Weekend: Shopping, Knitting, Accomplishing Generally

Yesterday was a day of fun that was long and, although definitely fun, also tiring. Today has been the accomplishy day, also kind of fun, or at least satisfying, but also tiring. I'm kind of a wreck! My legs are sore from all the stairs I've done today on top of all I did yesterday, and my hands are sore (it's a periodic problem with my arthritis), and I plan to write here and they settle on the couch to watch a movie, because folks, I am done for today. Whew!

I've gotten a lot done. Laundry, plenty of it, and some much overdue desk cleanup (including finding a bill that was put in the to-file pile before it was actually paid, whoops! can't remember the last time I did something that silly), paid the bills and balanced the checkbook and filing and organizing--not everything, but it's a lot better than it was, and I sent a couple of emails to resolve some open questions I've been meaning to get around to. I must have found this guy somehow.

I even ordered my free credit reports, something you can do every year and I've been meaning to do for ... oh ... a couple of years. Whatever, they're good, all green lights, no surprises. (Thankfully.) I also vacuumed, washed a few dishes, and started the dishwasher. I've earned the putting the feet up tonight.

Yesterday didn't end well, since the Bruins failed to live up to expectations, but otherwise it was such a good day. I headed up to the north shore, had lunch at Woodman's, then went to Coveted to get yarn for a project. Unfortunately it is a blog-secret project, so I'm not going to show you that yet, but (of course) I got some other yarn while I was there, which I can show you.

This one was on sale (reason one to get it), it's a beautiful deep blue (two), and it is so, so, SO soft (that's three). I'm thinking cowl, but who knows, I may just carry it around with me for now.

It's from Ella Rae, and called Latte, who knows why. Are lattes typically soft and fluffy?

Then I got a skein of sock yarn (naturally) from Mad Colors, in this charmingly named colorway:

Yes, "It's Just a Flesh Wound" is deep red to almost black, not something that is currently in my sock drawer! The camera does some interesting things, doesn't it? From this picture, you would think it's almost completely black:

But here it is from each end:

Fun and different.

So that was Coveted, and from there I went on to Danvers for my regular Savers--Used Book Superstore--Ocean State Job Lot run. It's so handy, having the three close together, and I haven't been in a while. I got a few things, nothing exciting, at OSJL, and at the bookstore I didn't find any fun vintage books but I picked up Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book to own, and a book on tape for the car, and two movies, Harry Potter 7 part 1, and the one I'm going to watch tonight, Foul Play (!).

In Savers, though, I really hit the jackpot, and I don't mean the little bit of yarn, or the polo shirt, or the pair of capris (though they're Talbots, and so well made). It started when I was looking through the yarn, though; there was quite a lot this time, and the bags were sliding and falling, so I looked around to see if there was something nearby I could use as a transfer point. I glanced right, and about three feet away were a pair of short bookcases. Aha, I thought, those would hold some yarn ... wait ... hold some yarn? Does anyone remember when I was talking recently about how I need to work on my yarn storage?

So. Two bookcases, real wood, sturdy, nothing fancy, but at $12.99 each, well, come home with me, guys!

Here they are, being checked by the inspector, prior to cleaning.

Once they were clean, I brought out all the sock yarn, and sorted it by color. I have rather a lot.

This is what happens when you want to buy yarn and don't have a project in mind. "I can always buy sock yarn!" Yes, judging by the evidence, I can and I do. And so much blue, blue/green, blue/purple...

It doesn't stay spread out, though, and it maybe a little less frightening quantity in two shelves instead of six.

Maybe.

Anyway, I stacked the two cases in the office, and I keep smiling at them there.

I've been putting more things there today, including the yarn for the mitered square blanket I'm working on. Pretty!

The yarn I got at Savers, by the way? My first cones. This one is cotton, and was $1.99.

Which I know because it has a label inside.

Sometime when my hands are feeling strong, I can see what all the fuss is about hand-knit washcloths.

The other is mystery yarn, and some other time I'll find the spot in one of the Yarn Harlot's books when she gives advice on identifying such yarn. In the meantime, it's laceweight, and it was $2.99 (ooh, the big spender).

And that's about it. I did stop in at the Salvation Army store on my way home, and found a few things there, nothing that exciting to share. Then I came home, and while averting my eyes from the Bruins, finished knitting a sock. So then there were two.

In conclusion, though this has nothing to do with anything and wasn't even taken this weekend, please admire the kitty toes. From sock toes to kitty toes, that's the only connection.

That is all.

Thank you.