Birthday Booty

This year for my birthday I intended to not have any knitting stuff as presents, I had quite a bit last year from Ravelry Day and again a fair bit for Christmas which I bought back from Harrogate purchased with money various members of the family gave me. I gaily handed over the goodies to the kind present giver on my return and got to open them all over again on last years birthday/Christmas day. So I decided I have plenty of stash just about enough to keep me going for a while, needles coming out of my ears and lots of other knitty bits and bobs stored all over the place.

Anyway I think my family must have misheard me cos guess what I ended up with........

Buttons (just a few)

yarn (there is actually 10 balls in this colour)yarn (another 10 balls)A few pattern books
and more yarn (just in case I didn't have enough)!! Even hubby the week before my birthday (admittedly trying desperately to get out of doing a car boot sale I was insisting we needed to do for cash flow reasons) talked me into going yarn shopping rather than him going to the local retail park on his own where he would end up buying me more clothes that he always gets in the wrong size or just totally something that I wouldn't wear but he "thought" I would like!! He even offered me a drive out to find some of the yarn shops that I moon over advertised in just a few of the magazines I possess. To be honest I think I was very shocked just a little overwhelmed at his offer. Also knowing hubby's loathing of driving, especially to places he doesn't know so the stress factor multiples by a million I sort of lost the plot a little and bottled it!!

After a short venture out we ended up firstly in Foxhill Fabrics and Yarns which is located in Mitchells Craft Center, Weeford Road which is located in Sutton Coldfield. That is where the Noro book in the picture came from. The lady in the shop was lovely and friendly and very helpful. The shop had lovely stuff in it too and loads of brands I can't get nearer home. After a mooch which wasn't as pleasant as it could have been (mainly because hubby and the boys tummy's rumbling was loud enough to start an avalanche of yarn to start cascading down from the shelves) we left and went for lunch and also for me to ponder why I hadn't gone mad and bought some of the yarn I've been lusting after for a while. I realised my problem, I'm a tight skint flint.

A few days before Liz and I had been in the Solihull branch of House Of Fraser where they have not only had a sale but also a Rowan rep visit the store and offering Rowan All Seasons Cotton for the bargain price £5 for 500grms in 3 different colours. Well what is a girl to do in those circumstances I ask you, I know what I did, I had already informed my older children of my impending shopping trip and tentatively broached the subject of picking up my own pressies if they were happy for me to do that!! Yup, they were more than happy for that. So I had all 3 colours in the cotton and then the agonising of which colour to pick for the Bamboo Soft, there were at least half a dozen colours all beautiful.

Over lunch I suggested to hubby we double back to Solihull and see what was left. The darling man agreed so we went and got me the rest of the pattern books in the photo and 3 other colours of the Rowan Bamboo Soft which is sooooo soooffftt and smoochy I cannot wait to use it. The bed is also filling up very nicely!

Aren't I a lucky girl, I also had other non knitty pressies too but I don't think you want to bother about my everyday comfy cotton underwear amongst other things do you?????