I made some great progress on my Kalajoki socks today! Look look look:



I've only got about two inches to go before I get to start decreasing for the toe. Well, and then there's that second sock. But I'll get there :-) I've had the house to myself, which makes for increased knitting productivity since no one's there to bully me into putting down my needles :P

Also, I promised pictures of my spoils from my most recent trip to the yarn store, The Stitching Mantis! I gotta apologize for the picture quality, I'm just working with my Mac's Photobooth and webcam, since I still can't find my camera connector cable D:

I was browsing through the fingering weight and sock yarn section of the store, and found this Plymouth Yarn Co "Happy Feet" yarn. I felt it and fell in LOVE! It's so soft and luxurious I just couldn't stand it. So I dug around in the pile and found this gorgeous colorway, and carried it around the store for 20 minutes before convincing myself that, for $6 a skein, all that softness was SO TOTALLY worth it. :D So I bought 2 skeins! It's 90% Merino wool and 10% Nylon (nylon? really? it's SO FRIGGIN SOFT!!!) AND its machine washable (always a plus!). I'm thinking a either a simple ribbed sock or something with a sweet lace stitch. Here's a pic:



This is the yarn I'm using for my Kalajoki socks, called Falk Dalegarn. It's quite soft for 100% Wool, and it's machine washable. AND it was on sale! It's gonna take me maybe a little less than 3 skeins to make both socks, so $9 total was a pretty good deal. :D



Also while burrowing around the sale shelf, I found this gorgeous treasure:



Impossibly, deliciously soft, and so light and airy and in such a gorgeous purple (they also had black and navy, but life is short: buy cool colors! but then... maybe I'll buy some of the navy and practice color work with the purple and blue? I mean: ITS ON SALE!) that I just GRABBED IT. It's called Classic Elite Yarns "Wings," It's 55% alpaca, 23% silk (!!!), 22% wool. It feels really light, even though it's technically a worsted weight yarn. Can't wait to make some scrumptious socks or maybe gauntlets out of this!

So, basically, I'm a sucker for a good deal. I love sales racks. It's kiiind of ridiculous. So I made sure I absolutely loved all my finds, made my purchases, and was about to make it out of the store with some money still miraculously left on my birthday gift certificate, when I got started talking to the wonderful sales lady there about some gauntlets I want to make for my brother. She showed me the mittens she was designing and they're GORGEOUS with great colorwork. She suggested I check out some glove and colorwork books, so I meandered over to the bookcase, just for funsies, but I really shouldn't buy anything (famous last words).

Long story short, I found Cookie A's Sock Innovation, had a mini fangirl-freakout, and bought it before I could convince myself otherwise. Witness my enthusiastic face:



So, considerably broke-er, but 7 glorious skeins and a fantastic book happier, I headed home. :-)