AHEM!
Now that I’ve gotten your attention, I just wanted to tell you all that I met Ysolda tonight! She has been called super-sweet by many people, but what you don’t know is that underneath that shining, innocent face is a humorous, sardonic personality. Her raised eyebrows tell the whole story. Ysolda, it was great meeting and knitting with you! 😀
The event was a book signing, treat eating, yarn buying, knit-along extravaganza! It was held at my favorite LYS, Bloomin’ Yarns, and we just didn’t want the night to stop. It started at 7 p.m., though I got there at 6:30 p.m., and they had to kick us out at 9:30 p.m., a half-hour after the event was supposed to end.
First off, the homemade treats. Cupcakes large enough for two people, two types of handmade macaroons, chocolate-covered strawberries, lemonade and iced tea and chocolate-chip cookies. I hadn’t eaten dinner so I think I destroyed a good portion of the chocolate-covered strawberries. I also nipped macaroons for Hester and froze them for when she comes to visit me in August, because I am that good of a best friend.
Try not to drool
When I first walked in, I saw a young blonde girl about my age bent over arranging items on a shelf near to the floor. It was funny, because my mind mentally categorized her as “store employee” and then she turned around and I realized it was Ysolda. My first thought was, “Oh, Ysolda works at our LYS now!” Of course, I know she didn’t, but I was bemused at how well she fit in with the scenery, as if she belonged there. Ysolda was selling and signing copies of her book, Whimsical Little Knits, which is self-published, a shockingly novel concept we discussed at length while we were knitting later. 😉 I didn’t know anyone there except the store owner, so I felt incredibly awkward at first. This has a tendency to do two things. I get super quiet (which is incredibly strange to see, according to some) and I also become a klutz. It’s like the gangly 12-year-old inside of me comes out. Which is super weird, because, being all of 5’2″, I never actually went through a gangly period. Anyways, at the beginning of the night I squeezed by one of Ysolda’s displays (actually, it was her original Liesl design in red) and basically fell into the dress form that was wearing it. The cardigan and I did a small dance together before I was able to right us both, and Ysolda also leapt in to rescue it. She tried to lighten the mood by smiling and joking about trying to knock over her designs but I was so mortified that I could only smile weakly and moved myself to the opposite end of the store to hide for the next 10 minutes. Later, after I’d salvaged my composure, I came back and hovered around the table. One of the local women there, a tall, boisterous redhead with a big, friendly personality started talking to the air around her. Since I’m a generally a friendly person when engaged, I responded (and no, she didn’t even blink when the air started talking back). Soon, we had a nice repartee going and chatted together for the rest of the night. I reattempted an introduction with Ysolda, and she patiently posed with several of us behind her table ‘o knitted goodies, though sadly, the person who took my photo with her moved at the last minute and Ysolda and I are highly blurry (we’re going to pretend it was an action shot).
In the end, we had loads of fun, knitting our various projects together (I was working on my Ishbel), chatting about the current exchange rates, affordable housing in the US versus Europe, pattern book publishing, and where the best places are to buy yarn in Paris. Oh, and just in case you were worried that our conversation was high-falutin’, we also chatted about the Icelandic Phallological Museum, small boys peeing on dogs, not shaving our legs, and eating guinea pigs. Not surpringly, I helped bring up the most inappropriate conversations, but everyone seemed to find it all in good fun. Oh, and last but not least, there was the Yarn-As-Big-As-Ysolda’s-Head.
I swear, I will find all the Yarn-As-Big-As-Your-Head skeins known to mankind and photograph them. Or force popular knitting designers to pose with them. Either way, it’s fun for me at least, right?
Exchanging Fire 