Shopping For Fun and Therapy

I did my part, yesterday and today, to boost the local economy. You're welcome.

First, I bought a t-shirt. Yes, another t-shirt. Yes, another hockey t-shirt. Yes, another Bruins Stanley Cup t-shirt.

I don't need another t-shirt, but I needed this t-shirt:

Last year's to-do list. All checked off! I'd seen this one around, and me wants it.

By the way, if you're local and a sports fan, Newbury Comics has a surprisingly good selection of items for the local teams*, though I think of them as a place for music and offbeat collectibles and buttons, all of which they do still have.
*Some of it is kind of weird, as is their wont, but I was tempted by a lot of things.

In fact, I bought a button for a friend:

I happen to know she agrees with this because a few years ago, she knit the planets in the solar system, then hung them Pluto-centric. She was delighted with the button.

I stopped by a local independent bookstore (not so many of them around, are there?*), and bought the new Charlaine Harris. I'd read it from the library, but wanted to own it. The woman who rang me up commented on the pretty cover, I guess for the colors. Not the bats.
*It occurred to me that I have more small yarn stores close to me than I have bookstores. I love the yarn, don't get me wrong, but where are all the bookstores?

Today I went up to Coveted Yarn in Gloucester, for three reasons:

1. I wanted longer cables for the interchangeable needles I got, so I can see the shawl better as I work on it.
2. I had a coupon for 10% off the total purchase.
3. It was a good distraction on the day before the interview, when I had time to fill without over-thinking interview prep.

The yarn will be revealed another day, when I can get better pictures, but I did get a fair bit of it, yup. I was in there for more than an hour, and only one other customer came in the whole time, which is a little sad for such a great store, plus a huge contrast to the way it is during the yarn crawl, when you can barely move around. I felt like I actually got to see everything today, taking it slowly and going around and around. It was very therapeutic.

And the longer cable totally does what I wanted it to: spread out.

Slow progress is being made. Not only is it not social knitting, I have to count the stitches after every right-side row so I can catch mistakes before fixing them is too hard (I miss a lot of yarnovers, or throw in extra ones, but fortunately they are easy-peasy to fix when purling back on the wrong side). It takes concentration, so I suppose it's fortunate that I like how it's coming out.

Back to shopping! Well, lunch first, since I can't pass Woodman's at meal time without stopping. Similarly, if I'm going up to the north shore, that means I'm passing right by Savers and the Used Book Superstore in Danvers, so why not stop?

I found three things in Savers: a brand new bath rug, so soft; a nice grey sweater, cardigan style, apparently new as well; and an LBD. No, not a little black dress: for me it was a little brown dress. I hesitated over it on the hanger, a simple sleeveless sheath, then fortunately decided to try it on. Take my word for it, it looks much better on me than on the hanger!

About knee length, no weird gaps around the arms, overall pretty flattering. I didn't find anything there that would be good with it, but at home I canvassed the closet, and I think I'll wear this over it:

Have to see how it looks on, but I think it will do nicely. The top is one my mother brought me, from the charity shop where she volunteers. The dress cost me ten bucks. Not bad!

The bookstore is the same one where I had the unbelievable lucky find last month. I knew that wouldn't happen again, but I was hoping, in the same yeah-right way as last time, that I might find a copy of T. Tembarom, because that copy I got off eBay? Actually has a binding problem, not with the quality of the job but with a whack of pages in the middle being out of order, duplicated, and missing. See? Page 138, meet page 199.

I can't believe this copy has been hanging around this long and no one threw the book out! I love books, but the content is the point. If you can't read the story, why keep it for the shell?

Anyway:

Yes. Again. On the left, the copy with the page problem; on the right, the one I found today. It's not in quite as good shape, in one way, but it does seem to have all the pages, and in order, which is an improvement. I won't toss the first one until I've read through the second to be sure. This way is better than the other.

The thought crossed my mind that perhaps another FHB fan's library had been donated, which would explain both The Shuttle and T. Tembarom being there (though not two copies of The Shuttle), but I looked closely and didn't see another book by her in the whole vintage area. So if I find another one the next time I'm there, we'll know that something crazy really is happening.

That's it for the shopping day(s), though I did notice and wonder at a car in a parking lot:

Why two, do you suppose? Theories?