PlazaJen: Passion Knit

OK! So we're back, safe and sound, due to our trusty driver Kyra, who pretty much drove the whole way. Beth was our local tour guide, since she is from the Quad Cities, and we hit the great local establishments under her guidance - Happy Joe's Pizza for lunch on Saturday, and Whitey's for shakes on Sunday morning. Yes. I said shakes on Sunday morning. Pumpkin shakes with Reese's peanut butter cups. You try telling me it's not for breakfast, because you are WRONG. Oh, yes, and it's certainly a one-eyebrow raised kinda name, but once you have a pumpkin shake in your face, you could care less if it sounds like it was made by the KKK.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, Friday morning. Here was our trusty transportation:

Kyra decorated our rented Kia Sedona with some festive magnets from Patternworks. (People, I can only do so many text links in one post, bear with me.) Basically our 6-hour trip took 12 hours on Friday, because we went to three yarn shops in Des Moines - Creative Corner, Donna's Creations and theVillage Knit Wit(my favorite of the shops) - and then the Tanger Outlet Mall in Williamsburg, and we ate at the Amana Colonies in what can only be described as a blend between surreal and the Twilight Zone. I forget how much perm solution is consumed in my home state. No offense to those who do, because perms can be very helpful, however some people take it to a level it should never go. Our waitress was in a very interesting get-up, involving ruffles and layers and polyester, and her counter-suggestion for Dr.Pepper was Mountain Dew, and somehow that just clinched the oddness of the whole experience. But the sauerkraut was awesome, and the food was hearty, and it made me really long for the Rheinland Restaurant in Independence MO. Spaetzle..... Mmmmm... and it's across from a yarn shop...... I DIGRESS!

So we got in to our hotel, and my Sleep Number bed worked...on one side. The other side had a broken pump, so I had this unbearable ridge halfway down the bed. The front desk sent up Vern, who was very sweet & offered to change the pump, it would only take ten minutes, but the broken a/c was another story, that would take over and hour & a half. So we moved rooms at 10:15 pm (FUN!) and continued to mess with the sleep number beds. I hate them. There you go! It's always good to rule out something you thought at one point you might want to buy!

Saturday morning we headed out to the Yarn Shoppe, where we all found something we "needed". Everyone at the store was lovely and helpful and if you find yourself in the area, find them. They were great! Then we had taco pizza for lunch, went back to the hotel & prepared for the wedding.


The ceremony was lovely, I cried (of course) and took lots of pictures. I'll get them uploaded to Flickr in the next day or so. This is my favorite picture of the just-happily married couple:


Then, it was off to the reception, and we all had our knitting - because we know how to party! Actually, it was great because we were early, and it helped pass some time and the other guests pretty much instantly knew who we were. Each of the tables had a different cake, which was fun - ours was red velvet. I'll give you a picture of the bride & groom's table (butter pecan), and eagle-eyed readers will spot the same decorative tulle from the bridal shower, which made all of us go "Awwww", because it was like a little piece of our dear friend Jo Ann was there at the party (she was unable to go because she was on vacation in France. We understood her not changing those plans.)



Despite having had several glasses of wine, our table allowed me to cut the cake. I was relieved to hear, later, that other people had the same issues transferring the cake in one cohesive piece to a plate. It all tasted excellent, and that's what mattered the most! Perhaps if I had been industrious enough to stand up to do it....



The other notables from the party: Tamar & I are having a commitment ceremony to each other, the song will be "Dykes in White Satin", it will be called "Brokeback Knit Night" and honestly, to try to capture all the funny moments would detract from the overall point of this blog post. :) We had a lot of fun, needless to say, and I'm just going to apologize right now for the fact I'm pretty sure I'm on the official video dropping a very loud F-bomb. God, you just can't take me anywhere.

Sunday was our drive back, and we were able to shave some time off our previous record - at least three hours - and we also stopped at another yarn shop in Des Moines: Purls the Yarn Studio, which is my favorite of all in the area now. We stumbled on the last yarn store in the area, Knitted Together, because it was right by the awesome noodle place we went to for lunch, but alas, they are closed on Sundays. Oh well! I bought some Lopi at Purls and tried to make an entire hat for JWo in the last leg of our journey, because I borrowed everything from Beth, including the pattern, and somehow thought I needed to give everything back when the van pulled in to our driveway. It could explain why typing all this has made me twinge a bit..... I worked on a pair of socks the rest of the trip, and I think it's safe to say we all had a really good time. It was a whirlwind, and I am extremely grateful I have today off - even if it's going to be 90-degrees. Bleah. Fall? Where did you go, good friend?

OH and I made tote bags for everyone on the trip, you remember, the endless stream of pom-pom trim? And they turned out really well. I still need to take a picture of those, and finish the ones for the people who couldn't go. So there will be more wedding/trip/bachelorette-party-related pictures and blog entries to come. In the meantime, I'm jealous of Justin & Kristin's week on a beach in Mexico. But happy for them nonetheless! It was a great weekend.