Road Trips

Paul came in at lunch time Saturday and his quick sandwich somehow turned into a decision to drive to Racine to wish Rob a happy birthday. My first thought was to call Jeannine to ask if she minded a couple of spur of the moment interlopers (she was very gracious); my second was "Thank goodness I have Alyssa's new hat to work on." To me, there is nothing worse than four hours in the car with nothing to do. Sure, I could offer to drive, but really ...

Paul went out to feed hay and I packed my traveling knitting bag and we were ready to go within a reasonable window of time. Saturday was a bright, beautiful day and smooth traveling for working on a lovely little off-white alpaca hat. Alyssa loves cables. She often points out knitwear designs that make my head spin with the number of cables involved (she's never received on of those), but this little hat seemed just right. The best part was that by the time we hit Milwaukee on the way down (I decided it was time to stop knitting right around Mayfair Rd when I caught myself sticking the spare double point bamboo needle in my mouth between cables with the sharp little point actually pointing inward so I could potentially skewer myself into one big old kabob if Paul needed to stop quickly) I was at a spot where I knew I could complete the hat on the way home. And finish it I did ... about 40 miles from home. After snipping off the none-too-much excess yarn, I pulled my needles from my little pouch and remembered that I bought them on another road trip.

Paul and I went to Lincoln's home in Springfield, IL and onto Hannibal, MO to visit Mark Twain's home a few Octobers ago. A green and brown scarf for Evan was the project of the road for that trip. It was very close to being finished when we stopped to take a ride on a Mississippi River paddle wheeled boat. The day was so cold that I wore the scarf -- long tails of yarn, needles and all -- on the river boat. With the exception of the temperature, the ride was great. The subsequent tour of Hannibal was fun, too. The museum featured an exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings -- the originals of so many Life magazine covers -- that were amazing in their detail. And, of course we stopped in Huck Finn's yarn shop and Tom Sawyer's quilt shop. OK, I don't remember what they were called, but I know Tom and Huck must have been accomplished in every needle art. At any rate, when I pulled my little needle case from my cute little pouch on Saturday, that road trip came flooding back.

For the non-compulsive, or maybe even less compulsive, it might seem silly to be able to track almost every trip by the project at hand. For me, it is second nature. I recently completed another project from that Springfield and Hannibal trip. In Tom (or Huck's) quilt shop, I bought a fat quarter (18" x 22") of fabric depicting the famous twosome whitewashing a fence, fishing and more. Just a few years later, it became part of a quilt with the leftovers from many other projects and a few fill-ins bought on another road trip with some good friends. It's pictured here with the cabled hat, Hannibal needle case and cute little felted wool sheep pouch from Jeannine. There is a beauty, at least in my mind, in the way all of these things came to mind and came together because of one spontaneous decision to take a little road trip on a beautiful winter day.