saturday thrift score

What a nice Saturday. I woke up late, drank a whole pot of tea, and got some knitting done. I know I said I was going to make the fishy blanket for my friends' forthcoming baby, but when the new skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton came in the mail, I started fiddling with this openwork pattern and fell in love. So I am making the baby wrapper with this lace instead of fish. Isn't it pretty? HWWLLB said he thinks it looks like trees.

There will be a panel of green, then one white, then another panel of green. I will probably crochet a border all around the outside - just a couple of DC rows - first white, then green on the outside. I love the way it just naturally comes out scalloped like that. Almost as cute as the fish...

But then, after several satisfying hours of tea drinking, NPR listening and baby-gift knitting, I got to make an unexpected thrifting trip! There is a little thrift/consignment shop two doors down from HWWLLB's favorite fabric store, which I had never noticed until today. While he was in there buying whatever it is you sewing-types buy, I found some great boxes in which to store my burgeoning collection of old buckles and brooches and whatnot.


a carved wooden souvenir box from mount vernon. it is now holding a mess of buckles.


a lovely flat jewelry box. finally, someplace to put all my pins & brooches!


and look inside! how wonderful!

What a treat. I tried and tried to spend more money in this place, but I came away only $3.16 poorer (they were having a sale). It was a good thing, too. Last week I spent a small fortune in comparison, when we went antiquing in Selma and I bought a whole load of old buttons, brooches, and buckles, which until today had been lying haphazardly all over the place. But not anymore - with all these storage solutions on hand, I could go re-stock on junk jewelry at the flea market soon! Oh, bliss!

After the thrifting adventure we took a short bike ride through a ritzy neighborhood on the other side of town. It's funny how the houses in an urban neighborhood can look like little country estates. I kept expecting to see a buff-colored Rolls Royce pull up with Miss Daisy and her driver inside, but no such luck. It was mostly Range Rovers and little BMW convertibles. We didn't see any other cyclists, but maybe it was just too hot.

Sadly, I discovered too late (just now, in fact), that it was World-Wide KIP Day today. Normally Knitting in Public is one of my most favorite activities, but lately work and other commitments have been keeping me away from our regular Stitch & Bitch gathering night. This week is going to be different though - Robyn and I have taken a pledge. We are going to be there, and dammit we are going to have fun (not like that's ever an issue). But isn't it terrible the way you can guilt-trip yourself out of having some innocent fun just because there's "work" to be done - not that you're going to do any of it, but just that it's there? Well, I do that all the time. Not this week though - I'm going to KIP my cares away. Also there will be wine-drinking and some chocolate consumption - I can hardly wait!