In which I spent waaaay too much money but had a great time doing it.

First, the qiviut. The qiviut I said I wouldn’t buy because it was a budget buster. The qiviut that came in the best color blue I have ever seen bar none (monitors do not do it justice), and called to me every time I passed it by. The qiviut that I admired, but knew was a bad thing cash flow wise to purchase. That qiviut. Here is it on my front porch. I succumbed.

The very nice man that ran the store was greatly amused by the many knitters saying they wouldn’t buy the qiviut, and then coming back and flinging cash and credit cards at him. I asked him if I had taken the longest to make the decision – after all I had gone to the even during set up to check out my book signing space so I had an extra afternoon to long. He said I may have taken the longest, but once the decision was made I was showing great fortitude – an aura of peace and calm was emanating from my melting plastic. Apparently several other knitters upon succumbing threw their purchases and payment at him and asked him to bag it up quickly and not show them the total as quick as humanly possible before they changed their minds – again. Let me just say he was doing a booming business.

Here are all the things I bought and did while trying not to buy the qiviut. Because since I wasn’t going to buy the qiviut, it was okay to buy these other things, right?

Some Socks that Rock – one skein of lightweight, one of medium weight. We all know that sock yarn doesn’t count towards stash, and I was so startled to have more than one colorway to look at at a time, with no one pummeling me to get closer to the stock (Rhinebeck, anyone?) that I stood there for half an hour, making my happy choices. I settled on Farm House (on the left) and Space Dust. Not sure what socks I will make with them, but at least one is going on vacation with me next week

Here we have the results of a small dying demo put on by the folks at Louet. I dyed a bitty skein of sock yarn, they heat set it in their microwave, and later I rinsed it out and hung it up to dry on the shower rod at the motel. Yes, motel. The other reason I could buy yarn is that I was staying at the Super 8 down the road from the convention center rather than one of the lovely hotels that attached. HUGE difference in price, minimal aggravation as it was only 3 miles down the same road.

Did I mention that Stitches Midwest was sharing space with the WizardWorld.com convention? It made for some very interesting looks between groups crossing from the parking garage through the walkway into the convention center proper. They didn’t look like they could figure out why all these folks were carrying huge bags of string and looking all satiated and happy, and we thought the same thing about them and their packages of posters and action figures. We dressed up in sweaters and shawls, they dressed up as Imperial Storm Troupers and Batman and Robin, and several characters who got right by my pop culture ignorant self. Both groups had a great time, so to each his or her own.

Eventuall I took the L to Loopy – with several nice women who owned, worked at, or with friendly with someone who owned or worked at the store. The L is a fine invention – it seemed much speedier than the NYC subways, and of course it went from the city to the suburbs, which made it very convenient.

At Loopy I bought this, because I wasn’t going to buy the qiviut and a girl has to have some fun, right?

The bag was assembled in Cambodia from plastic Vietnamese fish wrappers, as far as any of could tell. I love it. After a quick dinner at Hackney’s with Plumfan from Knitty board and her friends, I staggered back towards the L – back to Rosemont, back to the car and then back to the Super 8. Where I collapsed into a heap.

Saturday was more Stitches, a guest podcast (will post the link when it goes live) and more collapsing. Sunday I drove off to Indianapolis for a signing at a Barnes and Noble, where I was greeted by the three member of the Indianapolis Knitting Guild who were still at Stitches! I could maybe have planned the timing a little bit better, but a good time was had by all – thanks for coming ladies!

Monday I drove home, Monday night the P something or other valve on the car blew up, Tuesday the car had a nice long and thankfully not too expensive rest at the Toyota Spa (otherwise known as the Washington Garage). I am not sure where the last two days went, but I am gearing up to rush headlong into an actual vacation.

Me, and the kid, and the Socks that Rock and the Qiviut are going to the beach to look for dolphins. Back in a week.