Wedding, Washcloths, and Giggles

As I was settling in to write a blog post today, I noticed my last post was quite some time ago (20 days to be exact). There's been a lot going on and as fall is settling into the air, hopefully things will settle down just a wee bit. This last weekend a dear friend got married (the one I knit the shawl for). She's amazing. Her new husband is amazing. They're amazing together. Pretty amazing all the way around, really.

I snapped a quick phone pic of the wedding location as soon as I arrived at The Brillion Nature Center. Pretty, right?

It was a beautiful day and the wedding was as amazing and unique as the happy couple. I can't wait to sort through photos on the camera.

The wedding was on Saturday so hubby took on the role of Mr. Firefly at Firefly Fibers for the day. The ceremony was out of town and close to my sister-in-law, so I stayed with her the night before and Mike met me at the reception after closing the shop. It was a grand time - thank you so much to my husband for helping out so I could be at the wedding and my sister-in-law for the slumber party.

In my typical style, I couldn't handle taking only a store bought gift to the wedding (obviously knitting a lace shawl for the bride wasn't sufficient in my mind - photos of that are coming soon), so I quickly cast on some washcloths last week to include in our gift. It was a close call with weaving in the ends on the morning of the wedding. I hope they love them - I know I do.

Pattern: New Log Cabin Washcloths by Purl Soho

Yarn: Skinny Cotton by Blue Sky Alpacas

Raveled: Wedding Log Cabin Washcloths

Two funny things from my time knitting these washcloths:

• I am a hopeless blocker. I block everything. It may be an illness. Obviously there wasn't time for a full washing and drying and I was without an iron the morning of the wedding, but there was a spray bottle and a flat iron for straightening hair. What was suggested as what I believe was a joke, worked marvelously. Take that MacGyver!
• Then, the night before the wedding at my slumber party, I was clicking away with my lovely company and this happened:

The cat failed at catching the annoying fly (not for lack of trying) and my glass of wine succeeded. Trying to snap a picture while giggling like mad as 'Isn't it Ironic' ran through my head was challenging. Actually, I'm still giggling and I hope you are, too.

Cheers!

And then, there were two...

The last few weeks have been C. R. A. Z. Y.! Between posting new classes at the shop and knitting like the wind on a couple deadline projects, things seem to have settled a bit. Yes, I am knocking on wood right now. I recently shared that I had counted my projects and I had an embarrassing 14 that were in tow on a daily basis and I got this down to a very respectable - in my opinion - 7 projects.   Well, I'm happy to report that now I'm down to 2. I think this means that I get to cast on at least 2 more today. Or maybe 3? What do you think?

One FO is for a dear friend that's getting married. Here's a wee peek of her shawl:I bound off the last stitch yesterday morning, gave it a good bath, and - with the assistance of blocking wires - blocked it like mad. End result... it's lovely! Simply lovely. The bride-to-be has only seen this small smidgen that I lightly blocked for her approval, so I'll share all the details once it's been revealed to the recipient for her wedding. It's just so pretty that I had to share.

Another friend of mine had a milestone birthday last week. She's a knitter and I was too short on time to knit her something worthy of her special day. So instead, I decided to spin this for her and it's pretty special:It's ~118 yards of hand dyed (although, I didn't dye it) Blue Faced Leicester that varies from DK-Aran. I even decided to design a special label for this skein of handspun listing all of the details on the back. The label makes me smile and, I admit, I'm anxious to tag and note the details on the rest of my handspun - maybe I'll actually knit with it at some point if it's tagged and in my stash. Now that I have a label designed, you can never be sure of what will happen next...

Cheers!

Getting TALL

With the revival of the pint & half (24 oz) jars, I decided to modify the Canning Jar Sweater pattern to accommodate the taller jar and it really does deserve it because these jars are fabulous! I think it's rather handsome in Spud & Chloe's Manatee:

This one was for hubby to use with his Cuppow at work and I hope to cast one on for myself soon in Chipmunk. It's already wound and ready to go, so it doesn't count, right?

These are the originals in Pollen, Grass and Splash - I love yarn with great color names!

If you want to knit your own Canning Jar Sweater, the pattern is available here on Ravelry and at Firefly Fibers (as is the Sweater and a variety of Cuppows, both of which tempt me daily).

If you only need the pattern updates, visit this blog post on Firefly Fibers to find out how to get them!

I'm hoping to cast mine on tonight at knitting, but we'll see... Cheers!