the trip out

 I did go on Saturday. Quick run to Ulta shortly after they opened, got more of the bb cream type stuff I use and also a few other things. I will say it looks like their stock has improved after a while of them seeming really understocked; maybe the supply chain is slowly starting to recover? 

Then I got on 82 west and drove the rest of the way out to Whitesboro. Yarn shop was open, they were packing up mail orders (I don't know if I misread when the beginner class was, or if no one signed up, but it seemed like no one was showing up for it). 

I found a few gifts for people (not shown in the photo) and some cards, including a couple special cards for friends for Christmas.

Two colors of West Yorkshire Spinners' yarn in solid colors (pale green and mauve), for some knit-purl fancy stitch socks (one called Kreuz und Quer - meaning criss-cross - and another with little purl dots.) I haven't decided which one to use for which pattern but am leaning towards the green one for the criss-cross pattern. And the multicolored yarn (hard to see there) is for a one-ball shawl. (It'll be a little close but if I have to maybe I can do some rows fewer to make it smaller). 

The socks were an impulse buy for me; they say "Shhh, I'm over thinking" which, yeah, that's pretty much been me of late*

And the brown yarn was one I would NEVER have bought had I just seen it online - this is why sometimes shopping in person is important. It's a Rambouillet blend (a breed of sheep) and when I felt of it I said "I want some of this." It's not a particularly soft yarn, but it has that je ne sais quoi that good "rustic" yarn has - it feels like what I would call "real" yarn - it's firm but has a good twist to it. The owner - who I think is the person who dyes these yarns - had a knit-up example (a plain hat). I had wanted to do a basketweave pattern one I had. But this yarn is an aran weight and it turns out that one requires a dk, which is a thinner yarn. So I searched around a bit more and found a waffle pattern hat called Deers and Beers that should suit.

(Yes: I know, I could figure out how to do a checkerboard pattern hat on my own, or reduce the number of repeats in the original pattern to get gauge with the bigger yarn. But this is simpler, and the idea of a hat called "Deers and Beers" amuses me because that feels like a very Yooper name for it; I knew relatives of my mom who talked about "deers" instead of "deer" as the plural - and I can even hear it in that North Central accent where you kind of "overpronounce" the s.)

I also have a fingerless-mitts pattern that will use the leftover yarn (the hat takes about 200 yards, and the skein is close to 400 m). It was an expensive skein so it will be nice to get two things out of it. (like, expensive enough that while it would make a NICE sweater, it's probably more than I'd be comfortable paying for a sweater's worth of yarn). It is nice yarn though.

I did also duck into Lovejoys - in happier times I'd go and get lunch there, but their dining room sounded crowded and I am just not able emotionally to accept whatever risk eating unmasked inside a restaurant poses now. I did buy a fancy card for a longtime friend, and a candle, and a box of fancy traditional "peppermint puffs" made by a long-time candy maker for my mom's stocking gift. 

And yeah - most of the yarn I bought this weekend is for over-break projects; I'm going to take the Incunabula sweater (but probably not the A Sweater for John because it's thicker and heavier and would take more room in the suitcase - I'll probably tuck in a few extra balls of sockyarn just in case, but I think one large heavy project will be all I can manage to bring.)

I'll also have to consider books. And eventually, clothes, too. I need to plan well JUST IN CASE something terrible happens with omicron and I do wind up stuck there for longer than I plan.

 

(*Like, now there's an NPR story basically saying "if you're over 65 or fat or asthmatic or planning on seeing someone who is, DO NOT TRAVEL this Christmas" and you know? I've given up SO MUCH this past 18 months. I was essentially alone for six or seven months last year. We're not going to go out into big groups - we are going to watch the streaming Christmas Eve service because in-person, it's always crowded. 

 My mom and I have been boostered, she's willing to take the risk (she's actually pretty robust for 85: the only really chronic health thing she has is osteopenia and some eye issues) and I figure given omicron's transmissibility, I'll get it eventually, probably in the classroom next semester *even if I mask, which I plan to.* So at this point while I'm not going to be foolish - note I did not eat a restaurant meal when I might have wanted to - I am also reaching a point of something like nihilism with this, where I realize the only way to 100% AVOID getting covid is going to be to seal myself in my house and work from home and have everything delivered, and frankly that's a fate worse than death for me, it would be a slow agonizing death from loneliness and isolation. So whatever. Maybe I get sick - maybe I get a light case and it boosts my immunity even more. Maybe I get seriously enough sick I'm hospitalized, but hopefully our hospitals aren't overwhelmed. But if I do get it and die, even despite being vaccinated and masking up everywhere? It was my time, 52 or 53 is a good run, and I'm honestly reaching the point of thinking "dying would be less bad than spending the next five years cloistered alone." But still, I wish there were not these stories that make me feel like I'm a bad person for traveling to go see my mom, we are going to be careful, we have been being careful. I'm TIRED of everything being an ethical minefield now. I just want some comfort.)