Tag Archives: Sister’s wedding

The aftermath

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My Dad was quite proud of the glass he had to drink his champagne out of at the reception.

There were jokes about it having been full earlier when he made mistakes in his speech, like when he called someone else the father of the bride.
Here’s my sister actually wearing the shawl along with the pin she picked to help hold it close.

There was knitting and spinning loot… and not so related loot. I love my iPod. 🙂 And I’m a big Invader Zim fan… my husband actually tracked down a stuffed GIR just for me. I’ve been having lots of fun reading For the Love of Knitting… haven’t gotten to Heirloom Knitting yet. I had just gotten the lazy kate put together right before this picture; it should make things a lot easier.

This is what I currently have on my wheel. The shiny multicolor bobbin is silk dyed blue, purple, and light teal. The other bobbin is dark teal baby alpaca.

Done at last, Done at last…

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I finished the shawl on Thursday night at about 1 am… so Friday really. I then had to wash it, rinse it, and condition it. I finally finished blocking it at 2:30 am. But, I did indeed get it done in time. I was wrapped Friday afternoon and unwrapped this morning. There was true amazement over how light and airy it looked.

The shawl


Close up of the main pattern


Close up of the edging


We also gave my sister and future brother-in-law a couple of Riedel champagne flutes as Christmas gifts. A little later we decided to give them their wedding gift early… a bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon. The look on my sister’s face was priceless… wish I had had a camera.

Mmmm… vegetarian chili time.

Happy Holidays!

Time? What’s that?

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Thanks to work, looming trip to Monterey, and end of the year stuff that needs to get down before… well, the end of the year… knitting time is at a premium, so I can pretty much forget about blogging time.

The Christmas surprise for my husband has fallen to the wayside, but I think he’ll understand since he wants to see the shawl done almost as much as I do.

I have discovered one thing that sucks about knitting a white wool/silk lace shawl… no chocolate is allowed near the shawl (me, any white fabric, and chocolate have a ceasefire agreement… none of us are allowed in the same area at the same time). This is a problem because I think chocolate would help me to relax a little and enjoy knitting said shawl rather that trying to break land-based speed records and failing miserably (worst case: dropped stitches *gah*).

The fast and the furious

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I have been trying to knit fast and furious on the Sister Shawl… I have to have it done and blocked by the 24th, which is when we’ll be driving down to Monterey. Unfortunately, with people staying at my parents’ house and the dog I can’t block the shawl there… of course, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to block it at my place. The last lace shawl I dressed I pinned out on a full size bed. I have a queen in the guest room… hopefully, it will be big enough. I’m thinking of using fishing line as I have not had enough time to get dressing wires… okay, so I didn’t remember I needed dressing wires until too late. But, fishing line and T pins should do the trick. Although this raises the question of where one goes to find fishing line… huh. I’ll have to figure that one out. Anyways, the shawl… I’m up to only 116 rows cause I didn’t get half as much knitting done last weekend as I wanted to. I looking forward to tomorrow… I have nothing else I am required to do until 8:30 pm when I’ll be whisked off to a company Christmas party.

My sister emailed out a schedule for the 27th and 28th (D-day)… boy, am I glad that Josh and I did the simple yet sweet wedding*. This is insane. I must admit that I thought it was pretty funny that she reminds all the guys going to the store to pick up their tuxedos the day before to check for both the left and right shoe. *hehe*

Thankfully, I picked up my dress on Sunday… very pretty… of course, now my mother hates me. *sigh* She showed me a dress in a catalog by Spencer Alexis… the dresses are mostly flowy things using different types of fabrics in all the same color or nicely contrasting ones. Then, I found out a place in Carmel sells them, went in and tried one on, ordered one in what I believed to be my size, and picked it up a week later. Now, my mother is moaning over the fact that she wanted to get a dress by Spencer Alexis, but now she can’t cause we’d look like twins** even if she got a different style and color (her words, not mine), and what is she going to wear. *sigh* But, with my dress safely in my hands, all I have to worry about is the shawl and if the pins I bought on eBay are going to arrive in time. (I picked out a couple of sparkly pins, both of which are kind of art deco in design, so that I can give one to my sister to help hold the shawl on without needing to worry about holding it or tying it, etc.) I should get at least one before next Friday since it’s already shipped out.

Wheee… I am so glad this is not my wedding.

*We did the 20 people in the redwoods with a fancy dinner afterward… no dancing… no cake cutting… simple.

**People usually think I’m either my mother’s clone or her younger sister we look that much alike. Clone I don’t mind… but sister? Granted my mom is only 20 years older than me… I should just be happy that no one believes what age she is and that I got those genes.

Pictures, pictures everywhere

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I finally finished my lace bookmark for the Knitted Lace bookmark exchange. I blocked it last night, and it should be going out in the mail today. I used the diagonal lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s 1st treasury.


This was my first time adding beads to my knitting. It was an interesting experiment… trying to figure out which side of the stitch a bead had to be on to get it to show the way I wanted. I think it might be fun to try this pattern again, but putting the beads in the design… so they follow the diagonal.


The Sister Shawl is progressing and looks to be done in about a week… well, at least the main body of the shawl. Then, I need to do the lace border. I’m on row 96 and can currently get about 4 rows done in 2 hours. I plan on working on it tonight, trying to get to at least row 100. Then, I have a whole bunch of free time this weekend during which I hope to get at least one repeat section (16 rows) done.


I was very happy to come home last night and find not one, but two packages waiting for me. One package was from Inspirations Yarn containing my Surprise Sock Kit. I chose the warm colorway, which got me a really pretty coppery brown yarn.


The other package was from an eBay purchase I made… a pretty purplely and silvery superwash roving. I’m thinking socks… I like socks.

Just say "Bah!"

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Due to a various number of things, I feel completely drained. However, thanks to my sister’s wedding and me selfishly taking a week off at Thanksgiving, I am out of usable hours off. This of course means that I am at work and do not want to be. This means that when I have been at home the last few days I have thought that I should work on the Sister Shawl because the wedding count-down is growing terribly short, but I say “Bah!” I have been spinning instead… spinning a little bit of silk and now a little bit of baby alpaca which are dyed to coordinate with each other. I’m about half done with the alpaca, then there will be plying. I feel like a horrible blogger since entries have been sparse, without pictures, and rambling… this entry being a prime example.

I can only hope that the pain I am experiencing in my sinuses is from the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure affiliated with the rain storm that came through last night… cause otherwise I might be sick… without an usable hours off… and a manager who won’t let me work from home even though all I do is edit stuff. A co-worker has suggested I cough on him if I do indeed turn out to be sick.

Do I have to go back?

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Back at work after a beautiful week off… if only the week had been longer… but we can’t have the week adding on extra days just for me, other people might get jealous… or pissed if they have to work. The unfortunate thing of the week off was I have come to realize that I need at least a month off from both work and school. The nervous twitch in my left eye actually went away for a couple of days; it was back this morning. *sigh*

I didn’t really get any knitting done… I finished my bookmark, so now I need to block it. I guess it will get into the mail eventually. I did get the spinning for my sister-in-law’s Christmas gift done… approximately 118 yards of fingering weight romney. I think I need to practice the whole spinning bigger. I’ve gotten damn good at spinning lace weight, which means I can’t spin anything else. Maybe if I got a lazy kate… just spin lots of lace weight singles and start making 3…5… 8-ply yarn… I’d be spinning forever in order to get anywhere.

Anyways, the yarn came out pretty nice; now I need to dye it. I don’t know my sister-in-law very well, so I have no idea what colors she likes. I was thinking of going with a green blue combo… everyone likes green and blue, right? Now to find a time my husband won’t be mad at me for making the whole apartment smell like vinegar and wet sheep.

Did I really say I didn’t get much knitting done a couple paragraphs ago? I did, look at that. *groan* I actually did work on the Sister Shawl at Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I forgot… especially since knitting seems to be one of the few ways I can impress my family. Knitted lace seems to truly amaze them, and it rocks my socks that it’s my skill they’re impressed with. I think it’s funny that my mother has told me more than once, “We never thought you’d be one to knit.” What she did think I’d do, I have no clue.

Sadly, knitting will be laid by the wayside for most of this week unless I need a stress break. Must get to work on the 15-20 page paper that is due come Saturday. Most of the work is reading all the articles and books I’ve been collecting… should have gotten started on it over the weekend, but laying around in my pajamas for a few days made me feel better. I’m such a procrastinator. At least I’m getting better… a couple years ago as an undergrad I would have just begun looking for sources right about now.

The week of blah

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Yesterday, I typed up this wonderful entry that described quite clearly how my week was going… and Blogger ate it… Blogger glupped it down, and unlike the previous entry Blogger ate, this one will not come back. Why? Because I tried to post yesterday’s entry 2 minutes after they began updating their servers…. who the hell updates their public servers at 3 pm?! *groan*

A prime example of my week.

Most of the blahs were work related. I was rushing to get things done as I was taking off today for school purposes and taking off the part of next week that I do not already get off for Thanksgiving… because I need a break.

Unfortunately, part of my week off will be spent with the family… the husband and I are driving down to Monterey to have dinner with my parents, my sister, and my future brother-in-law. Fun fun. The other unfortunate part of my week off is the looming paper… 15-20 pages due on Dec. 4th. My topic is digitization as preservation… geez, is it thick… what was I thinking? I think the lack of knitting a couple weeks back affected my thinking. But I’m committed now.

I am planning to take the shawl with me… hours of waiting for a turkey to be cooked should provide for hours of knitting undisturbed. I’m not sure about giving my sister a chance to see the shawl, especially since it will be her Christmas gift from me (just in time for her wedding… isn’t that a cunning plan?). But the unoccupied time won’t be available for studying since my family likes to gab when amongst themselves.

New projects include a beaded lace bookmark that I need to finish off, block and get into the mail so that it can be whisked off to my bookmark exchange partner. A picture will certainly be taken before said whisking… and I say this knowing I’ve never taken a photo of any of my other bookmarks. *sigh*

Another project is super secretive… I decided to knit up a little something for the husband to augment his Christmas gifts. Sadly, the super secretive project may be running into a road block. I knit a gauge swatch (and even did it in the round since that’s how the item is knitted) and now I may be getting a whole extra stitch to the inch… I won’t be able to tell if it is truly a bad thing till I have enough to try it on… if it fits me well, it’s too small, and I will either have to relax a little or try another needle size… don’t know if I’d need to go to a 10.5 or an 11 (part of me hopes, if I do need to change needles, that an 11 will work because I already have one along with a set of double points*).

*Boy, that gives it away doesn’t it? Good thing the husband doesn’t read my blog. Haha!

Now you know why I didn’t become a computer programmer*

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I fiddled with the math some more cause something didn’t seem right, but all is well. My math:

1 leaf pattern repeat = 16 rows

16 rows knitted = 1.5 inches = 10.67 rows/inch

16 rows blocked = 2 inches = 8 rows/inch

To get 18 inches in length with a blocked gauge of 8 rows/inch = 144 rows

144 rows at 10.67 rows/inch gauge = 13.5 inches

Of course, there is the fiddly little issue of wondering if my gauge swatch is over blocked. The lace is opened beautifully… but looks a little flat… I don’t know if this means I over-stretched it or if it’s because it’s a 5 inch gauge swatch.

“Bah!” I say. Maybe I should take a break and work on my lace bookmark that needs to get into the mail by the end of the month. I want to try something with beads… so I will need to plan a trip to the bead store. I going to go simple for the lace pattern itself; I’m planning on using the Diagonal Maderia Lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I’m thinking of adding a bead at each yo after a sl1-k2tog-psso… the beads should then sort of underline the diagonal lines. The yarn I’m using is a pretty french blue color… so I need to figure out if I want lighter beads… darker beads… or something completely contrasting.

*I couldn’t get passed the 3rd semester of calculus, and I didn’t even want to try the 2nd semester of physics. I understand theories… they make perfect sense… it’s the implementation of them (especially in relation to exams) that I have trouble with.

Where am I going?

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It dawned on me last night that I could measure the current knitted state of the lace shawl and compare it to my blocked swatch and just get a reliable preblocked/blocked ratio. Thus, I now know that one leaf pattern knitted to one leaf pattern blocked is 1.5:2 inches. This is good to know because it means I will have to knit 13.5 inches to attain 18 inches of blocked shawl. I’ve got 7.5 inches knitted so far. Makes me feel a little better…. cause part of me feels it’s going to go on forever and I won’t get it done in time.