I try to spread out my knitting purchases so that I can look forward to them and savor them each individually. Instead yesterday all my purchases arrived on the same day. I got a used copy of Alice & Jade Starmore's Children's Collection for my AS collection and because I may want to make the elephant pillow. I also plan to buy Jade's book, A Collector's Item, because I really want to make the Maxmilian sweater. It is currently out-of-print but the Virtual Yarns web site says it will be back in stock in a month.



I also received my Denise needle replacements for my set. The new Denise needles take a bit more oomph to snap into place and the cables are a different color but otherwise they seem the same. Last but not least, I got Ron Schweitzer's Appalachian Portraits. I've heard Ron Schweitzer compared to Alice Starmore and I can only agree. In his designs he's working with a much more limited palette of natural Shetland colors (In AP there are only a total of 9 colors used) and he's doing some seriously wonderful fair isle. I am planning to make the Pine Forest vest and was happy to see I didn't have to buy the biggest size which is almost $40 more than the medium size.