You know it's bad when I'm in bed before 8

I should explain. I found a new mechanic, new to me at least, and foolishly agreed to a nine am appointment on the north side. I live on the south side and rarely am up and moving at nine. For a good mechanic, I will make an exception. It would have been wise to go to bed early the night before as to be fully rested the next morning. I did not do that. The Chicago Dancing Festival held its free concert in the park on the evening in question, and I was not about to miss that to sleep. Nor would I miss going out for drinks afterwards with a charming European gentleman. Miraculously, I managed to get up the next morning and even made it to the garage early. I had an intelligent text conversation with one of my friends at 6 am. He seemed unsurprised that I was awake so early in the morning, which surprised me. When in doubt, don't call before eleven. I digress... So, I managed to get the car to the shop, run a couple of errands, knit with a friends for a couple hours, and drive home before lying down on the bed to read the New Yorker. Ha. I didn't make it through Talk of the Town before falling asleep.

It's not even nine now and I'm ready to plotz. I awoke to the sound of the mail falling down the chute into the mailbox and hit the ground running. I went to Stitches after all. I wasn't going to go, then I was going to go on Saturday, then my friends had other things come up. I don't need a whole day at Stitches, so I decided to go this afternoon and meet up with my mom after her class. Honestly, I don't know how people can spend all day there, because I was pooped after a couple hours of taking everything in at the market. Where there were buttons, so was I, but none came home with me. The list that I'd carefully prepared of the buttons needed for various projects stayed home on the bedside table. None of the buttons I liked matched up to the projects in mind, and I'm not crazy enough to knit a sweater to match buttons.

Yarn followed me home. It's sock yarn, though, and I've heard that doesn't count. I made a beeline for The Fold, where I chatted with Liz from Mackintosh Yarns and bought a great blue and brown striping sock yarn. She has a really nice base yarn. I also snapped up a skein of Socks That Rock in Storeytime. I'm weak where STR is involved. Also, where Jitterbug is concerned. It is merino crack. The lovely folks at Yarniverse had the new colors that I'd drooled over on the Colinette website. I bought two semi-solids, Apricot Smoothy (which is kind of peach colored) and Pastures (a lovely, pale green. Green gets my number every time!), as well as Sweet Dreams. A trip to Jennie the Potter's booth did not yield any buttons, as I'd expected, but she was selling really lovely hand-dyed sock yarn alongside her mugs and bowls. A red skein caught my eye. I've been looking for the perfect red semi-solid and this was exactly it.

Mr. Malabrigo, Tobias, was there. They sponsor Stitches, but don't vend there. Still, their booth is a treat. Tobias is as nice as his yarn. He also had several garments from upcoming patterns displayed and the Ravelry Bob amigurumi finger puppet. I wish I'd taken a picture, but I wasn't feeling that bold.

By chance, I found my mother patiently knitting on one of the couches outside of the market. I'd left her a couple messages, but she hadn't checked them when we ran into each other. We admired each other's purchases and even managed to talk world politics before she headed off to the fashion show. Ask me sometime about 1968 if you'd like to know the topic of our discussion.

I'm running on fumes now, but will try to post some pics of the new yarn soon.