Thump

I'm just back from a trip and boy, are my arms tired... landed with a thump (a mental thump; the airplane ride was darned smooth for this time of year) and am trying to catch up on everything. It's been crazy-busy, too, both at work and at home, but I still have been managing a weak gesture at knitting and stitching.

That said, I frogged the Celtic Tote, because I discovered an essential truth about reading cable charts: you have to read some rows right to left, and others left to right, or you end up with mush when the pattern is asymmetrical. Ghaah. I've made progress on the Second Italian Sock, though, by making it my travel knit and then mistakenly reading my homebound departure time as 3:10 instead of the 4:10 it really was. That gave me an extra hour of keeping myself entertained while waiting at the airport.

While on the road, my friend J-- and I went Bargain Shopping. J-- is the Queen of Bargain Shopping, and took me to a TJMaxx that had a spectacular handbag section. I don't know how it happened, I don't understand why, but somewhere along the way in the last few years, I became interested in bags. Through window shopping, I found that I have very good taste in bags. I love shoes (don't own a bunch, but still love to look) but for some reason purses (and handbags and totes and nice briefcases and you-name-it) just grab me. So we spent a very satisfying hour and a half digging through some particularly fine bargain bags. J did come home with a nice beige leather tote, but I left without making any acquisitions.

That would make a fun blog post -- an inventory of my existing bags and maybe a survey of bags that I'd like to make, or that I admire online. Hmmmm.