Chicago, Yarn and Hats

It's been a while, we've been busy. This past weekend Little Bug and I were up in Chicago at the La Leche League International Conference. It was a ton of fun. All sorts of kids and parents and nursings and slings! All sorts of information on all sorts of stuff.

My mother came up to watch Little Bug while I went to the sessions. They went to the Children's Museum and the Aquarium. The conference had an awesome playroom for the kids and they spent a fair amount of time there. All and all they had a great time too. My mother lives a thousand miles away so it was so great for them to bond like that.

Two blocks from our hotel was Loopy Yarns. This was a cute shop with a nice variety of yarn. Not being a big yarn shop frequenter I can't say much more than that. OH and they were having a 70% off sale. Which should say plenty. My plan is to get sock yarn wherever I travel to. Then I can say this is the sock made from the yarn I bought in _____. The Blue is Nashua Handknits Sassafras in Denim. It's kind of a narrow tape-like yarn. I thought it was neat and the four skeins only cost $10.50! The purple is Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock yarn in Purple Iris.

I also got LLLI conference stuff! This is the backpack that with the logo on front, two pockets for water bottles and a big front pocket. I used it the entire time at the conference. It was perfect for holding my note book and knitting sock. Also the badge holder that I think was quite nice and a glass with the logo etched onto the front. I also bought a t-shirt from the conference and my mother got me a necklace that has the image of the woman holding her baby. It was made from a woman in Israel which just makes it all the more cool.

I did get to work on the socks before each session though I haven't finished them. Before lunch one day I sat down in a corner and started knitting on a sock. A woman came over and sat down next to me and pulled out her knitting, then another woman came over with her knitting and we all started chatting. Nothing like yarn as an ice breaker. This same thing has happened to me while nursing in public. Ah there is power in numbers.

Before I left I finished two hats. The blue and green one I finished in an evening from Lion's Bran Homespun and a pattern in The Yarn Girl's Guide to Beyond the Basics. Modeled by Mr. Gnome since he just looks better in hats than I. The other hat I made up as I went along and is a surprise, shhhhh.

My mother also sent me yarn from Spain. She spent two weeks there doing an immersion course. It is all Katia cotton yarn in different weights.

Intoxicated is coming along nicely, though I'm afraid the blue ball might have gotten a bit intoxicated itself. It's all tangled and I'm spending a lot of quality knitting time untangling the &$%$# ball.