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Friday, December 30

My trip today to Ram Wools

Well I went to Ram's today hoping to come home with some bamboo dpns, my first Addi circ, and the wool for my booger bag. Well, I came home with 2 balls of Kroy, a pair of 2.00 mm 10" straights, a wool kit for some fuzzy mittens or socks, and a tentative order for some Regia!!!

They didn't really have any Boxing Day sales on, just their regular sale stuff that I saw on the web site. I looked through their entire clearance section and I'm going to have to go back with a few of my patterns I want to make to see if I can match them up.

They had quite a bit of Kroy on clearance, so I picked up 2 balls to make myself a subdued pair of blue socks {Westport check; two very close shades of denim in a marl}. There was a few other sock yarns on clearance, so I'll pick some more up the next time I go. The only thing that kept me from filling my basket this time was knowing I wanted to go home with more than *just* socks!

I looked at a lot of their kits and the dreadlocks cape/poncho was crying to come home with me. I might treat myself to that after I finish the Skacel sweater. The yarn in that one reminds me of the boucle I need for the round sweater shrug that I want to make, so I need to find that magazine. They have such a wide selection of stuff that's not on the website, that I'll probably find a suitable substitute for the handpainted yarn the pattern calls for. *wonders where that magazine ran off to*

I found where they had the thrummed mitten kits, but a fuzzy gob of wool in a gorgeous lilac shade called out to me instead. It's got a Fleece Artist pattern attached to it, and the fibre on it says: Mohair & Blue Face Leicester. I just need to decide if I'm going to make the socks, or the mittens out of it. Maybe I'll just go get another package of this and not choose at all!!! There was also a blue blend that was tempting, but not as tempting as the lilac. I'm trying to think of what reason I can come up with to get myself that as well!

I found out that the Selkirk Wool doesn't felt all that well, so it's not a good choice for the booger. They recommended either Lopi or Patons Classic. I found some really nice colours in the Lopi, but it will felt fuzzy. The Classic will be a smoother felt, but the only colour that really jumped out at me was the deep violet. I wish they would have had a pale silvery grey that I could use as a base colour for the tote. I may just decide to do Hudson's Bay stripes if I can't find something to go with the violet. I'm going to have to sleep on this a bit more and then go back when my mind is totally made up. I really want to make myself a felted tote, and was sorta ready to buy the wool for it today, but nothing begged to come home with me except the one yarn.

The FT patterns were all between $6 and $10, so I looked a bit, but gave them a pass. I am going to have to find a place that has them online so I can look at them a lot more carefully and decide which ones to get. Or else pay closer attention the next time I'm on their web site.

I was going to get a Patons Booklet and some fuzzy pink yarn {the exact yarn escapes me right now} to make Lissa the cover pattern, a cabled poncho. I figgered that the fuzziness of the yarn would make it an ideal first cable project for me. To make the poncho in her size would take 3 balls, or 4 balls for bigger. That would have been another $30 or so that I wasn't really willing to spend today, since this was supposed to be a "me" trip. The poncho is actually the only pattern in the booklet I'd end up making, but I've spent a lot more than $4 on a pattern book/magazine and not made anything out of it.

They didn't have the 2.75 mm bamboo dpns that I wanted in stock. They may have had them in the SB, but I wanted the nice SR Kertzer ones like I bought the last time I was there. I would have bought a different size, but couldn't think of any size other than 4.5 mm that I would use a lot. I have at least 4 sets of aluminum 4.5 mm, so I'm not going to buy a set of bamboo ones, just for the sake of having them.

I nearly bought the 12" 4.5 mm Addi Turbo circular, but the lady there recommended against it. I really wanted to treat myself to them, but after taking it out of the package, I could see how awkward it would be to work with. I will simply have to make the mini-HP scarves on dpns or a larger circ. Again, I couldn't think of a size of circular that I would use enough to justify the $20+ price tag. I'm not going to bother with Addi straights right now as they only come in a 14" size, and that's too cumbersome for me most of the time. I prefer working with circulars.

I did find some baskets of Aero needles, and the smallest they had was 2.00 mm. I want to do some fine knitting for the girls' dolls... perhaps some scarves or something similar out of fingering yarn or my crochet thread. I thought that the scrunchable scarf pattern would look really cool for the dolls done in my leftover sock yarn. I got a 10" length which hopefully won't be too troublesome for me. They have smaller sizes in the Addi's, so that's something for me to think about as I work on stuff for them.

I found some really cool new Regia sock yarn in my Mary Maxim catalogue and I asked them if they could order it in. If they can, Derek will be sporting some new BC socks, and I'll be wearing Manitoba ones! *rofl* I hope they can... I find out early next week if I can get it. I really don't like doing mail order, so it would be preferable to me to get it there. It will probably be cheaper too.

Well I better get some sleep now. I'll be able to fall asleep thinking about all the projects I can choose from to do, and pick up the yarn for. I work tonight and then am off for 4 nights, so I hope to get lots of knitting in {and maybe even an FO or three!}.

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