Thursday, July 16, 2009

Chicago LYS: Loopy Yarns

At the end of June, I was in Chicago for work. As luck would have it, my hotel was just a few blocks away from Loopy Yarns.

Loopy Yarns Chicago

Located at 47 West Polk Street in Chicago, it's a charming store full of fabulous yarns and very friendly staff. The store has about 4 rooms plus a downstairs area to shop. There is also a place for classes upstairs and downstairs and lots of books and patterns to choose from. You can see in the photo that the front window was all blue yarns. When I drove past it the next day, all the yarns were red. Very fun display.

I was quite measured with my purchases given the $55 yarn I fell in love with, but dutifully put back in the bin.

Loopy Yarns 03Maxi GreenMaxi  BlueTofutsies

I got some Maxi crochet thread in the bright blue and deep green and then got some more sock yarn just because it was such a pretty color. The yarn is called Tofutsies and what is so cool (that I didn't realize until after I bought it) is that the yarn contains 2.5% chitin --- and chitin is made from shrimp and crab shells! I :heart: souvenir yarn.

All over the store were these cute little stuffed sheep, too. It says "Loopy Yarns" on the ribbon. I bought one without even asking the price. After looking at my receipt, I probably wouldn't have bought him if I had known he was $5. Oh well - he's too cute. Here's a close up:

Loopy Yarns Sheep

I got the bag for free with my purchase - it's too cute! If you're in Chicago, check out Loopy Yarns.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Still here....

...just too busy to blog. It is amazing what a time-suck a puppy can be. Why would one want to spend an hour or two in front of the screen when an adorable little face is ready to play fetch?

So that's what I've been up to - the puppy. But that is not to say I haven't been busy with yarn and such. A quick recap of the last 2 months - and I hope to put together some better posts based on these adventures, too.

Made the bridal shower cake for my future sister-in-law. It turned out beautifully! And now I've been asked to make flowers to adorn the cupcakes they will be serving at the reception. I'm happy to do it and happier that I won't also have to make and frost the cupcakes.

Visited a number of local yarn stores in Maryland and Chicago.
I bought some more yarn - not out of need, just out of desire to own some local fabulousness. I also found the LYS store nearby has changed names and ownership. I was not impressed by the view through the window.

Started my first pair of socks that have actually made it past the first few rows. I think there's a chance I'll actually really learn how to knit socks now. It's a basic sock pattern so I can learn the construction of socks. I'm knitting the old-fashioned way, too - on DPNs. The book I bought shows me DPN, 2 circular and the Magic Loop method. I'm determined to learn all three...someday.

Three baby blankets must be done by December. Yep - three friends have announced they're preggers and all three are due around December. I bought some fun self-striping yarn to make baby beanies to go with whatever blankets I make.

So many WIPs sitting around. I did a once-over look at the craft room and I have waaaay too many WIPs sitting around. I've got to start plowing through the pile starting with the felted scarf I've been working on and the aforementioned knitted socks. Once those two are done, it will be on to either the baby blankets (if I know the gender or color schemes for the nurseries) or the baby beanies.

New furniture for the craft room. My cake decorating hobby has officially become an addiction. Just like knitting and crocheting, it's so easy to want to buy all the fun stuff to go along with the hobby. As my cake decorating stuff (pans, decorating supplies, etc) have taken over two shelves in the pantry and since my yarn cabinet is almost bursting at the seams, I need to buy some new furniture to house it all in the craft room. I've got my eyes on a number of pieces at Home Decorators which, with the bad economy, has some pretty good prices.

More blogging. I'm going to try to blog more here but with the puppy, travel for work, summer day trips to the Eastern Shore and a quite busy social calendar, we'll see how much blogging I get around to.