As I mentioned previously, my birthday was a week ago. I turned 29 (for the first time). So this is my last year in my twenties! Between that and the high school reunion a couple weeks ago, I am feeling, well, adult. I didn’t do anything for my birthday except force the family to take me to Country Waffles for breakfast. I generally don’t do much for my birthday because my friends aren’t in town, though next year I might have a party or something since my birthday still falls on a three day weekend (if you’re lucky – when the 4th of July falls on the weekend, you either get the friday or monday off, and since my birthday is the 5th, I often get a holiday weekend out of it).
But anyway so all I did for my birthday was go out ot breakfast, get presents from my parents, sister and granddad, and then went out and spent birthday money at the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette.
My mom had fun ordering my birthday present from Knitpicks. Sometimes they just give money but this year I said that I wanted “stuff.” Sometimes it’s just fun to open presents.
So my mom got me some blocking blocks and wires, and some delightful yarn:
That’s Knitpicks Essential in dark green, african violet, and tuscany, and some Knitpicks Gloss in mermaid. I can tell you right now that the gloss is destined to be a shawl of some sort, possibly Laminaria. And I’ve always liked the purple; I made some socks for Sarah out of that, that I always kind of regretted giving away because they were just that nice. 😛 Knitpicks Essential is a great yarn, very soft and seems to hold up well. I’ve used it a few times for gift socks but I’ve never used it for myself.
Anyway, so after I collected presents from the familia (Abby also updated my Netflix account for another six months – yay!) I stopped at Jason’s where I picked up some cold hard cash. I would have stayed to chat but he shooed me out. He had tripped on his oxygen cord a few days earlier and fallen on his face and frankly looked like he had lost a prize fight, so he probably didn’t want to be bothered by yappy grandchildren.
Thanking him profusely for the Benjamin now in my hot little hands I headed over to the Yarn Boutique to spend it. (What, wait for my Las Vegas trip? Oh, how you jest! Unlike my father, who has saved birthday and Christmas money for years in anticipation of a flat screen TV, my birthday/Christmas money is normally spent within if not hours, at least days of acquisition.)
I got a copy of Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles and some awesome yarn:
Jason has great taste. 😉
Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon and Dream in Color Baby in Happy Forest. The Baby is destined to be a shawl too.
THEN I got an email from the Loopy Ewe with one of their sneak-ups and bought myself a birthday present with my own money.
They got a big order of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock which is one of my absolute favorite sock yarns – I knit the Kai Mei socks out of it and was really impressed. I ordered two skeins of Smoke (yes, another destiny as a shawl), one of Moss and another of Pumpkin.
I have to stop buying orange now because I apparently like exactly the same shade of orange. I have similar colors now in the above Fleece Artist, Miss Babs and Sanguine Gryphon Eidos (not to mention the Terracotta Malabrigo sock I made the Ishbel out of). Oops.
And now I promise I will be good and stop buying yarn for awhile.
Like… October? Can I last that long? Could I even last until… Stitches West in February 2010? A lofty if not unattainable goal (though kind of unrealistic, let’s face it).
Let’s start with October. I think that’s doable. Also there is the sheep and wool festival thing I’m going to in Dixon on the 3rd.
And, I am going to Vegas, and the King Tut Exhibit ($32.50/person!!!1) and Disneyland again probably in September or October, so I really need to behave myself money wise anyway.
At least this time I can justify it as being a birthday present. 😉
Your Aeolian is wonderfull. Thank you for showing the picture of the “tail” end, I am at the edgechard now and wondered if I was still going right, your picture assured me I am. Mine is done in black Isager alpaca with – hold your breath – gunbarrel(steel)blue beads (Or the colour of overheated steel) a lovely blackpurpledarkblue but the last row will have faceted slightly bigger beads in that lovely dark hue you see on the roads in very hot weather wherever a spray of motoroil hit the pavement, get it? With the less sparkly beads overall I will be able to wear Aeolian to funeral functions, but the lowest row of more sparkle will be festive though not shouting to wear it at happier events too. Maybe someday I will be able to post a picture of it. Have luck with your shawl summer, I just finished Ivy from Jeanie Townsend, I am knitting slowly on Aeolian, because I think I have just not enough yarn and the shop opens again at sept first, so weeks to go and so little yarn, maybe up to row ten of the edge. I´ll put you with my favorites and will start backreading your blog.