Long time...

Well, I have been busy. We survived Ally's birthday party (and 14 preteen girls!) along with the the remainder of Ottawa's winter!

I have been knitting - it seems like a mad fool, but really, I have only accomplished a few things. The layette set above being one of them.

It was a gift for Naevyne's Sparks leader. She is expecting a little girl in early June - and that suited me just fine! I had bought a couple of balls of Porto Cervo cotton, on sale, over the winter and I had the left over raw silk from the Valentine's Day hats. I was hoping someone I knew would be having a baby girl! I love knitting infant clothes - you can use so little, but the gift means so much!

I was very happy with the way the outfit turned out, though the hat was my achilles heel! I had it in my mind to make a bonnet with the same pleated edging as I had done the bottom of the dress, but for some reason it was refusing to turn out the way I wanted it to! I swear I ripped it out at least a half dozen times before I finally accepted that should just make a little hat with a pleated fringe - Presto! Done in an evening! Somedays you should just stick with what you know best!

I have also knitted a pink wool crown with silver thread and stars for our little friends' princess birthday. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of her in it - maybe when I see her next week.

I am currently busy knitting another boring pair of socks for my beloved. It is our anniversary next week and he loves handknit socks - boring, plain old st st, no fuss socks. His goal is to only own socks knitted by me for him. It is definitely a testament to my affection for him that I keep knitting away! Though, I have to admit that the yarn is lovely to knit (even if it is a plain denim blue). It is a Regia wool/silk blend and knits up beautifully.

I have also been distracted by needlefelting, lately. The girls and I have been working on that, along with the odd dye job. We recently took a natural dyes class and had fun with that - we don't have the natural dyes at home, but we have been dying with food colouring. I am having a lot of trouble finding a good selection of Kool Aid powders - perhaps it is a bit too early in the season for it?

I will get around to posting some of our dye work soon.