Friday, August 19, 2011

Talk at the Guild

A couple of months ago I got a note from Katy from the Windy City Knitting Guild asking me if I would be willing to speak at their monthly meeting.

Absolutely!

Public speaking has always made me a little nervous. Sure, I do tours of the studio but that's on my turf and I've done enough of them to be pretty comfortable. This was at a guild meeting with lots more people and new topics. I was pretty sure many of the members had been to the studio so I couldn't recycle all of my tired jokes.

I emailed back and forth with Katy a little for suggestions of what people might be interested in hearing about. She had some great ideas. I put together an outline and went to work building a presentation.

Then Tuesday arrived and I started to panic. Every insecurity came bubbling to the surface. What if they don't like me? What if they aren't interested in what I have to say? It's August for goodness sake, everyone is on vacation or wants to hang out on their back porch. Why would anyone want to come tonight?

I got the answer to that last question when I walked through the door. Chocolate, chips and red velvet cupcakes.
















The guild is full of nice people that I don't see often enough. I got to chat with lots of familiar faces and meet some new friends. We even had a celebrity! That beautiful blonde is Julie Turjoman of Brave New Knits fame. I had dinner with her the next day.
















I brought a few bits and bobs to show folks. One of which was the sample skeins we created for Jimmy Bean's Wool Limited Edition September color along with the photo they sent for us to use as inspiration. Hmm, I wonder which one they'll choose?
















**Edited to add: That is a glass of water. It is NOT vodka. Honest.

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