Today was a rainy, cold, wet Saturday. (It was so smart of Risa to move up Moving Day. It would have been awful moving today.) The temperature hovered around 42 all day (that’s about 5.5 Celsius), and with the rain? Blech. It seems particularly unfair because we’ve had such beautiful weather all week . . . Anyway, Mom and I did what any self-respecting women would do on a rainy Saturday. We went shopping.

Mom bought a pair of shoes, finally. (Remember last week, when we went shoe shopping together and I got three pairs and she didn’t find anything? Well, she got a pair of Merrell Primo Breeze slides–a wonderful shoe. I have a pair that I’ve been wearing for about 5 years now and they’re not only comfortable and sturdy and all that, they’re almost as cool as sandals in the summer (almost!). Mom’s been thinking about them for ages but didn’t get around to trying on a pair until today. “These are so comfortable!” she said. Um, yeah, Mom, that’s what I’ve been telling you! Love those shoes and wouldn’t mind another pair for myself… I restrainedmyself, though, and sat knitting at my socks while she was making up her mind.)

  I did, however, buy a bag. (Okay, technically two.) But this red one? I couldn’t resist. First, it was on sale. (Becoming a four-letter word to my checking account, I might add.) Tignanello leather. A gorgeous shade of red–not too bright, not too winy, orange or brown–just the right color. Beautiful. I had to pick it up and take a look.

But the real selling point?

I opened it.

It closes with a hidden magnetic snap–easy in and out. The handles are just the right length to go on my shoulder or to carry it as a tote bag. But the best part? Three main compartments, all roomy, but with the middle being the biggest. Pockets on the side for things like cell phones. AND the dividers between sections are, in fact, zippered pockets themselves. This bag would be great if I had to carry files and things back and forth to work.

But, you know what the first thing I thought of was, right? “What a great knitting bag! In fact, here it is, modelling with two skeins of Sockotta, the yarn so nice they sent it twice. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but the two skeins of yarn are waaaay down at the bottom . . . there’s room for at least three or four more skeins. (More, for sure, if you don’t care about getting the top closed.) How could I resist?

While we were at Short Hills Mall, which has a Restoration Hardware, I bought some of the handcream the ladies over at JenLa were raving about, and gotta say, it’s really quite nice! It was good to sniff them in person, too, because the scent I ended up buying (Sweet Orange) wasn’t either of the two choices I thought I was going to get. Thanks for the recommendation, Jen!

What did I mean above when I said Sockotta was so nice they sent it twice? Well, I needed a 16″ needle for the neck of my Celtic Dreams, which is coming up pretty fast, and I knew I wouldn’t get to a yarn shop to get one before I needed it, so I ordered one from Halcyon Yarn. (Even though I’m knitting the sweater on ebonys, I got an Inox Express for the 16″–half the price of an Addi Turbo, but much more likely to be used in the future than an even-more-expensive Ebony 16″ . . . but I’m digressing.) Anyway, it was silly to just order the needle, so really, I had no choice but to order some yarn, right? (I mean, I had to!) So I ordered some Sockotta–thinking I could make anklets to go with my cool new orange-and-pink sneakers from last week–and some Jaggerspun Maine Line wool, with Mim’s Eleanora Socks in mind.

Well, the package came today . . . twice. Two identical packages. Almost identical. One was a yellow envelope, one was a white one. And . . . a nice bit of irony, I think, the 29″ needle I also ordered was only in one of them. I’d gotten an e-mail the other day saying that needle had been backordered . . . I guess I got the last one, so they couldn’t send it to me in the duplicate order (grin). The only thing I can think of is that they printed the packing slip twice–they’re identical right down to the order number, so it’s not that I hit “send” too many times when placing the order. I sent them an email asking what they’d like me to do. But still, I suppose it’s nicer to get twice the amount of stuff you ordered than not enough, huh?

Another way to cheer the dreary day? I joined the Knitter’s Tea Swap. hosted by Suzie of the PurlyGates. The idea is to swap a box/can/container of your favorite tea, something to snack on to go with it, and one or two skeins of yarn with another tea-drinking knitter. Doesn’t that sound fab? You’ve got a week to sign up, until May 1st.

Oh! And, congratulations to my niece. She’s tap-dancing away in her school play this weekend, The Music Man. My parents went to see it last night and came home extremely impressed–they said some of the musical numbers were better than they’ve seen on Broadway. That sounds kind of generous to me, but since the two leads are seniors going on to theater-colleges, they must really have talent, and it certainly doesn’t mean the show wasn’t great. My niece has been working really hard at this for months, I’m glad it’s paying off!

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