It’s been another busy weekend in the Land o’ Liz. Let’s recap, shall we?

Harry Potter Book 7 Release Party

Pre-Potter Events
Friday afternoon, after work, I headed out to Barnes & Noble to get in line for my bracelet. The way things worked at our particular B&N was that bracelets were given out starting at 6pm, and you were sorted into a House depending on which number in line you were. I don’t know the order of the Houses, but I do know that those in Slytherin (numbers 1-100) were first in line. The reasoning for this was made obvious when I saw the general manager dressed as Snape. Yay Snape! Anyway, I got there around 5:30 and ended up with about 30 people ahead of me in line. I was joined shortly thereafter by Wes and Eva, and once we all had our bracelets and our green tickets (we were Slytherins, after all), we headed out to Wes’s Hans and Laura’s Wes’s Hans and Laura’s (we went back and forth playing phone tag after we had all left in our own cars trying to figure out where we were meeting - it was chaotic there for about 10 minutes!).

Once I arrived at Hans and Laura’s, they presented me with my birthday present: the first season DVD box set of Gilmore Girls and a copy of Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel (ala the blue blog). If it were at all possible, the latter got us even more in the mood for our evening of Harry Potter revelry. (Laura was particularly in love with the Weasley sweater tree ornaments and all but demanded one for Christmas this year! :)

We kicked off the evening officially by heading out to Ted’s Montana Grill for yummy bison burgers and milkshakes, and we had a round-table discussion (quite literally, as we were seated at, yes, a round table) on theories and speculations about the upcoming book.

Potter Events at Barnes & Noble
Following dinner, we headed back up to B&N for some pre-line-up fun, where we saw some awesome costumes, witnessed some very excited kids, and chatted with some really cool people.

Mary, contemplating wizardly things

I decided to wear my Tonks costume afterall, and the highlight of my evening was when a very little girl — maybe 6 or 7, dressed herself in a Weird Sisters t-shirt with spray-painted pink hair — came running up to me screaming “TONKS!”

Me! As Tonks! I do so love that wig.

There were lots of fun activities, displays, and demonstrations, including face-painting (which we all wanted but decided to decline, since there were so many kids in line, and we didn’t want to deprive them of their fun), costume contests, owl demonstrations, and a wicked-cool tarantula display. The guy who was manning the spider display was really cool, too. I’m not entirely sure who he was supposed to be, since he looked like he was dressed as Snape, but he had a lightening-bolt scar on his forehead… But he, Laura, and I got into a discussion about all the new products that Alivan’s is selling, including House robes, wands, and all sorts of other fantastic paraphernalia. Though I find it a bit of a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the rest of our crowd called us dorks. :) Laura made good use out of her wand sheath and informed me that it very much came in handy.

Laura peering over the tarantula display at Barnes & Noble. (See her wand sheath sticking out there in the corner?)

The Line-Up
At 11:00 we started lining up, and found ourselves in front of the sports section. Joy. Luckily, Eva had picked up a fun book while were browsing through the clearance section, and that kept us occupied for the next hour. As the book was Classic Erotic Tales, we couldn’t exactly read it out-loud (there were small children around us, after all), but we passed it around, pointing out hilarious passages every so often. (Honestly, this stuff was so. bad. The euphemisms alone were gut-wrenchingly hilarious.)

A Book in Hand is Worth Two in the Bag
And by 12:15, we were out and headed for home. Of course I started reading as soon as I got inside my apartment, and it brought memories of reading Book 6 out on the porch two years ago flooding back. But I was good and went to bed around 3:30, having read about 1/4 of the book. Saturday was, of course, spent reading the remainder of the book. No fears, though - no spoilers here. I’ll post a link to my LJ with thoughts on the book later.

Sunday Yarn Shopping at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop

So today, after I had finally finished the book and gotten some decent sleep, I went with my friend Bethany to a new yarn store in the next town over. It’s been open for a while, and everyone I’ve talked to says it’s great, but I’d never been. Bethany only lives 10 miles away from it, but it’s more like a 30-mile hike for me. So we set aside today for our trip, figuring we’d both be done with the book by then and want some time away from the couch after having spent all day Saturday sitting. And it was a lovely store. Just lovely.

The Hillsborough Yarn Shop is small - smaller even than Great Yarns - but it’s got a very comfortable atmosphere and really, really nice people. Their space was small, but it was filled well with lots of great yarns. The selection wasn’t huge, obviously, but what they had was nice. I hadn’t gone in intending to buy anything, but at the same time, I hadn’t told myself I wouldn’t buy anything, either. And I did, in fact, walk out with some nice swag. I’m trying not to be too spending right now, so I defended my purchases by telling myself it’s all stuff I’ve wanted for quite a while (and it was).

Purchases from Hillsborough Yarn Shop: Louisa Harding’s Winter Muse Classics, Ann Feitelson’s The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, 2 skeins of Panda Cotton, and 1 skein each of Trekking Pro Natura and Tofutsies

If you’ll recall, I started coveting Winter Muse Classics back in February, and I’ve wanted a good Fair Isle technique book for a while (Feitelson’s being the best I’ve found, given that Alice Starmore’s Fair Isle Bible is all but unattainable these days). And of course, sock yarn… Everyone needs more sock yarn, right? These three are ones I’ve wanted to try out for quite a while, and I just love the colors!

Panda Cotton by Crystal Palace Yarns, in colorway 7185 Sable

Trekking Pro Natura by Zitron Yarns, in colorway 1604

Tofutsies by South West Trading Company, in colorway 789

All-in-all, it’s been a great weekend, but come tomorrow, it’s back to the daily grind.