The Harlot in NYC

So the Harlot was here this last Thursday. She gave a talk at the other fashion college that I can’t mention, (don’t tell my boss I was there). There were A LOT of knitters there. They gave out buttons at the door to guesstimate the number of knitters there. I am sure Stephanie will have a count on her blog once she winds down. But let me tell you when I say a lot, I mean a lot. The auditorium was almost full.



I met some of the SnB girls there. So were wearing the now infamous t-shirts (another great British/American collaboration)



Stephanie did not disappoint. She was very funny. Her husband Joe surprised her. He had previously told her he would be in Montréal that week, but instead he greeted her at that other fashion school. So sweet. She introduced us to the idea of C.H.O.K.E. (which I already forgot what it stands for, but the idea is that it is why muggles discriminate against knitters). Some being that if you are a knitter you like boys (it doesn’t matter if you are a girl or a boy); that if you start knitting while you are single, you will be single for the rest of your life (I still hold out hope); how non-knitters can’t understand our obsession with yarn and many other hilarious things. She also asked how many people tried to explain where they were going that night to a muggle, most everyone raised there hand. She told us for future reference to just tell people that we were out. At one point someone’s cell phone rang (another reason I abhor cell phones) and she just rolled with it and told the person to tell whoever was calling that she was “just out.”

She was wearing her recently finished Botus and it got almost as much applause as she did. Towards the end, she was getting hot so she took it off. She put the sweater on the floor of the stage. Many of the knitters to offence to that. She kind of rolled her eyes and reminded us that wool is washable; many of the NYC knitters reminded her she was in NYC. She agreed to pick it up.

Provided on the seats of the auditorium was a bag that included a pair of aluminum needles and some Patons wool. Everyone was asked to knit a square for Warm Up America and they were collecting them at the end of the evening. Of course I had to be me, and start my swatch over when I wasn’t happy with it. So I didn’t finish it, but I have some other squares for Warm Up America that I need to send in. I think I will knit a few more before I do that. At the end of the evening I asked the SnB girls if they didn’t want their needles if they would be willing to donate them to the knitting club at school (as I know many of you prefer either Turbos or Bamboo) and they obliged. Ruth was on a mission. She went looking for bags that weren’t picked up and any needles lying around. I now have 13 pair of number 8 aluminum needles.

She was also selling pins for Knitters without Borders. They ran out of pins. At the end there was a big bag of cash. I hope that she also gives a total for that as well.

And I must give a shout out to our fabulous Heather. At the end of the evening the Harlot was taking questions. Heather got up and gave her a copy of Not Your Mama’s Knitting. She was the last one to speak and I hope that it will help sell at least a few more copies for Heather.

I also picked up a copy of her new book. She wasn’t signing them that night; most of the copies that were for sell were already signed. Unfortunately, they ran out of signed copies about four people before me. Since the Harlot will be in Ann Arbor this week I wonder if it is worth fedexing my copy to my mother and telling her if she ever loved me she drive a few hours to get it signed. Hum, I don’t think she will go for that. Oh well, perhaps I will have another opportunity to have it signed. I have read only a little of it, but so far it holds up to her other books.

Afterward some of the girls and I went across the street to Brgr for well, burgers. It was a great evening all and all. I can’t wait till the Harlot comes back to NYC.