But it was fun, and it was good. Whitesboro had some Surprise! Construction! going on on the main drag (aka the only drag) and one side of the divided road was closed off, but a detour was posted and I managed to find parking, so it was all good. (It looked like they were replacing the cement divider between the two lanes - it's a divided street with one side westbound and the other eastbound).
First up was Quixotic Fibers. They ARE being part of the Dallas Yarn Crawl next week and the owner asked me if I was going but (a) I don't do well in big crowds (and city driving, yuck - I would not be going to Dallas unless I had someone to drive me) and (b) Next weekend is going to be recovery-from-all-the-meetings/ get mentally and emotionally prepared for the semester to start, so.
I did buy some yarn:
Originally the pale yarn was bought for one of the shawls in This Thing of Paper but I see the shawls there are designed for 870 yards of yarn and I only have 800, and I have HAD IT with running short of yarn for shawls, so either I will look around on Ravelry and see if those are actually overestimates (based on others' projects) or I will simply find another shawl that requires less than 800 yards to complete and make that. I have enough in my pattern library.
(Edited to add: yeah, looking on Ravelry - I think I'm better off picking a different shawl pattern. Maybe some time in the future I can find a lower-priced yarn - this was Smooshy with Cashmere - that I can buy 1000 or so yards of so I am sure I have enough).
I also recently added Erica Lueder's Soccer Mitts (free! on Ravelry) to my library, and I thought I wanted a stripy yarn for them....but the more I look at that orange and red and green stripey, the more I want socks of it instead. And the other yarn knits up to a fake Fair Isle pattern, and I kind of want to make a hat out of it.....(I have copious amounts of stripey yarn, I am sure I can find one to make the Soccer Mitts of. I have many unused/currently unloved striping yarns in my stash, I should dig one out I won't make into socks and repurpose it into mitts. I even have some of the String Theory yarns that have a little cashmere in them and they would make extra-nice mitts.)
I also went to Kaleidoscope Quilts. I had got a new book called something like "Charm School," which is all patterns for the 5" charm packs (but they also tell you how many fat quarters it would take for the same quilt - though you would have less fabric diversity then).
I wanted to make one of the simple quilts in there - three charm packs, 4 yards of fabric, and a yard of a focus fabric. I found the charm packs I wanted (a cute whimsical fabric line) and some pink fabric for the background. And I dug around in my stash and was excited to find a yard of a fabric that, while it has a different "feel" slightly (it is somewhat William Morris-inspired), I think the colors work and the spirit works.
And it will be nice to use a fabric I really liked in bigger pieces as a focus fabric in a quilt. (This may be my next top, even though I have some cute-animal fabrics hanging around for a quilt I want to make. This one will be simple, though. I do think I'll pre-wash the pink (even though the 5" squares don't get prewashed) as the focus fabric was pre-washed.
Also, I can do it with this:
I stopped at the JoAnn's, too. I had seen this Pony flannel earlier and liked it, but couldn't easily think of a project. Then I realized that the flannel pajama pants (really, flannel men's boxers - they do have the tell tale front gap) I was wearing were getting kind of worn and should be replaced.
So, of course. I can make a pair of shorts in an hour or less once they're cut out. So of course, this is the project for the Pony flannel - that's a yard and a half there, a bit more than what the pattern calls for but I also know flannel can really shrink when pre-washed, so.
I think I am going to French-seam these; it's not that hard to do with simple shorts, and flannel frays badly especially in things like pajamas, and frankly, I'd rather French seam than zig-zag the raw edges (I don't own a serger and don't particularly want one).
If these turn out well I may grab some other fun flannel (I think they had a Wonder Woman print) the next time I'm down that way and make myself another pair.
I also did buy a couple fat quarters at the quilt shop, destined to be Barbie clothes:
The blue is from that "Grunge" line of fabrics and I thought it was a close enough mimic of denim that it would be good for a "denim" skirt using the a-line skirt pattern I found online (and there should be plenty of it; the pattern is really small. Maybe I could make a second, more dirndl-shaped skirt that is fuller with what's left....) The bandanna print will be a dress; I have a pattern for a simple "curvy tailored" dress that would fit Cinnamon, or there is a more complicated halter-type dress that was drafted off of a vintage 70s Barbie pattern...it's a little more orange than I thought when I saw it in the store but it will still be fine.
And finally - from the antique stores I visited, some cookbooks:
The one on the left is one of those "compilation books" - this one from a bed and breakfast in the area (despite the name, it is a bed and breakfast). It's fairly recent.
The other two are older. Each was $2, which is a really good price. They're not in tip-top condition, but for a cookbook I will actually USE, that's less important. And I was excited to find one of the last (if not THE last) of the Farm Journal cookbooks I didn't have - the Pie Book. (And it also has some savory pies, which might make some interesting winter cooking. I've made "pies" that fundamentally had the same filling as a pasty (the Cornish meat pie) and those are good, and are simpler than doing it hand-pie style. I just like looking at older cookbooks, anyway.
I also ran to the Kroger's for food. In the coming week or so:
- homemade pizza (again, but I like it)
- chili (yes, again, but also, I like it)
- maybe spaghetti marinara (got more spaghetti and a can of the good Cento tomatoes for sauce, so that can wait a while)
- the makings for bean patties, but instead of black beans, I'm going to try garbanzos and change up the seasoning and see if I can make something like mock falafel - I will have to look up what the traditional seasonings are, I seem to remember parsley and maybe onion but there's probably other stuff. I love the black-bean patties I make and I want to try changing it up with different beans and different flavors - I have a can of cannellini beans I should use soon and I could use Italian spices in those and serve them with tomato sauce....
And I found Lyle's Golden Syrup.
I use this all the time, but it's *very* hard to find here (the natural-foods store carried it for a while and dropped it, Kroger's carried it briefly a long time back but hadn't had it).
I like this as the sweetener in my tea - it dissolves better than sugar and it feels like I can use less of it. And I have a few British recipes that call for it that I've been wanting to make, but I was really shepherding my supply because I didn't want to run out - I had bought some at the Meijer's when I was up at my parents', but to mail order it, it's almost twice what it is in a grocery.
So I bought three bottles, and I might consider making one of those cakes I have a recipe for that calls for it. (It's also good on oatmeal. )
I hope the Kroger's continues to have it.
AND they had the little sweet-potato puffs I like, so I bought another bag, on the grounds that "they keep fine in the freezer, and you never know if the wal-mart will still have them if you go back for more"
1 comment:
I will look for my falafel recipe to send you. I used to make ti all the time.
Maybe with cannelini beans you can use sage as a spice. I think they go well together.
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