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Perambulating on the Peninsula
12:17 p.m. - 2006-02-20


Well, now that we have gone out and bought a new sectional to replace the poor old worn out sofas, we have been looking around at the living room and thinking about how we have to spiff it up before the new furniture arrives in 10 to 12 weeks (or 6 to 8, depending on either his or my memory). First thing to go will be the big oak desk that C & S gave us. Auntie M has already put in a claim on it, so one of these weekends we will drive up to her house and hand it over. Well, not exactly hand, since it weighs two tons. I sincerely hope that Dave is home when we get there so he can help us offload.

This three-day weekend is winding to a close, but I feel that I did a lot. Yesterday the three sisters went to Stitches. Auntie M drove, and per request, we picked up January on the way. I have not seen her house in some years, so we got a house tour and entertaining tales of household disaster. Home ownership is a colossal pain in the, well, everywhere. Then we went on to Stitches. I did not really buy anything for myself except for a Yardage folder to carry around in the purse so that one knows how much yarn to buy. I did have fun buying some things that Melissa had requested, such as patterns from White Lies Designs, and a crocheted hat pattern. I was surprised that there was hardly anyone selling sock yarn, because sock making is so popular now. I did find one booth selling Opal though. Some of the yarn was soooo beautiful, but soooo expensive. I could never justify making a sweater that cost $200 because you could make a harder wearing, just as nice looking sweater for much much less, then have money to donate to the world's needy. When we came in to the convention center, there was a man with a handtruck and three big boxes, just standing in the walkway giving away free yarn to anyone who walked by. I got several skeins (100 grms) of alpaca. I don't know why he was giving it away, but I'll take it.

After Stitches, we piled back into the car and drove to San Mateo where the Sewing and Quilting Festival was being held. The ticket guy gave us a deal, so we each got $2 off the entrance price. Most of the show was quilting stuff, but I did talk to the Unique Patterns lady, since I was thinking of getting scanned and having personal patterns printed out. But no, it cost almost $100, and for that kind of money I could alter a lot of patterns myself. I did find a booth with vintage repro tablecloths, so I got my self one with a red border with strawberries and apples in the non-cutesy 1940's style I like. I also found some Size 10 double pointed needles in bamboo for much less than they sell them for around here, and an interesting new kind of crochet hook. We found out that a stamp show was being held in the same fairgrounds, so we walked over to that building to see how much it cost to get into that, and the door keepers had left, so we got in free. There was only a half hour left before closing, but we bustled around and bought stuff. I got some unmounted sheets to use for clay texturing and some heat stable glitter to use in faux opal and other faux stones. By the time we took January home and got home ourselves, I was so tired. I just watched my Japanese shows and went to sleep.

Yesterday, I got serious with the High Mesa Cardigan and went over my calculations, finding an error in my subtraction that would have made the sleeves 2 inches too short. Having fixed that, I wrote it all out and am now about three quarters done with one sleeve. I always thought that bamboo needles would be sticky (meaning that the yarn would drag on them) but no, the ones I got Saturday are great.

All that virtuous knitting on an old project already justifies the weekend, so for fun I am making some bread. In the middle of putting the dough together I noticed that the expiration date had passed on the powdered milk, so I went over to the Safeway to get some. In the store was a lady who was attempting to carry all her groceries around without a cart. I would see her in the aisles staggering around with a huge armful of items, taller than her head. She came up behind me in the checkout line and had a horrid time trying to get the armful onto the conveyor belt, but she made it. Stupidity triumphed.

The timer just went off on the bread machine so I am going to get the dough out and put it in a pan.

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