MARA's DELAYED DEBUT

Mara is such an agreeable knit - one of those projects that you always like to have tucked in your bag just in case ... you know, wicked traffic jam, power outage augmented with candlelight, delayed flights or trains or buses.  Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!  So my Mara has been traveling to the office with me this week.

She spent some time in that bag, but probably more time on my lap ...

You can see that I am getting the last bit of wear out of my knitted items - an Italian cotton cabled cardie that I made years ago as well as a little scarf - this, before the weather turns warm.  The thing about Mara is that the last border is KILLER.  It eats up enormous amounts of fiber, along with the time that it takes to K2P2 those hundreds of stitches.  Still, I really like it.  It doesn't ask a lot from me.  It requires zip in the way of concentration.  And the Blue Sky Alpaca melange just feels delicious on one's lap as it grows.  I want another, as soon as this is completed.  In fact, this shawl is going to seduce me into breaking my already pathetically weakened resolve - formerly known as "Never Knit the Same Pattern Twice" rule.  


Our boss brought in some flowers the other day and I was stumped by this:

At first glance I thought - artichoke!  Perhaps some kind of thistle?  Does anyone recognize this beauty?  The color of the 'flower' is vivid - marigold-ish.  It must be an exotic - hailing from, where?  Hawaii?  HELP!


I have to go - Mara wants her debut tomorrow.