Haulage and a New Project

Saturday I had to drop off Baby Surprises 5 & 6, and I got caught. There we are (M was with me -- the kiss of death), in a yarn store (okay, in what some term THE yarn store), and we just couldn't help ourselves. I want to send a special thanks to LA for pointing us to the new sock yarn in the warehouse.
Clockwise from upper left: Regia 4-ply Ringel Color #5047; Regia 4-ply Stretch Color #119; Regia 4-ply Mini Ringel Color #5219; Trekking XXL #90; RYC Classic Soft Lux #007 (enough for a jacket); Laines du Nord Dolly Baby #81 and 181 (for a hat); Regia 4-ply Mini Ringel Color #5220; Cascade Fixation #9843 and 6388 (I succumbed to my envy of M's pink socks); and Regia Stretch Crazy Color #115.

All except the Trekking and Fixation are closeouts, and as far as I can see, only the Soft Lux is on the website right now. They're a little backed up, so I would expect that the sock yarns will be up shortly, but if you're in the area and itching for sock yarn....

Since the Soft Lux and the Dolly Baby are for M and all the rest are sock yarns, I really don't feel too badly about breaking the "no new yarn" vow. Sock yarn doesn't count, right?

Of course, I also picked up this little beauty while I was there:
It's a tank in Nashua June, and it's a sample, which means store credit, which means money with which to buy more yarn (this will probably go to weaving projects, however). I cast on and have gotten this far:
The yarn is surprisingly soft and easy to work with. I was a little worried about the four thin plies in something without a lot of stretch or stickiness, but it really hasn't shown a tendency to split. The pattern is straightforward and easily memorized (the main lace panel has a 16-row repeat). I am a little worried about the amount of yarn it's going to take, however. The pattern calls for 6 balls for a medium. I'm about half an inch or less from finishing the first ball, and I have about 4 1/2" of the back done. I'm getting both stitch and row gauge (a miracle) in the textured rib, so I guess I'll have to trust that it'll work out. [Sorry about the washed-out color in the picture -- darn flash. It is a very soft sage green, but not quite that blah.]

We also made a little side trip to the library:
Clockwise from upper right: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz (an exploration of our unhealthy relationship with food creation and the food economy); The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen (I like memoirs by people who know how to write and how not to take everything so seriously); Exit Strategy by Michelle Cromer and Remember Me by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (both modern explorations of death and funeral customs and how they are changing -- no reason other than a fascination with ritual in general and M's professional interest in the funeral game); and Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman (a lay introduction to New Testament textual criticism).

That should all keep us busy for a bit, no?

Right now there is a man in my basement cleaning my furnace and vacuuming the heating vents. The thumping and bumping in the walls is a little wierd, but it'll be so nice to have the dust gone.