited for Stephanie to appear. She was prompt and although there was a little technical difficulty, she was absolutely rolling in the aisles, clicking my needles together, trying to NOT pee my pants, funny. She was so captivating I found that I couldn't keep knitting, I had to stop and listen. I whole heartedly enjoyed her talk and so did Will. The best part of her talk was the question and answer session at the end. There was a knitter there named Dana whose husband/boyfriend (can't exactly remember) had taken away her camera so that she couldn't knit blog! Can you believe the audacity? Have no fear, Stephanie started a petition and had every knitter in the room sign it. Dana will get her camera back. (Fiance, even worse!)

Your little Knitter Bunny waited in a very long line just to get the Harlot's autograph. I felt well rewarded though. She was warm, funny, courteous, generous, sweet (and tangy), funny, witty, and so many more things I can't even think of. Even the infamous Rams was there. I felt blessed earlier this year when she emailed me, I about fainted when I got to see her in person. Rams and Harlot, Rams and Harlot, I've died and gone to heaven.

That's me and the Harlot and our socks. I'm on cloud nine. Floating away now.