Coveted Item

Every time I go rooting around in my knitting supplies, looking for a specific size of needles to start a new project, I think to myself, "Gee, it sure would be nice if I just had a full set of interchangeable needle tips and cables! Wouldn't that make life easier?"

These are the prettiest ones I've seen, and they come from my favorite knitting supplier (um, not counting my new favorite hangout in Iowa City, the Home Ec Workshop), KnitPicks.com. I already own a single pair of these, a circular #2--and they are a dream to knit with. The tips are nice and sharp, which make a lot of maneuvers easier--and having knitted recently with needles that were too blunt for my liking, I can say with absolute certainty that it really makes a difference, especially if you're working a lace pattern with a lot of slip-slip-knits (ssk's) involved.

My apologies to my non-knitting readers--I know that a lot of this means nothing to you--but to one non-knitting reader in particular (yeah, you): please allow me to point out that both Mother's Day AND my birthday are coming up this month. I'm making it very easy on you!

Purses for Mom, a Box for the Kids

Last night, my latest splurge from Target.com came home to roost.

Well, to be fair, it was only a splurge in terms of volume and not in terms of cost. I purchased four new purses from the web site... but I HAD to, because they were so cheap! All of the bags were on clearance, each was around TEN BUCKS. Ladies, you know that you can't usually get a cute handbag for under 30 bucks, and one of these (the black one--very practical) was even actual genuine leather.

Three of the bags are oversized tote-type shoulder bags (also known as diaper-bags-that-don't-look-like-diaper-bags), so the box that they came in was GINORMOUS. I think Ted was a little bit alarmed when he saw it sitting on our front step.

Arlo is thrilled. He couldn't care less about what was inside the box, of course, He is just overjoyed to be the proud owner of a brand-new cardboard box that's big enough for him to get inside.

The very first thing he wanted to do was tape the flaps up (to make it as tall as possible) and color on it with markers. In just a few short hours of play time, the box has already been a boat, a closet, a rocket ship, and a refrigerator. God only knows what else Arlo will come up with--but suffice it to say that, even after decades of fancy toy inventions, a big cardboard box still beats out just about anything else.

The only problem is, I don't think I'll EVER be allowed to recycle the darn thing and get it out of my house. It's so BIG! Maybe I can at least move it downstairs one of these days.

P.S. If you are interested in seeing them, I also got a brown bag, a green bag, and another green bag. So sue me!