Our venture to NH Sheep and Wool was a success in every way. Dale finally got his arse out of bed and we headed north. The drive was pleasant. I was knitting. Duh. I also read several passages of Stephanie’s book aloud to Dale, just to get him in the mood to meet my hero.

We arrived and immediately started scouring the vendors. I had my eyes peeled for Stephanie (our beloved harlot) but it was Dale who spied her first. He called me over to where he was standing and pointed to her and said, “Isn’t that the woman you want to meet?” I looked over and it was her!

I have to admit that I felt a little shy but I got up my courage and approached her and just said, “Stephanie?” I introduced myself (Hi, I’m Carole from Carole Knits – nobody knows me) and she actually thanked me for calling her by her real name first! I soon realized that she had other bloggers with her – Norma and Teresa and Cassie. It was just so cool to meet all of them! Here we all are:

I’m holding my sock and Stephanie(!!) is holding my knitted camera case. It’s just too much, I’m telling you. It was fantastic to put faces and voices with the names of other bloggers. And, as Stephanie says, to realize that all your imaginary friends are actually real people is pretty slick.

Dale and I wandered around for the next couple of hours. Had some lunch – lobster rolls (In New Hampshire? They must have swum down from Maine) checked out the sheep and the llamas and did some shopping. At 2:00 I headed over to have Stephanie sign 2 copies of At Knit’s End. One for me and one for the library. She was charming and funny and I not only admire this woman for her talent and personality – I geniunely like her. Just to show how much I do in fact admire her, here I am genuflecting as she signs my book.

Of course she would have none of that and very happily stood up for this photo. (I’m not really an amazon, but I felt a bit like one standing next to Stephanie. she’s quite tiny.)

So, at the end of the day I had met my knitting and blogging hero. I also managed to make a couple of purchases, although, frankly, I was so overwhelmed at meeting Stephanie that it was difficult to concentrate. I did manage to rise to the occasion somewhat and bought this.

I love the bag, it’s a great size for portable knitting and the yarn is going to be the Branching Out Scarf from the Spring issue of Knitty. This falls into the category of “You Know You’re a Knitter When” because I actually noticed that the woman at the Green Mountain Spinnery booth was wearing a branching out scarf and asked for her recommendation for yarn to make this scarf.

I also found this. It might want to be socks. Then again, it might want to be something else. I know there are lots of patterns for things to do with 2 skeins of Koigu. Anyone have ideas for me? The shawl pin is for wearing with the clapotis and it’s really lovely.

Knit blogging is a fantastic way to meet other knitters and become inspired. I am so happy to have new friends that it’s actually a bit pathetic. But I’ll get over it. Pretty slick, eh?