Birthday Loot

First I will say that my sister gave me an excellent birthday present today by calling and letting me know that her baby is going to be a girl. I know she's nervous about having a girl, but she will be a wonderful mom. She's a wonderfully strong person.

Now on to the knitting books:






The husband says I can consider these from him . . . although I consider them from me. I ordered them for myself for my birthday, I paid for them, and I picked them up from the UPS place. He says it's our money now and we are a team, so technically they are from him too. Yeah, he's sneaky like that.

I will be reviewing each of them in the not too distant future, with my normal video review. Honestly, I am going to let you know that I was a little let down by one of the books, got what I expected with another, and was pleasantly surprised with the other. The one that somewhat disappointed I will go over why in the review and honestly, I'll have to think long and hard about whether or not it's something I actually want to keep. It may be a giveaway item. We shall see.

Sunday Inspirations

Many more inspirations for this week, summertime is definitely a time of ideas:


~Sunset Sweater - - love this sweater from Erica of DesigKnit. She dyed, spun, swatched, knit, knit, and finished her beautiful sweater. Simply wonderful!


~Rainbow Jaywalker - - I love this sock from gray la gran of Haphazard Knitter. The way the stripes work in the Jaywalker pattern are wonderful!


~Reverse Applique Bag - - Love this project from Beki of artsy-crafty babe. Love the ways she worked in the reverse applique and the painting on the fabric!


~Prairie Rose Lace Shawl - - I love Monika's shawl and the progression it made from fiber, to yarn, to shawl! If you love shawls, I definitely recommend her blog, Smoking Hot Needles. She always has the most beautiful shawls. Plus she likes orange! :)


~Chili Pepper - - Susan B. Anderson has this great pattern for free. I like how it can be worn with more room at the top or pulled down further and snug. It reminds me of something my sister Echo might like.


~Monkey! - - I love colors PogKnits chose for this. I will likely be purchasing Annita's Jacobus pattern. It can be purchased through the Ravelry page or through Annita'sblog link.


~Blog Books - - I love this! Not that I feel like I have enough to print anything out yet, but I love the idea of having a print version of my blog in a nice book format!

Adding up

Well, it's moving slowly, but I am making progress on Echo's purse. I have to say, I'm not longer worried that she may not like it, because it's definitely growing on me. If she doesn't like it, she can send it back to me and I'll make her a different purse and I'll keep this one! :)







I also got all my tip money saved up so far out and decided I was going to get a few books. This is what I picked up. I wanted Eclectic Sole also, but amazon.com says it's out and they don't sell it at Barnes and Noble.

Cookie A's book, have wanted this since I knew it was coming out. Have only looked in it a little, but so glad I got it.



This weaving book was one recommended by my fiber instructor, only it's been hard to find -not available, weeks of waiting - I finally saw a copy of it in Barnes and Noble. Yeah! I like the information in the back about altering weaves.





I have also decided on the last contest, but instead I am going to cheat and add it to this weeks contest. If you leave a comment, just say something short about which prize you would prefer, the fabric, this weaving book, or you don't care. Then there will be two drawings on Sunday.


This is a nice book about obviously, weaving without a loom. It shows frame weaving, dream catchers, board weaving, stick weaving, how to weave a circular pattern hat, etc.

Treasure!!

What could be better than treasure!!



Barbara Walker's Treasury Books and her Mosaic Knitting!


My Valentine's Day present to myself. I can't wait until I finish up some projects and have some time to play with these! Ah! There are very few books I really, really want and these were some of them. Now to get New Pathways for Sock Knitters and Eclectic Sole. I love books that can teach me something.

Lisa Jane Smith

I was extremely psyched the other week when I went into a Borders and saw this and this. Not only is she writing again, but they are republishing her old out of print books!! Yes, yes, before anyone says anything . . . I know she is a young adult author and I am not a young adult anymore, but she was one of my favorite authors when I was younger (next to john saul and dean koontz), but I got rid of all of those books when I moved out here to New York. I am one of those people who can reread a book a dozen and a half times and still never get bored of it. Heck, I watch movies over and over too. I am super psyched and purchased both of those that day!