In Southern Illinois (the night before we left for Chicago) my circular needles would break! Have you ever experienced that? They would break right above the point where needle and cord meet. Knitting garter stitch (while holding the broken needle in my right hand), I had been lost in thought, not paying attention to what I was doing. Consequently, I would not even realize what had happened until J pointed it out („Mami, are you doing this on purpose? They’re all falling down …“). Very weird experience, that has never happened to me before – fortunately easy to fix (the knitting, not the needle).
However, the next day, literally right after dropping our luggage at the airbnb-place we had rented, all three of us went to the Windy Knitty.
There we would not only get the circular needle, but so much more! The ladies were extremely helpful – with regard to all sorts of gorgeous yarn and when it came to Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood in general: they would provide us with addresses from breakfast to dinner, from yarn makers to book stores, from basketball trading cards to public NBA broadcast, writing everything down or encircling it in the map. In no time, three days were packed, every minute planned :).
We were all set! Plus, I had bought a book, that had been on my list for a long time (Amy Herzog: Knit to Flatter, signed by the author), and a beautiful pattern for a summer wrap.
The store itself is really nice, very well-assorted, with a lot of space and a lot of light, and a super-wide variety of yarn for every budget, which made it pure pleasure to examine (eyes & hands) their specialty yarns as well as affordable skeins and quite a few „must-haves“ (Cascade 220, Malabrigo, Louisa Harding, Madelintosh).
Unfortunately, we would not stay long enough for me to take part in one of their meet-ups for yarnies or a knit-night. I’ll have to come back I guess …
Thanks again for recommending the store in your comments!