I Couldn't Leave with Nothing...

Hooray! I'm back in Chicago! I loved seeing my friends and seeing some new yarn shops, but Dorothy definitely had it right: there's no place like home.

I did get to check out both stores: Linden Hills Yarns and Creative Fibers. The little treasure trove you see above is from Linden Hills Yarns. I had a great time meeting Jan Walkovets who owns the shop. She was friendly, helpful and was encouraging people to think beyond patterns, which I love. She also had pretty decent prices. She was clearing out a bunch of Mission Falls 1824 wool ($3.75/skein), so picked up a few skeins in a "manly" color to make John another pair of simple socks for winter.

The lovely All Seasons Cotton (how much cotton can I buy this summer...) is for Smooch! All the wonderful Smooches out there finally got to me. When I saw this color I decided I needed to do it.... and at $5.25 (I think) a ball... it seemed reasonable enough. Now I just have to find a copy of the book...

But the real find for me is the two balls in the middle. Here's a closeup of one of them (colorway 17);

This is Plymouth Yarn's Electra from their Italian collection. The little tufts of color feel a lot like Muench Touch Me, but the yarn is 100% nylon. There's 125 yards on the skein, so I am thinking great garter stitch scarf for fall using a very similar pattern to the one I used for the EROS scarves. Jan was knitting with it when I got to her store, and said it had literally just arrived in the store.

Linden Hills Yarns is cluttered but wonderful. She carries a lot of Rowan -- and has enough stock so that you can find enough for a sweater. She also had a great selection of Jo Sharp, Noro, Berocco and Collinette (more Collinette than I have seen almost anywhere else). Lots of buttons and sock yarn, too. Best of all, I felt very welcome in the store, and everyone there was willing to talk to me (my felted daypack was a great converstaion starter).

Next time I hope I will get to check out the Yarnery... I was mostly on the west side of Minneapolis and in Minnetonka.

I'm still working on the top of the front side of my tank top. Hopefully I'll get it to where I can block it tonight... and assemble it tomorrow (our plane doesn't leave until 5 pm). If not, it will stay in the US and wait for me, because I've promised myself I'm only going to slog one project back and forth from France...really (and my Denise needles, and my Knitter's Companion, and maybe a skein of that Electra...)

And as to travel knitting.... I think Charlotte is definitely going to win! I keep looking at the colors and wanting to touch them. Tonight I'll use my swift to create suitcase-sized yarn pucks. I think I am going to use them in the order you see them in the picture below with the p508 being the dominant color. Unfortunately, that picture doesn't truly capture all the rich and wonderful tones. I like the p334, but the p508 has a lot more depth.