Bad Habit

Before John & I retired, we used to go to stores & never look at price tags.  If we liked something, we either tossed it into the cart or told the salesclerk "I'll take it."  I miss those days.  Now I must be more careful of my spending.  I must look at price tags.  I usually remember to do this, but then came New York City.  As I mentioned in my last post, I bought some yarn, mostly sock yarn, from 2 knitting shops there ... Knitty City (my favorite) & Purl Soho.  I didn't bat an eye at the cash register when the clerk told me what I needed to pay.  I figured that I had bought several skeins of yarn & shelling out that amount of money was worth it.  I still think it's worth it, but hoo boy!  I got out the yarn to take photos to share with you today & nearly choked.  I saw that one of the skeins was $30.00!  I then grabbed my receipt.  Seems I paid $30 each for 2 skeins of yarn.  No biggie ... it was a special treat, but I will have to pay more attention next time   : )

This is the yarn I bought at Purl Soho.  Going clockwise from the top left corner, there's a skein of Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino (60% baby suri/40% merino) in the color Crimson.  I think it may actually be a bit thick for sock yarn but I'll find something to do with it.  It feels like heaven!  Next is a skein of Anzula Sebastian in the color Madam, 70% superwash merino/30% sea cell which is a blend of seaweed & cellulose.  The next yarn is Manos del Uruguay, DK weight, 70% merino/30% silk.  This is an interesting yarn.  It is hand dyed in large kettles by a cooperative of 400 artisans scattered throughout the countryside of Uruguay.  My skein was dyed by Leticia in the town of Fraile.  Last are 3 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca, 50% alpaca/50% silk, in the color Plum.  Softer than a baby's bottom   : )   I bought the knitting bag as a memento of my visit to the shop.

This next photo shows my haul from the wonderful, fabulous Knitty City.  Once again going clockwise from the top left corner, there's a skein of La Jolla Original Hand Painted yarn (Baah!), 100% merino superwash merino, in the color Singin' the Blues.  In the top right corner is a ball of Zauberball Starke 6 , 75% virgin wool sw/25% nylon, color name Pale Shimmer.  Under the Zauberball are 2 skeins of Terra-Logwood, DK weight, 40% baby alpaca/40% wool/20% silk.  At the bottom of the photo is a skein of Frog Tree Pediboo, 80% merino/20% bamboo.  No color name.  Last there are 2 skeins, one pink, one lilac.  The pink skein, color Sassafrass, is from Spud & Chloe, 80% superwash wool/20% silk. The lilac skein is another Frog Tree Pediboo, same description as above.  While looking at this photo you are probably thinking "Wow! What a neat knitting bag she bought!"  Well ladies, I did not buy this bag!  It is the bag that the store GIVES you when you buy something!  God bless 'em!  What a wonderful place   : ) 

So there are my stash acquisitions from NYC. This morning I had an appointment in Frankfort (about 40 minutes from here) & there is a well known shop there called The Woolery.  I've been living here in the devil's playground for going on 4 years now & I have never gone to The Woolery.  I checked on MapQuest & found that it is located less than 2 miles from where my appointment was, so I decided today would be the day I'd visit.  I even took my camera along to get photos of the shop!  Sadly, road construction was going on & the route that MapQuest gave me was blocked off.  Ah well, I will live to see it another day.  There is a knitting shop in Shelbyville & one in Louisville that I've never been to yet, & I just found out from Peggy Lee that there's apparently a "drop your garters" knitting shop in Bowling Green.  I see a few road trips in my future   : )

The temps this weekend are going to be in the 60s.  That just makes me want to gag!!! However, it was quite nippy yesterday morning & I caught a picture of Sophie warming her butt on the heating vent.  Silly girl   : )

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Since it's going to be rather warm here (again, gag!!!), John & I will be going outside to clear some yard debris & I might even do a bit of weed pulling.  Such will be the bulk of my miserable life for roughly the next 7 months ... a constant battle with weeds.  GAG!!!