Yes, once again, it was a good day.

I am definitely one of those people who is not a thrill-seeker; instead, I prefer what is familiar, what is traditional. I sat down before I went out yesterday and figured up - this would be Grand Day Out (Longview) VII. (started in 2001, but didn't go in 2002 or 2003, but have gone since).

I drove through the cold front on the way down. It was 55* here and windy, then I drove through lots of drizzle, then it was 82* and unbelievably muggy in Longview. (Coming back, I think I passed the front around Emory, so it was getting closer to them).

I went to Barron's first, never knowing how busy they get over the "real" lunch hour (I can eat lunch anywhere from 11 am until 2 pm. Though the 2 pm time is never my choosing and I am usually pretty cranky/shaky by the time I get to eat if I have to wait that long).

I spent a while shopping. I found something good for a Christmas present for my dad, which made me happy, as he's often hard to buy for.

They also had a rack of "retro style" gags and magic tricks (you know, like the fly-in-the-ice-cube and the nails-through-a-coin bits). So I wound up buying a whoopee cushion to put in my brother's stocking. (My brother and sister in law and I have a little tradition of slipping silly things into each others' Christmas stocking).

Yeah, I know, I'll probably regret giving my brother a whoopee cushion, but it seemed like the pretty perfect "silly gift."

Then I got lunch. I wound up going with something called "Mixed Fruit Plate," which is a baby-greens salad with strawberry vinaigrette dressing, cut up fresh fruit (mostly cantaloupe and pineapple, this time of year) and a scoop of cottage cheese. It was good. (And it came with good bread on the side). I also had a cup of chocolate chai tea, which is one of the most wonderful things on the menu there. (I suppose they make it with full-fat milk and that's why it tastes so much better than the chai I make at home with sad old skimmed milk)

I also ate most of a piece of "Ultimate Chocolate Cake." I say "most," because after the large salad, "all" would have been just too much. (I wound up peeling off the remaining cake of the part I didn't eat and finishing the chocolate mousse that was in the center).

I also bought a couple of books, more about that later.

Then I went on to the yarn shop. (Stitches N Stuff). I love this place. Not just because it has YARN, but because the people who run it are so very nice and friendly. (Again, I have never encountered the stereotypical "snobby and mean" yarn shop owner. At least not in recent years).

And I found yarn for Potter:



Yes, just two skeins. Those are 400 g skeins. They contain 892 yards each - easily enough to make my size of the sweater. (No joins! No wondering where I put that last ball that I need!)

Besides, I like big skeins and I cannot lie.

Because I am a geologist's daughter, I feel duty-bound to also include a photograph of these with a quarter for scale*



(*I assume other geologists did that as well. My dad always was bumming quarters off of his kids or off of students when he photographed stuff, for scale. (Most of the time we got the quarter back). Or he used his Brunton compass. Or something else that people would recognize as being a particular size).

I had been envisioning doing Potter in either a brown or an oatmeal color, and when I walked into Stitches N Stuff and saw this yarn, I knew it was it.

It's a mostly-acrylic yarn, though, and I tend to be a wool snob. But it does feel nice, and I think it will be lighter in weight (useful for a coat sweater, especially a double-breasted one) than pure wool would be. And I really liked the color, and the price was good.

The other two big yarn-things I bought were for fingerless mitts for me:



Both are Auracania yarns - the blue is Aysen, a worsted-weight, and the green is Ranco, their entry into the sock-yarn market (but it's hand wash only, which means I'd rather make fingerless mitts of it). They are both VERY soft yarns, which is a consideration for mitts, I think. (My hands tend to be more sensitive to scratchiness than even my feet are).

I picked up a few other things, but they may be destined to become gifts for people who just might read this, so I will remain silent on my other purchases.

(Except: yes, I did get the needles I was talking about. Plus several more sizes of the lovely Clover "ergonomic" hooks - after wondering if I'd have to give up crocheting because it bothered my wrists, I discovered that with the fatter handles on the ergonomic hooks, I can continue to crochet without pain. So, yay Clover!)

I also bought books various places (both at the Barron's and also at the absolutely huge and wonderful Books a Million - it's at least double the size of the one nearest me, meaning also double the choices).


I have to say, it's dangerous enough for me to walk into a bookstore. But it's even more dangerous for me to linger on the "history" aisle. I tend to buy a lot of books about history. Part of it is I enjoy reading it, part of it is (as I've noted just these past couple of weeks) there are such holes in my knowledge that I'd like to plug. And also, I think the people who write titles and design covers for books about history somehow are able to tap into just what appeals to me, to what says to me, "You know, this would be the perfect thing to read some chill, rainy Saturday while you listen to Brahms and drink tea."

Never mind that many of my Saturdays are spent working, or that I tend to "waste" more time online on the weekends than I spend reading, but still...it's a seductive fantasy, the huge library full of at-least-semi-scholarly books, the chance to read and learn.



The top book is a novel about the Whiskey Rebellion (again, an era of American History that I dimly remember learning about, but know little about). It also concerns one of Washington's former spies, so it's a story of intrigue. And I like intrigue, especially when I can read about it while cozy in my own house.

(I guess I never mentioned my little "test" for whether I buy or reject a historical or "historical fantasy" novel: I open it randomly to three places and read a paragraph. If a graphic sex scene turns up in any of those random places, I put it back on the shelf. Because, I know, I'm kind of a prude, but I'm not that interested in reading random graphic sex scenes. This book passed the test. Doesn't mean it won't "fail" it while I'm reading, but I figure that if I randomly hit a Do Not Want scene by reading three paragraphs in a 300+ page book, there must be a number more of them. That's why I've never read any Diana Gabaldon books even though I know she's popular and well-regarded: one of her books failed my random "test.")

The other "historical" book (actually straight history here, not a novel) is supposed to be about the storm that inspired "The Tempest" - I had read somewhere that this book was coming out and was intrigued by it, and of course as I am now READING The Tempest, I decided I needed to read that one too. I rarely buy these kinds of books in hardcover, but I decided I wanted this one NOW, and in hardcover is how it comes now.

(Yes, I know: my town has a library. My university has a library. And I do check books out sometimes. But they often don't have the specific book I want, and also, I read sufficiently slowly and with enough interruptions that I would have to keep renewing the thing and that would frustrate me. And besides, I like having books AROUND, even ones I've already read).

I tend to be frugal in a lot of ways but yarn and books are not two of those ways.

I also bought a copy of "East Knits West" which is yet another sock book. And yet another book I contemplated from afar on Amazon and thought, "No, it will be full of 'weird' patterns that I would not want to make" (Judging by its cover: I know some people like toeless "pedicure" socks but they are not for me.)

Instead, it's a book of mostly-standard socks, but with some very beautiful lace patterns, some from Japanese stitch directories where the patterns are DIFFERENT from ones we Westerners use. (There actually IS something new under the sun: there are stitch patterns that are not just re-named versions of ones people in the Shetland Isles or whereever developed. There are a couple new techniques to learn - a type of passed-over stitch that the author (Judy Sumner) calls pkok or "peacock", and a different type of wrap-stitch).

But a lot of the socks are really lovely and wonderful. (And there's a sock called Ninja! How can you not love a sock called Ninja? There's also a sock called Samurai; I would guess you probably don't want to wash Samurai and Ninja in the same load as one might eliminate the other.)

I bought a few other books but these were the most interesting looking ones. (Also, I don't want to reveal the embarrassingly large number of books I bought that day).

Oh, I also bought a Fake Book. Not a "fake book" like what you hide valuables in, but a Fake Book like you can use to quickly learn popular songs. One thing I will say: they are all transposed to the key of C, and I KNOW some of the pieces were not originally in C. But whatever. It's a book of lead sheets of the melody and suggested chords. (Though I will observe with some irritation that the person who put together the book assumes the users automatically can work out inversions; he proposes going from a C chord to an F chord instead of suggesting going from what I think of as a I chord to a IV chord, which is the same thing, just an inversion of the F major, but is more efficient to do. But whatever.)

It delights me to have the melody lines of so many songs so I can "noodle around" and play stuff. It's mostly "standards" like "The Way you Look Tonight," and "Stardust" and "Skylark" (probably my favorite pop song ever). And also a few Beatles songs (I presume this book, though I know Fake Books are notorious for not respecting copyright, did, seeing as I bought it in a "legit" bookstore). And "Amazing Grace."

And what I think of as the "sad animals" song ("Will You Remember Me?" - which is used on, I think it's the Humane Society ads? The ones where they show all the animals that are being rescued or that have been abused and which always makes me cry a little, which I suppose means it's an effective ad.)

I also went to Michael's; wound up buying a Paton's book of patterns for knitted and crocheted sock monkey toys. (Faux sock monkeys? Seeing as you knit them rather than take socks that have been knitted and reconfigure them?) And I got some of the yarn needed for them. And I bought a couple of "Toobs" of small toys: one of frogs and turtles (just in case we do a Cajun lunch in the future and I do make Bayou Cake) and one of "baby jungle animals" to put on the shelf just in case there is an over-three child that needs a gift sometime.