The Beekeeper's Granddaughter:

Chicago knitters were out in force in Millennium Park on Saturday for World Wide Knit in Public day.

A teeming throng of knitting humanity. The clicking of the needles nearly drowning out the cicadas. (Just kidding - the cicadas weren't loud downtown!)

I drove downtown around noonish with my Wednesday Panera buds - Jennifer, Barb 1 and her 2 daughters, Barb 2 and Angie - Lynette arrived a bit later. We met up with the other knitters in Millennium park and had a wonderful day. The weather was perfect - sunny & warm with a slight breeze off the lake! The only negative for me was that I didn't think to bring sunscreen and my arms & nose got burned. Irish/English skin should never be exposed to direct sunlight.

(clockwise from top left) - Jennifer (barefoot in the park); Angie & Hannah; Jennifer and Lynette; who woulda guessed that The Great and Powerful Oz was an older Asian woman?

And no mention of Millennium Park would be complete without a shot of The Bean!

Sorry, I haven't been particularly chatty lately, but being unemployed and having scads of free time on my hands, I just haven't been able to work posting into my daily "Law & Order" rerun watching schedule. But now I need an opinion. Everyone is familiar with Sally Melville's Einstein Coat, right? I have the yarn and I'm ready to start knitting, but the pattern says to use the crochet cast-on (not to be confused with the crochet provisional cast-on). I tried to learn this cast-on method, but it just doesn't work for me. The *&#!ing yarn keeps slipping off the %^&#ing crochet hook. In the pattern, Sally doesn't give any clear reason why we must use this cast-on. It's not like the pattern says "use the crochet cast-on or Einstein will awake from the dead and make you comb his hair." So, what do you think, my bloggy friends? Can I use the long-tail or even the knit-on cast-on for my Einstein Coat?

If anyone is interested, there is a wonderful new biography of Albert Einstein available by Walter Isaacson called "Einstein: His Life and Universe". I listened to the unabridged audio version and it was fascinating - not overly "sciencey", but Isaacson did a very good job if explaining the complex theories in lay-persons language. Oh, help me! I'm such a nerd!