You'll have to forgive me if this entry doesn't quite have it together. Location: Los Angeles, time:
Yee Gods. It is a wonder I am not weeping.
I'm up early to catch a flight (Los Angeles to Denver, Denver to Wichita) and I'm just a little bleary. I did the LA thing last night (more about that later) and I went to bed at 8pm knowing that my wake up call would be 3am and ....it's still awful. (There may be no way for me to get up at 3am and be chipper about it. I am aiming for "civil".) I'm going to try, despite the early hour and it's basic incompatibility with my base personality (and there was 8 hours between the end of an event and when I had to get up, so Jayme is still sock worthy) to get caught on how it's been going. Simply put, it's been great. Totally great. Seattle was my first stop and it was a blast and a half. I kitchenered the toe of the first travelling sock and began the second in the cab on the way to Third Place Books
and the last person to hold the old one as well as the first person I got to hold it was my very nice cabbie. (I loved him. He didn't even ask me why he should hold a sock.)
Hold on, gotta get in the cab to the airport........
Okay. Location, some car in Los Angeles...time 3:45am.
Man, was it fun. That many people is always scary, but I got up there and looked around and noticed that I've been there enough times that the place and the people are starting to look familiar. This is my third or forth time to Third Place, and it's a powerful and moving thing to feel at home in a bookstore. I spoke, I lived, I went to sign at the desk and then the big fun started.
This is Susan. She's holding a picture of herself dangling her sock in progress over a rock ledge in Peru...showing it to a llama. (See? I told you there was nothing wrong with me.)
First socks Holly,
Baby Sarah, 4 weeks old and holding her first knitting needles. (Killing two birds with one stone actually. She is both holding the sock and holding her first needles. It can only improve the future of both.)
This is Carol.
I tried several ways to get her whole project into the frame but it's impossible. The thing was HUGE. This cracked me up. Not because the sweater was huge, that happens all the time....but because it was so much huger than. Carol had intended, and she knew that and kept knitting and even sewed it up. I love knitterly denial.
Karen is getting married next week, and it couldn't happen to a nicer gal.
She came with Karen Jo and Ann and they brought a big (symbolic) cheque for KWB. Karen had accepted donations instead of gifts at her shower.
Lovely thought. (Karen holds an exteemed positon amoung designers. Her Rock and Weave socks are the only hting I have ever knit more than once without ever changing hte pattern. Only Nancy Bush can also claim that honour. )
Ryan finally finished her Olympic sweater. She came with TMK.
She's the late arrival of the Knitting Olympics. (In 2010 when we do it again, she's going to try and get it down to a year.) Not surprisingly, It is a squirrel sweater,
which likely explains everything. Ryan also did us the honour of being the hat lady.
Sorry....hold on again - just have to stagger through LAX for a while.
Right. I'm back. I think I'm going to flip out a little though. Time: 4:35am, location: my gate at LAX, Situation: NO COFFEE. If it doesn't open at 5am I am going to have some sort of an episode. It's got to open at 5...right? I'm going to try not to think about it.
Meet Jimmy.
Jimmy is modelling his 2nd project. A binary code scarf knit in the round out of Jumper weight wool. Jimmy is what we in the business call an overachiever. So is Molly, since this is her first sock.
(These people have just never heard of a learning curve.)
Joan and Heather brought me a washcloth:
Which, since the knitter in question is a woman after my own heart, was still damp, having been blocked in the bathroom at the bookstore.
This is Marti's daughter Shannon. She is a young and lovely knitter, and I don't know if it shows in this picture,
but she's keeping her yarn under her HAT.
Marcia is my stalker...I've met her a bunch of times. (Once even in Alaska. I half expect to see her today.)
Dawn demonstrates a fine and noble level of geekdom in her Jayne hat.
and Jacob....
Jacob likes to take pictures. Let's just leave it at that.
Excuse me for a moment. It's 5:02. I'm going to go check and see if the coffee place is open.
I'm back. Location: sitting on the floor in LAX. Time: 5:18. Situation: NO COFFEE. The place is open but the queue is so long that there is zero chance that I will get one before they call my flight. I have decided to sit here until they call the flight in 15 minutes and then resume hope that something caffeinated will appear.
I don't know what will happen if that is not true.
After the signing, Ryan, The Mysterious K and I went out to dinner at -- I've totally forgotten. Somewhere that brews their own beer. It's awsome beer, and we were served by the charming CJ, who was extraordinarily good at his job. He knew good jokes, suggested wicked beer, could hold up his end of a coffee conversation, had excellent chocolate knowledge and
Had tried knitting in his past. All servers should have half the charm.
Oh, sorry. Calling my flight to Denver.
I'm back. Time: 9:17am. Location: Denver. Situation. I have had one cup of some brown water they called coffee on the flight, and just discovered that my fly has been open for who knows how long. Grand.
So, after taking leave of Seattle, I made my way to Los Angeles, where, within moments of arrival, I found out that I am very short. I have always suspected this, but Los Angeles confirmed it. I made my way to the......
Darn it....we're boarding for the flight to Wichita.... more later, after I find some coffee.
Now I'm in Wichita...(with coffee). I'm leaving for the auditorium in two minutes. Forgive the lack of links.... I'm telling you. I'm a moving target. As soon as I find some wireless....I'll post this.
Posted by Stephanie at September 16, 2007 3:37 PM