Noro Mini Knit - book, knit & day out

Being as its been half term this week and the lads have had a quiet (and boring, quite possibly) week due mainly to my not being inclined to do much other than drape about the place all chronically fatigued and alternately snarling with pain from shoulder with my three ailments AND the fact that dh was busy at work and unable to take time off we, or rather I, decided upon a "day out" today! and lunch!
In typical fashion we spent the entire morning travelling by car to somewhere that ended up not being quite as good as it promised, passing several super looking country pubs on the way that ended up either not being open, not serving food at 4pm OR dh missed the turning opportunity and drove straight past. Lads were not keen to go out and had to persuaded, I mean forced, and dh wasn't much keener either. Come to think of it! I wasn't that keen on the idea (too many grand days out along similar lines!) BUT I had a fancy to visit this patchwork shop that I'd read a review in this months Patchwork & Quilting magazine.
(one of the perks of doing a magazine swap with cyber pals is that you need to buy mags in order to swap out! and of course one HAS to first read the mag to ensure its suitability - cough! this will go out next week when I've finished it I mean when I've got the time to find a post office within walking distance. BLAST! I didn't realise I'd miss my local PO until it really did close down!)
ANYWAY. the article read like it was a shop worth visiting and I managed to persuade dh that it was worth the drive and promised him a nice lunch at the same time and hinted that the lads could have what ever they wanted (as long as it cost under a tenner!)
Unfortunately I cannot upload the photo of me stood outside the shop!
Neither can I upload the photos dh took of the super steam trains at the nearby station where we ended up parking and walking into the town as I apparently have made a mess of transferring the pics from my camera to the pc and being as my routine is to immediately delete pics from the camera this means I'm going to be in trouble tomorrow when dh finds out! gulp!
Anyway, the shop was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but it was nice enough inside and I spent rather too much time looking at the yarn and beading stuff and didn't have time to fully appreciate the patchwork section (which looked far less than my local quilty shop anyway) before I had three noses pressed up at the window and several gestures through the window suggesting that the family were tired, bored and freezing cold and I was to come OUT!

HERE'S WHAT I BOUGHT:



I've wanted to buy this book ever since I saw a review of it and I've also wanted to knit with some Noro yarn too and a quick flick through seemed to indicate several promising projects!
It cost me £7.50 and I put it back on the shelf twice thinking I could buy a ball of Noro yarn instead and find a pattern! but decided that I was worth the cost even though I'm not, apparently, earning any salary due to being "sick" since before beg. of October ..
(I am SEW going to frighten my GP on Wed if he doesn't DO something to make me better and it had BETTER involve strong tablets that ensure I get a night's sleep too!)

Sadly you can't see the yumminess of the yarn above to appreciate quite why I decided to buy it! Noro Silk Garden Lite, shade 2011, £7.95 as I can't access the pic I took BEFORE I knit it! but you can see from the single fingerless glove next to it the yummy autumn colours that it originally was? But its the 2nd one down here. (doesn't it look yummy? wouldn't you have been tempted?)

And this is the 2nd ball I purchased, shade 2013.


I plan to knit Design 30 on page 47 for the 2nd ball, and really wanted to buy the Noro Cashmere Island for Design 8, page 14, but the shop didn't stock this type hence purchasing two of the same yarn! I hadn't realised how it would knit up - although, I suppose, the clue IS on page 48 where the model is apparently wearing two different colourways of fingerless gloves. (I thought she WAS wearing two different colourways!) It looks like the 2nd of my short ribbed fingerless gloves, below, is going to be shades of muddy brown! (bah!). Never mind, the yarn is rather super even if its going to be a rather odd pair of gloves.


A quick knit! I cast on as soon as we got back! (are you impressed? bet you thought I'd stash it all!) (at this amount I couldn't afford to NOT immediately cast on, being as dh managed to find my pay slip that he thought was a "mistake" due to not much money being inserted into the net pay box this week. I think I got a bit of tax back and they probably had a whip round to round it up to whole pounds .. its not cheap being "sick" not to mention being somewhat PAINFUL!)

I should, I suppose, cast on for 2nd glove. However I'm not sure my shoulder would appreciate further stress of movement, its protesting slightly at the typing as it is so I shall leave that as a project for tomorrow as I can't see me being fit for much other than more chronically fatigued sitting on my chair enjoying yummy YARN!).

LUNCH, btw, ended up being dinner at the local!
We didn't, true to form, find anywhere to eat on the way home and as one of my son's pointed out we could have saved ourselves a lot of money and time wasted by staying home and popping out to the local AT lunch time. I tried saying at least we all got a bit of fresh air and stretched our legs and enjoyed a town we'd not visited, but they'd all scattered and started up various PS2's and tv's by then.