Stomping Through Mudpuddles: Busy Weekend=Long Post

but not to worry... there are pictures, too.

So, Saturday, amid much fiasco about travel arrangements, mostly due to my own stupidity and inability to see logic at times, I met up with Michele to go to the Orlando Needleworks Show. We were both really excited to get to go and play with all the nice fancy yarn that you can't buy anywhere in our county.

So we get to the convention center, and pay our $6 for parking, and the garage is packed. We get inside, pay our $10 each for entry, and find that the needleworks show is mostly scrapbooking and rubber stamps. Of course it is. Why wouldn't a NEEDLEWORKS show have those things? I was disappointed that there were only a handful of booths that were offering any sort of yarn at all, and sort of felt duped by the title. To be fair, there were quite a few booths with quilting supplies, so I guess, technically, it was a needleworks show. But the ads and flyers made it sound like there would be quite a few more vendors than there were. And the vendors weren't all that friendly and outgoing, either. You'd think that if you'd spent that much money to take part in the thing, you'd at least be trying to chat up your prospective buyers. Then again, when you have the corner on the market, I guess you don't have to go out of your way to please anyone.

That said, the yarn that was there was scrumptious. Michele and I browsed all of the booths, and it was really quite comical because every booth we went to, we both oogled the exact same thing. It's a good thing we like each other, or else there might have been some catty fighting over certain yarns. :)

I was a smart girl, though. Before leaving town I removed my debit card from my wallet and took only cash. That way, I HAD to restrain myself and only buy the things I was on a mission for. Wait til you see just how close I came to blowing it. :)

You see, I had one particular project and one particular yarn that I wanted. It's intended to be a gift for someone for Christmas, and it had to be just right. I had a few select colors that I was looking for, and while I didn't find exactly the yarn I wanted, I found something very close.

I snatched it up, along with a couple ounces of roving to play around with. I'm still not a pro at the drop spindle, but I enjoy playing with it, so the little 1 oz bags are perfect for now, and give me just enough handspun to add a little flair to a project.

So, disappointed with the show, but not ready to admit defeat, Michele and I got the brilliant idea that, hey, Orlando has real honest to goodness yarn shops! Lets go find some! So we got the phone book, and we got the address, and we headed for the car.

It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold, so we put the top down and acted like a couple of movie stars.

Here we are (aren't we cute!) calling Wil to give us mapquest directions to the holy mecca of fiber.

Yes, the locals do call it Sip n' Knit.

Here is where we had the most fun all day. Unfortunately, I'd already spent most of my budget on admission and one skein of yarn at the needleworks show. It almost kills me to thing that I would have had another 30-something bucks to blow here, had I skipped the show and just gone here. Oh well, it's the price of experience, right?

I did manage to eek a couple of balls of yarn out of the change in my pocket. How could I resist?

And then it dawned on us... we were hungry. Not just a little hungry, more like that "I haven't had anything but a cup of coffee all day" type of hungry.

Fortunately, there's a Publix almost directly in front of the yarn shop, and so we pooled what resources we had left and we bought a sub and a half gallon of tea to share and we had a picnic right there in the parking lot while petting the new yarn.

Here are just some silly pictures of us oogling our new purchases... and petting them, too. :)

Now on to Sunday. Whew!

While Michele and I were at the needlworks show, we discovered that the International Auto Show was being held in the convention rooms just down the hall. This immediately made me sad because I'd made Wil stay at home because I figured he'd be bored to tears hanging out with us. So, I was morally obligated to take him back in return for taking care of J all day while I was out playing.
J had a great time too. The kid has a fascination with Mustangs, and he got his fill of them.