I did a little stash acquisition yesterday.  I got these:

...in hopes of using them to work this:

...only to discover that the bamboos are larger needles than the metal ones.  My needle gauge indicates that a size 1 needle should be 2.25mm in diameter.  The Skacel bamboos are 2.5mm.  This is a big enough difference for me to feel and big enough that the Skacels won’t fit into the size 1 hole on my gauge.  Interestingly enough, I notice that KnitPicks carries a Skacel needle sizer that, naturally,  indicates that a size 1 needle is 2.5mm in diameter.

Well, shoot.  The needles aren’t a loss by any means and they will work just dandily with other sock yarns that I happen to have.  But this yarn is a bit thin and the bamboos are just too big to give the fabric the substance I want.  So, back to the metal pins for this one.

I also got some yarn.  I wasn’t really looking for any except in the sense that I’m always looking for a good deal and this was a good deal.

It’s a thick and thin cotton, DK weight and I thought this mocha to mauve to white was just too pretty to pass up.  It has been discontinued I understand but since I was able to get 10 balls and since the yardage is very good (around 224 yds), I should be able to do something nice with it.

Oh!  Yesterday, mid-morning, a brilliant male cardinal visited the feeder.  He stayed for two or three minutes (while I held my breath) and had breakfast.  Then, around 4:30 in the afternoon, a house finch showed up for an early supper.  This is so cool!

Have a great weekend :)