The Best Little 'Harlot-House' in Texas?

Yep - you guessed it - I finally got my post together and decided to finally share about the AMAZING time had by all last Saturday in Austin, TX.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot) was in Austin - a mere hour or so drive from San Antonio. The event was hosted (and hosted well - more later on that) by Hill Country Weavers (HCW) - at the Baptist church across the parking lot from the store. (Here she is taking a pic of us with her sock - check out her blog)

That's right - you heard me right. The Harlot. Speaking in a Church. Ya gotta just shake your head at the irony of the Harlot speaking in a house of worship. yup. You got it.
True - you are saying to yourself (and to me - and I can hear you...) 'But isn't knitting a form of prayer, meditation, worship even?' Yes dear friends it is.

Even better....I discovered - yet again - WE ARE NOT ALONE. I feel like Fox Mulder - with his 'The truth is out there' poster - When reading the essay 'Archeology' in The Secret Life of Knitters, I was saying to myself - FINALLY - I know I am not alone - well it happened again at the church that Saturday morning - look at all these KNITTERS!!!! dang!

Stephanie talked about so many things - she is just as well-spoken as she is an amazingly funny writer. She talked about knitting as a sport - the Knitting Olympics were initiated by her. Stephanie also talked about how non-knitters just would not get it - people sitting in a church listening to someone who writes about knitting (she calls them muggles [think Harry Potter] - funny huh? it made me laugh out loud); about how she tries to explain what she does to people at parties - man - she was FUNNY! If you ever get a chance - GO! Drop what you are doing and GO - you gotta learn about 'Make Your Own Fun Mondays' and 'Find Your Own Food Friday'.

I won't spoil any more of the details - but as promised earlier - lemme tell ya - HCW were the hosts with the most. They organized the book signing so people could attend in shifts - making it easier for you to buzz into the front of the store and shop. BUT WAIT. There were pecan pralines, brownies....AND BEER! Yep. That's right. BEER. Yarn shopping WITH beer. Harder to fondle the yarn, yet so much easier to pull out the plastic to pay. - pictures of the results of my afternoon's fiscal irresponsibility later.

First - a little about my NONI KAL progress. The flowers are felted and awaiting their creator to get a needle that will fit through the stinkin beads I wanna use on them. Here is the body of the bag, pre-felting - with the only money I had left after the trip to Austin as a size gauge. I love the ruffle - I am wishing now that I had made it wider - buy the extra yarn and a 2nd circular needle and do the extra rows mentioned in the pattern.
and here it is after felting. Again - with that same, lone sawbuck as a reference point. Some of you are wondering - 'how the heck is that darn bag floating upside down? And how did she manage to get it so perfectly shaped? Crumpled paper and bags don't work that well for me?'

OK. I confess. The little lambz donated some of their favorite movie time treats to the cause. Here is my secret weapon. Pupcorn. The container is PERFECT for drying your bag - the right size and height..well almost the right height. Add one of the wells from a McDonald's coffee carrier under the pupcorn and you got it. (note - it is behind the pupcorn in the picture - lt gray. Anyhoo- I still have to find some fun material for the innerds, and something to keep the sides upright after adding the flowers and the handle. Oh yeah - the handle I got seems too small, so I gotta find a bigger handle. So I still have some work to do - AND I wanna start some socks or my Picovoli that I got some BEAUTIFUL silky wool for at HCW. Some of our local SA knitters are doing our own KAL for the picovoli - so I will have to gather up my courage to have one of my buds help me ...ugh...get my measurements.

more later - more pics of Austin and the stash to follow - plus pics of the pin for my friend Janna's birthday...

until then - ttfn - and lets all - Keep Austin Weird