Shopping spree(s)

So that was a productive morning for my credit card. First, last night after attempting to upload a nearly 1 MB picture of the scarf below, I got a message that my web space here was too full to accept any more pictures. So I deleted a bunch of uploaded pictures that I'd never linked to and managed to squeeze in two of the three pictures I wanted to show. I know those file sizes are ridiculously large, and although there probably is some software resident on my computer I could use to make them smaller, I decided it was time finally to get a digital camera so I could post more, but much smaller and faster loading, photos here.

I had a vague idea of what I wanted—nothing too fancy or expensive because, based on the past twenty years I've owned my Ricoh KR-10 Super and not having purchased anything more than a flash, I know I'm not an avid photographer. I wanted good enough quality pictures, especially for macro shots of knitting.

So I went to Reed's Cameras this morning, received excellent help in picking out a camera set up, and walked out with a new camera and photo printer. I got a Pentax Optio MX, 3.2 megapixels and 10X optical zoom, and a Hi-Touch Photo Printer 631PS. I don't think I'll do much printing of my own pictures, but it will be nice for printing pictures I receive via e-mail.

I was not looking forward to deciding which camera to buy. It was definitely the right choice to go to a downtown camera shop that's been in business for years and get professional, mostly uninterrupted service. The large electronics stores would have been overwhelming. The prices were comparable to what I've seen online and, instead of paying shipping, Pasadena got the sales tax.

Then I drove over to Burbank to visit a knitting store I'd not yet been to, Unwind. They happened to have a sale on some of their winter wools, so I picked up 12 balls of Tahki New Tweed in a loden green. I also bought a couple skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in # 132 Jay Pond (light blue and tan).

I also signed up to take a class on combination knitting with Annie Modesitt. Aside from being taught to knit at boarding school, I've never taken a knitting class as an adult. I've heard good things about Annie and, although I've done continental knitting by following a book, I've never really knitted extensively with it.

Well, I'd hoped this would be an illustrated post and took some pictures on my new camera to do so. However, after taking a few shots and nothing was there, I read the manual, which stated next to the Caution! symbol, "Always charge the battery after purchasing." So the battery is charging now.