Fredericksburg and STASH!

I went to Fredericksburg, VA today with my Mom. We stopped at the super Jo-Ann's, A.C. Moore's, Everything Cross-stitch (a cute little cross-stitch shop), and The Knitter's Corner. We made several other stops along the way home, like Home Depot, but nothing very interesting.

I love coupons! I had 40% coupons for Jo-Ann's and A.C. Moore's. I was able to get The Ultimate Sock Book by Vogue Kniting with the coupon. All magazines at Jo-Ann's are 10% off, so I bought the latest Vogue Knitting magazine. I saw the cover and some cute stuff inside the magazine so I had to get it. I only buy a magazine if I like something inside. That's why I don't do subscriptions anymore. Each crochet or craft magazine I ever had a subscription for had more editions with nothing of interest in them than editions with something I liked, so they were generally a waste of money. Turns out Agnes of Knitting in the Valley has already done the cardigan on the cover (very cute!)

I also bought 2 balls of sock yarn on sale from each store (except the cross-stitch store, obviously).

I have learned the stitches for knitting in the past year, but haven't done a real project yet. I plan to do a simple sock first in Deborah Norville Premier Yarn Serenity Sock Weight yarn in Chili colorway. I love that the yarn creates a pattern so that I can use a simple sock pattern. Knitting is turning out to be relatively easy to pick up, but I still need practice. I've been wanting to pick up knitting for a while now, but since I have been doing mostly projects as gifts for others I could not justify the time to learn. I can crochet pretty quickly normally, so it was an obvious choice. Now I have time for few projects for me, hence finishing the Special Effects bag.

Speaking of the Special Effects bag, I have added a row of stitches on three sides of the front and back panels, and am attempting to stitch the sides to that row. The last attempt proved that adding the sides of the bag directly to the panels ruined the "special effect" of the bag. I am almost half-way done with the sides, and so far I am happy with the results, but I won't be able to tell until it's done or almost done.