Secret Pal 11

Hi Secret Pal! My questionnaire is here. Sorry I'm so late posting it. It's not much different from my last one.

Chicago, Part the First, in which I play tourist

Chicago was great, as advertised. The view from the Sears Tower made all the other buildings look only kinda tall.

And we also saw this whatever-this-is from afar:
And this from up close:
So, everyone knows the way out now, right?

More family food fun:
Yes, we ate more than just hotdogs - and how! It's a miracle my pants still fit! Then on to Millennium Park to see the Bean from the outside
and from the underside:

The faces fountain was much appreciated by the kiddie set:

Very cool idea, in both senses of the word. I've gotta say, Chicago loves to throw water around. There were fountains and waterfall landscapes everywhere. The Botanical Garden had them, and so did the convention center, where Stitches was it's usual awesome, overwhelmingly fibery self. But more on that later, so stay tuned.

Comings and Goings

The Dish Rag Tag box came Wednesday and left Thursday. In fact, it was here so briefly, I didn't get a picture of it. But I can show you the goodies it left behind:
A sweet little dish rag and two balls of Hempathy. Thanks a bunch Cass! And thanks to the cheering squad that commented on my last post. Go Yarn Hags, yay!

Tonight I'm heading off to Chicago for a few days to commune with relatives. There'll be eating and late night chats and eating and sightseeing and eating. I'm also spending a day at Stitches Midwest. Hooray! I'm so excited. I will, of course, be bringing knitting. I found a new source to feed my Garnstudio Fabel habit, so I'll have some of that to take along. And I jumped on the monkey bandwagon. I hope to work on these on the plane:
These are monkey socks in Cherry Tree Hill. I was too lazy to follow the ankle decrease and toe instructions, so I just did those in the lazy way I always do. This pattern is great though (even the parts I didn't follow hehehe). It's pretty and easily memorized and works beautifully with variegated yarns. No wonder it's a hit!

(As you can tell from the photos, I'm also bringing Chinese. Bad idea? Probably, but since I still have my final to take, I pretty much have to take my books too.)

Post Sock Post

My Sockapalooza spoilee's socks are in transit as I write this. Here they are dressed to travel:
I gave up on the first sock I started (it was knitting up smaller than I thought - darn gauge!). I do hope this pair fits ok. This being my first attempt at sock knitting from a far, I'm crossing my fingers!