Queen St is a wonderful place

Today I spent the morning dutifully writing in my carrel and spent the afternoon ttc-ing up and down Queen St.

I went to check out the Purple Purl on Queen E. (For the record, WAY further E than I normally get). It had a great layout, very open and bright. Not a lot of stock, which is sensible given they only opened in November. They did a better job than many a yarn shop of labeling and pricing things clearly, but still not as well as I'd like (honestly in my world, if there is no price to be found it's free people). I picked up some wool for some mittens, 3 compact needle size thing-ies, and a purty skein of pink-purple-black tofutsies (note to the world - I didn't realize there is 400+ yards in ONE skein of this!!)

Then I hopped back on the ttc and went to nearly the opposite end of Queen (well not quite but you know) and picked up a couple of things from Romni - some back fingering to heel my Bellatrix socks, some yarn for a present, and some SOAK.

From Romni (back on to the ttc) to Arton Beads, where I bought: beads for the shawl my dad is giving my mom for her birthday (score - I knit, he pays), beads for me one day to do one of the Ice Queen with the dark mohair from Aunt Shirley, beads to go with the present, some more stitch marker fixtures, stuff for St. Valentines sts markers, and some more assorted charms for sts markers. Including 2 sets of Zodiac ones, I haven't decided whether to make them all the same bead or to try to match beads to months.... I am beginning to wonder what to do with all of the sts markers I'm making. I mean, I don't use that many of them and my few knitting friends can only use so many (esp. when at least one also makes her own), so other than swaps (whereby I still end up with more markers) I'm kind of at a loss...

(this is only about half of my bead haul....)

I finished up the day with a trip to LUSH (oh - dear - they were having a sale.... is it a bad thing when you save nearly $100.... I swear most of it was for my mother!!)