Stash Enhancement

What began as a day trip to Richmond to a craft show turned into a stash enhancement trip.  That is not all that surprising considering that the driver was a new knitter who has been badly bitten by the knitting bug!  It all started out innocently enough.  A group of us girls from work decided to check out the annual Virginia Christmas Show.  On the way to Richmond, Ronda casually mentioned that she had the address for the Ben Franklin Craft Store in Richmond, and maybe we could stop on the way home as it was on the way back (sort of).  Well, after spending 7 hours walking all over that craft show, we wearily piled back into Ronda's van and headed back out.  We figured that we could easily find the way to the Ben Franklin store.  Wrong.  Before long, we realized that we were lost in downtown Richmond.  No problem.  Being women, we were not afraid to stop and ask directions.  At least not until we noticed that all of the businesses had bars on their windows!  Well, maybe stopping and asking directions was not the best idea after all at that particular place and time.  So onward we plunged.  Several wrong turns later and many dollars poorer from all of the toll booths, we found ourselves in the parking lot of the Ben Franklin Craft Store.  Finally.  Once inside, we had a quick conference and decided to meet back at the front of the store in an hour.  What??? An hour????  We had just spent 7 hours stomping all over that craft show, (and who knows how long roaming all over Richmond touring all of the toll booths)  and now we were going to spend another hour stomping all over this Ben Franklin store???  And with an Olive Garden beckoning from across the parking lot???  Oh well.  Off to the yarn section I went, figuring that I would find the same things that our local Michael's has.  Wrong.  Needless to say, I never even made it out of the few isles that make up the yarn section of that store!  Besides the usual Michael's fare, there were lots of new and different yarns that I had heard of but never seen in person.  There was so much to see and to fondle and covet, that I thought I would faint from sheer happiness! So what did I end up with?  Some yarn called Pom Pom from NY yarns in 2 different shades (I just couldn't decide between the blue and the pink!)  The fun fur was on sale also, so I bought some in matching colors to the Pom Pom to make scarves for Christmas presents.  I also bought a color of Patons Divine that I had not seen before -- Regal Red.  I bought enough to make a scarf and a hat.  And I bought a pattern for a lovely cardigan coat.  The pattern calls for Divine in Night Sky -- I thought that the Regal Red scarf and hat would look really nice with the night sky coat.  There was so much gorgeous yarn there that I had a really hard time deciding what to buy -- especially since I was exhausted and starving by that point!  We will definitely have to make a return trip to that Ben Franklin Store -- only the next time we will have to go there first!  In knitting news, I am almost finished the second ball of Unikat on my poncho.  I have started the ribbing, and it does not look like that second ball will finish it up.  Luckily, the extra ball I ordered from Roxy came earlier this week, so there will not be a break in the knitting!  Hopefully, I will have a picture of the finished poncho to share soon!