Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Not only better, but FABULOUS.


So I got better and flew to Chicago to see my sister and friend Hannah. Let's start the blog post off with a photo of something my sister Beth is knitting. Beth: The Other Weaverknits. The one who only knits scarves and shawls, but has perhaps the best visual sense of anyone I know. This is one of her scarves. I have extracted a promise from her that together we will write out the pattern.
And the shopping. Oh, the shopping. The shoe department in the Chicago Nordstrom was better than Saks and Neimans in Boston combined. On the yarn front, we went to Nina, which I highly recommend. It's a beautiful space with a fantastic selection, a staff who were helpful but not intrusive, and reasonable prices. In this photo Hannah and I sit on what we called the "pods" in the front of the store. I came home with one ball of Be Sweet tiny boucle, the softest boucle I have ever felt (come on, don't you often feel like recoiling when you touch boucle and feel that nylon stiffness?) and a bunch of alpaca for some long, long armwarmers for Beth.

What have I been knitting? Some socks for my Grandma, among other things. She recently made a few passive-aggressive mentions of the fact that she only has one pair that she has not worn to shreds. While I could do without the passive-aggressive, hey, it's Grandma, and she gets what she wants. I hope she can wait until Mother's Day; I've got a lot going on!

8 comments:

Knitwhere said...

Wow that scarf is beautiful. I'd love to see a pattern for it!

Emily said...

I love Nina! Such a fun place to take a splurge.

Michele said...

oh that boucle looks gorgeous!

and where are the shoe photos?

Anonymous said...

hooray! Isn't Chicago fun? I need to go visit Hannah too.

And I'm having a really hard time not figuring out a way to make that giant knitting thing in the background. that looks like fun...and I need curtains....

Unknown said...

Yay for yarn scores! I've never pleasantly crossed paths with boucle, but it is encouraging to know that good boucle is out there.

Last year my grandmother "hinted" at me to knit her socks for Christmas, so of course I complied. Grandmothers can ask for whatever they want in my book!

craftivore said...

What is that giant knitted white thing in the Nina photo? Is it a display? Me thinks it's very cool. Three cheers for passive aggressive gandmas, they deserve socks.

knitseashore said...

I envy your being able to knit with your sister. I hope mine shows an interest someday too.

bethweaverdesign said...

The other Weaver here. My sister says such nice things about me and makes me arm warmers. She also lets me stay with her and the boys when I go to Boston. I am very lucky.

For those of you interested in the awesomeness in the window of NINA, it is made of paper strips. If there is serious interest in recreating it I would recommend cutting up some of those Tyvek envelopes and taping pieces together to create your yarn. That way it wouldn't rip or degrade.