Sad knitty news

It's a sad bit of knitty news I have to impart.
I found out yesterday that our local Borders is closing down. Apparently they're pulling out of Ireland and the UK altogether. So sad.
It was the only place to get a lot of US knitty publications and by far had the best selection of knitting books.
It also means we have to look for a new home for our knitting group as the Starbucks in the store is closing too :(
A clothes shop is opening in its place. Great. Like we need another clothes store in the shopping centre :/
They have a HUGE closing down sale on at the moment. 50% off everything, including school books. That's what I get for being efficient. I only bought Alice's books there 2 weeks ago.
So, I went along to the knitting group last night to see what we could sort out about sourcing a new venue and the place was jammed to the gills. They had to close the doors to stop people entering the store 2 hours before closing time. The queue wait was about an hour to pay for the books, it was mental.
On between sorting out the new venue (hopefully the local library, but we're going to keep supporting the store as long as it's open) and sympathising with the fantastic staff there who will shortly be unemployed I (hubby who queued whilst I knit ha) managed to snap up some bargains:
1. Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 4: Crochet I hope this may encourage me to try crochet again.
2. The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches A gal can't have enough stitch dictionaries!
3. Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Knitting Book Yay!
4. Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book Socks. 'Nuff said. I've stalked this one for a while.
5. Fitted Knits Not 100% sure why I bought this, as I think the sizes are below me, but I've heard it has good shaping techniques. This one was the "eyes-glazed-over-it's-half-price-impulse-purchase"

I know, I'm mad, there's a recession etc, but y'know, it's knitting and it was half price. Conversation over.

In actual knitting news, I'm in a bit of a muddle with my Liberty Bell Afghan:
Tangles! Lots of them! I'm trying to think of a way to prevent this happening. I think I may have an idea. I'm going to try and put each pattern repeats worth of yarn into an individual ziploc bag. That should do the trick. Fingers crossed, I'm going to get de-tangling as soon as I finish this.

Hedera sock No 1 is done!:

I'm still not completely in love with the marriage of yarn & pattern, but I'm going to persevere. I finished this one today when the rest of the office was on tea break. Isn't the heel flap HUGE? If I were to ever knit these again(unlikely) I would most certainly reduce the length of the heel flap by at least 1/3.

So that's it for today. Keep an eye out your window tonight at approx 11.03pm GMT as the space shuttle will hopefully take off and it should be visible (fleetingly) in the night sky. Having seen a launch before in Florida I can say it is a fantastic sight. Although if I see this one tonight, I won't be sitting on Daytona beach with sand between my toes like last time. :( On the bright side, only 3 months and 1 week to go!!