The Soapy Knitter

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and great opportunity to attend the first Vogue Knitting Live.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take any classes because when I tried to sign up for some they were all sold out!  The only ones I wanted to take were Franklin Habit‘s.  I’ve never taken a knitting class in my life but I love Franklin and I knew it would be worth it because he’s hilarious!

I decided to go to the marketplace with my friend Keisha at the very last minute.  I’m glad I did.  I didn’t do much shopping.  Here are all of my purchases (with the exception of the 6 skeins of peach cotton you see there which are a gift from Keisha).

I knew that I wanted to get some Blackthorn needles since I recently heard of these.  They are made of carbon fiber.  They are hard like steel and won’t snap, but they feel like bamboo.  They are seriously awesome.  I switched out my Signature DPNs from the sock I was carrying around for the Blackthorns and I was actually able to knit more smoothly than the Signatures.  The Signatures poke the palm of my hand sometimes and those suckers are SHARP!  While the Blackthorns are also somewhat sharp, they’re not as sharp as the others.

I passed by the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth and browsed while Keisha looked around.  There I fell in love with a Rare Gem Socks That Rock Mediumweight skein.  I bought it.  Couldn’t put it down.

Sometime later, I was passing by another booth that had an awesome rack of Claudia Handpainted Yarns.  Fell in love with another colorway, Scout’s Honor, and grabbed that.

I dragged Keisha over to the Windy Valley Muskox booth to check out the Qiviut.  Keisha about had a heart attack when she saw the prices.  LOL!  But they have some nice blends so we each bought a skein of the Majestic (15% Qiviut, 80% Extrafine Merino, 5% silk).  Feels very nice in the skein and it was only $23.

I passed by the Knitty City booth and realized they were hosting book signings.  Keisha stopped to buy a gift for someone and I saw a friend of mine there who mentioned that Meg Swansen would be at the booth later signing books.  They had a bag for sale that has an Elizabeth Zimmerman quote on it: “Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises.”  I thought it was a nice tote to have Meg sign for me.  Which she did.  She even posed for a picture with me!  I’d never had the pleasure of meeting her.  She’s very sweet.

Later on, I ran into Shameka.  Her hair is all natural like mine now and it’s absolutely gorgeous.  Isn’t she HAWT???

By 4:30 pm, Keisha and I were sooo pooped.  We sat down by a stage, not caring what was coming up next.  Turns out it was a panel discussion on designing knitwear for the industry.  I felt it was kind of meant to be that I was sooo tired at that moment that we just HAD to sit there and listen.  The four panelists were Stacy Charles, Melanie Falick, Brett Bara and Debbie Bliss (pictured here in that order).  The discussion was led by Trisha Malcolm of Vogue Knitting Magazine (in back).

I learned many things, including how to submit proposals to yarn companies, magazines and book publishers.  What kind of professionalism they expect from designers.  Their likes and dislikes on submissions.  That designers should be aware of fashion trends and try to stay a step ahead.  How long it takes for books or designs to actually get published or accepted.  It was a great hour and quite inspiring.

I saw Anne Hanson and Cookie A standing nearby so I took the opportunity to say “Hi” to my old friend Anne and to meet Cookie A, whom I’d never met.

But.  The highest point of the day was meeting Franklin Habit.  He’d warned me on Facebook that if he didn’t meet me during this trip to NY, he’d kick my ass.  I was completely amazed that he even knew who I was but soooo excited that he wanted to meet me (and a little scared he’d hunt me down and kick my ass).

The place was closing down and Keisha and I were standing outside the doors while I texted Tano.  Keisha knew I’d been dying to meet Franklin and that I was sad and disappointed that I hadn’t been able to hook up with him.  And WHO comes walking out?  The man himself.  I said, “Oh, Mr. Habit….”  He turned around and came over and gave me a hug and we chatted for a bit, took a picture, laughed and he signed my book.  He told me that he loves my comments and that they have stood out for him as not many do (I don’t comment on many blogs and I don’t even always comment on HIS blog either so this was cool to hear).  He also told me that I need to put my designs OUT there more.  He promised to come back to NYC so we can hang out.  I was totally fan-girl with him, which those who know me will be shocked to hear.  I don’t think I have ever been fan-girl before.  Not even when I went to that Menudo concert in the 80s.  But Franklin is the bomb diggety of bloggers to me and the funniest dude I know.  I’ll stop with the praising now before you guys think I’m ready to run away with him.  I’ll leave you with what I saw in my book when I opened it up later.  I felt all speshul snowflake and even Tano said that he understands why when he saw it:

Ain’t it the most awesomest thing ever???  Go ahead.  Be jealous.