my fifteen minutes are up

a couple weeks ago at knitting K and i were approached by a reporter from our local newspaper.  he noticed us knitting in the corner and inquired about how hard was it to knit.  he wrote a column for the paper called "how hard is it to..." and thought knitting would be interesting to try and write an article about it.  in addition, they would film us showing him how to knit and it would be featured on the paper's website.  K and i looked at each other skeptically but agreed to meet with the guy a week later.

all weekend i dug around looking for FOs and books and yarns to show the guy.  i made a garter stitch dishcloth with cotton xmas yarn, knitting it on size 10 needles (old wooden ones!), leaving a few rows for the guy to work on.  i also made a small square with the yarn left over from petunia's sweater.  since i needed to make a hat for KDO's registration, i started one on a pair of circs.  when i left for SBs, i had 3 bags - my tom bihn, liberty full of FOs, and the B&N loaded with books and small FOs.  i think i had more bags for this 30 minute interview than i did for my 3 day trip to Fling.

K and i chatted online and talked on the phone and met a few minutes early to plan a strategy.  the reporter showed up with his camera guy.  it was hot outside, but we had to film outside becos of the noise inside of SB.  we set up shop at a table, i got out a few of the things i started as did K, and the interview started.

i don't know if the guy did some research before the interview but he talked about his method of knitting, the italian method.  WTH?  we shook our heads and said there was no such thing.  we talked about our needles, the yarn, and K showed him how to do the knit stitch.  he tried to do it on his own and wound the yarn around the needles and moved them around.  i told him that's how people knitted on TV (except tyne daly.  she knows how to knit.  as does katherine heigl and kristin davis).  we slowly showed him how to do a knit stitch, taught him the nursery rhyme (in through the back door...).  i showed him how to purl.  he tried, but he held the needles like a pair of chopsticks.  argh. 

he then asked to see some of our knits.  K brought her FLS and some hats and shawls.  i brought a pair of socks, petunia's sock monkey, freddie's log cabin and FASC.  no books (i had knitter's almanac and knitting for dummies but never got them out.  didn't get out the yarn - i really wish i showed him the quiviut).  he did a little fashion show with them as the camera rolled.  the interview wrapped and the reporter thanked us for our time.  and he asked K to knit him a hat.  in hot purple and black.  WTH??!  not grey, not brown or tan or manly color, but hot purple.  he would have taken hot pink as well.

afterwards we knitted and decompressed.  i can't speak for K, but the interview left me rattled.  we wanted to talk about ravelry (K did get a word in edgewise about it).  i wanted to talk about knit blogs and famous knitters like EZ and barbara walker and the yarn harlot.  i wanted to mention KDO and knitty gritty. i wanted to talk about how knitting grounded me and how good it felt to make something homemade for myself and others.  i wanted to say how hard it was to knit with 3 kids and that i looked forward to evenings so i could knit a bit while i watched tv, or how i knitted on car trips (not driving, obviously).  there was a lot to talk about but we just didn't get a chance to.

fast forward to the sunday paper.  guess who was in the life section:

that's me in the black shirt.  nice double chin, eh?  i look like one of the fat people from wall-e.

perhaps you'd like to see my pasty knees and bubble gut instead (yep, on video, for all the world to see):

click here, then click on "francis learns to knit" in the local video section.

the article *headdesk*.  frogging up?  bridge mix? (wrong hobby - try tea or in a legal place, a good glass of wine).  K and i have been friends for 25 years?  we really didn't meet until senior high band and we ran in different circles - it wasn't until a couple years ago that i learned that she knew how to knit.  i think my last name was misspelled in half a dozen places (i'm gobsmacked he didn't get how my name relates to knitting - shearer - what you do to a sheep?  where wool comes from?)  he took some of the things we said out of context which made the article sound discombobulated (IMO it read like a mad libs story).  i don't claim to be a writer, but i used to work on my high school newspaper back in the day.  i'm sure things haven't changed in 20 years.  as horrible as i look in the video, what you saw is what happened (pretty much).  

how hard is it to knit?  a hell of a lot easier than doing an interview with a clown who writes.  as far as i'm concerned, my 15 minute of fame are UP!