Don’t Get Cold Feet

Before our wedding, I secretly knitted a pair of socks for my husband.  I gave them to him the morning of the wedding so he wouldn’t get “cold feet.”  I knitted the socks using the Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn in Twilight.  I loved how the color work turned out, and the yarn feels amazing.  I used a free pattern available on Ravelry titled “Basic Ribbed Socks.”  The pattern was easy to follow.  I didn’t make any adjustments to the pattern.  He married me, so I guess he didn’t get cold feet!

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Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required: About 20 movies

Overall Experience:  Good.  The only thing I didn’t like is how the socks came together at the toe.  The joining technique caused a slightly pointed toe.

Finished Nachtfalter and Misadventures

Behind, behind, behind…

Due to work vamping up right before my dissertation defense, I got way behind on my summer knit-a-long project. The website said I had until Monday, July 22 to post my finished picture. I took that to mean that I could post a picture on July 22, but I wasn’t sure. I knitted all day on Sunday, July 21, but at 11 pm I was worn out. I had all but three rows of knitting finished, but I still needed to bind off, sew up the sides, and tuck in all of my ends. On July 22 I was disappointed to find out that I had to submit my picture before July 22 to be eligible for prizes. I was still planning to finish my sweater on July 22; however…

The cat peed on my wedding dress

I picked up my dress about two weeks ago. My fiance has two extra closets with basically no clothing in them. I chose the taller closet, hung my plastic enclosed dress in it, and shut the stiff-hinged accordion-style doors. My fiance has a cat. Somehow she managed to get the door open and pee on the dress. I don’t have a clue how she got the door open. It’s difficult for me to open. Most of the pee was caught by the plastic bag, but some of it seeped through. There were only a couple of spots of yellow, but the dress reeked of cat pee. I spent all of Monday evening trying to get the smell and yellow out. I did both successfully. Yay! Needless to say, the cat is in trouble.

Kittyface and Kittyface

Finishing the sweater

I didn’t finish the sweater until Tuesday night. I wore it to work today (Wednesday). It turned out really cute! My colleagues couldn’t believe that I actually made it.

Nachtfalter Front

Nachtfalter Back

Pattern Tips

The pattern can be purchased at Holla Knits (the store/blog that hosted the knit-a-long).

Usually I post tips and hints for things that I make, but I basically made this pattern as written. I lot of other people were making this sweater at the same time, so they posted tips about what they were doing. You may find these resources helpful.

  • Stefanie (the pattern author) gave some helpful tips for the butterfly lace on her blog
  • I used a crocheted seam on the sides of the sweater, already described here
  • There is a Ravelry discussion that talks all about the project here
  • A lot of people ran out of yarn because the quantities in the pattern were a little off. I think that the pattern has been remedied, but I’m not sure.

Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

The lace was difficult if you have never knitted lace before.

Time Required: ~50 movies

Overall Experience: Good

This was really fun to knit, and I love how it turned out!

Wedding Doilies

I’m currently working on various projects for my upcoming October wedding.  Our colors are purple and grey.  For the centerpieces, I chose groups of three glass cylinders containing a single eggplant calla lily.  The cylinders will be filled with water with a floating candle floating on top of each.  The effect will be similar to picture below.

My dress is extremely lacy, and I am incorporating lace into various aspects of the decorations.  I wanted to include both lace and grey into the centerpieces, so I chose to crochet doilies to place under the centerpieces.  I searched Ravelry for free doily patterns and chose Doily 4403 8 Point Star.  The pattern creates a 9 3/4″ doily.  To achieve a more appropriate size for my purposes (17 “), I used a size 0 crochet hook rather than a size 11.  I’m making the doilies out of Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread in Misty Grey.

Doily

I recruited my grandmother and great aunt to help me make some of the 20+ doilies need for the reception.  That’s a lot of doilies!  Since I will busy with these, my summer knit-a-long project Nachtfalter, and some surprise projects for my wedding party, I won’t have “new” project to blog about for quite some time.  I have pictures of quite a few old projects to blog about until I finish.

 

Nachtfalter Summer Knit-a-Long–Week 1 Progress

As I wrote previously, I am participating a summer knit-a-long.  Each Monday during the knit-a-long, Holla Knits will post the weekly goal.  This week’s goal was to cast on and knit half of the bottom ribbing.  The bottom ribbing is simple, but the twists make it interesting.  There is a forum on Ravelry where participants can discuss progress and challenges.  I’m having so much fun knitting with other people!  Below you can see my progress thus far as well as what the finished product should look like.

KAL Week 1

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(Ratings based on this week’s work only.)

Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  3 Movies

Overall Experience:  Good

(I tend to get a little bored on very repetitive patterns.  I’ll enjoy the lace much more once I get there.)