Retail therapy

7 Small Shawls: T - 76 days and counting down.

Yes, after yesterday, I indulged in some! I do have to admit to being almost in tears at one point yesterday. You know the kind of tears: frustration. Absolute. Complete. Frustration. But all is better today. Many thanks for your good wishes!

I made it to Cast Away with my patterns this morning. This is a Good Thing, because I got to hang out with Justine, who owns Cast Away, but isn't there in the afternoons. Some yarn managed to follow me home. Meet Frank Ochre.

And his sister, Holly Hock.

They are from the Mmmmmmmmmmmalabrigo lace family, and let me tell you, they are yummy.

I also adopted a stray skein of Ecowool.

Ecowool is one of my very favorite wools: all yummy and tweedy and there's lots of it in a skein. I've knitted a ton of Ecowool and it wears incredibly well. In fact, I did a cardigan once using Ecowool and a strand of kidsilk haze held together. It is like a giant bear hug. My purchases are going to end up as one skein patterns. I seem to be obsessed with them lately!

And the the other reason today was a great day? Tea.

Malty Assam and East Friesian blend to be exact. My very very favorite teas in the whole world. And I have not had either of them for years. Because? They have caffeine. Lots of caffeine. I have been drinking insipid, yucky, decaf tea bag tea, when I really wanted to be drinking strong, malty, aromatic black tea. Mr. Romi finally couldn't take it any longer. He pushed me into ordering it. We have both been off caffeine. He because of jitters and anxiety, me because I had a tendency to high blood pressure when caffeinated. Well, anxiety too, to be honest. We're hoping that one cup a day will be ok. Because really? The world is a much more beautiful place when you are caffeinated with good tea. Cross your fingers for us!

And now, the envelope if you please....

Shawl #4 is...Elektra! I hope that no one will mind the alternate spelling. There were just too many patterns named Electra. :) And the winner of the shawl pin is Gwynne! Strangely, and this is a total and complete coincidence, Gwynne said "Elektra." With that alternate spelling, too! How the winner was determined: there were 89 comments, so I went over to random.org and had the random number generator choose a number between 1 and 89, inclusive.

Signing off now to run around with my extra caffeine-induced energy. I wonder if I'll sleep tonight? If not, it was totally worth it anyway. A gal's gotta have at least one vice. :)