Book Lovers Rejoice at My Good Fortune!

My darling husband did the most romantic thing the other day--he brought home a hardback copy of Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs. What, that's not romantic? Then you must not be a knitter! I nearly swooned!

He had been browsing the bookshelves at Goodwill to see what treasures could be found and lo! He didn't really know if it was a good book or not, but as soon as I started flipping through its almost 300 pages of cables, lace, twisted stitch, mosaic, and texture patterns he knew he'd done good. *grin*
Maybe I'm just in awe because I have yet to let myself spend a small fortune on knitting "reference" books like this, but I loooooove them and am so glad to finally own one! It's just intoxicating to thumb through and imagine all the things you could make if you only had the time. *sigh*
Hardback books at our Goodwill cost a whopping $.50, by the way!

*I do have to say that one picture in the book did take me by surprise, however. This one:
Okay, if that's not totally creepy, I don't know what is. The book does make the point that if you adjust your gague, you could make this into a full size wearable mask! Oh, joy. . . "a contrasting color will do nicely to accent the eyebrows . . .{could adjust stitches to leave} the bottom of the nose open for breathing convenience, and the mask can be worked in one piece with an entire hood. It will also look clever on the back of a (lined) mitten or pillow" *Oh, God, there's one kid who'd never go to sleep!

Although quite a work of skilled knit design, I can't imagine where you'd actually have use for this. Ugh. Just gives me the shivers. Almost as bad as those ski masks that showed up on the Knittyboard.