Is this cool or what?

My friend's e-zine just published a humorous essay I wrote on knitting -- more specifically, on being a Knitter (infinite thanks to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for coining the capitalized term). Read it and be amused, or at least read it. Or at least be amused that I wrote a knitting essay for a patently non-knitting crowd.

Speaking of Ms. Stephanie herself, she is in the footnotes (yes! footnotes!) of this article, which I wrote so very passionately after meeting her at the Chicago stop of her bookbookbook2 tour. She sadly missed us on her first tour, so the greater Chicagoland area showed up in droves on Saturday, October 1 at Arcadia Knitting on the north side (which is my LYS, thankyouverymuch, yippee!). If you check out Stephanie's post after Chicago, you'll see a photo of ME. Go visit Steph's post but I have now saved the image to my Photobucket account for your viewing pleasure (photo credit to Stephanie).

I am on the left. Yes, I look flushed and ridiculous; good photos of me are few and far between. Do not judge me, ye who have not met me in the flesh.

I feel like a knitting superstar, getting to go out to eat with a REAL knitting AUTHOR, a local knitting HERO (Bonne Marie), and the owners of Arcadia (SUPER SISTERS in knitting HEAVEN). Plus I met another hero and SUPER BLOGGER, Franklin (on the right). What luck I have!

We had much wine and laughter. It was lovely.

The reading itself rocked, too; I met at least three classmates from Stitches Midwest's sweater finishing class with Leslye Solomon, had a new friend take my photo with the Harlot (uploaded image to come), and made a solemn offering to Stephanie: a tape measure. This is funnier, I promise, if you read the new bookbookbook.

Here I am meeting Ms. Pearl-McPhee.

Posed and smiley


Candid! Daring!

Many thanks to Kelly, my photographer -- I cannot remember how we met (was she in my Stitches class? Or friends of some who were?), but if she finds me, MAD PROPS!

I must now go to the place that Kelly works for. (I know this because she sent me a work email.) This is a very inside joke for Kelly and me, though probably just me.

On a side note: I extend my thoughts and love to Stephanie again, after hearing about her friend's death recently. She says she is doing better, but more kind thoughts can't hurt.