Disclaimer:  We got home really late last night.  I am really really tired.  This post probably will sound like a 4th grader wrote it, and I don’t care.  I can’t be witty, I can’t be funny, but I can just lay out the facts of the day.  If you’re looking for prose, please stop here. It didn’t occur to me until I was in the shower yesterday morning that this was a cute little rhyme.  I mentioned it to a few other people, who hadn’t realized it either.  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was finally going to be within 100 miles of me, and after much finagling, Kim and I finally pulled it off.  We left about noon for a 90 minute drive and a 7:00 event, figuring that there would be a line, we might even have to wait outside.  We got there, realized there was no outside line, and figured we’d go eat a good lunch that would last us a while.  After lunch, we wandered into Borders, saw ZERO knitters and no set-up, and thought this was odd.

Kim found the manager, who assured us that the event would go on as planned, gave us 2 orange wristbands for the signing (meaning we were in the first 50), and told us they would set up at 3:00.  We wandered around for a while, and decided to go upstairs to hang out in the coffee bar, where we would be sure to see when they started setting up, then go downstairs to snag seats. In the coffee bar we found Charlotte knitters - from the left, Jan, Cristi (Turtlegirl) and Corey (KnitDiva), then Kim of course.  Funny note on Jan - I noticed her socks (we saw lots of great socks last night) were Lorna’s Laces Tuscany - the same ones I was wearing!

We claimed our corner, and waited and waited.  The 3:00 setup time had come and gone.  We found the manager again and offered to help set up, as we were sure they had no clue what they were in for.  She calmly told us that she knew - there were at least 4 buses coming from Atlanta, Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, and somewhere else.  They were expecting 300 people, but they could not set up until 2 hours before the event.  She had 5 people coming in at 5:00 to set up, but they would not do it before 5:00.  In the meantime, several more knitters had come in and tried to tell her the same thing.  They staked out the benches near what was to be “the front” and were in for the long haul.  We decided to go back upstairs and grab our comfy chairs, and that we could watch just as well (and more comfortably) from up there.  About 4:15 I guess the manager had had enough.  She pulled a few people and they started setting up.  130 chairs - all that they had.  We decided we were glad to stay upstairs.  In the meantime we had fun chatting with the Charlotte knitters, and a few more showed up.  Including - Dani!  Dani and I have been online buds for a few years - before she even moved to NC.  We’ve talked about meeting up but it has never happened.  It was good to finally meet her in person, though she was “gimpified” (not my word, I promise) and couldn’t even knit.  It turns out that the gang we had been hanging out with were Dani’s knitting peeps in Charlotte.  Here they are, waiting for 7:00.

(From the left, clockwise): Erin (from Wilkesboro), Dani, Aimee, May, Cristi, and Corey.  We had great fun hanging out with them and being a bit snarky (ok, maybe more than a bit) about the Borders people, some of the other knitters we knew, and just the situation in general.  We also met Jan, Rachel, Stacey and Davey (sorry, no pics) who was hilarious, and I helped him tack down a long-ago dropped stitch.  We waited and waited to see buses arrive, but NONE showed up.  We’re not sure whether they were a myth, or they went to the wrong Borders, but we never saw a bus.  By 6:00 it looked like this, and we were feeling a little sad - we wanted to represent, and show those Borders folks that they were idiots.

By 7:00 the seats had mostly filled up - only a few empties.  Stephanie came on at about 7:15, and it was so much fun listening to her.  She of course started off by taking a picture of the crowd with the sock:

We hollered that she missed us, so she did it again (though my shot was blurry, I hope hers isn’t!):

We knitted and listened, and laughed and hollered a good bit.  The listening was made difficult by Borders employees who thought that the coffee bar would be a good place to stand around and talk to each other while Stephanie was talking, so we missed a bit here or there.  I still laughed until my sides hurt!  This was our view for the whole thing - not too bad!

When she was done, they called groups up for the signing by wristband color.  We were the first group, though by the time we got downstairs we were at the end of the line.  No big deal, more time to laugh with new friends.  When it was our turn to meet Stephanie, we got our books signed (one for Sarah too!), and she commented on how gorgeous Kim’s sweater was.  Kim blushed and said thanks.  We all got together for a picture, and she noticed my shawl and commented on it.  I told her it was an Alison Hyde pattern, and she said, “Alison is so lovely!”  I had to agree.  (BTW, Alison, I had several people asking for the pattern last night - perhaps there was a slight jump in book sales at Borders!)  We posed for a picture together and I held “the sock” - I hope Kim’s picture of this is better than mine.  This is my hair and makeup 12 hours after it was done - needless to say there was nothing good left of either!

Behind us in line was Cristi, who was hoping to have Stephanie cut her first steek.  Stephanie politely refused, saying that everyone had to cut their own, but that she would hold her hand and get her through it.  Stephanie held apart the layers of the sweater while Cristi shook and shook, then cut.  She managed just fine.  Then Stephanie said, “Let’s go ahead and cut the back one.”  It wasn’t reinforced yet, but they did it!  Here’s Cristi during and after:

We had such a great time, and I’m so happy that I finally got to meet Stephanie.  And Cristi and Corey and Davey and Dani and May and Aimee and Erin and Jan…  You get the picture.  And next time we’re in Charlotte, we’re definitely hitting Charlotte Yarns.  If they had been open at 10:00 last night, we would have gone then.  It’s probably good they weren’t - I was on such a knitting high there’s no telling what I would have bought!

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