Happy Anniversary!

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person. In fact, my best Valentines have been from my Dad. He always would get me (and my siblings) one of those cardboard heart boxes full of chocolates. Unfortunately they were usually full of creams and I loathe creams. I much prefer chocolates with nuts or nougats or caramels. One year Dad gave me a heart shaped necklace with my initial on it. I still have it and wear it occasionally. Actually, I suspect that Mom may have done all this but Dad gets the credit!

But DH and I ended up getting married on 14 Feb. So it's not Valentine's Day anymore-it's our anniversary! So Happy anniversary DH!

DH, DS and I took a trip to Austin as our anniversary present. We did a lot of eating: Stubb's BBQ, Kerbey Lane Cafe (twice at two different locations) and Abuelo's (twice). Lots of good food. We also visited the two yarn stores in town. The first was Hill Country Weavers. HCW has been in Austin for a long time. I remember visiting them back when I was an undergraduate. That's where I first got the tatting bug (lace not ink!). They usually have a good selection of sock yarn but neither DH nor I were thrilled with anything on this trip. DH did find a purple yarn that he like but it was a cotton yarn and I really don't like to knit socks with cotton. He loved the shade of purple so I told him to find a wool or wool blend and I would make him some socks. I was also hoping to find some clearance yarn that I saw in September that had some lovely burnt orange in it but it wasn't on sale any longer. Honestly, I hate to pay $8.50 for 25gms of yarn. So we left HCW without any purchases.

We also made the long trek out to Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe. It wasn't really that long a drive, only 10 miles from MoPac, but it seemed long. Isn't it funny how when you are driving some place new that it seems like it takes forever but the return trip is so short? Anyway, BYS is a good yarn shop. The front of the store was devoted to flashy yarns-lots of novelty stuff with vibrant colours and metallic glints and fuzzy stuff. The rest of the shop is more "normal" yarns. DH found a brilliant purple he liked in Cascade 220 but I pointed out to him that he would have to handwash any socks I made from it. I told him to look around for the Superwash 220 and lo! they had it in the brilliant purple colour. He was really chuffed. He told me he would look through my patterns as soon as we got home because he wanted a textured sock. I bought a skein of Lorna's Laces in camouflage for a beanie for DS. And a ball of the Trekking in neapolitan ice cream colours that is so popular right now. DH also found an orphan ball of Steinbach Wolle Sockenwolle in a brilliant red with a black twist. He really liked it and even asked the saleswoman if she had any more. (They didn't). We bought it anyway and I started some spiral tube socks for DS.

It was a really wonderful trip and a fun way to celebrate our first year as a married couple.