I Survived!!

Oh my goodness!! I survived the trip to Chicago! I actually had a fantastic time, learned a ton and met some absolutely wonderful shop owners from around the country! I didn't think it was possible to cram so much information into such a short time but YMN (Yarn Market News) really pulled it off.

We found out as we were boarding the plane at SeaTac that Deb from Village Yarn & Teas and Karen from Acorn Street were on the same flight with us. I knit all the way (well just about) to Chicago. When we landed the four of us found a taxi and headed to the hotel. After checking in we went out in search of some Chicago deep dish pizza. We walked several blocks to Gino's East and had some absolutely wonderful pizza (and beer). We got back to the hotel in time to change and get ready of the cocktail party

This is the sweater that I knit for the cocktail party. You can't see it in the picture but there are 1957 beads on this baby. I got this crazy idea to add beads to my sweater that I started about a month before the conference - it never occurred to me that I would end up loosing sooooo much sleep trying to get it done before the trip. It weighs a ton but sparkles just enough to count.

After sitting in meetings for most of the day on Tuesday, Mom & I decided we needed a little break. We headed off in search of gifts for the kids and the Bean. We found the Lego store (kids covered) and stepped outside to catch a cab across the river. I think the taxi drivers must be mind readers - you barely walk up to the curb and think about hailing the cab and there they are. Quite the shock to the gals from Seattle where hailing a taxi is not aloud. We found out that there are over 7000 taxis in Chicago. Anyway the Bean was very, very cool!!!

After our little shopping/site seeing trip we headed back to get ready for dinner at Riva on Navy Pier. We took another taxi down to the pier and wandered down the way to see Lake Michigan. All I can say about that is WOW!!! What a beautiful site!! We wandered inside the building a ways and saw some absolutely breath taking stained glass pieces that were on display. Dinner was fantastic - we ate and drank until we were stuffed to the gills. We tried to get a taxi back to the hotel but ended up in a limo instead. We (11 of us) were waiting for the taxis when Karen walked out and found a limo - he said he would take us back to the hotel for $50 (limo ride for $5 - not a bad deal)

After the meetings wrapped up on Wednesday and we had checked out of the hotel, we all boarded the bus to Lorna's Laces and several Chicago area yarn shops. These pictures were taken at Lorna's Laces. What a fun tour that was - very enlightening for a yarn shop owner. To see just exactly what happens behind the scenes when you place an order and why it can't just magically appear at your front door as soon as you hang up the phone - very interesting. That is the owner of Lorna's Laces in the back of the picture

showing us how they dye their yarns. Below is a picture of various yarns recently dyed hanging up. Here is all the yarn waiting in all its wonderful color glory to be hanked and labeled and sent off to a wonderful LYS near you. After we left Lorna's Laces we headed over to Arcadia Knitting and Nina's. A special thanks to both shops & those at Lorna's Laces for allowing us to come in masses to tour their shops. Imagine you own a yarn shop and had a bus full of yarn shop owners show up to say "Hi". Unfortunately we weren't able to continue on the tour because we had to catch our flight back to Seattle.

Our goodie bags from the conference were so massive that we had to check our luggage on the way home. I did teach Mom a thing or two about packing though. She tried to convince me that I needed to pack a bunch of her stuff in my suitcase - HELLO - my suitcase was full. I had put all of my clothes in my carry on just so I could get all the yarn, books, needles, patterns, samples and the kids Legos in my luggage. I showed Mom how to stuff yarn in places that really didn't exist. I did find the lovely little note in my suitcase as I was unpacking it at home after the flight that said they had searched it in security. I chuckled - imagine what a bunch of knitting needles, Legos, books and charging cords (cell phone and PDA) look like on an x-ray.
OK - so the trip was totally worth all the costs. We learned so much - seriously like a crash course. We will most definitely go again - hopefully it will be closer to home. We did bring some snow home to Seattle for everyone - you are all very welcome & we hope you enjoyed it.
A very, very special thanks to Laura for filling in at the shop for us while we were away. She did a fantastic job - as if we had any doubt. Not sure what we would ever do with out her.