A good Saturday for me :o)

While I would love to post pictures here detailing my post, my boyfriend has my camera with him and he said its not working so well anyway so I'm not even sure it'll work when he gets home ... so I'll try and find links for the yarns I am describing :o)

I accomplished all that I wanted to today, my plan was to put air in the one tire I couldn't yesterday because of the way cars were parked at the service station I stopped at on Friday to add air to my tires, go to the yarn shop and spend my points and a gift card I received, stop at Jo Ann's with a gift card and see what I fancied, stop at CVS and pick up laundry detergent and the cat's medication, all done!

At the yarn store I sat for a while with the ladies and chatted and knitted. Then I got down and dirty shopping. I wanted to pick up sock yarn for my boyfriend's mom, she always comments on the self striping yarns and how cool they are. I saw Berroco Sox in a colorway similar to what I was looking for that I thought would suit her #1476. And of course I had to pick out a funky one for myself, so I chose #1474 (it was a real toss up between that and 1473).

Then the instructor/clerk there that I hang out with when I go there helped me pick out colors for a Faux Dr. Who Scarf for my boyfriend. I found a cool pattern in Odd Ball Knitting for "Ted's Scarf". I liked this more than any I've seen that are like Dr. Who Scarves because of the pattern stitch.

The parttern calls for Mission Falls 1824 and while I do LOVE that yarn I didn't want to spend $80 on a scarf. So instead I substituted Encore DK that I already had on hand, bought more Encore DK today along with Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light and Jo Sharp to make up enough colors.

The Plymouth Encore DK are colors: 1415, 1444, 389, 517, 999, 670, 658 (which I now realize looks a lot like 670 that I just bought, LOL) and 355. I also have two other Jo Sharp here that I might subsitute instead since 658 is so similar to another color! Jo Sharp I have Ruby #326, Tangerine #003, and Glade #908. The Ultra Alpaca Light is #4294 and 4275. Now I just have to make sure to assign letters so them so that I can follow the pattern with my substitutions!

I also picked up Knit Simple Winter 2007/08 and a sock pattern Monet's Twist Socks by Julia Sprague. Anita's Stitch Markers were pictured in this issue of Knit Simple! Check out her Etsy shop.

Now I wonder what I actually spent on the scarf, LOL!! Not counting the yarn I had at home, I spent $31 today and $25 of that was a redemption of loyalty points, so really I spent $6 ... what a bargain!! I intentionally waited until I had accumulated points to get the yarn for this scarf ... yeah let's not discuss how much I spent to accumulate points, hahaha! We knitters don't think that way!

Another cool thing that happened today was a woman stopped in and dropped off loads of old knitting magazines that she wanted to be rid of but didn't want to just throw away. So we got to go through them and take whatever we wanted. I grabbed several issues of Knit Simple and Creative Knitting from 2004 and 2005. Some of the mags were just too old, yellowed and the patterns really out of date. But I did get a few good ones with things I will actually knit in them.

Once I made all of my purchases and signed up for two classes - Continental Knitting and Seaming & Finishes, I was on my way to Jo Ann's. When I parked in the lot I looked over to get my purse and noticed I parked next to a woman who attends Stamp Club with me, LOL!! She owns a landscaping business so her business name is on the side of her SUV. As I was wondering what store she was in I hear "Angela!!!" and there she was. So we stopped for a hug and short chat. Speaking of which I better finish the challenge we had since Stamp Club is this coming Wednesday!

Off into Jo Ann's I picked up some wire and beads to make more stitch markers. I picked up letter beads to make sock stitch markers to follow Cat Bordhi's new book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters" and I also found some cool examples of stitch markers recently using alphabet beads like "WTF" "OOPS" "I -heart- KNITTING" etc. I also picked up bent nose pliers, I have a combo tool to make markers with but its difficult to bend the wire around the bottom of the loop so I think these will work better.

I finished my stitch markers for the Winter Exchange and will be mailing them out next week. Since I don't have my camera here I figured I would try scanning them and found it much easier than trying to photograph them!

And last, but definitely not least. I received my Winter Wonderland Swap package when I got home from my adventures today! Unfotunatley because I don't have a camera I cannot photo all the goodies, but I could get the yarn in my scanner, LOL!! And its was a fantastic choice, Christmasy for sure and I have been wanting to try Crystal Palace Panda Cotton, so its even cooler!

Kim also sent Seatle's Best in Hazelnut Cream (hazelnut is one of my favs!), Hot Cocoa Mix, a mug with Christmas lights pictures on in and wrapped in a knitted cozy, a knitted Christmas ball that looks like one I'd seen in a recent magazine using recycled plastic bags to fill it, an adorable cocoa mug ornament and really pretty green and red stitch markers. Thanks Kim!