It's been a while, eh?

Good heavens, where to begin? It's been nearly a week since I've been here, and plenty has happened. Most notably, my eldest son turned 7 on Friday. Not to sound like a pathetic, slobbering wreck of a mother, but omg, my baby is SEVEN!!! I look at the pictures of him from even just a couple years ago, and he has changed so much. All the baby fat is gone from his face & hands, and he's very tall & slender now (VERY tall...his head comes up to the middle of my chest). I'd post pictures, because I am intensely proud of my boy, and he's incredibly cute with his little turned up nose & huge dark eyes & freckles over his cheeks, but I'm just not comfortable with my kids on the internet like that. Y'all will just have to believe me...my boys are cuties. Heh. It's become a tradition every year to take the boys into the city to a museum for his birthday, and this year we went to the Museum of Science & Industry. It was the first time there for the kids, and the first time for dh since he was a kid himself, and we had a blast. All three of them (the two boys & dh, who is really just an overgrown kid himself) went nuts over the giant model train setup. As for me, I just wanted to stuff the 1936 Cadillac under my coat & sneak out the back door. It was a convertible, and one of only six left in the world. It was really weird to see how long it was, and how far the front wheels are from the back, but it was gorgeous just the same.

After we finished at the museum, we went to the Lego store downtown, and Loopy Yarns (where the boys all sat in the car & waited for me. Go figure.). The yarn store, to be honest, wasn't that exciting. Granted, I'm fairly spoiled by my local yarn store and the semi-local Wool & Co., but still... They had some nice yarns, like Lorna's Laces, and a cashmere sock yarn that really wanted to go home with me (but for $43 a skein, it stayed right where it was), but it was largely novelty yarns, and I'm just not a big fan. Meh. Still, it was fun to poke around.

Speaking of yarn shops, I managed a GREAT score at another semi-local yarn store that sadly went out of business this week. Their entire shop went for 40% off the day I was there, and I snagged a huge load of Cascade 220 for about $4.35 a skein. I also got enough Plymouth Encore for two more boy sweaters, a couple balls of Cascade Fixation, and about four balls of Wendy/Peter Pan for an undisclosed item in the future. On top of that, I picked up several new circular needles (and OH, how I wish I'd had my list of what I needed with me!! I would have gotten several more, if I'd only known which ones to get), a gorgeous Brittany crochet hook, and three new knitting books. One is a knitting journal by Melanie Falick that I've been coveting for ages--it's got a handy little chart to list all your needles, so you won't have to miss out on deals when you're in yarn stores with sales anymore. The others are Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, and Knit Christmas Stockings, by I don't know who offhand (it's shaped like a stocking, if that helps any). I was SO THRILLED with my haul! The only downside is the financial nausea afterwards. I mean, honestly, when am I ever going to see gorgeous Cascade 220 for four bucks a skein?! But on the other hand, we really have very little money to spare right now, and I feel like a heel for spending it all on me. While I was out that day, I also stopped at The Fold, a really cool little yarn shop in Marengo. Well, actually, it's just outside of Marengo, on a little bitty farm in the hills. It's got a really sweet, homey feel to it (it helps that it's actually in the lady's house), and it's just fabulous!!! I mean, hot damn! There is SO MUCH in this little shop...I really wish that I'd had more time to browse. She's got TONS of spinning supplies--beautiful spinning wheels & drop spindles, huge bags of roving stacked to the ceiling, and yarn out the wazoo. I don't spin yet, so I don't know much about it, but oooooh, those bags of beautifully colored roving...*drooool*. They were soooo soft, I just wanted to crawl inside them and take a nap. There were sooo many different yarns, too...lots of really high quality fibers, incredible colors, some I didn't recognize but wanted anyway. I only bought one skein there, though--a skein of Socks That Rock in Sapphire, and a pair of short size 2 dpns. Socks That Rock is so beautifully colored! I was actually pretty glad that she was short on stock that day, because I could really get addicted to the jewel-like colorways. They aren't cheap, though I hear that you get what you pay for with this yarn, so we'll see how it knits up. Oh, and the big bonus with this yarn? It's superwash merino. Mmmmm... Toni Neill, the owner, was incredibly nice and friendly, as was her enormous German Sheperd, Eric. Eric was just the biggest sweetheart, all friendly tail wagging & soft brown eyes. I've got a major weakness for GSDs, so that helps too, but he really is a cool dog. And honestly, I just adore small shops with pets in them. I've always thought a bookstore with resident cats is about the most inviting thing ever, so a yarn shop with a dog is pretty darn cool too. And, amazingly, I didn't see ANY dog hair on any of the merchandise, not that it would bother me anyway. My cat sheds on it as soon as I get it home, so it really makes no difference to me, but it was pretty darn impressive.

D is for DONE!!

And now we get to the yarn photo section of the day, folks: I've finished two major (for me, anyways) projects this week! Yay! First up is the Ben & Jerry's Cozy for my mom. I found this pattern in Knit Wit, by Amy Singer. It's made with Cascade Fixation, which is 98.3% cotton and 1.7% elastic. The elastic makes it really weird to work with...I hear it's great for socks, and I suppose it would be, but it turned out just slightly loose on my B&J carton. I'm looking forward to making one for me next, now that I know more about how Fixation behaves, and how to work with it to make it do what you want. At any rate, it's pretty cute, in a stupid sort of way. Blogger's being snotty about posting pictures right now, though, so I'll have to come back in a bit to try again.

Second finished object is that weird felted purse for my mom (notice a trend here yet?). Now, I've never made a purse before, and this was based on a pattern but then largely altered, so keep that in mind. The strap is super wide, but that's what she asked for. I even put a pocket in the inside, which was REALLY tricky to sew. Um, I'm not a very good seamstress, either... But anyway, it's done, and I'm hoping she'll like it.

I'm really glad to be done with these two. Next up is my very first sock! I cast on last night, and I've got about an inch of the cuff ribbing done so far. Yay!

My apologies for the boring, unimaginative nature of today's D. It's just a brainless kind of day here today...snowing & cold & sorta grey. Bleh.

OH, and I nearly forgot to add--yay Olympics! Yay Team Dekalb! Yay goofy gold medal! Heehee...