Local Colour

Saturday, the intrepid Knitty-Amy and I carpooled it up to Kitchener for the Kitchener-Waterloo Guild’s Knitters Fair. I’d never been before, so I don’t know what I was expecting, but no matter what I thought I’d find I was unprepared for what I found.

Intrepidamy

(Our intrepid Amy is seen here triumphant and yarn laden..demonstrating the glorious knitterly glow that you get when you score discontinued favourite cotton – on sale. It was either that or the coffee. )

The show isn’t the biggest around, if you’re thinking Rhinebeck or Maryland you’re going to be right put out (first of all…there are no sheep wandering around the Bingeman’s ballroom) and if you’re a spinner…well. I urge you to remember the name “Knitter’s Fair”. There’s precious little in the way of roving and I didn’t see any wheels for sale…but it’s not like they said there would be. Instead, there was yarn. Oodles of yarn. Aisles and aisles of interesting, local awesome stuff. There’s a list of vendors here….and some of them I’d never seen before. My favourite was Rosa Wang (sorry, no website) where I scored some mystery laceweight. This one changes colour over long repeats.

Lace

although this is the least accurate picture of the yarn possible. In reality is is much less… Well, much less every colour except green and the green isn’t that crazy lime green that’s there, more like a loden green. The yellow is more like yellow ochre, a muddy dirty colour …and the red isn’t red, it’s rust. It has no sky blue at all, that’s just some camera trick. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t know why I showed you this picture at all. Imagine that this yarn is actually all the good colours of indian food.

Cashmere

This yarn is the prize. It changes from navy blue to purply blue, is almost iridescent and reminds me of the necks of mallard ducks. (Not that I spend that much time thinking about duck necks, and I know that duck necks are more green than blue…but you know what I mean. The colour thing is not going well today) and my pets….it is cashmere. A huge, honking ball of 100% cashmere laceweight. I feel happy when I hold it. Very happy. (I won’t tell you what I paid because A) discussing how much you paid for stuff is a little bit in poor taste and B) it was so cheap that any of you who know where I live would come here and roll me for it. It would be worth the gas money.)

The cashmere score is almost enough to take the sting out of Saturday’s ritual humiliation. ( You knew there had to be one, didn’t you? When is there not?) I met Cara, Carol, Monica, Renee and hundreds of other people. I talked with the owners of Koigu, and the very nice lady who runs the Canadian Guild of Knitters….oh…you know. Everyone. The whole time that I met everyone I could scarcely think, obsessing and wondering if they had noticed my hair. You see, in my excitement and nervousness about all the people and the books and the driving and the Amy and all of it…..

I forgot to rinse the shampoo out of my hair.

I spent the entire day with most of my hair stuck down to my head in the most stiff and sticky way possible. I say “most” because in places the shampoo must have wiped off on my towel and those parts weren’t stiff, but merely resembled the oiliness of a seals coat. I noticed my head was heavy on the way there, but it wasn’t until I got to the ladies room at the Fair that I realized what was going on in all of it’s horrifying detail. In between meeting and greeting lovely knitters I tried to fluff it up and only succeeded in practically getting my hand stuck in the cemented slick mass while tangling it beyond all recognition. By then end of the attempted fix it was like I had fallen into a vat of bryl cream and then tried to sort it out with a blender. Amy comforted me by saying that at least it wasn’t frizzy. Good point. POINTY OIL CHUNKS aren’t frizzy. If you met me for the first time on Saturday I beg you to forget my appearance and seeming obsession with touching the top of my head. Please give me a second chance. I’m not usually that odd and I swear I’m smart enough to execute both steps of hair washing most days.

Sigh. At least I was wearing pants.

113 thoughts on “Local Colour

  1. Am I first? Probably won’t be by the time I’m done.
    I bet nobody noticed your hair. Tell me, where do you live?

  2. Stephanie – It’s always something, isn’t it? I have a vivid memory of our rushing out of the house when I was quite small, to share a ride to our neighbor’s cabin, and my sister’s hair not having been taken care of. My mum was so distracted during the trip, wondering what else she’d forgotten (bathing suits? sun tan lotion? towels?) that she divided my sister’s hair in half and one side got braided and the other got lumped up in a ponytail. I don’t think my sister has been the same since!! You can comfort yourself in the knowledge that something of this nature has happened to all of us (I had an event with henna that I don’t like to remember) and that all is forgiven, in a global sort of way.

  3. Oh, no! Do we HAVE to share the stories of our deepest hair humiliations now? Suffice it to say that, thanks to my stepmother’s supposedly fabulous stylist, I once resembled a poodle for one excruciating week — then I discovered the glories of short hair AFTER the shag haircut was, ahem, cut.

  4. I don’t think anyone noticed, and if they did, I’m sure they didn’t care.
    And, hey, the cashmere made up for it, right? 🙂

  5. I spent the the summer after I graduated from college performing in a summer stock company. I was cast as Aunt Trina in “I Remember Mama”, and the director decided that my hair was far too dark to convincingly pass for a Norwegian (and there are hundreds people with my maiden name in the Minneapolis/St.Paul phone book). So he took me into the small town nearby to have my hair dyed mousy brown. It turned ORANGE. After the show I tried to remedy the situation in all sorts of incompetant ways, finally chopping the whole mess off and starting over.
    At least you got some cashmere out of the deal!

  6. Hah! That’s pretty funny. I’ve been doing a similar thing – forgetting to rinse the conditioner out of my hair. It started when I was pregnant, but the babe’s 2 1/2 and it still happens way too often. At least my hair’s short, and I can slick it back (which flatters my features the least of any hairstyle, but otherwise I’d have lank, short hair which is just…yuck).
    That cashmere is wonderful.
    Finally, thanks to you (and your fans and colleagues in the blogosphere), I’m knitting my first shawl – a Fleece Artist Goldilocks kit – perfect for a travel project, as you and Elizabeth Z. have both said. Thanks for the inspiration and links! I’ll be doing lace next, and then there’ll be no holding me back from the spindles and wheels. And the sheep.

  7. Well, I saw you around noon…the only way I knew for sure it was you was the “Jelly” shawl, and that you were signing a book for a woman with a baby who reallly wanted the shawl.
    Then I saw you when I flung open the bathroom door into your face. I wouldn’t have known it was you if I hadn’t seen you earlier. I didn’t notice your hair in any extreme way, although I did think it wasn’t as frizzy as you always complain, LOL.
    I saw the yarns at Rosa Wang. It was very tempting. She could have at least put prices up though. I hate asking. I was worried she’d have an accent and I don’t do well with accents. It’s a good thing this isn’t my first baby because I dont’ understand most of what my OB says, LOL!
    Oh, and hey, the triangle shawl covers the droopy butt pant problems!

  8. 1. it was definitely the mission falls.
    2. shampoo, eh? well, you can comfort yourself with this fact: many women buy goop to stick in their just-cleaned hair to get the natural wavy/curly thing that you got without meaning to. i wasn’t sucking up when i said it looked nice.
    3. that blue cashmere is making me weep.
    thanks again for a great day!

  9. Nope. I can’t give you nice platitudes and say it has happened to all of us. Because this is one I have not done before. It may be the only thing I haven’t done before and all bets are off for the future of my shampooing success.
    On the other hand, as another curly/frizzy headed person, leaving a product in the hair is often a great way to tame the frizz. I have chosed to use a conditioner specifically designed to leave in the hair after shampooing, but whatever works for you…

  10. jesus god. I got nipple hard-on in just *viewing* that honkin’ gorgeous ball of cashmere! The color! The amount! The type of fiber!
    *fans self* Excuse me, I need a bit of lie down now…

  11. Hey, I tripped while carrying my son last week and ended up lunging into the wall of a trendy grocery store. In the process I managed to pee on myself. Apparently, ritual humiliation is a common appeasement of the gods.

  12. I love your writing. Had I done this, I likely would have led with the story, likely even used it as a title. No. You sneak up on me with it and get milk to come out of my nose. Nicely done, Stephanie. Nicely done.

  13. If it ever happens again, twist all of your hair up into a knot on top of your head, anchor it with a stylish knitting needle (a Lantern Moon or one of those beautiful glass bead topped ones) and start a new fashion trend. Much better than the ball point pen (pencil, cheap throw-away chopstick…) that is usually anchoring my hair in place. 🙂

  14. mmmm…that is beautiful cashmere. And though I don’t have time to analyze it now, I’m not sure what it means that I knew exactly what you were talking about when you spoke of the duck’s neck.
    the hair, er, debacle: it’s all about product placement really and if you had a sign up with the name of the (extended use) conditoner-like leave-in shampoo then I’m sure flocks of people would start leaving buying it and leaving it in too. It might be worth looking into. It wouldn’t be the first time you started something….

  15. I know I have not rinsed my hair out of the soap well and not had time to get back in shower to take care of it. At least it makes a good blog story.
    Tomorrow the book book book2 comes to my door!!! in the USofA!
    Cathy

  16. It’s kind of like when you go to a restaurant and sit next to kids who are even louder and messier than your own….glad to know I’m not the only one who goes to functions with a different approach to hygiene and appearance! Besides, who can blame you given the destination – we must have our priorities straight! Give me acres of choices of texture and color over shampoo-free hair any day. AND, I must get my hands on either or both of the laceweights asap! Help!

  17. Is it possible you do these things to yourself subconsciously just for good blog stories? Cuz, girlfriend, you’ve got the best blog stories going. 🙂
    Nice score on the yarn, dude.

  18. Oh geez… POINTY OIL CHUNKS… laughing so hard and so suddenly I freaked out one of my cats… (wiping tears from my eyes) Your mishap just brought to mind a vision of a character in the Li’l Abner comicstrip, I can’t remember his name, but where ever this guy went this little black cloud was always following him floating over his head… You poor thing!

  19. It was wonderful meeting you for the first time, and believe me, I never would have known had you not told me.
    I just finished the new book today and can honestly say, I was crying on the bus, and laughing out loud at the help desk.
    I certainly hope there’s more stories to come and wish you luck with it.
    If only I knew some special thing to help with the rinsing of hair as easily as I thought of something to help with sore arses.
    Thanks again for being so wonderful.
    -Saff aka Jessie

  20. Sadly, this brings to mind TWO hair incidents I have suffered. In first grade I unknowingly used a brush my younger brother had previously used to stir a jar of Vaseline. My mother didn’t want me to be late for school so she just put my hair in shiny, pointy pigtails and dropped me off. All day kids were asking me why my hair looked funny. I told them it was wet from my morning bath. Yeah, at 1 pm. What’s it to ya, kid? Then, as a 13-year-old I went on a vacation with my dad, the man who thinks shampoo is a waste of space when your Ivory soap can do double duty. Although my 13-year-old girl self thought that Ivory soap sounded like a terrible shampoo, I had no alternatives and decided to try it. It wouldn’t rinse out and my hair stuck out like dry straw all over my head. Humiliation. Oh God, I’ve just remembered a third incident when I was 21! Apparently I have a serious grooming problem. I’m going to spare y’all my humilation and keep the third one to myself. Anyway, I hope this makes you feel better!

  21. Been there …. KW Fair … my favorite!!!
    Done that … 5 times, 4 of which when I was teaching grades 7 and 8 ….they noticed!! — and remarked (I use the term loosely)
    Meg Swansen’s Wool Gathering arrived today … and there is a wee review of Bookbookbook2 in the book section (where else?). She really likes it – “What a treat!” “Keep your copy nearby.”It’s available at Schoolhouse Press.

  22. Hysterical here. Cats are looking at me funny, too. Concerned-like.
    I haven’t had the shampoo experience, but now you have generously planted that idea in my brain, I’m sure I will. Personally, for me, showers are just as much for thinking as for getting clean, and I have kind of a routine in there, but then I get lost in thought and totally forget what I am doing and condition my hair twice or put the conditioner in before I’ve shampooed. Etc. So, yeah, only a matter of time now.
    I did keep waiting to read more about kitchenering, but you deftly distracted me with the shampoo information.

  23. That cashmere is perfect. I can feel myself sliding down the slippery slope of cashmere/lace.
    Here’s my hair story: when I was told that my hair would fall out from the chemo for my breast cancer, I decided to go blonde (my hair is dark brown) just to see what I looked like as a tow head. My stylist was worried about my having a sensitive scalp, so she underprocessed me or something and I ended up looking like a cheap plush toy that had been left out in the sun. People said I was handling it all so well, but really I was just relieved that my hair finally fell out.

  24. The number of times I go back into the bathroom to rinse out conditioner after I’ve already started to get dressed would be embarrassing to count. Getting all the way to Kitchener before you noticed is quite skillful.
    That cashmere is GORGEOUS.

  25. I think it’s good that you hold onto the perspective that ‘hey, I’ve got on pants, and even a top, so everything is basically A-OK’. That attitude will get you over a fair number of bumpy spots.
    No judgments: I used Aveda Rosemary Hair Conditioner as a facial moisturizer once or twice. The bottles and their contents all look alike and everything these people make smells like rosemary. But the face will notice pretty quickly when the rosemary goop congeals, forming a watertight seal.
    I bet you looked sort of Jheri curled and 80s and cute and lord you probably smelled GREAT. xoxo Kay

  26. Girl, I know you the big harlot blogger here, but there are just some things you should not admit to the whole Internets.
    Next thing you know I’ll be blogging about how I ran out of clean laundry today and am wearing my least dirty pair of underwear and how I. . .um. . .you didn’t want to know this did you?
    Nevermind.

  27. I don’t know what is more funny – Harlot’s shampoo story or all of your hair stories. I needed a good chuckle to end the day with. Thanks.
    Tanya
    Ps. The only bad hair story that I recall is my mom hurriedly pulling my hair into pigtails for school one morning when I was five so that I wouldn’t miss the bus. She pulled them so tight that I couldn’t close my eyes. Ah the memories…

  28. I think I love you just for admitting this stuff. BTW-any chance you can score some of that blue cashmere for me? Pretty Please? With sugar on top? And don’t forget the chocolate sauce. I would send you shampoo, but apparently you can’t be trusted with it all the time….

  29. SNORTING with laughter here in Roncesvalles — is this an extension of your fraught relationship with Mr. Washie…a “rinse cycle be damned!” thing?

  30. Please. Whisper the price in my ear. And her phone number. I’ll send peet’s in exchange (or this may just be an attempt to get your address, drive to Canada from California, and roll you for the yarn).
    Simply gorgeous! What a wonderful haul. Don’t you just lovelovelove it when you find a yarn you haven’t seen before?! It’s like “Ahhhhhhhhh” (and the heavens open along with the wallet)

  31. i’m hearin’ ya on the hair. i have curly hair (think nicole kidman) and one day a few weeks back i forgot to put the styling goo in it. OMG frizz mania. kinda like sticking my finger in a power point type frizz. SO not pretty.
    and that cashmere is DIVINE, any plans for it?

  32. I assure you, your hair looked great. In fact, when I got home and looked at the photo I took of us I thought “Dammit, I don’t know what she’s talking about when she complains about her hair. I’d KILL for it”. Of course, I may not have noticed anyway cause I was blinded by the gorgeous cheap cashmere. Thanks again for pointing it out….I’m still petting my pretty purple stuff. Your colourful ball is definitely prettier than in the photo where it looks like a watercolour version of the real thing.
    Bookbookbook2 (say it out loud and feel like a chicken) is great! I’m trying to ration it out but am failing miserably. I think our tape measures are partying together somewhere (or plotting our downfall).

  33. It was great running into you at KW.
    I thank (and only mildly curse) you for showing me the cashmere ball of lovelyness. I swooned, I bought, what more can I say?!
    Didn’t notice the hair. But by then, I was going into yarn overload so short of having disco lights and lasers coming out of it I wouldn’t have noticed.
    Have a good week there. It’s back to the 2 shawls I’m working on and xmas scarves.

  34. Just to make you feel better & because I apparently have a strange need to humilliate myself on a pretty much public blog…
    Last week I went out and about in a see through shirt. I don’t know how it happened because I actually did look in the mirror and didn’t notice you could totally see my PURPLE bra very clearly through the shirt. Of course, I was having one of those breezy self-confident days where you smile and say hello to everyone you see. (Just the gods way of making me draw more attention to my PURPLE bra). Did I mention I picked up my son at school?? Oh and of course dropped him off for a playdate with a new friend…I almost left him there because I was too humilliated to go back after I noticed my see-through shirt.
    Nobody told me there’d be days like these…!

  35. ‘Minds me of the time I was so excited about a date that I only shaved one leg.
    Have you ANY idea how hard it is to hide an entire unshaved right leg on a moonlit beach, in Tel-Aviv, in 1989 and a radical mini?

  36. I’ve never forgotten to rinse the shampoo out of my hair but I did have a “situation” once, long ago, as a matron on honor, an open bottle of strawberry shampoo and canvas wedge-type shoes, co-habiting in my suitcase. The shampoo saturated the shoes and I tried to wash the shampoo out. It did not rinse out at all. I walked down the isle in a floor length dress, making a very noticable squishing noise with bubbles floating out from under the hem of the dress. Quite memorable!

  37. Again I’m laughing out loud at your blog. I had shampoo rinsing trouble in grammar school and several times did what you did – but my hair is thin and straight already, so the addition of heavy sticky goop only made it even more flat and pitiful. I used to get out of the shower halfway through and make my parents check my dripping wet head for leftover suds before I’d finish washing. I still have obsessive rinsing habits 25 years later.
    I’m drooling over your cashmere, and looking forward to my first experience of Rhinebeck (I’ve lived nearby for all these years and only started knitting this year, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing all this time. And I have the spinning urge.)

  38. must have forgot the shampoo rinsing because you were spending so much time washing your hand-knit socks in the shower, huh?

  39. oh my dear…you must have looked lovely, with the helmet o’ hair…if anybody questions you you could always say you were trying on Punk for a day…but be happy in the knowledge that you’ve brought many a smile to many peoples’ faces today. 🙂
    (By the way…a friend of mine in grade school had run out of hot water with Prell in her hair, and when she came to school there were big flaky green chunks in her hair…kind of looked like oversize sugar crystals…)

  40. Delurking at last – the hair story got me and I need to share. My mom used to buy the big bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hand cream – all looked the same. When I was eight I was washing my hair and dumped a handful of – you guessed it – hand cream into my hair instead of conditioner. It took a lot of shampoo to get it out and it felt so gross!
    Your comic timing is so laugh-out-loud and honey-come-listen-to-this perfect – must be a Canadian thing, eh?

  41. Stephanie. My stars. At last I can breathe again. It was close, there, for a moment. Wow, that was funny! And looking at photos of you that day on those other blogs, of course you looked wonderful.
    Any chance you’d let us all know where we can score some of that cashmere? Because I’d give my eyeteeth for some of it. That stuff is exquisite. Just think–you could make some vendor very, very happy. They don’t need a website, just a mailman; you’ve already provided the picture.

  42. ooooh! I held that ball of bluey purpley cashmere in my hand. It was gorgeous stuff. I meant to go back for it too, but in my state of yarn-drunkeness, I forgot. *cries*

  43. I am so stealing that. Unless you’d care to provide me with some way to contact the cashmere pusher in question?
    That’s a blue to get excited about, even color skewed.

  44. Gotta have that cashmere! It is so beyooootiful, I could cry. Never mind how much you paid, which vendor was it? Enquiring minds, and all that . . .
    Hope to see you at Rhinebeck.
    Elaine in NYC

  45. Oh, the hair stories are too numerous, as another curly haired knitter. Usually they have involved home hair dyes going horribly wrong, but there has been the share of just bad hair days and cuts. However, the time I was leaning back on the bleachers in 4th grade PE and didn�t realize my fly was down was much more humiliating. Much. And that Crack Cashmere dealer needs a website.

  46. Even though I love the way you write and you always make me laugh, I’m pretty sure I hate you for that ball of cashmere. It’s cashmere, it’s huge and it’s my favorite colors. I think I’m going to cry. Bad hair is a small price to pay that prize. What did you say your address is?

  47. Lovely yarn. We need a nice yarn/wool festival here in Arizona (you know, because living in the desert there’s such a big need for wool…).
    To add to the list of bad hair experiences: I had to spend the night at my Nana’s on a school night in elementary school. She put my hair up in a ponytail in the morning, but then bobbypinned the tail to my head because “all that swishing will bother you.” huh?
    The yarn is simply gorgeous.

  48. I can’t wait to see what the cashmere turns into, it’s just beautiful. It’s the same color as my morning glories in fact. Loverly!

  49. I was in the doors at 10 and all shopped out by 11:30 bouncing along on a knitter’s high. Man did I score the deals! I scored some of that laceweight in pale green. I can’t tell all the details, I might get linched.
    But I missed seeing the Harlot. Ahh well. Another time…..

  50. I’m down in New Jersey, and right now I’ve more than half a mind to figure out where you live and come roll you for that cashmere. It would definitely be worth the gas money – that is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen. I think if it were mine, it would never be knitted up… I would put a bell on it, name it, and make it my new pet.

  51. Gasp. That blue cashmere yarn is gorgeous. Even before reading the cashmere part, the yarn had me in a color induced frenzy. What a great score!

  52. Sometimes creative people just don’t have the time for such menial tasks as washing out the shampoo! What a bother! 😉 Thank goodness for pants.
    Sounds like you had fun and what YUMMY cashmere.

  53. Oh,you lucky thing! Kitchener-Waterloo is my home town.
    The yarns look wonderful…. and if you can wait, I’ll be flying into L.B. Pearson on Oct. 13th for my son’s wedding. I can wind your yarn then.
    Good thing you were wearing pants. The good citizens of K-W would have been totally confused by the no pants and conditioner in the hair….

  54. Seriously? You forgot to wash the shampoo out of your hair? That’s classic. I’m not laughing – really. I do have to say that I’m sure they were all so enamoured by your wittiness and genius that your hair was the last thing on anyone’s mind. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it (I really didn’t mean that!) The blue cashmere is awe inspiring – it makes up for the shampoo doesn’t it?

  55. Adopt my hairstyle and you won’t have to worry about this sort of thing any more. You’ll also save lotsa money – razors aren’t too expensive.
    This won’t help with those alarming no-pants situations, of course.

  56. I’ve never been tempted into the realms of hyperbole by a yarn before, but that cashmere might just deserve the accolade ‘heartstopping’. What are you going to do with it?

  57. Shampoo, eh? I usually forget to wash out the conditioner, but only when I am going out somewhere in public, meeting new people, which is not very often. Which is probably why I forget to rinse. Now you want to talk about greasy-it is like a virtual oil slick on my head. And I don’t even have gorgeous color-changing lace or drool worthy cashmere to comfort myself with. I can’t wait to see what they become, but I know it will be gorgeous.
    Sigh.

  58. I looked at Cara’s blog (earth mother) and the pic on there of you looked fine! You are probably the only one who noticed your hair. Seriously, I saw you in Portland, and I don’t think your hair looks that different – despite how it felt. Thanks for the laughs again though! and congrats on the yarn scores.

  59. Where’s the picture? of the hair? come on… Anyway, according to Curly Girl (have you read it?), curly heads are not even suppose to shampoo the hair – just rinse and condition – which apparently enhances the curls and removes the frizz… I have a friend who swears by it (Hi Grace!)
    And all I can say about the cashmere is that it is unfair, just unfair. Maybe as a sideline you can start buying up all the good deals you find and then offering them to your stuck-at-home readers? You know we’ll snatch it up! It is too beautiful. Boo Hoo.

  60. Yea, where is the picture of the hair? 🙂 You are just so funny, I can’t stand it. I needed this today! But we are laughing WITH you, not AT you!

  61. OK – you need to put some sort of disclaimer on posts like this one and the one about you in your skivs in the hotel…something like “PLEASE DO NOT CONSUME ANY LIQUIDS WHILE YOU ARE READING THIS POST.”
    Do you know how to get Diet Coke out of one’s keyboard?

  62. I saw a picture on Renee’s blog and your hair looks fine. Besides, with such a lovely shawl who would be looking at your hair anyway.

  63. I can’t believe you posted that obnoxiously gorgeous ball of cashmere yarn and forgot to tell us who sells it.
    The forgetting of the shampoo, on the other hand, I totally believe. Been there, pulled that back into a ponytail and pretended it was hair gel.

  64. I have done that. The forgetting to rinse out the shampoo thing. (I’ve also done the forgetting to rinse out the conditioner thing – looks like you haven’t washed your hair in a week when you do this – think greasy adolescent hair.)
    On Saturday I would have run to the ladies room, stuck my head under a sink to rinse out the shampoo and then tried to dry my hair with restroom paper towels, which would have left me dripping wet for half the day and the front of my clothes looking like I’d been hit with a water balloon. Ask me how I know this!?!
    Honestly, you were much more aware of your hair than anyone else was on Saturday, and they really weren’t staring and pointing….really.

  65. Delurking here. Not sure who has the funniest hair stories. As yet another curly haired knitter, I feel your pain about frizzies. I’ve often dreamt about product that will produce hair like the pantene commercial girls – floor wax anyone? On more than one occassion I have forgotten to rinse the conditioner out, or conditioned first or… well, you get the picture.
    Oh and the cashmere? WHAT WAS THE VENDOR’S NAME, she has to have a phone, right? The colors are to die for! I might have to knit a shawl I’ll never use just for an excuse to play with that yarn. Or then again, I might just sit and fondle it in the evenings instead of knitting. Sigh – choices.

  66. I purchased your bookbookbook2 today. It was at the Barnes an Noble bookstore in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. It’s out there! Congratulations. I think I’ll make my husband read the Introduction. (that’s as far as I’ve gotten) – Then maybe he’ll understnad my knitting better.

  67. OMG…thank you for the laugh of the day! I’m sure my coworkers are wondering what is wrong with me as i uncontrollably am laughing about your hair situation… and it’s one of those things that you can’t explain to someone why it made you laugh so hard, it just hit me that way, probably because it’s something i would do…
    Gorgeous yarn, btw. Especially the duck head blue…

  68. Shampoo is nothing. Nothing, I tell you. I know this for I am … The Woman Who Wore Two Different Shoes to Work.

  69. Sorry about the hair, but (far more important) the BOOK came yesterday! (I would have mentioned this sooner, but in my excitement, I spilled a glass of water on the keyboard and certain letters no longer work. I’m using son #3’s now.) Thanks for more laugh-out-loud knitterly words, and for the price break in the US (what’s that about, anyway? If the book’s from Cananda, ahouldn’t it be cheaper there?) I’m halfway through, and trying to pace myself, make it last, but with no expectation of success. It’s too good to put down!

  70. Oh, man, I would have paid good money to see you with your shampoo-y head. I know that’s petty and small-minded and kicking you when you’re down, but you did bring it up. It just makes you so human–not the knitting goddess whom we all revere and want to be like when we learn how to knit lace.
    That cashmere is glorious! I’d do something very bad to get my hands on it, even though laceweight scares the crap out of me.

  71. I laughed, I drooled, I coveted, (ok, I still covet) then I read the comments and got very sulky at reading several folks in the US already have your bookbookbook2, either in their hot little hands or confirmed on delivery, when Chapters Indigo who I pre-ordered from over a month ago still shows ‘temporarily unavailable to order’ Hmpf. I can only imagine how um, perturbed your Mum is…

  72. OK, I’ll post my most recent humilating appearance experience. My back went out last week and it was so bad that I was on valium and percoset (not as fun as it sounds). Anyhoo, I decided to get some exercise by walking around the neighborhood (read: hobbling). When I got home my husband said: “hey, your shirt’s on inside out and backwards and your pants are on backwards.” How on earth did I get my pants on backwards? I could hardly move.

  73. Hey–just wanted to tell you. My copy of bookbookbook2 just arrived! Like, 10 minutes ago, from Amazon.com. I am so excited! I’ve got photographic evidence coming up on my blog momentarily, if you want proof. It looks great, Stephanie! (So, incidentally, does that cashmere yarn . . . it looks like heaven!)

  74. Hi Stephanie;
    Carrie (the stalker!) finally delurking here. It was great meeting you on Saturday. Seriously, the hair issue was totally not noticeable. I was far too busy being tongue tied and comparing your writing to crack (ummm…yes, I was a little nervous…it was meant as a compliment-honest!)
    My stalking issues are much more under control…really…I only stopped the car once on the way home to read a couple chapters of your new book! (Tooo funny, and heartwarming…as a former doula I loved the birth stories.)
    As for the yarn score, how did I miss that! My scores-roving, drop spindle, wool for fuzzy feet and sari silk. In typical harloty fashion, I’ve started all of them.
    (And my worst hair story…last year I let my daughter rinse out her own shampoo on the day her school was conducting a head lice check. A member of the head lice ‘patrol’ pulled me aside after school and politely informed me that my daughter might have a ‘little problem’ as her scalp was covered in white flakes and to please check her head that evening and report back. You guessed it, chunks of shampoo all over her scalp. The patrol person looked at me like I was insane when I tried to explain why my kid’s head was covered in shampoo.)

  75. Lovely yarn purchases.
    Was the cashmere REALLY enough to take the sting out of the “shampoo hair”?
    I’m not sure if I would have tried to wash it out in the ladies room or raced to find a hat and worn it no matter WHAT the temperature.
    You poor thing! But it does sound like a fantastic day!

  76. Years ago, my best friend talked me into getting a perm for her wedding. I ended up with not a single hair more than 1/2 inch long! Yes, I was her Maid of Honor with my new do! No, I’ve never gotten another perm. Yes, we’re still friends.
    If I promise not to roll you, or stalk you, may I please have the name of the vendor you got the blue cashmere laceweight from? AND a phone number? And the name of the yarn? And the color number and/or name?
    Pretty, pretty, pretty PLEASE??????

  77. oH PLEASE TELL US THE VENDOR OF THE BEEEEEEEUUUUUUTTTIIIIFULLLLLLLL CASHMERE.!!!!!!! No web site but how about a phone?

  78. I’ve forgotten to rinse conditioner out of my hair on multiple occasions and had to spend the whole day looking greasy.
    I placed an Amazon order the day before bookbookbook2 came out, so I didn’t get to tack it on as my free shipping item. Hopefully the Grove (in San Diego) will have it by Sunday when I’m out there for Knit ‘n Sip.

  79. Good lord, Stephanie, that cashmere laceweight is amazing! I’ve never seen such a thing. You know how sometimes a yarn makes you drop everything else and just start knitting it? I’d be off in a corner with that stuff.
    Please come by and help vote for the Perfect Handknit. We are in the midst of picking the Perfect Yarn, which was going to be a SNAP for me until I saw that muffin of cashmere.

  80. I just finished bookbookbook2. I loved it!!! I am sending it to my mom in Florida, she is a lapsed knitter. I am hoping she will rejoin us all.
    My family kept asking me what was so funny while I was reading the book. I read parts to my 12 year old daughter who knits, and who laughed too. All my jock sons looked sort of puzzled…

  81. I bought the only copy of bookbookbook2 at the Southdale Barnes & Noble in Minneapolis. (mine, mine, mine). Still on the lookout for more – I already called up 3 friends and gloated, and then read parts of 2 chapters to my best friend and her fiance (who also knits).
    One question – so what did you do with the green afghan?
    jillann

  82. What a wonderful story! I always read your posts to my DH who laughs like crazy. However out of 106 comments did you notice most of us are asking for a vendor name/phone#? Please please list that so we can order too. Will you be in Rhinebeck? I suggest a time and place so we can all ohh and ahh over you.
    Judy Benner

  83. Okay, so the neighbours all came out into the hall worrying about all the racket coming from my place. It was just me laughing so hard that they were all concerned for the state of my mind. Wonderful stories, all, about yarn and tours — but the one about rinsing has to be about the best. I don’t even want to ask about wearing pants…. I’m sure I’ll find out more as I read further. I’m going to take a break for now — for the neighbours sake!

  84. WHAT A REFRESHING OUTLOOK ON LIFE! You cannot possibly be smoking tobacco while knitting – or, are you? did you know that the first census machines in America were made from used knitting mills – their contents (the looms) of course.

  85. Hi there 🙂
    I’m a new fan, not a stalker, just a fan (laugh)
    Can I add my begging voice to the others to find out about the changing color blue yarn? If I ask you really nicely when you visit NY soon, will you tell me? *crosses fingers*
    I generally make things for others but this is my FAVORITE color combo and I want to make myself a well deserved graduation present. Greedy, I know!
    Thanks!

  86. Ohhh Gosh. Those colors in this yarn you showed there…was it cashmere you wrote it was. Those colors are just AWESOME!! Just wanna grab it out of the computer!*GRIN*
    Just saw you have wrote another book…..CONGRATS!!!!:-))

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