Okay, what did I get this week when I was in Albany?

I went into Albany on Friday to do some long overdue grocery shopping and to see my Mum and Dad (OF COURSE!). When I dropped into Mum's though, Dad wasn't there and Mum explained that he was doing a buying/selling business. People have heaps of things they want to off load but don't have the time or inclination and Dad buys it as a lot from them and then sells the thing on Ebay or through the papers...whatever.
And Mum said he'd gone off to get a house load and apparently there was some WOOL in it!
Oh. My. God!
Dad was putting the stuff in storage and promised to keep the crafty stuff aside and bring it home for me and for a while there I had ridiculous fantasies of boxes of yarn stash and old pattern books. Considering that it was a couple moving and not an estate sale...never going to happen. But the stuff I got was pretty nice too.
Thanks Dad! I hope I didn't look TOO much like a seagull on a hot chip :)

First off I got a collection of cottons/polyblend/curtain blockout off cuts that'll work really well for a variety of things. Linings of bags for instance

Then there were these bits. A small ball of size 20 crachet cotton in white, a leftover beige ball and not quite a full ball of kind of fuzzy soft and cuddly yarn in a burn-your-eyeball-out pink. The picture really doesn't do justince to it. I'm dyeing this yarn as we speak to see if I can make it more bearable because it does feel lovely.

Then there were the real yarny stars! Almost 5 balls of this bright boucle yarn. Boucle is not my favourite kind of yarn. Far from it! But these bright shades will make excellent and interesting cushion covers or something like that. Just nothing I will EVER wear!

This yarn was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. 6 balls of wool and silk combo. Imagine! I hate to think how nuch it must have cost! The colours not too bad, fortuantely it has just escaped that kermit green to something more pleasantly organic but I'll have to find something nice to knit it up in.

The rest are not nearly as exciting. Although this was a surprise. About 6 metres of satin bias binding. Will make excellent edging on any blankets I might finish and thereby provide them with a little luxury.

Then theres the metres of velcro, the metres of trouser elastic and the hemming tape (in both pictures, there's one still in its packet on the left and another kind of one in the right picture in a brown.) Also a few assorted zips.

And lastly a makeshift sewing kit with elastic, curtain gathering tape, pins, machine bobbins and a bit of this and that in it.
Phew!

So it was really nice to be able to rummage through. But I'd also gone to Spotlight and bought some things I "needed" (really! I did!!) Some wool yarn to knit some slippers in and see if they'll felt properly and some buttons for Kim's Celtic Tote. Ah....

So there you have it. I have not been idle, I have been productively engaged and thoroughly enjoying it. I've done more besides but I think that's enough for today.
Happy Knitting :)