Road Trip!

When we went to Eureka Springs with Steve and Ginger last month, Robert and I ended up coming back after only one night because of my mom, so we decided this past weekend to take what was for us a spontaneous road trip. (This means I only had a week to plan it, book hotels, google map our route, etc.)
We left Friday afternoon after work and hit I-44, first stopping in Marshfield to fill up the gas tank – about a 30 minute drive. Then we stopped in Lebanon (another 30 minutes) to drop some stuff off at my mother-in-law’s house. Then we drove a whole hour – whoohoo – to Rolla, where we stopped to meet Keri of 3AM Enchantment’s dad to drop off a sweater. I’m participating in the cabled sweater KAL that Stacy (Tempted) and Keri are doing, and offered to seam Keri’s sweater for her in exchange for one of her wonderful Emily bags. Finally, we were on the road for the trip. We had to refuel a little past Springfield, IL, and spent the night in Bloomington/Normal, IL. Priceline let me down on this hotel, but since we weren’t expecting much and were only there to sleep for about 7 hours, it was adequate.
Saturday we were up and on the road again by about 8 a.m., and right at 10, Robert dropped me off at the Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL for Stitches Midwest!!

He went and checked in at our second Pricelined hotel, which was a Hilton Garden Inn. I highly recommend these hotels, especially if you can get it for $36 a night like we did! Anyway, he spent the day at the hotel with his laptop, and no complaints, while I shopped the Stitches Market. I ran into friends like Adrienne, Janice, Kris, and Sheri of The Loopy Ewe, and didn’t go too overboard with my shopping.
Here’s my haul:

In the back is some Tess Superwash Merino, which I love, both the feel and the green color. I’m not sure what I’m making with this, but I bought enough for a sweater. On the outsides is 6 skeins of teal Shepherd’s Wool, which I think will be perfect for Mr. Greenjeans. The two skeins of green sock yarn is Ms. Babs, and I bought two skeins because I think I want to make a shawl from this rather than socks. Pattern recommendations, please? The burgundy skein is Mackintosh sock yarn. I also bought the green “Knit Happy” mug from the Knitting Today booth, and the wire wall hanging spelling “Yarn” for my stash room. And you can barely see it, but on top of the Ms. Babs is a purple needle gauge necklace from Debra’s Garden, and this is the one where she donates a portion of the proceeds to a pet rescue group.
Last, in front, is a skein of Buffalo Gold. It also came with free patterns, and I got to meet Ron at the Webs booth (I also met Steve Elkins of Webs). The best part of the Buffalo Gold kit was that if you donated a skein of yarn from your stash, you got $20 off, and the skeins will be donated to either Knit for Needs or The Bhutanese Bunna knitters. I donated a skein of Creatively Dyed Luxury yarn that I received in a swap. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the color or feel of the yarn, but it’s been brought to my attention on Ravelry that Dianne of Creatively Dyed has made claims that some of her yarns are the same base as Wollmeise. Claudia of Wollmeise has refuted this claim, has an exclusive contract with her mill, and the mill has never heard of CD. I don’t appreciate what I perceive to be unethical business practices, so I will not ever purchase CD, and I didn’t want it in my stash. Thanks to Buffalo Gold, problem solved.
After the Market, Robert picked me up and we made our first visit ever to an Ikea Store! It was very exciting, and we sampled the meatballs, but didn’t buy anything else. We went to PF Chang’s for dinner, and might have shared a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. On Sunday, we drove home, stopping for lunch at Smokey Bones in Springfield, IL, because they have the best onion rings ever – I still can’t believe they shut down the restaurant here at home.
So that was my fabulously fast and furious weekend. Now it’s back to work, and next weekend we’ve got a business trip in San Antonio!