Another day at the shops

I wish I had documented our trip to the knitting shops this morning. I had my camera, but never took it out of the bag!

I could have shown you a woman who has knitted herself 60 pairs of socks (those are the nice ones -- the others she gives to her mom)! And I could have shown you the chicken hat she made, and the cute kid wearing it. And my new chapeau, as well. I was going to give it to Street Knit, but it was so great, I had to take it out for a walk! I might be able to get a pic of that sometime soon. I had a couple of other hats to hand in at Knitomatic, but I didn't make it there today.

I could have shown you us missing the bus, and us walking up the hill, after stopping at the new chocolate shop. And going to the wrong address, and finally finding Alterknit! (It doesn't seem to have a web page yet, but they've only been open a few weeks, so we'll give them a moment.) It's a cool little yarn shop with a very nice cafe. Good brownies, the kids said, and excellent coffee, says the other Mary who was with me. There was some lovely sock yarn, and I bought some 6.5 and 7 mm needles and a Chibi! My very own, so I won't lose my darning needles! Yay. I was about to buy some nice greenish sock yarn, and Elaine was sort of egging me on, but then she said, "When are you going to knit me my dress?" Oh, yeah. So I put the sock yarn back...

We could have dragged the kids around even more, but Elaine had to be at ballet class, and I had to feed them first, and so I sent the others off to the Sally Ann and perhaps beyond... We barely made it out of McD's and down the hill in time! But since I had my new needles and a new secret project, I was happy to sit and wait for Elaine to finish her dancing.

New secret project? Yes, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Also, I have, despite my earlier clear thinking, agreed to knit Elaine her sleeveless cotton dress in toto in the month of November! I figure a) I told her a while ago I would make this for her, and no fair waiting till spring and b) I did the Knitting Olympics, so I can do this. So it's finer yarn, more shaping and things to pay attention to, but that's of no consequence (she says breezily)... I have a supply of dishcloths that should meet my immediate needs, so I think I'm set. One secret project, one summer dress, and perhaps a sock in my spare time!