I needed that

Took the day off yesterday and went to Longview for the Stitches N Stuff July sale, also met up with my friend Laura and went out to lunch and book shopping.

More than anything - more than the fact that I got to see yarn that wasn't "just" Red Heart brand, more than the fact that I got to go to a nice bookstore, was the fact of getting OUT. Of getting away from home. Of seeing and talking to someone in a situation where nothing was really expected of me (not work, not volunteer work).

I think sometimes I let things sort of close in on me, where I get to the point of feeling like my life is shuttling between my office, home, church, and the grocery store, and it's easy to get, I don't know, kind of trapped feeling. Or cabin feverish. Or something.

At first, I was not at all sure about going - and probably, had I not had the plans with Laura, I would have not gone. For one thing, it's hot. Oh, man, has it been hot. And I got kind of freaked out because they did a big report on the local news about how the hot roads were leading to more tire blow-outs. (I tried to tell myself: "You know how they have a history of doing "free advertising" for businesses under the guide of it being a story; this is that." But, dangit, I did see more remnants of blown-out tires on my trip. (Though the tires on my car are still fairly new; they're the original tires but I only have about 8000 miles on the thing, and their treads still look good).

Also, there was horrible road construction right west of Greenville. I was hung up for a good 15-20 minutes (10 minutes waiting on the flagger; the rest of the time having to drive extra slowly on the newly-resurfaced road). I'll have to plan for that in about 10 days when I have to go down to Mineola to catch a train. Not sure if I'll try to find an alternate route (I might be able to find a detour for that section) or if I'll just leave earlier and put up with the construction delay.

(I wound up going home by a different way - took 259 up from the knit shop, to 49, to 271, and then caught 82 in Paris. So I've been to Paris now. I'm not all that impressed. And the traffic on a Friday afternoon wasn't fun. I will say the drive was nice EXCEPT for the bits around Paris.)

I wound up being - as I said - the "little pig" at the yarn shop. But it was a 20% off sale, I don't get to see fancy yarn in person like, ever, any more (now that the knit shop in my parents' town has closed), and I found a dk weight yarn that I reaaaaaallly reallllly wanted for a sweater pattern I'd been eyeing. (it's the Hampton cardigan, from New England Knits, for those that have seen the book. I bought a Louisa Harding yarn for it, in sort of a rusty-brown color. The knit shop owner - Laura knows her much better than I do - sent Laura to the "yarn closet" to find more balls of the dyelot I needed. In the end, I found a whole BAG of the dyelot, which made me happy, because my second choice - a sort of a teal - just wasn't appealing to me the way the rusty brown did.).

(Yes, I tend to operate in a small palette of colors for sweaters, mostly revolving around green, brown, or purple. Whatever. I LIKE those colors, they look good on me, and they match with the clothes I already have.)

I also wound up with a couple balls of a super-soft merino-silk blend (for yet another pair of fingerless mitts; I have a pattern already in mind - the Cupcake Mittlets, which is a free Ravelry pattern. And oh look, I'd have enough for two pair!), a ball of purple marled yarn for the Rebecca Danger hippo pattern in the most recent KnitSimple (I think that will be an over-vacation project), and two skeins of super-soft Auraucania worsted-weight for the Madeleine Shawl (Ravelry link - a picture for those not Ravelry members can be seen here). Only my yarn is a variegated brown/tan/berry color.

And now I want to KNIT ALL THE THINGS. (Can it be fall, yet? I really want it to be fall.)

But first: I must write some more on the draft of this paper. (And I want to finish at least one or two of the projects I have ongoing.)