Project #2 begins (sort of), and Misty goes thrifting

So I started on the hat, but I know I'm not doing the ribbing right. It's come out looking interesting, and I'm sure it's a stitch that has a name-- it has a ribbing-like stretchiness to it... but this is going to be the Jayne Cobb hat, just all in purple. And possibly without a pompom on top. Definitely with the earflaps. Like so:



So on my way back from work, I hit up a thrift store and went thrifting for crafts for the first time-- I've gone many times before for clothes. At the time, it was because my family was poor and on welfare. Now, I feel weirdly pretentious and trendy for doing it. At the same time, it's exhilarating to run across a bunch of stuff that you may or may not need, for ridiculously cheap.

This thrift store claims that all of its proceeds to go orphans in Africa, and it is black-owned and black-run. This is what I purchased to help both myself and some African children:

Seen here: 2 heart-shaped boxes (don't all start humming Nirvana at once), a cute picture frame, an Italian cookie tin (the buttons were in a box and being sold by the handful, so I asked if I could just buy them all), an old book on typography, a size H crochet hook, and a Dick Tracy lunchbox with metal closure. Unseen: a pair of gray boots in very good condition, a piece of colorful felt that might get turned into an iPod sleeve, and a perfectly beautiful brown sweatery shirt for Clorissa.

The price on all that? $6.50. As if my day wasn't going well enough, my best friend Becca sent me these from Tejas:


A knitting magazine with a centerfold pull-out, for chrissake. Men holding big knitting sticks and actually making things with them.

I am new to the world of knitting, but she knows me well enough to know that anything can be made better with a sexy man thrown in the mix.

I lurve her.