I think the people of Chicago were shaking their heads when they saw about 3000 archivists descending upon their city. They did not know what to make of us.

What do these people do?

Does it have something to do with arcs?

Well, no. It has something to do with arranging and describing all sorts of materials – like letters, manuscripts, photographs, artifacts, diaries, and audiovisual materials. So, the bumper sticker they were selling in the SAA store is true: Archivists do make it last longer. At least in the preservation sense. The conference itself was great. The highlight was having the opportunity to hear Studs Terkel speak – he has been collecting oral histories for decades, and even at 95 years old, he can make the whole audience laugh and ponder his words. Amazing.  The Chicago History Museum recently opened a small oral history center for Mr. Terkel, and this session was celebrating his long career, as well as sharing information about starting a new archive.

In my own job, I tend to think of myself as a hybrid archivist / librarian. I also do some museum-y things too… and I really like it. It’s a great field and a great profession. It’s just hard to explain exactly what it is… Even more special still, I am a knitting archivist. And it seems that I am not alone (although still a small enough contingent to be deemed special). I was surprised and excited to see how many of us there actually are. Sure, I knew about Nova and Rebecca. They have their profession in their blog title

Nova, Amy, Rebecca, and some other archivist

…but there are many others out there as well…

…others that knit during conference sessions…

I didn’t catch everybody’s names, BUT, I know that we have mutual friends! This group of knitters was on Mama E’s Sea Socks 2007 cruise, and they are in a knitting group with my oldest online friend (pre-blog days even) Karen at Pink Acrylique! Small world – especially in the knit world. They were working away on their socks while I knit on my own little scarf. Such fun!

I am so close to finishing my lovely Verona shawl. I am excited to show it to you. In the meantime, here is some eye candy – the recent Chicago additions to the stash

Dream in Color Classy, in Happy Forest

Yarn Place Graceful laceweight

Both of these lovelies came from the shop I mentioned in yesterday’s post: Knitwerks. Totally worth a visit when you are in Chicago. I am thinking about a pair of Dashing mitts with the gorgeous green… and the laceweight, well, I just don’t know. Not something too hard, because lace and I don’t have a very good history.

Any easy suggestions?

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*So, Archivists Make It Last Longer, and Librarians Do It By the Books. Or so they say. Ahhh, the double-entendres…

I can’t think of a more succinct and true statement. I was in town for the week at the annual Society of American Archivists meeting… and I was not prepared to have such a lovely time. Are work conferences supposed to be that great? Not only did I learn a heck of a lot, I got to see some amazing sights, and meet some wonderful people.

View from my room: Grant Park and Lake Michigan

I got in town last Sunday night, and after checking in, Amy came to meet me at my hotel. She had sought out some restaurants with adequate vegetarian fare, and the minute she mentioned Persian food, I was game. We went to Reza’s, a piano bar/cafe with a delicious menu – so delicious that I decided to order a lot of food. I ate too much. Luckily, we walked (and knit) some of it off.

It was a great night, and we made plans for later in the week. When I was not in conference sessions, I was touring the city with friends, photographing the sights, and knitting in the spare moments. Nova and I had made plans many weeks ago to rendezvous at the SAA conference – and when we finally did meet on Wednesday afternoon, everything was so natural: we already knew each other! We capitalized on our fun and hit a new Chicago yarn shop: Knitwerks.

Both of us walked out with some goodies – and both of mine were things I had only seen there, so that took the guilt edge off. You can see one of my purchases on the swift above: a gorgeous green worsted weight – Dream in Color -which is made in Illinois. I often bend the rules for souvenir yarns, and that is probably what gets me in trouble with stashbusting… later in the week, we stopped by another yarn shop, Loopy Yarns, and I only picked up some magazines. Both were great shops, and I am glad that we found the time to visit and see the local yarn culture!

Chicago is a beautiful and photogenic city – we had splendid weather the whole time I was there, and it was perfect for walking near and far. There were so many things to do and see in the city, and I felt that I did not even scratch the surface. Another trip is definitely in order. Some photo highlights:

Crown Fountains, Millennium Park

Sailboats on Lake Michigan

The Field Museum

The Art Institute Lion

[Chicago set in entirety on Flickr!]

See? Chicago is an amazing place – with amazing art! I was so thrilled to catch one of the exhibitions I missed in New York this past spring at MoMA, the Jeff Wall photography show. It blew me away. The presentation of the images is key to the exhibit: they are large color transparencies mounted on huge light boards, so viewing them in a 2-D computer screen or book is simply not the same… but you can try! The other great art in Chicago is the public art installations along Lake Shore Drive in the downtown area: The Cool Globes Project. There are 124 globes, each of them offering a tip on green living, or drawing attention to a social and environmental topic. It was a fascinating display. As you can see from the photo above, this particular globe is covered with a knit fabric. The globe is entitled “Adjust the Thermostat”, encouraging people to layer up (with a nice handknit?) instead of turning up the heat at home. This globe is the creation of artist and craft blogger, Lindsay Obermeyer. When we saw her globe, we knew it would be the perfect photograph opportunity for Amy, Nova, and myself!  The globe is located on the walkway in front of the Field Museum.

I fear this post has just gotten too long for its own good, so I will talk a little more about the knitting archivists (like Rebecca!) and my own project in the next post… stay tuned