First, let me say this: sadly, I do not live in the UK. Here in the states, or at least in my neck of the woods, we don’t celebrate May 2nd as Yarn Shop Day. That’s a darn shame in my book. Around here, May 2nd is Free Comic Book Day. But the comic book store my husband and son wanted to go to just happens to be near two LYS, so I decided I would celebrate all by myself. As you will see, I should not be allowed to go yarn shopping alone. Restraint is not my strong suit. Here’s what I got at the first shop. This yummy purple Simpliworsted will be something for me, a cowl I think. I love this yarn, this is the only local store that carries it, and it was the only skein in this color. Fate!The white is for a slouchy hat for the girl, the gray is for….I don’t know. Something. I love gray. I love gray enough that I bought a pale silvery gray of this yarn and immediately wound it so it could go the baseball game with me last night. This will grow up to become a mesh scarf for me. I need something to wear when I do craft shows, and since I don’t wear hats, this neutral scarf should come in handy.

That first store didn’t take long. The yarn selection is a bit limited and I was the only customer, so I was out of that store within 20 minutes. The second yarn store was much better, and much busier. Lots, lots more yarn. More brands, more variety, and just more yarn! Shelves lining the store, reaching up above my head. Mmmm. Heavenly. I browsed for a quite a while, petting skeins here and there and pondering. I picked up three, then I found the winners and the first three went back on the shelf. Here’s what I couldn’t resist. 
I have a bit of a Malabrigo obsession. This color is called Lettuce. Don’t you just want to eat it up? Yum! This will be a hat. I think Barley.

But that’s not the best thing. I splurged a bit. This might be my Mother’s Day present. I kept picking up these skeins that were so gorgeously rich and vivid, and each time I did, they were this brand called Baah, which makes hand-painted yarn. Yes, they’re as beautiful as you can imagine. But they’re also as pricey as you can imagine. I could resist, with a soft, wistful sigh…until I found this. You can’t really tell from this photo, but the colors are a bit darker, a true red with darker variations. It’s called Chocolate Cherries. My dad absolutely loved chocolate covered cherries, so of course this makes me think of him. I will have a scarf made from this, hopefully with a pretty lace pattern, maybe something with circles that evoke cherries? This will probably be the most expensive scarf I ever make but I will love it.

So that was Yarn Shop Day for me. I can’t wait to see what all my UK people got to do. Maybe when I grow up and open a yarn store, I’ll start a US Yarn Shop Day too!

The puppies are still being much like toddlers. They’re great one minute and monsters the next. This is what I got up to the other morning. Yep. Banana bowl bit the dust. And they got a nice snack of three bananas. All that was left was one slimy brown stem. This is why I can’t have nice things. But then they go and do something like this and I remember why I think they’re cute. Somehow Jack ended up on the wrong side of the gate. “Hey, uh, Grace, can you help me out here?” He tried to jump over and of course that didn’t work. So he just gave me his charming little puppy grin until I took pity on him. Silly dogs!

Today I’m going to try making my own batch of bitter apple spray to deter the monsters from completely destroying my kitchen chairs. Here’s hoping. And maybe some knitting? If I’m lucky!