Back in Portland

Golly, I come to Portland so much, you would think that I like the place. Bet you are guessing that I came to see Katie. Well of course I did! Even though she came home on Memorial day, I came to Portland for Pink Martini on May 15, she was home on Cinco d Mayo for the SOTA auction, I came to Portland for part of spring break, we just don't see enough of each other. That is, of course until we have been in the same room for 3 hours and we start getting on each other's nerves. But she was not the driving force for my trip this time. To be honest, she has finals next week & I wouldn't put myself in harms way like this unless it was absolutely neccessary. It was.

The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl McPhee, was at Powell's tonight on her latest book tour. She isn't making a stop this time in Seattle, but will be in Anchorage on Monday, so look out Margaret & Heather. & make sure when you get to the Q&A portion of the evening, ask about Memphis, Tennessee. Beg her to tell the story, you won't be sorry.

Anyway, we got to Powell's about 45 minutes before she was to speak. Plenty of time! NO!!!! We almost didn't get in. They were closing the room at 300 people. Katie's buddy Becca who was planning on meeting us, never made it in. The seats looked all taken and there were at least 50 people standing when we got there. Luckily a nice woman (a knitter, they are all nice women) motioned to us and there were 2 seats, not exactly next to each other, but hey we were amongst the sitters.



Poor Katie. What have I done to her? Trapped in a sea of knitters, all with pointy sticks to immobilize you and more string than they would ever need to tie you up or knit you a nice sweater. Gosh, Katie, I bet you wish you were studying. This is my secret for getting Katie to do things that she doesn't particularly want to do. Offer her the option of doing something else she hates even more (cleaning her room, always a good option in this situation). So she reluctantly goes along with my idea and sometimes she is really glad later. Like tonight. She had no idea how funny the Yarn Harlot is (trust me, totally funny even to the non knitter). I mean who would want to spend their Friday night with a bunch of knitters listening to a woman from Toronto talk for more than an hour about knitting. That would be me!!!



Stephanie always travels with a sock in progress and always takes a picture of afore mentioned sock wherever she is. This was that moment in Portland, apologies for the lack of appropriate lighting.



And then she started to sign books. She probably signed for more than an hour, but my companions (Katie finally found Becca in the coffee shop) had a hankering for gelato. Just a tip, Margaret & Heather. The line that forms is very long and it might be advisable to take snacks. Also, if you plan on getting there early, plan at least a half hour earlier. The woman who was sitting next to me got there at 5pm (the event started at 7:30pm). Now he Muggles would nag that would be a total waste of time. Nahhhhh, just more time to knit, always a good thing!!!