Quick Trip to Chicago

Last weekend, Jim and I took a quick trip to Chicago. Our motivation was to hear Dave & Joyce sing with the Apollo Chorus, and we slipped in a couple other adventures as well.

We drove over Saturday morning, and made our way to Jon and Laura's place. (We foolishly followed GPS Thelma's route, which meandered through roads we'd never seen, but at least landed us at the correct apartment.) We enjoyed lunch with Laura & the boys (delightful boys!!!), and Dave & Joyce.

After lunch, we went Visit to Powell's book store. Jim left with a stack of history books; I left with two great knitting reference books (two of the Harmony Guides - Knit and Purl, and Colorwork Stitches - great price, great condition).

We enjoyed walking around the neighborhood there, looking at buildings and such. It was, I confess, a tad brisk (!), but it was sunny and so we ignored the cold.

We grabbed sandwiches for dinner, and headed to Rockefeller Chapel, the venue for the Apollo Chorus performance.

We walked around that area as well. Here's the Rockefeller Chapel, in the late afternoon:

We liked this tower. It was located north of Rockefeller Chapel; I think it is the Chicago Theological Seminary:

We discovered that the Oriental Institute Museum, located next to the chapel, was hosting the exhibit Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt. We had enough time to slip in and take a quick look.

We both were quite taken (of course) with this limestone carving of an owl, which depicts the head of the owl hieroglyph:

photo from http://mag.uchicago.edu/
arts-humanities/bird-bird

From there, we headed back to Rockefeller Chapel, for the concert. The interior reminded me of cathedrals we saw in England. We decided we need to go back when we can take a proper tour of the chapel.

We sat very near the front, and I was impressed by the organ pipes (we also need to come back for an organ concert), and by the inlaid marble on the pulpit, which you can just barely see in this photo. That is, you can just barely see the inlaid marble (at the lower right); the pipes are rather obvious:

photo from http://pipe-organs.
tumblr.com/post/8798439510

We enjoyed the concert - Mozart's Divertimiento in D major, Charpentier's Te Deum, and Haydn's Mass in B flat "Theresienmesse." Again, I was reminded of a choir we heard in England, in one of the cathedrals, and how beautiful the voices were in that space.

Afterwards, we headed to the Beer Hotel (we followed our own common sense and experience, rather than relying on Crazy Thelma). Joyce had picked up some decadent brownies, so we talked and ate, then headed for bed, and in the morning, for home.

Bonnie was happy to see us the next day, although she still wasn't particularly happy to have her picture taken:

And wasn't this a beautiful day to come home to?

Vogue Knitting Live!

In October, the Kalamazoo Knitting Guild chartered a bus to go to Vogue Knitting Live, in Chicago. Jess, Denise, and I joined the knitters on the bus.

We started in the dark, around 7 am. The sun rose on a beautiful fall day.

At the rest stop in Indiana

Denise & Jess on the bus

We arrived in Chicago shortly before 9, and had a splendid day. We hadn't signed up for any classes, and wandered about throughout the day, wherever our fancy took us.

There was "down time," when we sat knitting and chatting. We watched a Vogue Knitting fashion show (not that I'm really a Vogue kind of girl).

We took our time wandering through the market. We admired and touched all sorts of yarn (and tried not to drool on it). We chatted with Vicki Howell (Knitty Gritty) and Ysolda Teague (she designed Elijah the Elephant). We saw knitting in the wild that we fell in love with, such as the Bermuda Scarf. (Well, at least I fell in love with it, and I have just the yarn for it, in my stash...)

We stopped at one booth, Black Wolf Ranch, and Jess asked me if I thought, with that name, that they might be predator-friendly. The owner popped up and confirmed that to be the case, much to Jess' delight. They had an alpaca hat that was just slightly felted - I've been pondering ever since how to recreate it. (I have alpaca in my stash that could be put to that use...)

At Green Mountain Spinnery's booth, I saw a terrific little hat, the Ascutney Mountain Hat. And somewhere - no idea which booth - we saw the Waves in the Square Shawl, by Sivia Harding. It has an unusual construction, being knit as a square, rather than a rectangle. It's really quite lovely, but requires 1100 yards of light fingering weight yarn - more than the couple skeins I usually think to buy.

We saw a beautiful shawl, Ann Weaver's Lamp Shawl, along with other designs from her White Whale books. We saw jewelry, cleverly made from old metal knitting needles.

The Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn booth had magic balls, which are large skeins (525 yards) of sock yarn. They include 15 different colors of sock yarn, tied together and wound into a cake. They would be fun to knit with - but then you would have to deal with all those ends...!

Jess made her yarn purchase at Black Wolf Ranch's booth. Denise bought a book - Knit Red - and some splendid red yarn, at the Jimmy Beans Wool booth. (A portion of the sales of the book Knit Red go towards educating women about heart disease.)

I almost bought a kit to make a linen stitch shawl. The yarn colors - pastels - were beautiful, and I think it would have been a joy to knit.

But then I saw this yarn:

This is the same Swans Island yarn I'd seen (and not bought) in Wisconsin. This time, I didn't hesitate, and now it's in my stash, waiting to become the Panoramic Stole.

I was keeping an eye out for a new yarn to use for my Elijah Elephants. I stumbled across this, and thought it should work well:

I bought just one skein, and now wonder if it is a one-of-a-kind, since I've not been able to track it down online since coming home.

There was a gallery section, with works from different fiber artists. My favorites were pieces by Chris Motley. Here are two of her sculptures:

Love this guy!

We took a lunch break and walked across town to Portillo's, for Chicago-style hot dogs. Conveniently, our path also took us near a Trader Joe's store (where we used careful judgment in our purchases, since we'd have to carry them back to the show).

In October, Poetry Magazine was celebrating its 100th anniversary, which apparently included these displays.

These 'grasses' lit up as it grew dark.
And there were poems being read!

We enjoyed reading bits of poetry as we walked:

We arrived home late that night, tired but content.

In retrospect, I wished I had made the commitment to register and take one of the classes offered, and I wished I'd had time to explore some of the other features (the demo area, the meet-up lounge, etc). But, even without that, I enjoyed the chance to hang out with my knitting friends, to see so many different yarns and patterns, and to fire up my imagination. And recounting it all here has rekindled that same excitement.

So much knitting, so little time!

What I did during the ice storm

Another day, another winter storm here in Michigan. This one did not dump snow on us (as it did for others in the state - such as my brother's family in Plymouth), but we got some serious ice.

In our front yard

A friend and I had planned to travel on Monday to the Chicago Temple (it's open on some Monday holidays, e.g. Presidents Day). We discussed the wisdom of this, given the weather, but decided that we wouldn't let a little ice stop us. After all, we're Michiganders!

Besides, if it turned out to be bad, we would admit defeat, turn around, and come home. (We did this when my older brother turned 50. Jim & I, and Paul & his family, got as far as Paw Paw, I think, before we turned around and came home. The snow that day was awesome.)

So I picked up my friend at 7, and just as she was saying good-bye to hubby & kids, their power went out. Hmmm. They assured us they'd be fine (and really, what could we do? Generate hot air by talking?), so we left.

A few minutes later, we were back: my friend had her expired recommend with her, and not her newer one. (Anyone can enter our regular church buildings, but attendance at a temple requires that you meet a standard of worthiness. Your recommend demonstrates your adherence to that standard. It's kind of important.)

Looking for something is never fun, but in the dark? with flashlights?

At 8, we decided we needed to leave - the last session started at noon our time, and it's a three hour trip when all goes well, and we didn't know what to expect weatherwise - so we gave up looking and got back in the car. I drove, while my friend contacted various parties to work out the logistics of getting permission to enter, sans recommend. (What would we do, really, without cell phones?)

It was a gorgeous drive. The roads were dry (once we got out of Kalamazoo), the sky was grey, the trees were beautiful. We easily made the trip in 3 hours, my friend's emergency arrangements all worked out, and we had an excellent session at the temple.

We made some quick local stops (including Trader Joe's, of course), and were back on the road by 3 pm. Unfortunately, our trip home was not as smooth as our morning's drive.

There was a truck-car accident on the Dan Ryan, and when we realized there was a traffic issue, we tried to guess which lane to get in. We did not choose wisely - unless, of course, our goal was to have more knitting time. We both got some serious knitting done while we sat in that traffic. (What would we do, really, without knitting in our bags?)

We finally got past the accident, and again moved towards home. (Why does it always seem to take longer going home than it takes going to Chicago in the morning?) As we got closer to Kalamazoo, we encountered light snow. We discovered there'd been an accident on the ramp we needed to take to 131, so we continued on to the Oakland exit, where we found ourselves in a neighborhood with no power. It was really eerie, but everyone was driving carefully, treating the non-functioning lights as four-way stop signs, etc., so we had no problems there.

Even where there was power, the roads were sloppy with snow, so we drove cautiously. We finally got to my friend's neighborhood, where we reconnoitered a bit, to see where there were lights; her street seemed to be the only one with no power.

Later that night, our friends came over to dry diapers, charge phones & laptops, and bathe a baby. Then back home, to continue their 'adventure.' The next day, they dropped their dog off here, and went to stay with other friends until their power came back on. (What would we do, really, without friends?)

Their dog adores Bonnie; Bonnie tolerates their dog. Mostly they get along fine, and it's pretty funny to watch their interactions. Their dog isn't as tolerant of walking in the cold as Bonnie; we took a short walk, but even so, she started this cough / bark / whine thing, that I think was her way of saying "WHAT are we doing out here?!?"

Jim's office was also without power, so he spent some time there, and more time here at home. (I'm so happy we never lost power!)

Things are back to normal now - everyone is in their own home, warm and dry. (Well, everyone in this story - there are still areas without power.)

I recently finished knitting my Nutmeg Bear, and during the storm on Sunday, I knit a scarf for him. And yesterday, although it was cold and icy, it was also a good day for taking pictures of bears:

He really has two eyes, although you can't see both...

This was a fun pattern to knit - not too fussy, and fairly easy to assemble - and I loved the yarn. I think maybe I stuffed the head too much, but I expect it will settle over time, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it. And I'm sure my grandniece will be happy with him as he is. :)

Finally, here are a few more weather photos:

In the park, looking south

Looking north, in the park

A cold bit of greenery, in our back yard

Chicago: Food & Fun & Children's Wishes

Jim & I like Chicago. Sometimes we go there to visit family, and sometimes we go just to spend some time together. This was a "time together" visit, and it was delightful.

After checking into our hotel, we walked down to Macy's, and had lunch in the Walnut Room.


Walnut Room
Christmas Tree


Lunch was delicious. Jim ordered a cheese appetizer, and I discovered that I do like Brie cheese - who knew? I had their famous chicken pot pie (delish), and Jim had Swedish meatballs, with ligonberry sauce on them - and surprise! I liked that too. While we waited for lunch, we went to the petites department, and surprise! it turns out that I was in the mood to shop for clothes.

After lunch, we walked to Daley plaza for the Kristkindlmarket. Mostly, we just browsed, although Jim did manage to buy some sweets, and one ornament.

Kristkindlmarket

Picasso Sculpture



Last year, quite by accident, we discovered the One of a Kind Show & Sale Chicago. This show is held on the 8th floor of the Merchandise Mart, and is full of amazing creations. This year, we decided to tackle it in two smaller chunks of time, which was only slightly less overwhelming than seeing it all at once. We saw beautiful jewelry, pottery, glassware, wood, textiles... of course, the pieces we really fell in love with were completely out of our price range, but looking was free.

 

Chicago River, by the Merchandise Mart















We also did some looking at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jim & the Defiant Lion

Stephanie and Bruce Tharp designed this year's wreaths. They

combined the look of traditional North American cranberry wreaths with the hopeful spirit of Buddhist and Taoist wishing trees. In the wishing trees tradition, part of the lunar new year celebration, children throw oranges with attached paper notes over banyan trees. The artists have integrated this custom with traditional Western holiday decorations by incorporating “wishes for the world in 2011,” written by Chicago-area children, into each of the 2,011 clear and red plastic spheres that make up the wreaths.

You can read more about the wreathes here. This link also lists the children's wishes; here are just a few that caught my eye:

• Love, for everyone to love more than they hate.
• I wish there was an 8th Harry Potter.
• is to help Africa.
• I hoep we make flying cats
• to find a cure for cancer and birdflu.

 Jim found a delightful restaurant, the Exchequer Pub, near the Art Institute. We shared a pizza, and a piece of red velvet cake - yummy. (Yes, I should have taken pictures.)

I'll wrap up with just a few pictures from the Art Institute.


Monet - Sandvika, Norway

This Monet caught my eye because, frankly, it looked seasonal.

We read about the exhibition "Neither Man Nor Beast: Animal Images on Ancient Coins," and laughed when we finally found it. It consisted of one small display case. Admittedly, it was laid out nicely. This is just one of the coins on display.



Chagall - American Windows


These glass windows were recently restored, and really were quite impressive.



Roman - Head of Mars



Jim liked this piece - even if poor Mars was missing his nose.












Roman - Statue of a Boy





I liked this piece. Sweet, innocent.

Architecture - okay, this wasn't in the Art Institute. But Jim likes architecture, and he took lots of pictures of buildings. So I had to include at least one photo, right?

Robin and some sculpture, I'm not sure what...

Jim & Robin. Behind us is a model for a sculpture that was near our hotel. Unfortunately, I forget the artist's name.









Ganesha: the
Remover of Obstacles







I like the idea that there is someone whose purpose is to remove obstacles - it sounds very imposing. And this fellow does look pretty imposing!

We stopped to rest at a cafe in the modern art wing, and received our drinks in these delightful metal bottles

The Titanic, by Stanley Tigerman

We looked for a magnet with this image (long story made short: we were trying to find it for a friend), but had no success whatsoever. Still, we managed to behave ourselves while in the gift shops. Our favorite purchase was a box of Christmas cards with owls...!