Saturday

I had one of my forever fun get togethers with Linda yesterday. I drove down to Kalamazoo and met her at the yarn shop she works at part time, Stitching Memories. Now Linda will claim she isn't an enabler, but she sure wasn't helping when she pointed out more and more excellent yarns (clearance yarns at that). My yarn diet went to crap. But I guess that's what happens when your on a diet right? Sometimes you fall off the wagon, but then get back on for another few weeks/months. I don't do much food dieting, so this will be my similar chance for failure.

I bought the Jo Sharp book I've been longing for. The sweater patterns are modern but timeless.



I also purchased Favorite Socks. This is a collection of the best sock patterns from Interweave Knits magazine. I'm already confident I'll make at least five of the patterns.



My yarn purchasing focus included sock yarn (no kidding) and yarn for baby projects. I like buying yarn for baby projects because I don't have to buy a lot. I am also getting the itch for a baby, so I'd like to start a hope chest of projects.





After emptying my wallet, we went to Panera to eat and knit. Linda always has lots of projects to share with me. She showed me her Elizabeth Zimmerman surprise baby jacket. I'm going to try to get her to guest blog about that one, so I won't say too much.
She made this Fair Isle hat in a just a few short days while at a nursing conference. It's flawless. It even has a cotton lining inside so as not to chafe your forehead. Brian looked at these pics and asked me when I'm going to make him a ski cap like that. We'll see. It would help if I had any idea how to do Fair Isle.

(Now, I hate the way I look in this picture and have officially decided to stop tanning my face. BUT, I had to show you how great this hat is, so I'm embarrassing myself for the sake of the knitting.)


The kits for the hat are available here.

She also modeled her new socks. This pattern is the Interweave Knits "Embossed Leaves Socks".



Lastly, I received two fantastic birthday gifts. Linda is the person who not only inspired me to do knitting, but also beading. Now, I've fallen away from beading, but she just keeps learning more. She made me this gorgeous bracelet. I think she called it Peyote Beading?? Linda, correct me if I'm wrong.



She also wanted to give me plenty of reasons to use the cupcake carrier from Carrie. This book was once featured on goodtobegirl's blog. I'm particularly excited about the chocolate mousse cupcakes which have a layer of coffee flavored mousse under the cupcake top.



Before we knew it, we had been sitting for close to 4 hours at Panera. Thanks for the sharing and knitting Linda! I had so much fun.



**Yes Carrie - that is my "Knit or Go Home" shirt!