It's Been HOW Long? OY!

Goodness. It seems as if I've been gone a year instead of the better part of 2 weeks! This is unheard of. I'll do my best to rectify that here, and maybe I'll even do better going forward? One can hope, at least...

Of course, you can imagine that I've been busy buying? :)

Two weekends ago, I traveled down the road to MS's home to spend the weekend there. We discovered Backstitches, a knitting shop in Lynchburg that doesn't have a website.

:(

There I picked up the blue yarn you see in the photo, an AslanTrends Litoral Sparkle in a beautifully saturated blue/green colorway with silver sparkles thru it. The yarn came with a shawl/scarf pattern that MS really liked when he saw the sample, so of course, once the color was decided upon, I had to get it, right?

I also picked up the Cast On Cast Off book, but haven't had a second to peruse it...other books have also joined my knitting library, including Pursenalities. I saw one of the bags in that book made up at Backstitches and fell in love with it! Fall's coming and I sense another felted bag in my future... And then there's that gorgeous purple/fushia/gray yarn above which I picked up on Etsy. It's Phat Fiber's Ghost in the Ruins. She's in Finland, so it takes a bit to wing it's way to you, but well worth the wait...

I ordered a couple of skeins of this Debra Norville Serenity Sock yarn when I saw it at the same time I was ordering straight needles from Knitting Warehouse. You know I love the gray and purplr combo, right?

And once the insurance check came in, I set about rebuilding my jewelry chest (hah - don't think any of this is IN that chest, as it's not...). Nancy Thompson of Sassafras Creations was delightful, as always, to work with, and Rose of Sparkle Junkie has become a friend, as well as helping me replace some of the leather and silver bracelets I had come to love. Both shops I can highly recommend, if you're not familiar with them!

I don't intend to buy a lot more, as I'd accumulated way more than I needed over the years, anyway, but I felt nearly "nude" without my jewelry...

Probably my most exciting purchase, and one that was a bit over the top, even for me, was the Buffalo Wool Tracks sock yarn to make Color Affection:

That's the colorways Raven, Natural, and Timberwolf. When I saw the three colors together I was completely sold, and then after seeing a special offer on Facebook, I jumped and quickly save a bit on the price of the 3 skeins.

Yes, you're right, I probably DO need an intervention. Actually, I AM going to stop, as when I was tucking yarns into this bin and that, and stash diving for a swap I'm in, I suddenly thought, "No, you don't have enough, you have TOO MUCH! I do have to knit it up or give it up, one way or another...I'm aiming more on the knitting it up side, but things have to calm down in my world first...

We've been incredibly busy in August, with every single weekend involved in some event or other, but last weekend was the one both MS and I had been looking forward to all summer: Jazz Fest at Maymont in Richmond, VA. We took a long weekend and spent two full days enjoying excellent performers in a truly exquisite setting. I can tell you, it doesn't get a lot better than this. We also stayed in the truly delightful (if a tad quirky) Lindon Row Inn. When we checked in on Friday night, a wedding reception was being held in the courtyard garden that Edgar Allen Poe played in as a child! The combo that was providing music was really, really good! So that's how our weekend began, and then we went out to dinner with MS's son and his girlfriend to Elephant Thai. My first real Thai food, and oh my! I love it, tho' next time, I will suggest just a tad hotter than mild, rather than my usual "medium."

Saturday dawned cloudy and gray, and we both were a bit on edge about that. It stayed that way most of the day, and about 3, the rain began. We had raincoats, and umbrellas and were seated back in the trees, so it wasn't horrid, but MS said we could leave. I wasn't willing to, as there were acts upcoming that we'd wanted to hear, and it was iffy enough with the weather that it could clear up by the time we'd gotten back to the car! Not worth that. So we stayed, and got back to the hotel about 11pm, tired, achy, but oh, yes, HAPPY!

On Sunday, before we headed out, we went down to Carytown to shop a little, as MS had discovered in his online research before our trip that there was a yarn shop there! I stopped in to The Yarn Lounge and picked out two skeins of yarn. The staff was friendly and helpful, but also left me to browse, as I love to do, so I rate them decently high on my list of fun places, and they're quite likely to see me again, since MS has family in town, so I'm sure we'll be back again!

But I digress. MS had gone next door to a toy store, and I had to phone him to come back to help me make a decision between two colorways of yarn for...HIS first pair of handknit socks! This was his choice:

That's Lorna's Laces Sock in Camouflage (but we're calling it "forest" because he's not in the least taken with anything involving a war-image). The toe is on the needles as we speak!

Of course, in between these lovely weekends, we've been back at work, so you know well, that it's been a crazy few weeks here...I promise I'll try to do better and I hope you'll keep stopping by.

Especially since I really DO need someone to help keep me accountable to this knitting from stash thing I obviously haven't been doing lately! *wink*