It might not be knitting, but it's still stitchy

So this is what happens when cool kids with too much acrylic get together to (drink and) crochet charity afghans:


It took all night, but we got 3 squares done (I am by far the slowest hooker of the whole bunch, so the pace was probably my fault). The one on the right is officially My First Granny Square.

Now I want to make granny squares all day and night.

My mother and I went to Value World today and brought the centerpiece vase count up to 13. On the way home, the sun was setting on Colgate Street in the center of the road. I thought it was pretty, so I snapped a picture to share:

I swatched!

I swatched a piece of black felt from Lamb's Pride for Dan's hat. It's been so long (and so wedding wedding wedding) that I thought I had forgotten how to knit, but no. I need to give myself some more credit. Originally, the swatch was 10.5 st/4 in (double-stranded on size 13 needles), but after a good hand-felting in the kitchen sink:


The swatch is a total of 16 stitches across. As maths will indicate, 16 st/5.5 in is about 3 st/in (the original gauge is more like 2.5 st/inch). What will actually happen is that I'll eyeball it, cast on, and then felt the bejeezus out of the hat until the stitch definition is gone and then stretch it to fit Dan's melon.

And just because I like my wedding flowers, here's a picture of the Oceana rose, currently my desktop background:

Wedding Crafting

It's been weeks since the Knitting Olympics ended and I haven't knitted a stitch. Why, you ask?

Because I'm getting married in six months, that's why.

There are paper cranes to fold (Dan and I kicked out about 50 last night, and I've got the rest of the paper coming this week) to hold escort cards, decorate wreaths, fill vases, and generally hang around, not unlike rose petals do for other people.

I've got bows to make for the ceremony chairs with my shiny new Bowdabra. I've got invitations to make, each of which involving hand-torn paper and eyelets, which I haven't mastered. Yet. I imagine that after 100 invites I should have the technique down.

Just in time to make the programs. And escort cards.

I've got to decide on vases for the cenerpieces. I think I'm going to have a cluster of milkglass bud vases, each holding about 5-6 stems. Very simple, keeping the palate to white, ivory, and peach. The robin's egg blue and chocolate brown will come out in the linens (maybe), and the cups, paper plates, and napkins. We're doing glass for everything but beer and soda (because a keg beer in a real glass just feels weird). We just bought a bunch of mismatched silverware on eBay to go with the Mad Hatter's theme (and at 10 cents apiece, save us a dollar a person). Speaking of which, if you know of anyone who has Corelle (you know, harvest gold, crazy daisy, old town blue? look in grandma's cupboard) dinner/lunch plates, dessert/bread plates, cups, or saucers, I want to meet them and talk them into letting me borrow their dishes for my wedding.

It's going to be badass, though. The food is going to rock. The flowers are going to be beautiful. The music will be what we want with no annoying DJ trying to play music I hate. And I'm going to look gorgeous.

That's what I've got to keep telling myself.

Decidedly not knitting

Or, at least for the moment. I'm giving my fingers a rest and focusing on wedding planning. Fear not, I will begin a new project soon!