If you attended either the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival or HomeSpun Yarn Party this year, you might have met my sister.  She was the one running the credit card machine and handing the cash, and she does a great job at that, but she doesn’t know anything about knitting.  She lives her life blissfully unaware of all things fiber-related (though I’m not quite sure how that can possibly be blissful!), except when I call and ask if she’d lend a hand.

So the whole fiber-festival thing was completely new to her, and it took her pretty much completely by surprise.  I think she might have been expecting sweet little old ladies and crocheted toilet paper covers…

Her first words, as we walked past the huge line of fiber-fanatics waiting for the doors to open, were, “People are here already?!?  They’re waiting?!?”  Her eyes were wide with surprise, and I stopped myself from giggling.  She really didn’t know what she was in for.

But she got her second clue a few minutes after the festival got started.  We were sitting near to one of the entrances and a woman walked in, went right up to my sister, with a face that looked almost frantic, and exclaimed, “I’m so excited!!!” before rushing off into the crowd.

“These people are crazy!” my sister said, looking a little frantic herself.  “That lady actually grabbed me when she said that!  What’s going on?!?”

I couldn’t stop myself laughing now.  When you’re a fiber-freak yourself, when you knit and spin every chance you get, when you’re surrounded by all this all the time, you forget that this doesn’t look normal to outsiders.  You forget that it seems a bit, well.. yeah…  crazy.

But it’s not.  It’s perfectly normal.  You and I know that.  …And my sister will come ’round in time.