Wedding finery

The Bride and Groom 

This weekend, our friends, Jay and Lisa, got married -- and we got to be a part of it. Paul was the best man, and I got to do a poetry reading. It was an honor to be able to be included in the marriage of two such wonderful people.

It was a gorgeous but freezing cold day, so Lisa and I got to show off our wedding knit-wear:

The four of us in wedding finery 

Lisa's wearing a shawl, made out of Brilliant, which I knit for her this spring. It was stunning -- and I'm not just saying that because I made it. It really was beautiful. I'm not sure how I got it to be the perfect size, since I made it 500 miles away from where she was, but it really did look great on her. I was relieved. Imagine how horrible I would have felt had the shawl made the bride look frumpy. But it didn't. She looked great -- with or without the shawl. Heck, she was the bride. When does the bride *not* look great? (Okay -- I do remember one particular wedding, but I won't go into that here...)

I finished my shrug in time, too. I was worried that I was going to freeze to death -- which I almost did -- but at least I looked stylish doing it. The sleeves were a little long, since I added an extra repeat to them, but it was actually pretty cool that way (except that I had to be really careful not to drag my long bell sleeves through the Alfredo sauce every time I went for a sip of wine). No one even knew that I made the thing myself, but I must say that I was pretty darn proud. I knit lace -- in black! And it worked (mostly)! I found myself staring at my arms all night, admiring my work.

I also carried a really cool clutch, which I decided to start after finishing the shrug. I decided to felt it once more before taking a final picture, but here's the Before picture -- before I felted it in my MIL's washer while Paul was golfing with the guys...

Before felting... 

I decided to go with the strap, just for comfort's sake, but it can also be tucked inside to make it a real clutch. I totally made up the pattern as I went, giving it shaping and working it all in one piece (except for the strap, which was an afterthought). And I love how it turned out. It really was perfect...

On Friday, I got to do my Yarn Shop Crawl. Actually, I only went to two shops, but that was tiring enough. I returned to Romni, and then I checked out Lettuce Knit. Romni reminded me a bit of our store -- only way more overwhelming. I remembered the sheer size of it from before (which is overwhelming by itself). But this time, the shelves were full, and the floor was covered with new yarn, still in the bags. I could barely walk through! It reminded me of the store, where you can't get through the back room because there are so many boxes that we still haven't checked in / priced / put out on the shelves. But at least at Romni, I didn't have to worry about doing the work myself. While I was there, I hit the basement sale room, where I almost hyperventillated. I honestly could have sat there all day, but poor Paul was sitting in the car, listening to the radio and waiting for me, so I bought a couple of little things and moved on.

After our yarn shop experience, we hit IKEA. Ah, how I love IKEA. You'd think, if they have three in the Toronto area, they could have one in Columbus, too. But no...we have to wait until we visit the in-laws to stock up.

Once again, the weekend was a whirlwind -- but it was fun. We got to spend time with family and friends -- and I got to go yarn shopping (I also got to eat at Pizza Pizza, which always makes me happy). What more could I ask for?