Birthday presents! *and Noro*

I should really be cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming in preparation for having my writing group over tonight for a post-noveling party, but I don't wanna. It's my birthday and I don't wanna. (Could I have a little cheese with my whine?) *ahem* Actually I've spent most of the day knitting on my vegan sari purse handle(s) and baking a chocolate covered cherry cake, so spending probably less than an hour swabbing out the toidy and sucking up the grass clippings and onion skins from the carpet won't take up too much of my day. I'll get to it in a minute, but I want to show you what I got with my gift certificate from Ann. Jenny works at Barnes & Noble and she told me on Thursday that they have my favorite Little Miss Matched socks on sale, so I knew what to do. I marched right over there on Friday morning with my gift card in my hot little hand and snapped up one of each before the vultures got there and scarfed them all up. Then I perused the bargain section and found a knitting book, Chick Knits, that has a very useful looking component they call a techniques guidebook, with excellent close-up photos of actual human hands performing feats of knitting magic like purling and cables and grafting. Plus they have a nice array of stitches pictured and clearly described. And there are 15 project cards graded from 1-3 by difficulty. Hey, I might get brave and knit something more complex than a purse some day. Ann, I wanted to show you that I used your present for good.

After lunch, I picked up my knitting bag to keep working on the shoulder strap and thought the bag was heavier than it should be. Look what was inside! My birthday spatula from my darling husband. Isn't it cool? I love the colors. I'm glad I didn't have to search for my gift spatula this time.

I've been meaning to take a picture of the skeins of Noro Kujaku I got for 40% off a couple weeks ago but kept forgetting. This morning I remembered and here it is. It's a bit hard to see in the pic but every once in a while there's a 2 inch section of the yarn tightly wrapped with the colorful cotton thread that is spread out over the rest. I think it's cool looking. I plan to use it to make the Felted Bag pattern on Lion Brand's website using the black and gray for the body and the sole skein of green and purple for the stripe, with bamboo handles. Should be a good first felting project, simple and rectangular.