Wedding - Handmade (FO) - Work In Progress

Sorry for all the long breaks in blog posts! We are just so busy (finally in the same state - when I started this post two months ago, we were in different states) and it seems that blogging - as much as I love it - keeps getting dropped.

So, for our introduction at the beginning of the reception was No Conversation by View from the Hill. Partner loves this band. They don't get a lot of press but I hope you all like it!

As I've mentioned, we really tried to do this wedding our way, with our own touch and part of that was trying to use handmade stuff. In addition to the wonderful guest book Partner's friend made, I also used Etsy for my jewelry. We were following on with the Celtic theme of our rings. I'll admit I was a bit stumped on jewelry until Partner said he sees me as a Celtic Princess (he really is a romantic!).

I loved my hair piece I bought from misunbridal.

Sadly there aren't any great pictures of my earrings - you can just see one poking out in the picture above including how well the citrine captures the light. Fortunately SDJewelry took a nice photo. I love the knots and I also love that I can wear these now with other outfits. It makes me happy each time I wear them.

I think, as I need jewelry, I want to repace store-bought jewelry with some of the more unique jewelry on Etsy.

I've already mentioned the bridesmaid's willingness to make the bouquets and boutenierres and Partner's wonderful centerpieces.

We used folks off of Craigslist for our DJ, servers, and found local shops for hair and cake. Our wonderful friend Samten made all the amazing food.

Interjecting a little musical interlude, our first song was a bit of surprise from me to Partner. I actually picked this song out years ago. You see, years ago Partner showed me a special dance he had made up for this song. Commonly associated as the theme music for Northern Exposure, one of our all time favorite shows, it also cleverly covered our absolute inability to dance...

At the party, the knitter's in attendance made their presence known... (I love that they wore green handknits, a sort of knitterly bridesmaid...)

My own plans for a wedding shawl failed spectularly, but fortunately my knitting friend rallied to my rescue and made a beautiful Live Oaks Shawlette in my wedding colors for me to wear for the evening.

She also made my garter, a pattern of her own design:

Complete with little hearts, poorly captured by me...

A few weeks after the wedding the same friend asked if I wanted the rest of the skein of yarn she'd used to make the garter. Hmmm, the rest of the skein from such a thoughtful gift, that just happened to be Handmaiden Sea Sock with silk and seacell? Yes please!

I knew immediately what I wanted to make, but it wasn't until I left for England (yes, 9 months later!). I made amazing strides on the way over and then was derailed by the brown sweater (I think I'm on sleeves 4&5) and the Ravellympics challenge.

I didn't do a gauge swatch so that by the end, I was sweating if I would be able to finish though I'd started with enough yarn. I did a Russian bind off and ran out of yarn. I tinked back (I hate tinking bind off rows!!!) and then tried a normal bind off but with larger needles. And ran out of yarn. Finally I bound off only one needle size up and barely made it:

But finally, I did it! My own Live Oaks Shawlette - the same pattern I wore at my wedding, made with the same yarn as my garter. :)

The drape is amazing, the sheen of the finished fabric is lovely. The yarn only started to look ragged after taking out the bind off row for the fourth time and then it smoothed out after a bath.

Because I didn't do a lace bind off, my edge is more pointy and doesn't quite have the floating leaf quality you'll see in so many versions, including the one I wore for the wedding.

There is a lace blocking secret in the pattern. I feel I shouldn't share it since it's a pay pattern, but I'm going to use it on other lace pattersn and will share it if it works. I will say that having been shoved in a plastic sandwich bag for over a month, I shook it out and it still looks freshly blocked though this picture is from it was freshly blocked and my photographer was in another state! :)

Pattern: Live Oaks Shawlette
Yarn: Handmaiden Fine Yarn, Sea Sock, 389 yards
Modifications: US4 for body and a regular bind off with US6 and a US5 to make the yarn last.
Knitting yardage total 2012: 2380

Sadly, this concludes the wedding review.

Our final dance of the night is probably an interesting choice to some. I love the chorus:

But when I'm lying here with you
And the whole world's out of tune
You're the one and only voice that makes things right...

Out of Tune by Sarah McLachlan

Thank you for sharing our wedding with us...