It's my kind of town

Things that I learned while in Chicago:
1. Don't forget your camera.

I found a $10 digital camera at Walgreens. It's not a great camera and most of the pictures were not very good, but I did get a few of the sock about town.
First, I cast on at a spot near the bottom of Sears tower. Then we walked all over, hither and thither, looking for landmarks that the sock wanted to see.






We stopped by the statue of Lincoln in Grant Park, but never did get to the statue of Grant in Lincoln Park.









One thing I love about Chicago is that everything is decorated. This is the sock hanging out at the base of a lamppost near the Art Institute.






We hung out at the Art Institute for some time, mostly in the Ancient Greek gallery and the Neoclassical sculpture.

This one is called "Spinning." It's mate is one called "Knitting." The sock was pleased.


We saw the Chicago Theater later that evening, and then the local news. That's Chicago's Channel 7? I forget. I think it was a CBS affiliate. It was kind of cool to see the robotic cameras. I always imagine three or four dudes working them, but these were automatic.












After eating at a place called The Big Bowl, We rode the "el" home.

I have also learned:
2. That "extra" ball of yarn isn't extra. Bring it with you anyway.
I was working on the Flower Basket Shawl and ran out of yarn. It's Knitpick's Shadow in Lost lake. I even decided to work 11 repeats instead of 12 and ran out in the middle of the edging. I didn't cuss, but I wanted to.
3. While not ideal, it is not impossible to spin on a train.
4. Home is where the Stash is. It's good to be home.

Having (mostly) recovered from smashing the crap out of my finger, I'm ready to get to work. I managed some lace knitting with the splint and actually made progress on the Flower Basket Shawl last week. It helps that this was the only project I had to work on, but I needed some focus. I still need focus. I have the attention span of a hyperactive gnat who hasn't been taking its medication. I haven't done any actual knitting this week, probably due to the aforementioned lack of attention span as well as a lack of down time. Today I spent researching Messenger Gods and haven't had more than a few seconds outside in the fresh air.
Now that I think of it, that may be related to my mood today. That, and it's just me and Dorian here and he's not much for conversation, what with being a cat and all. Little bit is in Chi-town, living it up like the princess she is and the Big Sweetie is off to work 'til God wakes up.
Anyhow, since I've been in a general green and brown rut, my next two projects are going to be red and blue. The red will be a cardigan from Interweave Knits and I'll be alonging with Becky who picked out a lovely blue. More specs later. The blue will be Doc's socks, and I need to work out the exact pattern and take notes before I forget things.
I've done some hand-sewing and made progress on my mending/UFO pile. My sewing machine is still down, but I found a Huskqvarna for $159 that I want at Jo-Ann's. Still comparing prices, of course, and not ready to commit, but I really liked that model.