This morning, all I can think is that Steve and Kathy at WEBS are the smartest things ever. They had a thousand (maybe more) knitters turn up yesterday, and I didn’t catch either one of them crying in the bathroom from the strain of it all. (Kathy and I did have a matched set of stomach cramps though. Stress.) Steve directed traffic in the parking lot, Kathy wrote names on post-it notes so I could spend time with knitters that didn’t include asking them how to spell names, and they experimented with a “pre-event signing” from 11-1 that, while it worked well, just about killed me. (I am still not so sure what is so tiring about this job. Meet knitters. How hard can that be?) There was a scary and totally weird moment on stage when I felt a little faint (of course. That’s never happened before but it just has to happen in front of a thousand people) where I felt sure I was going down and all I could feel was a terrible certainty that if I did faint, a thousand knitters were going to A) blog it and B) pose socks on my fallen form.) Kimberly (my favourite stalker) saved me with a bottle of water and I felt better almost instantly….as you might have guessed from the lack of reports that I went down like a house of cards. Totally bizarre. I blame fear…because this is what it looked like.
Individually, the knitters were way less scary.
Here’s Guido, from It’s a Purl Man, came with his wife (yup. She’s real, though camera shy) and their wonderful hand knit Chuppa (I somehow missed a picture of that. It was beautiful.)
Amy won a skein of sock yarn from me, and she’s turning it into a little sweater (there’s a baby under there.)
Jennifer and Maaike came all the way from Montréal, bringing me fresh bagels (there is Nothing like a Montréal bagel) and squeaky cheese and dishcloths to add to the effect.
Kimberly, the rescue stalker. (Never before has a bottle of water meant so much to me.)
Nell brought her octopus. He knit on the sock.
Heather brought “Eye of Jupiter” yarn (Get it?)
There were first sock knitters EVERYWHERE.
Meet Noelle, Nancy, Lynn, Chris and Carol (brought me a beer that was my best friend later that night) Chris, Alex, Maria, Cheryl, Dennis, Stacy, Lucille, Dianne, Carolyn, Dan (who has only been knitting for three weeks and had a perfect sock) Jennifer, Louise, MargoLynn (she had a monkey too) Cori, Rebecca and Angela. (Whew. As always, Click to embiggen.)
There were mums and babies: Cynthia and Emerson, Jessie and Eamon, Aimie and Matrim, Lee and Charlie, Kristine and Lucy (I love that kids smile. You have got to click on her.) Zoë and Aoite, Lia and Zephyr.
There were young knitters, Leah (almost 10), Emily (7) and Nicole (8), Emma (9) and Sarah (13). There was even a whole family of knitters (and one pre-knitter) Jonquil, Eliana, Talia (9) and Jeff.
Washcloths from all over:
Linda, Susan (hers was handwoven), Ruth, Kristen, Sheila (who was knitting a bunch but they weren’t for me) Shanan, Charlene, Maria, Scott (by way of Patti) Patty (that’s a CT Knit for the Cure one) Jayne, and Heather.
Melodie made wee me things:
and Kristina was knitting a Hemlock ring on size 000000 needles. (Seriously. That’s a dime.)
Jess and Caro came. (Plus Caro’s mum, who is very nice.) Caro’s got great pictures.
My buddies Stitchy, Melanie and Kellee. (Maryse was there too…I don’t know how she got away from this picture.)
They brought me veggie fare. I loves them.
and finally, Aaron. Aaron stood up at Webs last year and said that he was only knitting one scarf. That he didn’t believe that it was addictive, that he wasn’t going to get sucked into it’s evil web, and that he was not going to be a knitter. He was just going to knit one scarf. Yeah.
Dude’s screwed. I reiterated to him what I said last year.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
When it was all over, I drank beer with Steve and Kathy (you would be proud of how much forbearance we showed in the face of a day like that) and we drove back to the hotel, where we saw this.
Movin’ on. The Calvin, and me.
I’m in Madison Wisconsin now, about to jump in a cab and go find me more knitters. ‘Cause you know. I haven’t had nearly enough. Bring it on.
(Tomorrow: Indianapolis at Barnes and Noble – Carmel. I’ve just realized I have NO IDEA where Indianapolis is.)