Michelle and Christopher wanted to go to The Alley when they were here for Christmas. Unfortunately, we ran out of time - and I didn’t know exactly where it was, either. I vowed I’d figure out where it was and get them both there on their next visit to Chicago. Success - Michelle and I found it on Friday and it was fun in that gothy, punk, alternative store kind of way.

I love the shoe selection - quirky, fun, colorful, strappy, awesome. Michelle got a pair of boots that she loves so much she swore she was going to sleep in them. I really wanted to buy Christopher a pair of funky green shoes but they didn’t have his size. TW could have shopped there for her “Community Keynote Dress” - or at least had fun checking out the options.

I can’t wait to take Christopher when he comes to visit next month.

I totally missed the opening day of Randolph Street Market and am disappointed. It’s only open on the last weekend of each month, from May - September. That doesn’t give us a lot of opportunities for fun antique shopping, particularly with the July dates being during BlogHer and the August dates being during TW’s birthday weekend.

I went ahead and purchased the season pass, hopeful that the valet parking and the admission to the extra events would make it worth it. We shall see.

We bought just a few things during our first visit. TW’s mom bought an aluminum cake holder (no idea why she did this but she did.) I bought a shirt for Michelle, for Christmas. TW bought cool retro pattern potholders.

We were tempted by some retro kitchen tables and chairs, a retro desk, some really fantastic wood furniture that would have solved all of our kitchen problems but won’t work now due to the wheelchair needs of TW’s mom.

Also tempted by huge neon signs, old toys from our childhood, and lots of other antiquey goodness that we do not NEED.

Way back in November when Lorena came to visit, she did a yarn crawl through Chicago. We really wanted to join her at Loopy Yarns but we had to work and couldn’t make it. After that, I sort of forgot about Loopy.

And there it was, near Dearborn Station, while we were at Printers Row Litfest. TW headed in while I took a photo and Loopt that we were there. A spinning wheel was sitting out front. A crowd of people were inside. A couple of chairs were conveniently placed where I could plop myself down in one and enjoy the people watching and look at the yarn from afar. I was tired by that point.

The people watching was excellent. The nice young guy who works there talking to the woman about sock yarn was fabulous. The old women in sweater sets. The young hipster couples. Fantastic. I love that store and I didn’t even make my way downstairs where there was a huge pile of colorful fiber just laying there.

We must go back when I’m not so darn tired so I can fondle the fiber.

After our weekly trip to the assisted living facility, we were almost home and TW mentioned the Little City Used Book Sale. I’d planned for us to go but didn’t think TW’s mom would be up to it after a very long morning/afternoon out. But, she heard “used books” and she was ready to roll.

So, I made a quick right onto Glenview Rd and after driving through the parking lot at Old Orchard Mall (a parking lot that I hate almost as much as the Butler Plaza parking lot in Gainesville) we found ourselves at the big tent.

It was late so there was plenty of parking right close to the tent, which is good since we had a wheelchair and the weather was beginning to look very much like rain.

We rolled into the tent, grabbed a shopping cart, and took off.

An hour later, we had a full basket of books and I was dragging TW out by her jacket. As I dragged her, she just kept saying “But I didn’t have time to look at any books!” Err, then how did we come home with five dictionaries, one of those huge one volume encyclopedias, eight cookbooks and a whole lot of paperbacks?

We’re pretty jaded when it comes to used book sales. We come from the land of the famous Gainesville Friends of the Library Book Sale and it’s hard to please us. Little City’s book sale tried hard to win us over and it did… even though there weren’t quite as many books, it’s in a tent, and it’s more expensive. This is a used book sale that’s a really nice replacement for our old favorite. We’ll be looking forward to next year’s sale.

We visited Knit1 when Lorena was in town over Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun there. We also came home with the first skein of Alpaca which started a pretty serious scarf knitting project. Thank you Lorena and Knit1 chick.

The shop is a tiny little thing, and I do mean tiny. A big table takes up the bulk of the shop and the “regulars” who came in seemed surprised to see the five of us in the store.

If it wasn’t so far from home, this could be our LYS. (But they’d need to blog properly first.) Cute little place. Nice people. Pretty yarn. Fun area of town to wander around.

When I find something GOOD about living up here, I latch onto it and don’t let go.

When I remembered Threadless had opened a store in Chicago, I had to go and I kept trying to squeeze it into already packed weekends. Finally, the day after Thanksgiving, I twisted TW’s arm and we went.

I loved it.

It’s not one of those huge places you can spend hours in, it’s not a huge place full of loud crazy shopper people. It’s a very small place, with only the newest of shirts to choose from. It’s lay out is problematic due to the poles in the middle of the store but whatever, it’s quirky and that’s as it should be for a Threadless store.

We bought a shirt or a sweatshirt for everyone. And walking out with our very own cloth Threadless bag was a awesome. I still look at that bag and smile. Finally, a real live benefit to living here. If my life was just a little different on Fridays or if we lived just a little closer, I’d go every Friday just to see the newest designs!

Oh yea, the art gallery upstairs is interesting too.

Another one of the first searches we made when preparing for our move north was for yarn shops in the area. There are several but we knew that not just “any” yarn shop would do. We were looking for a yarn shop that we would love the way that we loved the yarn shop in Gainesville. Tall order and we haven’t quite accomplished the task but…

Three Bags Full is an excellent yarn store.

The first time we visited it, it was in an old house near the corner of Shermer and Waukegan. It was a little dark and a little crowded but the people seemed nice enough. And most of them didn’t look to shocked when I said I don’t knit.

A few months later, they closed down that little store and moved into a strip mall around the corner from that house. I like this shop better.

It’s a little brighter and moving from one room to another doesn’t feel like I’m invading someone’s “room”. The people seem more interested in helping than they did that first time we came in. In fact, there have been moments when we didn’t think we were going to be able to leave the store because the staff was so friendly.

The yarn - pretty!

The books - cool!

The knitted samples - fabulous!

And two yarn ball winder thingies, which is good because they are constantly winding balls for people.

The only thing they don’t have are spinning wheels.