Laume's Studio

No pictures for you today. I always feel guilty when I blog with no photos. But it's late, and I'm just gonna tell my tail and .....er, tell my TALE, and then off to my cozy jammies, my cozy heating pad, my cozy chihuahua, my cozy tea, my cozy quilts, and my cozy book. Lots of cozy planned.

We ended up going to Redding to watch the Superbowl at my son Sam's house. He lives in a small city so I dropped the boys off and managed to get a bit of city shopping done. Mostly I looked at my options and decided NOT to buy today. I was very pleased with myself.

I'm over nine months into my pledge not to buy new clothing. With several of my favorite pairs of pants moving into the seriously frayed category, I decided to break my pledge and go shopping for jeans. I didn't have a commitment for a particular length of time, just ... until I decided I wanted to buy something. I tried on jeans in four stores and couldn't find anything I liked and ultimately decided that I could make it through until the weather warmed up enough to allow me to wear other parts of my wardrobe. I was sure I wanted.... needed new jeans. I guess it turns out I don't. It feels good to have decided to stick with my pledge awhile longer.

I went to the bookstore and I couldn't find the specific book I was looking for and talked myself out of a dozen other tempting titles.

I did get myself the last three tiny bottles of my favorite shampoo at Bath and Body Works. I dug them out of the sale bin for $1 each. I think that's the last of it, they seem to be phasing out offering shampoos completely.

I made up for my frugality by going to World Market and buying several months supply of GOOOOOOD chocolate, including the Bloomsbury Co. chocolate I found last Halloween and was surprised at how great it tasted. I bought one or two bars of each of my favorite dark chocolates and restocked my exceedingly bare stash - whew - now I won't be reduced to eating the crappy family chocolate. Hey, the guys eat it like dogs eat dog snacks. - they chew and gulp and barely taste it - why waste the GOOD stuff on them!? I mean, really. Seriously. Waste of money. BUT, I bought my hubby some of the more expensive every day tea he prefers. See, I'm not completely selfish. And I found a box of incense on sale called Rue de Boulanger - supposed to smell like a street full of bakeries. Not sure if it does, but it did smell lovely and I liked the idea of it smelling like a Parisian street.

Last but not least, I went to Michael's in search of a replacement for my lost double pointed needles. I could find my needles tomorrow or I could find them in a couple of months. I decided I really wanted to start the wrist warmers now. I found ONE set of DPN in the store - ONE. I was looking for a size US 7 and these were size US 6. I figured close enough. I was annoyed that I had to pay full price for them when there were several people with 50% off coupons in line and the cashier swore they had no extra sale flyers at the store. JoAnns and Hancocks and other shops always have a few sales flyers up at the register to help you out, or someone in line is using one coupon but not the other - something. Since I don't live in the area, I didn't have my own coupon. I thought I was more annoyed than I should be over a $2 savings, so I tried to "let it go". I guess it's just the economy rubbing on me.

I brought several different yarn choices from my stash at home along with me because I'd like to use what I already have, but I still took a look at the yarn in the store, both Michaels and JoAnns. JoAnns, which I went to second, had the right size needles and they were about 70 cents cheaper. Grrr. Breath. Let it go. I almost bought yarn there but in the end my determination to use up my own stash won out and I left empty handed.

Shopping done I joined the guys at my son's house, made it in time for some of the half time show. William was taking a nap on the couch, saving up his energy for the second half of the game, Hubby, Sam, and his roommate Lucas were all out in the back yard playing with Sam's new mini dirtbike. Half time over, greasy pizza and homemade jalapeno poppers (yum! Cholesterol! But Yum!) eaten, hands washed, I got to work on my Toast wrist warmers.

The men (well, does William at 17 count?) were all intrigued by my hand full of needles and the concept of digitless handwarmers. I decided to go with my first color choice, which was some orange cotton sports weight. I thought I should add a few more stitches to make up for the smaller needles. After about an inch length I realized the extra stitches were a mistake and the cotton yarn wasn't working. I pulled out the needles and starting unraveling. I thought the guys were concentrating on the game when they all started yelling, until I looked up and saw they were all freaked out that I'd undid all my work.

I started over with some grey wool. Two rounds in I somehow managed to have a big stretch where the two ends were supposed to meet up. I knew it would bug me to leave it so I unraveled it all again. The guys were now completely intrigued by my project. Using the grey wool again, third time was the charm. Once I had about an inch length, it looked like it was going to be the right feel and size.

I had to set it aside when the game got really exciting in the fourth quarter. But s'okay. I'm happy to have it started. I've got my heart set on finding the right yarn for a deep red pair. This grey pair will be nice too, they will go with a lot. If these turn out well, I'm sure there will still be room for tweaking and improving the next pair. Maybe by then I'll find the perfect red.