The irony of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who calls herself "The Yarn Harlot" (in orange under the Left Bank Books banner), reading to and signing books for over 150 loyal fans in a church setting was not lost on the Canadian author and passionate knitter. McPhee has authored several best-selling books of essays on knitting and writes an extremely popular knitting blog.
A change of venue for last Saturday's event, co-sponsored by The St. Louis Public Library and Left Bank Books (LBB's Danielle Borsch is at podium in photo), was necessary when it was determined that the original site, the Buder Branch Library on Hampton, would not be large enough to accommodate the anticipated crowd. Rector Anne Kelsey stepped in and graciously offered the use of the CWE's Trinity Episcopal Church on Euclid at Washington.
You'll notice in the photo above that the audience's heads are bowed as if in prayer—actually, they were all sitting in the pews knitting, see below. As a matter of fact, I seemed to be the only one that didn't have a knitting project in my bag.
Contrary to other book signings I've attended where the author reads a short chapter or passage from the book to entice you to want more, the loquacious Yarn Harlot read one long chapter, then a second, and finally a third from her latest, titled "All Wound Up." The devoted audience was fully engaged, but after almost an hour I began to nod off, for I had read those very chapters in the copy I had purchased earlier in the week. I wished I had been smarter and brought my current knitting project along so I could have worked in a few rows myself.
"All Wound Up" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, $16.99, at Left Bank Books, 625 N. Euclid.