Knitter's Field Trip

By now I'm sort of late in the game to post about the big trip to Berkeley to see Stephanie, but I'm not going to let that stop me. The trip was only yesterday, after all ...

Thanks to Stephanie, first of all, for giving Abigail and I an excuse to hang out and talk about both knitting and non-knitting. I enjoyed the (somewhat long) drive up to Berkeley and was very glad to have Abigail to talk to. We ended up arriving just in time, and I was rather overwhelmed by the number of people knitting as they waited to hear Stephanie start talking.

For anyone from Storey Publishing reading this blog, this is Stephanie promoting her book by reading passages from it:

My apologies to Stephanie for this picture. She's just so darned animated that every pic I had she had her back to me other than this one.

Stephanie was as wonderfully funny and charming as all who have blogged about her have said. She is so engaging that I was even able to concentrate on her despite the room full of yarn surrounding her (especially that Alchemy right behind her). After her standing up in front of the crowd of knitters who tried not to give her a stomach cramp of nervousness, it was time for book signing. Stephanie walked by me, and I couldn't help it, I had to touch her yarn. Even though it was Koigu. Lord knows I've seen Koigu before, but we knitters, we just can't help it, can we?

When it was my turn to meet her I told her of how my coblogger Cookie almost managed to get us on a trip to Shelridge farms near Toronto the week of her wedding. Thus, Stephanie wrote in my book "For Kristi, Who would understand a yarn honeymoon". Hee hee. She also agreed that if we came to Toronto again she might be able to join us for a Shelridge Farm adventure.

After the big event, Abigail and I ate dinner with a bevy of knitters from the peninsula: Hollis, Jeni, Amy, Emy, Joanne, Emily, and Becky. Although, to be honest, I don't know if Becky knits? We had some great pizza and more fun chatting with each other. The evening finished up with getting to ride home with Amy and Hollis. It was nice to catch up with Hollis about the store because I hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks. And again, it's nice to get to know more about knitters when they're not knitting -- thanks for the ride home, Amy!

All in all, better than any field trip I ever had in school, that's for sure.