Chuppah Knitting Finished!

I bound off the Chuppah today.

Here is the pay-off shot of a crumpled up mess pre-blocking.

Here it is with no needles! This is the join at the end to prove it!

Next weekend I will weave in the ends and block it. I finished three months before the wedding!

This is all I had left.

It took a year and a half with a four month break in there. I am glad we had such a long engagement!

Now we can get married!

Good thing we finally sent out invitations! This is an invitation below, with some yummy chocolates M brought me from New York City. Yummy!

Happy Knitting!

I think I may be casting on another big project soon, with a friend from knitting group!

Gardening...or why there were no posts last weekend.

Happy very late three day weekend and Memorial Day to those in the U.S. of A. I went to two barbecues, ate yummy food, watched people play badminton and did a lot of gardening.

The before of our yard was not so pretty.
These trees were not thriving. They were yellow on the bottom.


This area needed to be weeded and the stones have a sort of war rubble look. Not welcoming.
Also, we needed to weed. I spent most of the time doing that.
The after is far superior, in my estimation. About 4 hours worth superior. I know that is not a lot of time, but it made a world of difference as to our happiness with the place. Now we just need a table and chairs and grill out there.

Everyone who knows me knows that I do not have a green thumb. So, this was a big step for me. The two bushes along the top should grow to be 6 or so feet wide and 5 feet or so tall to give us a little privacy when we are on the patio.

Michael has since mulched the area around the new plants and it looks great! He did such a good job.

I also did a little knitting and finishing.

First, I finally wove in the ends on my fingerless gloves. It had been roughly 4-5 months since I finished knitting on these. My gauge varied greatly with both of these. However, they both fit. They are soft and warm, so I count it as a success and got to cross a UFO off the list just in time for summer.
I am still knitting my stepfather's scarf Take 2. It's Take 2 because I knit him one before and it has been lost. The saddest thing that can happen to a hand knitted object. I hope it warming the neck of someone out there.
I have been working on the Chuppah. That's side 3!!! of the border, almost done....8 repeats on this side to go roughly.... I can taste the end of the knitting on this project.
I also added to the stash at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool.

I got this 50% merino, 30% mohair, 20% angora. It's much more purple, all varying stages than this picture shows. It is so soft. It's 400 yards of fingering weight and is beautiful.

I also got this. It's 750 yards of beautiful and soft yarn. It's DK weight and I cannot wait to knit with it. Once I figure out what to knit that is. It is 100% alpaca.
Then there is this beautiful angora and superwash merino blend. It is so soft and so pretty. It has subtle gradiations in color.Then Michael got me some beautiful purple and green skeins from Tucker Woods. I had never seen their fiber before, but these two skeins sucked me in. It is mohair sport weight according to the tag, but I bet it is more a fingering weight. There are 3778 yards in each skein and it is 90% mohair and 10% cormo. You can see their fiber at tuckerwoodsfarm.com. I think this will look great as something using both these color.

Happy Knitting!

Sock pictures (done and upstairs in the sock drawer) next time!

New Hampshire Sheep and Wool, a Bridal Shower, a Book, and a Happy Kitty...

I actually have fun things to show you but not any knitting because I only have an almost FO-2 repeats, ribbing and some binding off on a sock to go.

M and I took our annual trip to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend.

I noticed this in the parking lot as we entered and I am sure I am not the only person to take a picture of it that weekend.

I bet this woman knits in public.


In no particular order now, I saw all of this last weekend:


Sheep, all lined up in a row. These sheep ate in unison, then moved forward in unison, then ate again in unison. It was like they had a hive mind.
No hive mind here, just some seriously awesome looking fiber animals I wanted to smuggle home.
This guy has quite the expressive face. He looks like a wise soul.
This guy had really cool horns. Looks like a shofar to me.
Michael likes to pet all the animals.
This guy had cool horns too.
This guy has dreadlocks. He's the coolest most laidback one in the bunch I bet.
These two were just so cute.
This guy was being herded.
I got this a couple weeks ago and it does not disappoint. It's seriously jam packed full of awesome information and great patterns. It's a must buy IMHO.
I had a wedding shower this weekend. The result:
A bunch of parcels full of wonderful things to go with the soon to be wonderful husband. I need to move those boxes upstairs.

There were some very nice personalized M and Ms at the shower, all in all it was very nice.


The flowers were very nice as well, I love the purple tulips in particular. This arrangement came home with us.
Now we have a very happy kitty to be back sprawling on his people.
Happy Knitting, I'll have pictures of the yummy yarn from NH Sheep and Wool and a finished sock to show you next time.

I know it's been a while since a.......................Chuppah Update!!!!

I don't have any new decisions made because there really aren't any more to make.

I do have something new to show you however.



That is a corner! I finished one quarter of the border and turned the corner to the second of 4 sides on the border. Each side is about 30 hours of knitting. Wish me knitting mojo because every repeat of those 18 rows makes me a little more bored with the pattern. I will get it done, I will get it done!

Happy Knitting!

One sock down!!!

I finished one sock! It went really quickly once I buckled down.

Forgive the white, white legs.

Happy Knitting!

Marathon Monday, now with actual participation..

The third Monday in April in Boston is always Marathon Monday aka Patriots Day. This year, 2009, Michael ran in the marathon. Here he is on the course with a friend/running partner from the Liver Foundation team. They both ran for the charity.
Michael finished in 4:09:31, a steady 9 and a half minute per mile pace. I was able to follow him quite easily with text message alerts so that I could time it exactly when he passed me and get this picture of him and his running partner on the course.
Here we are at the end of the race where we met up. He started to be sore a little while after this, but I am so proud of him for finishing!

I am still in the midst of my Chuppah Knitting marathon and sock and scarf knitting.

I hope you are chugging along, I know I am! Here is a sock picture with a heel to prove it...



Here are some good pictures I got from Monday.

Here are the elite women runners.
Here is a woman dressed as Wonder Woman!!
Here is a guy in a pink tutu!
Happy Knitting!!!!

Dilemma

I have a dilemma....

The wedding is in the first week of September.

I have a lot of guests coming from the Portland, Oregon area (family and friends and family friends).

My 10 year high school reunion is July 31 in Portland. Sock Summit is August 6-9 in Portland, Oregon. I would really like to go to them both and the economically and environmentally friendly thing to do would be to stay in Portland for the week and see my family (Mom and Brother included) all that week. It would involve taking off a week of work right before the wedding-I have the vacation time, but still, not that responsible. I could always fly out and back twice but July 31 is a Friday so I would definitely miss that day and honestly flying across the country twice in two weeks for minimal time is not my idea of fun....

What's a girl to do??