I went shopping!

Don't get excited; I had a gift card from Christmas to a second hand bookstore that I had to use. I've still got $.48 left on it, too.

Before I tell the tale, let me share the quote of the day from the Keep Calm and Carry On desk calendar I have:

If at the end I have lost every other friend on earth

I shall at least have one friend remaining and that

one shall be down inside me.

Abraham Lincoln

Lovely, isn't it? And something for us all to aspire to.

Anyway, back to shopping. This is what I obtained:

See the price tag? Just under $8. That's...interesting, because the top one on the stack had a price over $9. I had picked up the top copy and rejected it because there was a mark where something had dripped down the back, most likely icky drip water from a ceiling leak. Ewww. So I headed back to the stack and looked at the next one. The second book on the stack was dusty with little chunks of something that made me think it had been stored under a hanging plant (ewwww again), so I grabbed the third one down. Not only was this one cheaper than the other two, it is the original American edition. Which means the pictures are excellent. In the first one I'd picked up (a reprint) the pictures were washed out and all the yarns looked either gray or screaming scarlet. I was shocked when I opened this one and could see excellent stitch detail and color differences between the yarns.

Go me and my OCD dirt aversion!

Also, irony: The stitch pattern on the cover, by my thumb? The pink lattice looking thing? Not in the book. I've looked three times. Thankfully, I have that pattern in another of my (many many) stitch dictionaries.

I've also inadvertently put my foot in it. There is a knitter on Ravelry--a new knitter, mind--who was anxious about casting on for a baby blanket. I understand, hey, I'm the queen of procrastination when it comes to trying new knitting techniques. But I said, if you cast on for the blanket, I'll cast on for a sweater for me that I've designed and put off starting because it's scawy. She replied today that she's cast on (twice; she frogged the first attempt due to user error). She puts no obligation to me to start my sweater, but I cannot let a newb get one over on me. It's a matter of pride. So I'm going to log off now and go cast on for my swatch.

I really should watch my mouth. It just gets me into all kinds of trouble. Glorious trouble, but trouble all the same.