The Moderne Baby blanket is coming along fabulously, it’s turning out beautifully and the Lorna’s Laces solid colors all have slight variations in color that are just magnificent.

The Cat’s Paw shawl is nearly complete, it just needs a border around the bottom.

My original intentions for May for my Knitting Almanac were to work on American Aran afghan squares, instead I’ve decided to focus on the various baby projects that need attention. I might even throw in another shawl too.

I’ve done a bit of spinning in the last few weeks and I just noticed that the yarn I’m spinning is very much in the same color family as the baby blanket.

The last week or so, I’ve been really struggling with whether or not I want to continue to write a blog. I don’t know if it was the five year mark or seeing that I’ve written over 620 posts or if it’s just spring fever? Part of it is feeling like I’m putting myself out there and getting very little response. Are people getting tired of reading blogs? Recently I read in American Libraries, a magazine put out by the American Library Association, that there are about 250,000 abandoned blogs. My original reason for blogging was to share what I was working on with other knitters, then it became a personal journal and recently it’s again become more of a place to share my projects. It’s a time of transition around here and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking anyway as I’m preparing to go to graduate school and have accepted an assistantship at a library on campus. It’s a very exciting time and also a bit scary as Bryan and I embark on another chapter in our lives.

Five years ago today, I started this ol’ blog. It’s been through many incarnations, I still have the original entry and template that I’ve accidentally saved. I’ve had different reasons for keeping a blog through the years. Theresa was my inspiration to start a blog and I’m so glad that I did. When I started, I had no idea that in a matter of five years so many people would have a blog. I also didn’t realize that there would be so many people that I would know virtually and look forward to meeting one day in person.

So what’s happened in the last five years?

Since April 18, 2002:

• I met and married Bryan, something I never dreamed of on April 18, 2002 since around then I was giving up on meeting anyone.
• Completed the TKGA Master Knitting Level I.
• Read 97 books.
• Knitted 110 projects:
  • 12 adult sweaters/vests
  • 7 baby bibs
  • 3 pairs of baby socks
  • 5 baby blankets
  • 11 pairs of adult socks
  • 2 stuffed animals
  • 10 Great American Aran Afghan squares
  • 20 scarves
  • 3 shawls
  • 1 shrug
  • 5 bags of various sizes
  • 12 hats
  • 3 pairs of mittens and a pair of wrist warmers
  • 1 doily
  • 1 headband
  • 14 dishclothes
• Learned to spin and have spun about a dozen skeins of yarn
• Applied three times and finally got in to library school.

And my progress on current projects as of April 18, 2007 are:

• 65% on the Cat’s Paw Shawl complete
• 75% of the Go With the Flows socks complete
• 10% of the Moderne Baby blanket complete
• 25% of the Martha cardigan complete

It’s been a great five years and here’s to five more.

Things have been kind of crazy around our house lately and much of what’s going on I’ll be able to mention when we know more, it’s all related to school for me and Bryan graduating. I’m so excited about school starting and moving into my next step of a library career. Today, I received my advisor’s name and have already picked out the classes I plan on taking in the fall. Times are exciting around here and we’re anxiously awaiting the true arrival of spring, along with a new antique piece of furniture that my parents are bringing in May. As far as spring, it’s beautiful today with sunshine and tomorrow’s forecast calls for rain and snow flurries. Ugh.

In the last few weeks, I’ve noticing not just a new interest in fabrics but also the potential for quilting. Maybe it’s due to my knitting a second log cabin blanket in a year. With this new interest also come more blogs to read and be inspired by. I’m so envious of Dorie‘s sewing abilities and her nursing bunny is just too adorable. Recently, I’ve discovered the Purl Bee blog that’s so great. To add to the sewing excitement, I’m taking a serger class this coming week and next. I’ll be so happy to finally know how to use a serger that I’ve had almost five years.

Last Wednesday, I finished knitting the body of the Lace Nightie. With a severe case of startitis, I almost immediately set forth into figuring out which shawl to make for my April knitting almanac project. I liked the Flower Basket Shawl but was having a bit of a case of “everyone else has made that shawl,” the Diamond Fantasy shawl and Little Arrowhead shawl weren’t screaming to be worked on. Bryan told me on Wednesday before he left for class that I should design my own. As I poured through my Barbara Walker Treasury books, the cat’s paw pattern kept catching my eye. Finally, I realized exactly what I was going to do. After three hours of charting it all out in Excel, I printed out my chart. At knit night, I cast on and knit a “swatch” which then turned in to the shawl.

Currently, I’m about 172 rows into the pattern with another 60 or so rows to go to get to my goal length. At that point, I’ll measure and see if it’s as long as I’d like it and will start the edging. It feels like such a great sense of accomplishment to chart out the lace pattern and make it all work as a shawl with the help of Interweave Knits and other shawl patterns.

This weekend, we headed out to Bryan’s sister’s house to visit the niece and nephew. On the way, I knew that I couldn’t just knit on the shawl the entire time and wanted something a bit more mindless. I started the Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting in Lorna’s Laces Worsted Weight Shepherd Sock yarn. The middle square is beautiful and the other “solid” colors are wonderful with their subtle hand-dyed varigations. The baby was born in February, so I’m a bit behind schedule but I’ve been waiting on the yarn since January.

March was lace month and the most productive month so far for my Knitting Almanac. Lace will definitely continue into April in a more defined project.

Here were my goals for March:

• Graft together the two pieces of the lace sampler scarf that I’ve already knitted.

• Finish the Go With the Flow socks (I finished the first of two socks)

• Swatch and knit the lace doily from A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swanson
• Swatch for the shawl to be knitted in April (will do once I figure out which shawl I’m making)
• Knit more swatches for the Walker Treasury Project (will try to do in April)
  

I only finished two of the goals but another lace project, the Lace Nightie from IK, caught my eye and demanded to be added the list. I’m about 85% of the way through the nightie. It’s the perfect spring lace project. It’s also in the perfect Project Spectrum colors for April and May. Too bad, I don’t have more spring green projects to work on. Since I’ve truly enjoyed the Rowan Cotton Glace, it’s very very tempting to make a cute little spring cardigan but I have to make myself stick to the stash.

April is going to be an interesting month. I had planned to knit a shawl but I’m not sure which shawl I would like to make.

Here are the three options I’m considering

1. Diamond Fantasy Shawl
2. Flower Basket Shawl
3. Arrowhead Shawl from Interweave Knits (Staff Project, Summer 2006) using my own Cobalt handspun yarn.
4. Being daring and make my own shawl pattern using the tips from Interweave Knits magazine. Maybe even using some of my own Pink handspun yarn.

Any suggestions or favorites?

This past week, I was busy sewing. Our fabric field trip was so inspiring that I really went to town on my Chelsea bag. Yesterday before work, I finished it and even took it to work with me. I learned so much from this little bag and despite a few frustrations, I’m excited about making another bag sometime. I really like the twig-handle tote in a Last Minute Fabric Gifts, new favorite book that’s a companion to Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It will be a while before I make another bag because I still have to make bedroom curtains and the skirt that I bought fabric for on our field trip. I think the curtains will be my next sewing project so that we can get the ugly grey blinds out of our bedroom window.