Before....And After

Here's a picture of me before entering Loopy Yarns in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood. I'm feeling a bit fatigued after having gotten up at 6 a.m. on this morning, dashing downtown to make an 8:10 a.m. editorial appointment (I was two minutes late thanks to door keys that conspired to get lost and a lagging El train). But I'm also exhilarated too - excited beyond belief at all the possibilities that are whirling in my brain after meeting six magazine editors face-to-face to discuss story ideas. I'm also thinking about a dress that I think I can knit for $15 after buying bunches of yarn for 70 percent at Loopy.

Now, it turns out the Pima tencel in Purple that I had in mind for the dress (a new one in a book about fitted knits; I forget the exact title) is not on sale. Oops. Cancel the $55.33 purchase on my United Mileage Visa card. It's back to the racks for another project. I end up filling my wiry wooden basket with 10 skeins of another royally-hued fiber: Baby Alpaca DK, normally $6.85 each. I get all these little furry little balls for a grand total of $20.55. A fall sweater of the warm sort is already forming in my mind.

I get on the subway train with my black Herman Miller tote, my purchase, and my cranberry Target purse. I'm taking this train all the home, so I pull out my summer knitting, the halter top. I'm lost in the thought, binding off here and there, and there and here, listening to these guys behind me talk about something my hearing-impaired ears cannot decipher for the puny life of me. Whatever.

I decide to get off the train at an earlier stop since I realize there's a street festival going on where I want to pick up (not figuratively, thank goodness) a bus. I'm off the train, and on the sidewalk when I realize, "Oh My God, I don't have my yarn!." Out pops the cell phone. I'm calling the transit help line; the operator there gives me the Lost and Found number. Nobody answers, unfortunately. I call the 800 number for my Visa since I bought the fiber with my credit card. They of course, give me another number. I call that number, and then another.

I don't make contact with the Right Telephone Number until I get home (and consume all of the Vosges chocolates I won in a lottery at my conference). Guess what? I need to talk to another Customer Service Department, which isn't open until...tomorrow.

So I've no idea if I'll get my money or the yarn back. I fear that the train engineer will toss the bag in the garbage since my 10 white tissue-paper wrapped hanks resemble big burritos-to-go. The plastic bag doesn't even feature the Loopy Yarns logo either. So I'm not super-confident I'll recover this project-in-the-making.

I might be more likely to recover the cost through my credit card since I purchased the train pass with my Visa as well as the actual items themselves. It's not worth losing my nap over, which I most definitely need since I've been in this meeting for 3 Days Straight. My brain is French-fried.

I've only lost project stuff once before...a remnant from Vogue Fabrics that I was going to transform into a surplice Kwik Sew top for my sister. I think I inadvertently threw that knit out since I haven't seen it since. I know it's not in the Stash since I've dug through the pile. But I didn't stress over that because it was a $6 buy.

What yarn/fiber/fabric/patterns have you lost? Please help me cope with paint of my Premature loss!