I have been a horrible blogger... and knitter.

I knit some things up for a friend who just had a beautiful baby boy... and I "finished" my mother's Mother's Day doily. I use the term "finished" loosely since I was on round 50 or so and because it had been sitting for a while, one of my Denise joints came un-jointed and I dropped a glob of stitches. Most of them I was able to knit back up without a problem, but my stitch count for that section was off, which subsequently pissed me off, and I just decided to bind off where I was and call it good. It was plenty large enough, I was just mad that I didn't finish the pattern.

I haven't picked up any knitting since.

Now, I *love* knitting. And I have so much new yarn for new projects... but lately I've just been burned out. I remember having this problem shortly after the holidays since I spent so much time knitting for everyone else. Maybe that is my problem now and perhaps the only way to combat it will be for me to pick up the yarn I bought to start Glampyre's Orangina.

I just hope none of you have forgotten about me... *hug*

Knit Mainea isn't gone... but it might be somewhat touch and go for a bit. My webhost had the misfortune of having Homeland Security bust in and take the drive and backup drive for one of the servers. My site was hosted on this drive, as were hundreds of other sites. My webhost is trying to get our files back and our info back, but until then (if that even happens), I am going to try to pick up the pieces around here. It will probably mean broken pictures/ links for a while... but please be patient with me!

Oh... and I could use a virtual hug or ten. Losing all of my files for three sites has hit me especially hard since I know that there are some files that I stupidly did not have backed up anywhere, and that means I potentially could have holes in more than a years' worth of data.

Some days are just great mail days... Saturday was a great mail day.



Oh yes, my friends... three knitting packages came on the same day. How exciting! Seth and I agreed a while back that I could set some tax return money aside to purchase yarn with, but since I had to spend it wisely (I am not allowing to buy myself anymore yarn until after I try spinning my own), it has taken me about a month to decide exactly how I wanted to spend it. It's also exciting to know that because I spread the money out a bit, I still have three more packages on their way!

First, I bought the yarn to finally do my Ribby Cardi. It's elann's Highland wool in Summer Sky and Deep Blue Sea. The Summer Sky will be the body, and the Deep Blue Sea will be the sleeves. I love how the colors look together!


I also bought three Fiber Trends patterns that I have been wanting to try- The Peace Shawl, The Flower Basket Shawl and the Lacy Leaf Shawl. Yarn for these patterns is going to be coming from Knitpicks.

Second, four gorgeous hanks of Peace Fleece in Baghdad Blue purchased from Lu from DeStash.

I admit, I have not yet decided what I am going to do with it yet, but the colorway is so amazing, and I love the purple flecks scattered throughout. Perhaps something felted?

And third, two hanks of cotton/lycra blend sock yarn created by Greenwood Fiberworks.

The one on the left is called Purple Mountain Majesties and the one on the right is Robin's Egg. Not only is the yarn even more beautiful than in her etsy pictures, but she includes a free sock pattern and wraps everything up with an adorable "thank ewe" sticker. Once my yarn buying hiatus is over, I totally plan on purchasing more of her yarn. I adore nubby socks!

I also thought that I would pop out a picture of what I found in my garage yesterday morning. Jessica and I had been emailing a couple of times about the fabulous quilt that she is working on. Although she had planned to do it in shades of green with flecks of purple, it has transformed into mostly purple. I had mentioned to her that years ago, I had started a quilt in purples (of course this was long before I met Seth!) but never actually sewed it together... I cut pieces and put them in a box. I thought that the pieces were stored at my mother-in-law's, but evidently they have been in my garage. Still unfinished and unsewed. Maybe someday I will finish it and give it to one of my girls.


I hope everyone had as warm and sunny a weekend as we did up here in Maine!

And finally some pictures! *wild cheering ensues*

I posted a couple of times about the peacock doily that I am working on for my mom- well... I made a slight miscalculation in the amount of cotton thread that I had left and have abruptly run out. There is no way that this will be done by Mother's Day, but my mom has been sort of warned that her gift will be unfinished.
So far...


I really like the pattern very much- it is incredibly easy to follow. The major downside (other than my brain cramp with the yarn amount) is that the cotton thread is somewhat difficult to manipulate around my plastic Denise cords at times. I believe that is just the nature of the yarn fiber, though, and not the pattern itself.

Because I haven't been able to work on the doily, I decided to do something novel and try to finish some of the projects I already had in progress rather than start a new one. What a concept!

First up... I finished my Short Row Rib Scarf, as seen in Magknits. Made with Malabrigo in the Bobby Blue colorway. I purposely did extra middle repeats so I could make the scarf long enough to wrap around my neck twice during the really cold parts of the winter. It is super warm, and unlike many other wools, doesn't bother my neck too badly.


Second... The Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers I started ages ago. These things have the same problem as socks- you start one and then put the second aside. I neglected to follow the directions, however, and had to back track because I was accidently trying to create the thumb gusset on the wrong side. Created with Knitpicks Merino Style in Dusk.


The Dulaan knitting is finally complete for April and in many respects, I am sorry to see it end. My mom and I have talked it over and have decided that every April we are going to choose a charity to knit for since it helps with our Spring fever. Final total is 72 hats. I am going to take this weekend to check them all and make sure the top seam gathers on all the hats are solid, and then will be putting them in the mail next week.


A new month for Project Spectrum! May is for green, so to commemorate the start of May, here are a couple of snapshots of my house. Notice the new green leaves on the tree and the actual start of green grass out front. How exciting! My brother and I spent a laborous weekend of pulling up the old shrubs in front- I've since planted a new lilac bush and a forsythia. And once it gets warm enough, I am going to fill all of those window boxes with flowers. I love color!
*picture removed due to security issues around where I live over the weekend*