When I found out earlier this week that Tracey Ullman was coming back to Toronto to promote her latest endeavor, a book on knitting called Knit 2 Together, I was incredibly excited. She had scheduled appearances all over Toronto for the Nuit Blanche Arts Festival and her first stop was Indigo Books 2PM Saturday, September 30th, 2006 for a book signing and short talk. Finally, I thought, a perfect opportunity to meet the great one.

< Tracey, Me and Myfanwy Francesca

As the week wore on, I grew more uncomfortable with the idea of finally meeting her. I don't know if it was because I had grown accustomed to so many missed opportunities in the past or if it was just the fear that I'd present myself as a fatuous, fawning fan amongst a sea of avid female knitters. When I told my wife that I probably should just skip it, she emphatically exclaimed, "For god's sake just go, bring Myffy (Myfanwy Francesca, our daughter) and have Tracey sign the book to her". So we went.

Arriving at Indigo, a tardy 10 minutes past the scheduled starting time, because I was adamant about not paying the exorbitant prices charged for parking downtown, we were relieved to hear that Tracey hadn't arrived yet. She was meeting with knitters who were the lucky winners of a personal one-on-one. Lucky dogs! A further announcement told us that if we expected to have a book signed by Tracey, we should make our purchase immediately. I grabbed a book, plunked Myffy in the seating area and waited at the cashier impatiently while the shopper in front of me argued incessantly about the lack of discounts applied to her purchases. My patience grew thin when I heard the host make Tracey's opening introduction while I was still trapped amongst the book purchasers. Unfortunately, my heavy sighs and frustrated grunts had no effect in speeding up the queue. But luck shone on me as I suddenly realized Tracey had just entered with her co-author, Mel Clark and was standing within easy viewing distance behind the seating area. From this vantage point, I was able to see her modestly mug to the many career achievements being lauded on her by the host.

After I was seated amongst the Tracey fans, knitting aficionados and the merely curious, the authors shared their knitting experiences and the journey, which led them to authoring the book. Apparently, Tracey took up knitting while on the set of "A Dirty Shame" back in 2004, subsequently found Mel Clark via the Internet and sought her out at her Santa Monica store for knitting lessons. It wasn't long before Tracey became a self-proclaimed knitting addict.

When Tracey opened up the forum for audience questions, which varied from "What is the difference between crocheting and knitting?" to "Could you describe the different qualities of wool?" I wanted to blurt out "When are you coming back to HBO?" but it just didn't seem to be the right place or time. It was a good time though to observe Tracey in an environment that I hadn't seen her in before. While Mel answered a detailed knitting question, I enjoyed Tracey's amused reaction to two regal looking ladies who walked in late, sporting their knitted creations proudly upon their heads and watched how she invariably shifted posture from proper British authoress to animated character actor. Something else I hadn't noticed before - She had a habit of pursing her lips and twitching them to the right. It was reminiscent of the Kay twitch but far less pronounced.

When the Q&A ended, we were herded into a lineup while they set up the stage for the book signing. I ended up being about fifth or sixth. It was at that point that a woman, not too far off the Ruby Romaine mold, stopped me and began to regale me with stories of knitting scarves and socks for the servicemen during the war. Maybe I just had that look of knitting expertise. Regardless, it was good timing as it somehow served its purpose in distracting me from my pending fear of turning into a bumbling twit at the podium. The first thing I noticed about Tracey was that she was incredibly youthful looking and even more attractive than the television gives her credit for. After a brief encounter with Mel, a warm lady with a very soothing voice, I offhandedly mentioned to Tracey that my daughter was named after one of her characters and that I was the guy who did that web page for her. Without missing a beat, Tracey threw herself back in her chair, and loudly exclaimed, "Finally we meet!"

Tracey's new book: Knit 2 Together >

I thought I might have to explain to her how we'd corresponded briefly many years ago regarding the web page I'd made in tribute to her but that clearly wasn't necessary. "Andrew right?" she said. "Yeah, that's me", I responded incredulously. "Come here."she said. Gesturing me up to the podium, she jumped out of her chair, reached out to me, we briefly embraced, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "Thank you for everything you've done for me." Shell-shocked at this point, I said, "My pleasure but I've been so neglectful of the website". She shot back, "But I haven't been doing anything!" Grabbing the opportunity, I asked her if it would be all right if I could have a picture taken with her. She responded with such an emphatic "Yeah!" that I felt like it was I who was doing her the favor. And just when things couldn't get any better, Tracey remarked, "You weren't what I expected. I didn't realize you'd be so good looking!" Was I imagining all this?