Got a good reason
for taking the easy way out
Got a good reason
for taking the easy way out now
She was a day tripper
One way ticket, yeah
It took me so long to find out
and I found out

This past Sunday, (Many of you may have already heard, but for those of you who haven't) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee A.K.A. The Yarn Harlot came to town, well, not really to our town perse but to a town. Stephanie was making an appearance at Yellow Dog Knits in Eau Claire, WI., a town about an hour and half from the Twin Cities across the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Which was close enough in our book, so we slipped on our hand knit socks, left our husbands and kids behind, loaded up the van with chocolaty goodies, yarn, needles, and six rather excited knitters and went on a day trip to see the Harlot!
Roxanne in the driver seat to whom we owe a huge thank you to for volunteering her van and to be chauffeur to this wild bunch of giddy knitters. That's Tipper seated behind her knitting the ribbing of a new sock she started on the way there and was able to finish on the way home again, pretty swift knitting don't you think?

Shelly rode shotgun and was navigator, I don't think she could have been more excited about this trip. Meleah sitting behind her knitting a tiny baby sweater as remembrance for a friend who recently had a miscarriage. It was the first F.O. of the trip.

I sat in the back behind Tipper, knitting on Forest Path. I have to tell you I think I was about the only one who wasn't knitting a sock, I had a sock along, the bazaar sock that I'm knitting for Katie, but it's two color and a little futsy and not a good candidate for road trip knitting so I chose the lace because I pretty much know the pattern.

Can you tell what I was craving?

In the back with me was Stephania who had a hard time settling on a project but finally settled on knitting another Pomotomus Sock in TrekingXXL.

She's a big teaser
She took me half the way there
She's a big teaser
She took me half the way there, now
She was a day tripper
One way ticket, yeah
It took me so long to find out
and I found out
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Remember what I said about slipping on our hand knit socks? Well, I wasn't kidding. On a lark we put our feet together to show off our hand knit socks. This created a bit of excitement and soon we had a whole ring of Minnesota knitters putting there feet in to show off their socks. It was too fun.


Even the babies wore hand knit socks. This is Knittymama holding Knittybaby and Roxanne's RPM's next to them.


One fabulous Mitred Squares blanket in progress and six giddy knitters.

In the back from right to left: Corgi-mom -(Meleah), Daily Fiber Therapy and new bride -(Tipper), The Heathen Housewife,(Shelly) knitter of the Infamous Mitred Squares Blanket (The Harlot tried to bury her house in yarn and I think if you ask Shelly, darn near succeeded), and Moi on the far right. In front from right to left: Moraie Knits -(Stephania) and a better picture of our chauffeur Roxanne.


More knitters and knit bloggers in the risers. Can you find Purrrling Away, Yogurt and Granola and Knittymama? Others from the Minnesota contingent (which by show of hands before Stephanie took the podium looked to be at least half of the knitters on hand.) include Deb of Wound Too Tight, Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos and Melissa of Hyvetyrant Knits and many more of which due to all the giddiness either a) I can't remember and b) I certainly didn't have the where with all to snap pictures.

Tried to please her
She only played one night stand
Tried to please her
She only played one night stand, now
She was a day tripper
One way ticket, yeah
It took me so long to find out
and I found out

Stephanie was wonderful, funny and charming despite probably being very tired by this time, this being the last stop of her jaunt.

I found the experience of meeting Stephanie a little odd. She is just as you would expect her to be, just as she writes in her blog, she's friendly, funny, charming and unassuming and someone you would totally like to be in your inner knitting circle talking adnauseam about yarn, needles, patterns, knit designers and knitting techniques.

What struck me as odd about the experience is how one sided the relationship is, nearly everyday we read about her adventures with her family and her knitting and her life on her blog and in her books, so you feel like you know her so well already although you've never met her, but she has little to no insight on you. She may or may not know who you are depending on whether she has checked out your blog or not, and you have your doubts as to how many blogs she is able to read seeing she has hundreds, nay thousands of people reading her blog and leaving comments.
So just as many of the others who have blogged about their experience, I too when it came to be my turn to meet her will admit that I was a little tongue tied (or at least it seemed that way to me). I asked her if she would like to see my Olympic Knitting Project which is still in progress, I pulled out the Forest Path Stole for her to see. When she saw that it was the Forest Path Stole she asked, "You thought you could knit the Forest Path in sixteen days? What were you thinking? What were you on crack?" Instead of laughing and replying with something like "It seemed like a good idea at the time, really, Entrelac lace, how hard can it be?", instead I think I just kind of looked puzzled, like she was serious. "Crack? No, I don't do crack." and gave her the "that's an odd thing to say" sort of look.

She asked me if I have a knit blog and I told her I did and the name. She said she knew of it. Really? She said what she liked was that she got the play on words of 4 knits and giggles and that her kids didn't. Apparently, that particular euphemism has made it's way to Canada. (Who knows, for all I know it may have originated there.)

So here we are, *my best friend* Stephanie the The Yarn Harlot and her slightly befuddled crack pot knitter blogger person acquaintance.

Can you find the sock? We wore matching colors, I totally planned it that way.

Day tripper, day tripper, yeah

Okay, by show of hands, Who gets the play on words in my blog title?