A Rainy Tuesday

I’m home, which if you had lived my yesterday, you would find as amazing as I do.  I left Minneapolis yesterday at 3:30pm, and through an absolutely farcical chain of airline events, got me home so late last night that it was this morning at 3am when I sat down on my own chesterfield. I slept late, as one does, if you arrive home in what is perilously close to the time you usually get up, and today I’m predictably having trouble gathering steam. I had a wonderful time at Yarnover, and at StevenBe’s FiberFest – and very unpredictably for a woman with a brand new camera, I took so few pictures that it would boggle the mind.  I have a few of the market at Yarnover – which was a huge and wondrous spread,

marketplace 2014-04-29

and I thought I had one of the shop at StevenBe, which is likewise nothing more than a great room of temptation. but it turns out that I just have a picture of Jeremy (Chief in charge of order at the store) looking at me suspiciously, which may pretty much sum up our relationship.

jeremy 2014-04-29

I also have this one, which records the moment that I was so captivated with Lucy Neatby’s new E-book, A Little book of BIG holes for Hand Knitters, that I took all leave of my senses and let her pick me not just two projects, but the yarn for them.

lucysays 2014-04-29

She was, despite the obviously disparate state of our tastes, astute in the extreme when she picked them.  I’m thrilled. So thrilled in fact, that between the charm of new yarn and the exhaustion of travelling that way, I’ve spent the better part of a day winding new yarn and trying to resist the urge to cast on two new things. I expect my fortitude to fail shortly. The last picture is one I snapped last night at heaven knows what time, as I sprinted down the rainbow hall thingie at O’Hare, trying to make a flight for home.

ohare 2014-04-29

More tomorrow, when I’ve rested, slept and thrown all my current projects on a fire in favour of new and amazing things. They don’t call me Harlot for nothing.

58 thoughts on “A Rainy Tuesday

  1. I understand completely as I have just fallen down the yarn rabbit hole in San Antonio at a lovely shop – The Yarn Barn.

  2. Hey, I love that rainbow hallway at O’Hare. I was just there last month, and I too stopped to take photos. I also love the dino elsewhere in the terminal.

    I love the few photos you took — do you mean to tell me you’re not tempted by the choice of hair colors and neck wrap? Can’t wait to see what jumps onto your needles!

  3. Now I have new camera envy. Please tell me the model of the one in the pictures. I LOVE photography…..and you of course!!!

  4. Holy travel hell. I think you could have driven from Minneapolis to Toronto in less time.
    Oh maybe not. Mapquest says it takes almost 15 hours if you go through Chicago.

  5. Your story made me realize that paying duty on yarn ordered by email is preferable to spending almost 12 hours in transit from a place as close as Minnesota.

  6. Holy crap. You were at O’Hare and there wre only 2 people in front of youNow that’s a late night. I hope you are relaxing on your chesterfield, binge watching whatever you love while your husband rubs your feet and brings you beer and chinese take out.

  7. I’ve always loved that corridor at O’Hare. Unfortunately, since I started flying Porter (which goes to Toronto City Centre – you should try it! They give you free wine!!!), I always end up at Midway.

    Are you coming down to MDSW this weekend? (LOL) Yes… I can see the incredulous look on your face from here. See you at Rhineback 😉

  8. I suspect Jeremy gave you suspicious looks because you were not giving into all that temptation! And you call yourself the Yarn Harlot! Tsk, tsk, tsk.

    Don’t kvetch too much about that corridor at O’Hare. It’s waaaay long, but also waaaay more attractive than equivalent spaces at some other airports I could name. It also has an unusual tranquilizing effect on many squalling infants and toddlers. . .always a good thing!

  9. I was in the same United Airlines neon underground last night at O’Hare. Sorry I missed you!
    My flight was only 90 minutes late arriving, hardly an O’Hare record…

  10. Sprinting through O’Hare to catch a connecting flight to a conference is really up there on the list of most stressful moments of my life. I’m glad you made it out or air travel land!

  11. I love love love that rainbow corridor at O’Hare. I’ve been known to go get coffee in another terminal just so I can transit it twice. I suspect security would look dimly on a person laying flat on the floor to experience it more immersively – that’s the only thing that stops me. Colors! And trippy ambient music. Oh bliss!

    I’m currently being forced to cheat on my most recent project: I’ve run out of yarn, and the reinforcements haven’t come in the post yet. I just cast on a Birch. (Your sad post about losing yours made me desirous of my own, what can I say?) Any chance you could use that excuse?

  12. I think the Rainbow Hall looks amazing but it is probably completely unsettling when you are in time zone shift, hours without sleep, fighting your way through an airport and probably living on bad coffee. Otherworldly.

  13. oh, please finished your current projects first! it’s so frustrating to invest our hopes and desires in your projects (as much as we do with our own) and then not hear about them ever again!

  14. Love O’Hare’s neon tunnel. Glad you finally made it home. DH is taking me to Canada in a couple of weeks….train trip from Toronto to Edmonton to Vancouver. In your opinion what are 2 or 3 ‘must dos’ in Toronto?

    • Adriana is *so* last month. Now, this is the Harlot, so at some point she might carelessly toss us a photo to prove she did finish it…or we might never see that Adriana chick again. You clicks the links and you takes your chances.

  15. O my goodness, what a day you had! I really like that neon corridor at O’Hare…like one of your other readers I think the combination of trippy music and colourful lights is great.

  16. So nice to read you forgot taking many! pictures, that means you saw everything there (minus a few you took pictures of) through your own eyes, not via a screen on your new picturetaker. Last week I was in our neighbouring Germany, a lovely 2year old boy was treated to mini merry-go-round trips, he was such an imp. He waved at me, a totally stranger “Omi” (Granny) waving back , his waving father and his mother. The last was so busy looking at the screen making a small movie of him, she forgot to wave back the hole time. I pitied her, she will have the joy of watching that movie at home, but she has not had the joy of the big smile on her sons face everytime he was waved at on his “worldtour”. Never forget to take pictures, but remember the joy is in the real time experience.

    • Your ideas on picture taking are very thought provoking. When my DH and I traveled, the pictures I took were mostly of scenery, after thoroughly enjoying it, I would take a shot so we could have a reminder to look at and relive those moments, or to remember just how big a bison really is.

  17. Every time I go through that tunnel at O’Hare I feel like I am being brainwashed or something…

    ~You love air travel~
    ~Plane food is amazing~
    ~United is everything you could hope for in an airline~

  18. Wow-your photo from the airport is really beautiful. Did you have the camera set on auto or did you use manual settings? Tripod (noting no blur & low light)?

    Very nice indeed.

  19. Wow, that’s quite a whirlwind of events! How lucky to not only meet (or in your case, likely, know) Lucy Neatby but to get her to pick out your yarn, too. I don’t blame you for being thrilled! Love the colours in the post today, it just looks like fun, wouldn’t guess at the exhaustion behind the swanky new lens at all:)

  20. I love reading your blogs when you’ve not had enough sleep. I know it’s rough on you, but they’re my favorite! The evil half of me is scheming from Texas how I can interrupt your sleep cycles more (no great ideas yet) and my good side is calling my bad side terribly selfish.

  21. The hall is VERY familiar to me… Last Monday I was in the same situation with my family (11 of us) trying to get back home to Rochester, NY, dashing through that tunnel trying to catch our new plane (1st had maintenance issues). Unfortunately, our plane was ultimately cancelled and we were rescheduled 5am Wed through Newark… Due to the short turnover and need to get home, we ultimately decided to drive home on Tuesday… long couple of days! Chicago is not my favorite place after that.

  22. I knit Lucy Neatby’s Spindrift scarf a few years back, and I’m warning you — it’s one addictive knit. Now I want to do another.

  23. Having just celebrated my 67th year and being reminded by your photo of many a mad dash through O’Hare…I am mighty tempted to jump on one of those annoying beeping carts and arrive breathing normally, without a hitch in my giddy-up AND without a ball of yarn somewhere out of sight, just the knitting in the bag with yarn trail to follow. It happened! I was getting ready to cut & run when I found it halfway back. Made the flight but running with stuff has lost it’s appeal.

  24. Thank you so much for coming to Minnesota. I loved your presentation on Sunday and used your yarn “counter” last night. Definitely an easy, but tremendously useful tip!

  25. really – you are going to knit with yarn that has christmas balls on it. I can’t wait 🙂 someday I’m going to StevenB’s – it is on my list when I go to Minneapolis. And, my goodness – you must know airports incredibly well. and I still think there need to be yarn kiosks in airports.

  26. My uncle worked at United when the “rainbow hall thingie” was built and invited us for a preview before it opened to the public. I remember thinking it was the weirdest thing ever (I was about 11).

  27. Thank you so much for coming into StevenBe’s and teaching!! I learned so many valuable lessons over the weekend. If only I could follow the knitting advice while I’m home, I’d be set.

  28. The rainbow hall! I am one of the few people I know who has flown through O’Hare and legitimately enjoys it. The first time I flew alone I had a changeover at O’Hare on the way home — with a killer headache, the remains of an ear infection, and the tail end of an unfortunate illness that was giving me a crazy fever. They changed my gate four times. I just about burst into tears. I specifically remember looking up at the rainbow lights as I let the moving sidewalk carry me along, thinking something like “well that makes this crappy day just a little bit better, doesn’t it?” (Then I got seated next to a pleasant French gentleman on the plane and my day got even more bearable.)

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