Mergers & Acquisitions

***Warning, this is a fairly picture heavy post***

At the weekend I went to see my mum, and stopped at the John Lewis at Bristol on the way, so I could have a smoosh of some yarn and have a quick look at buttons/fabrics/bag handles/various accessory things that are critical to the success of my projects *grins*

I was a bit disappointed, the yarn selection was extremely focused on Rowan and Debbie Bliss, with almost nothing else. Not much fun. But, I did pick up a few useful bits...

Buttons for my green top and and this pretty fabric to use as lining for my cable band bag:

So not a total waste of time ;)

On Saturday, mum took me to the local garden centre, telling me that they have expanded their yarn selection. Last time we'd been was before I knitted, so I couldn't even remember a yarn selection! 

At this point, I should tell you that my mum is a terrible (or wonderful?!) enabler *laughs* She knows pretty yarns make me happy, so she encourages the purchase of said yarns. This is obviously not a problem ;) 

Mum was looking at patterns to see if she wanted to make something, which meant we were there for a dangerously long time which, in conjunction with the widened selection of yarn, resulted in a few purchases...

A giant ball of green aran weight, similar to the purpley-blue I used for my hooded cardigan. I'm planning for this to be another cardigan (it's an acrylic heavy blend, so not a skin touching yarn, but perfect for cardigans):

Bright red sock yarn, because who doesn't need bright red socks?! (It is pillar box red, rather than the orangey colour of the picture - but the light yesterday was terrible for photos):

A ball of King Cole Riot, mainly because I like the colours. No specific plans for this as yet:

And finally, 5 balls of 100% Alpaca. It's so soft, and squishy, and the very lovely lady in the shop gave me 10% off them because she wanted to get rid *grins* I'm thinking a tank top of some description. I'm particularly amused by the name Cusco (for anyone not a bit of a kid's film lover, it is the same name as the Emperor that gets turned into a Llama in The Emperor's New Groove):

So, that was Saturday, but the acquisitions don't quite end there ;)

On Sunday  I went to my special beach. As well as my awesome skills in the arcade (I won 3 cuddly toys on the grabber machines!), I also demonstrated some excellent shopping skills. I bought this tin, to use as a button tin. Because everyone needs a button tin, right?! I also found some pretty buttons in a charity shop, so they had to come home with us too:

Which does finally finish the "acquisitions" part of this post. Moving on to the "mergers" section...

The new yarn needed to be merged into my existing stash, which had already been bolstered therefore no longer even remotely fitted into the plastic box I'd been using to store it (well, it didn't even fully fit in the box before the extras, there was also a small satellite stash that was hiding!)

This is what I have now...

Everything fits; the new, the old and the satellite. All merged neatly together. In fact, I have a little extra space now, so the top left drawer is actually housing my WIPs, making my craft area even tidier *grins*

And to think I didn't believe the people who commented on my Blog Week post about my yarn box, who said that one small box was only the beginning *laughs* Looks like they were right ;)

So, that was my weekend, hope everyone else had a good one.