I crawl along

Wow, I can't believe it's Wednesday already!

I'm prepping for a Pampered Chef Open House at my place in a week and a half. Almost all the invites are out. I'm so excited - but drained.

But let's talk more about August Adventures.

The second big inspiration was The Chicago Yarn Crawl and I loved it! My LYS's all had big events during the opening weekend. Three Bags Full in Northbrook IL had Stephen West visiting on day one of the crawl. Mosaic Yarn Studio in Des Plaines IL had a pizza party on opening night of the crawl. Yes - I started the crawl out with Stephen West and a pizza party! The next night Fuzzy Wuzzy Yarns' in Arlington Heights IL had a dinner. YUM.

The first day I could crawl was day 2 Saturday - I lost my partner due to family emergency (Melissa) but I got a call from StarFruitKnits and we made plans for the next day. I had already mapped out a route and she navigated with her TomTom. Thanks Tom! We hit almost every yarn store in the Northwest, West and South West burbs participating in the crawl. The only ones we didn't make were the one in Norwood Park, Mosaic & Three Bags - since I at the last 2 on the day before. I bought at about 25% of the stores that day and at my second to the last store - Knot Just Knits - I bought retina seer-ing pink sock yarn. At that point it was the only thing making it in my brain. The day ended with store #15 and my first drawing slip at Fuzzy Wuzzy. woo hoo! I had been to most of those stores before. I knew which ones I liked and which I would just get stamped at. It was a very quick day but draining with the miles put on. We did make it down to the region 5 store.

I went home and cast on a new project!

Got up the next morning to meet up with my coffee shop knitting group - and crawled downtown and up the north coast. There are some swanky shops downtown. The most unique shop was Sifu - which was more of a craft store than a yarn shop. So many hand crafted item - hand dyed - hand spun - art pieces - embroidery. So so cool. Our group was big enough to take 3 vehicles and ended up splitting up after the shops downtown - traffic and parking being rough - we went at our own paces. My car partner R drove and I navigated. She was an ACE at parallel parking and we made all the downtown shops, met up with the other girls at Mia Bella. The rest of the group ended there - we thought we could hit Evanston before they closed. We burst into Closeknit at 1 minute before CLOSE! It was such an adrenaline rush. Bought more than I had hoped - but love everything I got. That store was so small but so sweet. The other Evanston shop - Montoya - was tiny. We had about 6 people in there - 2 of us - 2 owner and 2 other regulars of Fuzzy Wuzzy! It was so nice to see friendly faces around the crawl.

I had hit 26 stores at this point. I got my second raffle ticket for all 5 regions at Windy Knitty. But I only needed one more store to get my 3rd and final ticket! I needed to make it to Woolly Lamb.

Tuesday Three Bags Full had a Knit In - I went and won a door prize. It was totally unnecessary to give them out - but Lynette was so sweet. I don't think anyone left without one! Thanks!

I had a lull during work in Wed so I ran off to the yarn shop. I clocked out at 3 and scampered to the store so I could get that last stamp. I was lucky and my boss let me leave early. It was a great store, it looked like it was breathing a sigh of relief. Apparently the store was in chaos not 15 minutes prior to my arrival - as they had a booth at Stitches Midwest (to be blogged about later). I found DIC's December Club color - rock. I was on a high after I hit the last store. I called R - she was on a high after she had JUST finished the crawl too! High FIVE!

I then took pictures of my haul.

Soon I'll tell you how I did in the 3 raffles :) I've knit two items already from that pile of goodies. I'm using the bag right now for my brother's Christmas Scarf.

So my assessment of the Yarn Crawl - so much fun you can't stand it. Overall - I purchased at 66% of stores at an average of $20 per store. I love LYS's! Some unfortunate health issues caused a couple stores to close early or for a few days. It messed some people's crawl schedules since communication wasn't at a maximum. I understand their frustrations, but I also don't understand the huge IRE expressed constantly by the same few people. This event is to celebrate our local small businesses that love yarn & knitting & crocheting, it's not the end of the world to miss one, nor is it a contest for a million dollars. It's a raffle for about $150-$300 in prizes. The complainers wore on my nerves, and I hope those few negative nellies don't discourage the organizers from doing it again.

Next time - Stitches!