Crafty Weekend

I went to NJ this weekend to visit my childhood friend Paula. (I think at some point we figured out we have been friends since about 6th grade).  It turned out to be a rather crafty weekend.

On Saturday we started the day with part 2 of knitting lessons.  Last time I was there I taught her the knit stitch.  I was prepared to teach her to purl.  First I gave her the pattern for making the diagonal washcloths and some yarn she could use for that.  I showed her how to YO and k2tog. She started working on washcloths and decided that would keep her busy for a while and she would wait til next time to purl. She has made some really great garter stitch rectangles!

After a morning of knitting and chatting, we ventured out to shop.  She mentioned seeing an ad that Tuesday Morning had yarn.  The Tuesday morning near me does not generally have a ton of stuff, but we thought we'd give it a try.  Holy cow! This one had a ton of yarn and other supplies.

Here is some yarn I got:

I bought all they had, it is about 2150 yards of fingering.  It was funny because after working on my Conic shrug I said "punch me if I ever make another sweater out of fingering weight yarn" and what do I buy? Fingering!

I also got this lovely assortment of stuff:

So there are a couple of purse handles, and 2 different colors of ink for rubber stamping and some sulky thread.  Paula got a pair of really nice rosewood knitting needles.

Then we went to JoAnn's and I got a stack of fabrics to use for a sewing project we had in mind.  We looked at the yarns there and I gave her opinions on some that I had used before.

We got in some knitting during movie time that night, and I finished my March hat for Sailors:

Also, Paula gave me my birthday gift early:

The fabric squares are wool- I need to figure out whether to use them as the main fabric to make something, or use them to embellish something else.

Sunday before I left we made some dresses to send to Little Dresses for Africa.  That was a fun project- here's mine:

This was made with the stuff I got at JoAnn's.  Had I planned ahead better I could have brought stuff from home to use (including ribbon for the top!).  We talked about having another day to sew and maybe even inviting another of her friends over.