More from vacay time

Thank you to everyone for your compliments on my Charlotte's Web shawl. I wore it inside at some of my orientation events at UT and know I will enjoy it for years to come. In response to those comments I will get a better picture outside asap to show the colors better. Most of the yarn came from Hill Country Weavers, but the deep purple came from Yarns 2 Ewe in Houston. Also, I had to vary away from Koigu as I was using a gift certificate at HCW to purchase the yarn. The deep purple, solid blue, and solid yellow are all Koigu. The variegated blue/purple and the variegated blue/yellow are Claudia's Handpaints. The Claudia's have the added bonus of having this great smell to them that I hope hangs on.
On my return trip day I blundered and left the keys to the first sister's apartment in Chicago at our parent's house in Indiana, and first sister was NOT in the city that day. My good friends Heath and Rebekah were also in transit so I was left with 6 hours before I needed to be at the airport. So I did what any resourceful knitter would do and found the nearest accessible yarn shop that I could lug my suitcase and backpack in to and have an extended sit and knit. I decided to return to Loopy Yarns which I had visited roughly a year before. If you are in downtown Chicago you have to make time to visit the store and it's owner, Vicki, and her very helpful staff.
I had a great time goo-goo ga-ga-ing over this guy, Tucker, who was tuckered out after greeting customers all morning (couldn't help the pun!). Vicki is fostering Tucker to decide if she wants to keep him so he may become an official shop dog. I purchased some Lorna's Laces Superwash yarn in a worsted weight for my brother's hat and US size 1 Addi DPN's to try out on the Widdershins socks I'm currently knitting.
Here's my nephew, AJ, looking a little disgruntled about being in his carseat on the drive into Chicago. It sounds like he was able to hold it together for the rest of second sister and brother-in-laws trek up to Wisconsin. Go Badgers!

Oh wait, I mean, Hook 'Em Horns!
Tschuss
PS While I waited on my return bus this afternoon to go home I was across from the field where the football team was practicing. Where I went for undergrad we didn't even have a football team so looking at the Champs is pretty cool.