tikis!

Well I've finally finished moving (though nowhere near finished unpacking) so now I can resume wedding crafting and blogging...

Yesterday my grandmother and I decorated my tiki torches. I'm using these to make an aisle to walk through on the beach (5 on each side) and then later at the reception after the sun goes down we'll probably put the oil lamps back in and light them for that romantic glow


10 tikis lined up like little solidiers down our new hallway


closeup of the raffia, ribbon, seashells and starfish decorations

2 months, 1 day, and counting.....

wow I'm not too good at updating this thing am I? Though to give myself a little bit of credit, I am in the process of moving so my days are generally filled with work and last minute wedding plans, and my nights are filled with packing/moving and sleeping.

I decided to frog the jaywalkers, and they're now neatly reballed and awaiting the desire to start over. I made the boy a celtic cable cap (girl from auntie pattern) which he loves, even if he did doubt that blocking would make it long enough to cover his ears ;) Now we have matching hats since the first one I made him wasn't long enough, so I inherited it and added a few rows and the plain brim to his new one.

The kid mohair/silk finally told me that it definately wanted to be a clapotis so I cast on for it yesterday morning, and am about 5 repeats in to the increase section. It's knitting up quite beautifully, I keep pausing to rub it on my cheek and remark how soft and lovely it is, and the silk content really does give it a nice sheen. I think this will be something that I'll use and love for a long time, and not just as a wedding day shawl.

blech

i have now discovered the aggrivation of getting about 3 inches from the end of a hand knit sock, and finding out you don't have enough yarn. i refuse to go buy another ball of this trash (lion magic stripes) just to finish the toe, so i guess i will be frogging (and enjoying my ball winder yet again) and just making the cuff/leg part a little shorter. and THIS is why toe-up socks seem far superior in my opinion, but as my first pair of socks i wasn't comfortable enough to modify the jaywalker pattern to toe up. though i did find directions on how to do it so perhaps i'll give that a go this next time around....

i finally got my 12" size 7 addi circ and damn if it isn't hard to knit on such a small circumfrence! i started on "i do" and kept dropping stitches. decided to try to knit it flat and got a pattern repeat in, but realized that i need to modify the pattern to include selvege stitches to seam it up nicely *frowns*

i'm starting to think the wedding shawl/shrug/thing won't ever get started. i also cast on for 'cozy' to see if i liked that pattern better, and while it's been an enjoyable knit i really think i'd prefer something more like a shrug, so i don't have to fuss with keeping it draped over my shoulders

anyone know any nice long-sleeve lacey shrugs that would look good in a 80/20 kid mohair/silk blend? that won't drive a lace novice batshit insane in the 2.5 months before her wedding? i've done some lace before, but i don't know if it's the lace pattern or the yarn that's giving me fits. i've tried metal needles, and my denises, and it's making no difference. i have bamboos but only in larger circumfrences, and i really don't want to invest in YET ANOTHER SET for this project

weekends are just too short....

doesn't feel like much knitting was accomplished this weekend, though i am now about a inch through the instep of the first jaywalker so i suppose i finished the leg, did the heel, picked up and started on instep so i guess it's more than i thought

ordered a 12" addi turbo in size 7 for "I Do" because i'm determined that i'm going to make it. the boy was looking in my email inbox for a message from our groomsman and clicked on the ebay auction receipt by mistake and was laughing at me for my needle addiction. i kid you not, he actually said 'i thought that box set meant no more needle buying?' bless his heart, in the last few weeks he's gone with me to buy a few sets of needles, and then i've bought a few sets when he wasn't with me ;)

on the wedding front, it turns out my dress fits perfectly now, i guess the weight gain in the itty bitties was more than i thought. so long as i wear a stick-on bra i fill the dress out just fine on my own, and all the altering i need to do is shorten the straps by about half an inch each. my grandmother marked them for me while i had the dress on, so i will be reattaching the straps this week sometime.

i also started on my veil saturday, and i have a crappy camera phone photo to show off:



all that's left to do is sew the swarovski crystals (in the color jonquil, a light yellow) to the bottom edge to help weigh the blusher down until it's time for the boy to lift it

then last night i was feeling crafty so i decorated our toasting flutes (sorry, i haven't uploaded that image yet, i forgot to send it to myself at work) and assembled the kissing balls, as shown in the photo below:



and a gratuitious (albeit blurry) ring photo for those of you who haven't seen it. it's a 1ct canary oval diamond with a triangular diamond on either side, set in white gold

socks and mohair and interviews, oh my!

the 2nd incarnation of jaywalker is coming along quite well. i'm about 4 inches in to the first sock and will probably start the heel flap soon as i don't like really tall socks (and i'm impatient too, don't let me fool you) ;)

the unidentified wedding shawl/shrug/thing is still in the 'squishy balls of white fluff' stage. i'm being incredibly indecisive about what i want to make with it. i'm going to my grandmothers for a dress fitting tomorrow (we're going to see if we can alter the bodice a bit since my itty bitties aren't filling the top out) so i'll see if i can't remember to take my digicam and get a picture so perhaps someone can help me determine which shawl/shrug/thing will go best with the dress

my sweet baboo is in a job interview right now so for once i've got something other than yarn and tulle on the brain....y'all keep your fingers crossed for him! base salary is more $, the comission percentage is higher, and it's a mon-fri only job so we'll actually have the same days off for a change!

Well my Denise set arrived yesterday so I spent a while playing with it. Put the 7's on there and cast on for I Do again, only to get an interesting problem - the shortest cable in the kit makes you have 17" circs, the pattern calls for 16" circs. Apparently that 1" makes a world of difference because there was absolutely NO way that I was going to get the stitches around to join the first round. After that first round it wouldn't be an issue because of all the YOs but it just wasn't happening. When I cast on last week I was using size 8 16" and had no problems but whatever, it seems that this yarn is insisting that it DOES NOT want to be I Do.

So I suppose I'll cast on for Cozy again tonight, though Clapotis is chiming in that she'd like a shot too and I know that's a fun pattern that won't interrupt my TV watching/wine drinking habits too much ;)

Hey Miss Julia, do you reckon you can help me set this here blog up better? Yeah yeah I know, I'm a web designer so I should be able to do it with no problems but I can't find all the options in the blogger interface and I really like how you customized yours so thought I'd pick your brain for some pointers ;)

well here we go, i'm going to attempt to actually use this thing as my knitting blog

can't promise wedding stuff won't sometimes take over but considering that some of my current knitting is for the wedding, it's bound to happen at least once or twice ;)

i am currently working on the jaywalker socks, i got 3/4 of the way through the first one, realized that it was gonna be too small and ripped it out to start over last night. i'm a few repeats into the zigzag pattern and enjoying the new sock just as much as i did the first attempt so i'm not too disappointed about the frogging. i rather figure i'm getting more knitting pleasure for the money this way ;)

i started the unknown wedding shawl/thing last week, started "I Do" three times, ripped it out three times. started "Cozy" two times, ripped it out two times. i'm not sure if the problem is the yarn (80% kid mohair, 20% silk), the needles (only had aluminum circs in the required sizes, though my Denises should be waiting for me when i get home), or the knitter trying to do lace while watching forensics shows on tv and drinking wine ;)

i've also got some yummy merino all set to knit my sweet bald fiance a 'bogan' but it hasn't moved beyond the balled stage so far. well that's not entirely true, i knit a 'bogan' but he wanted one longer so i kept the first and will make him one to match it, but with a longer brim and perhaps a few repeats of the straight rows to make the body a bit longer. it's the girl from auntie celtic cable cap pattern and was a rather fun knit so i'm looking forward to another one (and then perhaps 2 more as my parents have seen the pattern and quite liked it)

so now i have documented my WIP and soon-to-be WIPs. next time i will take photos of my recently completed FOs for your viewing pleasure, including the before mentioned celtic cable cap for me, the fiance's fibertrends felted clogs (if i can get them off his feet long enough, i swear he's about worn them out already!), and the sirdar perfect pups stuffed dachshund