Fog, Fun, and the Harlot on the Run

While my Harlot trip really started with my travel on Friday night and the bunny show on Saturday. I'll start my story for today with Saturday night. Kristi graciously let me stay with her, Noel, the boys, and the fur fam on Saturday night. I was supposed to have been at her house in the early evening, sadly my show ran late and I didn't arrive until 9 o'clock. While it put a slight kink in our plans, we did still knit for a while. I staunchly defended my Apple Laine Apple Pie socks (they are too sock yarn!) and argued heatedly about doing a gauge swatch, before we finally retired to bed.

Of course, I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the boys the next morning. Boys meet my blog readers, blog readers meet Kristi's boys, Garrett and Austin. (Better known as Gangles and Scrappy to regular Red Dog Knits readers.)

I even managed to snag this precious pictures of Gangles with the sweetest smile on his face. I'm sure the thoughts running through his little noodle were "Hello Crazy Lady covered in bunny fur. I have gas and I'm smiling. How about you?"

The boys assited Noel in the kitchen while he cooked up some super delicious huevos rancheros burritos. MMMMMM, yummy. So yummy, I barely managed to resist the smells wafting toward me until the appropriate time, namely as soon as I buckled my seat belt.

While I got to know Otis and Maslow a little better, hang out with the boys, and meet Noel's mom, the other knitters in our group were steadily making their way to Kristi's. The knitters were at her home in good time and we left promptly before our projected leave time with Pat, Erin, Kellie, myself, Kristi, and blogless Julee packed into Kristi's super nice mini van.

Kristi had us there in what seemed like no time and we were surprised to see the line of knitters already there. Imagine my even greater surprise when I heard my name called out. Dana recognized me from the back, in a gaggle of knitters, without my braids, and hair that was five inches shorter, talk about a good memory! I was elated to see her and immediately snapped a picture.


Incidentally, she was wearing this cute little concotion of Tempting and Audrey (correct me if I'm wrong). I seriously wanted to stalk her neckline and I believe I was even petting it at one point. Sadly, the neckline escaped my poor photography skills by moments each time.

I was surprised further when I was informed that Amby of Rusell Yarn was in line. She was carrying her Hitchhiker and planned to have the Harlot sign it (btw, she did). I so want her to be my new sister. Why? Because she can swear a bluestreak and it just makes me love her. :) Does that make me odd?

That's Diane on the left (in the red coat, for those like me who are directionally challenged) who has a blog, but couldn't remember the exact url because it's very new, was kind enough to help me find a seat. We'll get to that later on.

Check out all of the knitters! (And this was just the beginning.) Blogless Nia (in the flowered jacket), Diane, Amby, and the sadly blogless, but famous Rams, well the back of her head. :) (Knitters if you see yourself let me know. I didn't get to meet everyone and I'm terrible with names.)

I can't forget the posse I rolled with from Kristi's house in all of this. The knitting ladies of the Red Dog Knits Harlot Trip of 2007: Erin (well, her arm, how did I miss you?), Pat, blogless Julee, Kellie, and Kristi (hmmm, just her back, I am a very bad photographer).

Ladies, you rock. I had such a great time with you all. I'm so glad that we could get together. Plus we got to see Miss Stephanie and go to the yarn store. Oops! Getting ahead of myself again.
The doors to the library opened promptly at noon and I was surprised because the time seemed to pass so quickly. I could swear we had just gotten in line and then the doors were opening. We all made a mad dash like rabid dogs after the last skein of cashmere in a yarn shop walked sedately downstairs and scored prime seats near the front on the right hand side. Pat and I were convinced that the line would start there for book signing (which, btw, it didn't). Somehow I ended up in the front row between Diane and Riin. I was going to sit on the end of the fourth row with the rest of the gang, but then I wound up in the front row.


This turned out to be fortuitous. As I sat in the same row as the famous, gorgeous, fabulous RAMS!!

And to top it all off, Rachel H. sat in the front row too. You know Rachel H., the one that helped put out the smoldering sawdust fire in the snow on the front lawn. That Rachel H. She was wearing this sweater. Oh my Knitting Goddess, the sweater. The fabulous, glorious, beautiful sweater. *sigh* I think I want to be Rachel H. (I also apologize profusely for being the first one to break the news that you missed Rams in Ann Arbor last year.)
I also met these two fabulous ladies. That's blogless Nia and she was so funny. I had a lovely time chatting with her.

Oh, and Tracy. She had the best buttons on her cabled cardigan. (Tracy, I have completely forgotten your blog address. If you find this, let me know and I will be sure to add it.)

Plus, I saw Mouse again! I was so sad that she had to leave. :( She did however have an awesome Venezia that she was working on, and of course I had to get a picture of her showing it's cheeky stranding. ;)

By this point we had been informed by Tim (of the library) that Miss Stephanie was going to be late. Her flight from Chicago to Detroit had issues and she was stuck in Chicago which meant a two hour delay. I snapped a quick pic of the knitters at this point and we pondered what to do.

Why, go to the yarn store of course! Twenty percent off everything in the store, and I scored some great laceweight (I'll reserve this for another post.)

When we got back the number of knitters had grown substantially. Sadly Diane and her cute piggy earings had to go home. That's her in the pink sitting by Rams in the front row in the above picture.

Happily, Jenn was my new seatmate. And sitting beside her was Kathy aka Presbytera (anyone have her blog link?) who was wearing this gorgeous salmony corally shirt. It really was the perfect color on her. You can see them both sitting below. I'm in the blue-purple polo, Jenn is next to me, and then there is Kathy. Oh, she was so pretty in that color. (Did I mention that she and Rams were knitting socks in the same yarn and color? Weird huh? One was toe-up and one was cuff down.) Here are the knitters shortly before the Harlot arrived.

Shortly after another of the Michigan knitbloggers snapped this for me (I'm so sorry I totally forgot your name and blog, even though I talked to you for 30 minutes.), Dana called out "Kelli, look it's LarjMarj." My head whipped back so fast I think I popped a ligament. Of course, a picture was in order. Hi Dana and LarjMarj! I'm so glad that I got to see you both. :)

Not long after I finally met Marj, Miss Stephanie came running in to the roar of over 100 knitters. She came, she said crap, she called out for a beer, and she gave a sensational speech. If we truly acted on what she spoke about, there would be no more incredulous looks at the phrase "I'm a knitter." I truly believe that.

At the end, when I was standing in line with Karen in Toledo, I just knew that I had to snap a picture of her with the Harlot. Again, my poor photography skills in action. :) (Did you spot the Bohus? It was so pretty!)
Really, it was a fabulous trip. I enjoyed myself immensely. I met so many people and I know that I didn't remember all of their names. (Shout out in the comments if you met me!) Pat, Erin, Julee, Kellie, Kristi, thanks so much for letting this Hoosier gal tag along with you. I can't wait to meet with you all again. Anyone up for a Sunday, July 1 meet-up at Threadbear?

Cold, Cold Michigan

Sadly my get-together with Kristi and a few other Michigan bloggers was cancelled. Happily, Scrappy is back on his feet, er, diaper and sucking down his college tuition in pricey formula.

(It was a little touch and go there even getting to Lansing on Friday evening. I don't like driving in such as windy weather.)

Even though my plans were re-arranged, I had a great time in Michigan. I really feel like I've recharged my bunny batteries even though I'm very tired. I was finished judging by 2pm on both days and, of course, I had to hit the yarn stores. First I popped up to Rae's Yarn Boutique where I was fortunate enough to meet Rae herself. Oh, and finding her shop, um, I had trouble. I also turned the wrong way up a one-way street, but saved myself by swinging into a parking lot. (I may have also stared forlornly at her shop sign trying to figure out how to get into the lot to park. )

Having purchased some particularly "oooo" worthy yarn, I then drove to Threadbear. When I say drove, I mean that I promptly passed the correct exit and had to turn around at the next exit and drive back to my original exit. I might have also cursed very loudly to myself. It was pandamonium there (as there was a LARGE sale going on), and I walked around with a very glazed look on my face for a good, oh 60 minutes before I was able to find something. I was, once again, dumbstruck by the sheer amount of yarn. Having said this, I'm not sure that I could survive Webs.

Once I was able to drag myself out of Threadbear, I made my way back to my hotel room for a quick regroup before my dinner with Erin. I suppose you could say that I was a little yarn fuzzled, because when I stepped into my room I was carrying my yarn haul bag from Threadbear instead of the pair of boots I thought I had picked up. Oops!

Needless to say, I then had a fabulous dinner/evening of chatting with Erin. Who, by the way, feels the same way about tomatoes as I do: raw and soup equals ucky, sauces equals yum. Odd aren't we? :)

My trip back to West Lafayette was uneventful, but I was glad to be home. Plus I worked on some paperwork that I needed to finish. I am, however, still quite tired and looking forward to a nice regroup before I give my presentation for class tonight. I have many yarn purchases to confess and I will do my best to have an ongoing series of entries over the next few days.

Meet Wesley, Part Two

Wes and I got to know each other better after my post last night. We took another leisurely stroll through 3 miles (94 miles to go). I'm thinking of hopping on him again before I head to Michigan today. I'm headed up to judge bunnies again this weekend and I'm meeting Kristi (yes, Red Dog Knits Kristi!) for dinner. I'm super excited and trying to kick my butt into gear so that I can be gone by 1. See you all next week!