Missy B

Getting back on track

First of all a big thank you to my Secret Pal KnitterX for such a thoughtful gift.I studied Landscape Architecture in college so I love to garden.  It is an interest of Quique's (my husband's nickname) as well and something we enjoy doing together.  This book will be very helpful year to year.  Thank you so much!  I love the card too.  It is so beautiful.

This was the view from our back porch in Hawai'i.  We were very lucky to be staying on the beach in a very nice little house that belonged to the business partner of one of my mom's cousins.  We were on the North shore of Oahu about ten minutes from Haliewa.  If you know anything about surfing you will know that this is where the big waves are in the winter but in the summer the water is perfect for swimming.  The house was almost right on Pipeline (the beach) and between Sunset Beach and Waiamea Bay.  It was hard to come back and not have the sounds of the crashing waves and the ceiling fan to lull you to sleep.  I already miss the shaved ice.  All in all we had a really nice time.  We did very little which was just what the doctor ordered.

In the spirit of not doing much while on our honeymoon I didn't do much knitting and spinning.  I finished the spinning for the second sock made with energized singles and got it all knitted.  Here in this picture it just needs to have the toe closed and the ends woven in which I finished up last night.  I took this sock to my guild picnic on Saturday and one of my guild mates said it looked like it could stand on its own.  i tend to agree.  The fact that the knitting twists on it self makes it impossible to get the socks to lie flat.  Plus I tend not to get super picky about my spinning when I am spinning for these socks.  I just want it to be generally a certain weight and beyond that I don't worry much.  They are made with an afterthought heel for ease of knitting and replacing.  In this case I used some two-ply for the heel.  I don't really wear these socks under shoes as it doesn't get super cold here.  I tend to use them while I am spinning (I always spin barefoot or in socks) or just to pad around the house.  The sole of the sock gets felted which helps is wear even better.  If you have never tried making socks like this I highly recommend it.  They are very satisfying and a great on-the-go project.

  I did some spinning on vacation as well.  The two mini-skeins on the left are the only ones that aren't from my trip.  They are from the dye class that I assisted with before the wedding.  Claudia was talking about how you can take colored roving and "hand card" it with either white or black for different effects.  By hand card I don't mean using hand cards to card it together.   I mean taking a staple length of the colored roving and a staple length of the white or black (or any color really) and pull them apart repeatedly until the colors start to mix.  Then we were spinning the fiber on our drop spindles over the fold but you could also do this for wheel spinning.  Try it some time as an accent or all over a piece.
  The two bigger skeins at the bottom are superwash 80's merino that was dyed with natural dyes at a previous dye class I assisted with.  I made it two-ply and I am thinking I am going to use it for socks.  I have some green that would go with these two skeins.
  The other three mini-skeins were spun on a Indian book charka.  This is really the first spinning on the charka I have done since I bought it and I am still getting the feel for it.  One of the skeins is yak which is great for charkas.  The other two are cotton.  The blue is dyed with indigo.  I didn't feel that the cotton was drafting very easily so I was having a hard time with consistency.  It doesn't really matter though because I think I may use this for weaving and the texture is great in woven pieces.  The other great thing about the charka is that you can get a shuttle made so that the spindles just drop in it and you can go straight from spinning to weaving without having to wind it on another bobbin.  Very cool if you ask me.

  One last Hawai'i picture.  This was also taken from our backyard where we were staying but looking down the beach at sunset at the mountains with the mist and rain gathered on them.  It was quite beautiful.  Have a nice Thursday!

Hitched

Yep! We did it and boy did we have a great time. Sorry for not posting before I took off but the wedding and the honeymoon kinda snuck up on me. The internet was down at my mom's house and my dad's house too. Regardless, the wedding was amazing. Everyone had a wonderful time. It has to be the best day of my life so far. I can't believe how well it went. Actually we all worked really hard and it paid off. I need to caught up a little here at home and then I will share some pitures from the honeymoon and the lovely gift my SP sent me. It arrived right before the wedding and I didn't get a chance to post about it before I took off. My apologies!

I also want to say a big thank you to my bestest friends. It couldn't have happened with out you! Besos!

Just in case you were wondering, I managed not to turn into bridezilla! Thank goodness...

The Cowboy Wedding Report

Wow, I would say about 40% of the guests were wearing Wranglers and boots.  I was shocked.  I have to admit I was a little doubtful that many would but boy was I wrong.  At the reception they had a DJ and I realized that they were only going to play country and western songs.  I was surprised because I hadn't even thought about it.  Maybe I gotta get out of the Bay Area more.  After listening to 5 C&W songs in a row my friend Rhea had to go up and talk with the DJ about their music selection.  Turns out one of the DJs was from Long Beach and said that he would be working in some other types of music as the night moved along.  Because we really didn't know many people my friends Kayte and Rhea and I ended up dancing together alot.  At one point Rhea and I are dancing together to another C&W song and it dawns on me that people are looking at us.  Well we were the only people dancing together that were of the same sex.  I leaned over to Rhea and said, "Do you realize we are in a red state and we are dancing together?"  We couldn't help but giggle.  I am sure we raised a few eyebrows! 

All in all I am glad that I went but it was alot of traveling to get there.  Montana is beautiful.  Were were staying very near the North entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  I wouldn't mind going back and doing some exploring.

Things are marching along for my wedding as well.  Tomorrow it will be exactly a month until the wedding.  I am starting to get excited.  We still need to work on the ceremony but that is the only major thing still left undone.  We have begun to get the replies back on who is going to come.  It is fun to check to the mail and see who else is going to be there to help us celebrate.

I have another (!) bridal shower this weekend.  This one should be quite a bit of fun as it is more of my friends that are coming.  I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.  My friend and bridesmaid (matron?!? she's married already) is coming out for the weekend from New York.  We haven't seen each other in quite a while and I can't wait.  Fun times all around.  We are also going to meet with my friend Patti about the hair issue for the wedding.  It's getting real here folks!

On the crafty front:  The travel was good for my progress on 'I Do' (from Knitty).  I am done with the first sleeve.  I also read The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood while I was traveling.  I thought it was very good.  I also have been working on a handspun sock and am almost done with the toe decreases.  I have another sock on the needles for my 'walking while knitting' project.

It's really warm here.

Just in case you were wondering the bridal shower went really well.  It was nice to hang out with the women that were there.  I talked with my friend Kayte and she said I was lucky that the shower didn't include any games.  I am glad.  Reminds me of the first baby shower I ever went to was one that I threw for a co-worker/friend.  I had no idea of the games you were supposed to play and that I should have had gifts for the winners.  Thankfully everyone else there knew games we could play.

Next weekend is the cowboy wedding in Montana.  Kayte said that the dress (according to the groom) is semi-casual.  They are getting married on a grassy knoll and it will be in the 60's there.  I bought a knee length skirt that I might wear but I may bring another option in case it might be colder.  There will be a lot of people there from my high school including the head master and my former Latin teacher.  Should be very interesting to say the least. 

On the crafty front:  I had a spinning class on Thursday at Deep Color where we talked about core spun yarns and "tail" yarns.  I have a very funky/fuzzy sample knitted up from my yarn.  The locks I was using in the tail yarn were very fuzzy so the fabric is almost thrummed in appearance.  It was a lot of fun to make but slow going because the locks like to get caught in the hooks as you are winding on.  That makes for lots of hand winding.  Speaking of fun/funky yarns I bought pluckyfluff's book that she put out recently.  It is a fun little book that outlines alot of her unique techniques she uses to create her one-of-a-kind yarns.  I can't wait to try out her techniques.  If you are interested in these type of yarns this book is very helpful in demystifying the process.  You could probably figure out some of it on your own but she includes tips that will help you avoid your yarn falling apart or loosing it's appeal.  It is a nice book and was fun to read and look at.  Check it out.
I also finished the woven sett samples for the guild.  Now I just have to type up the info sheet and they will be all ready for tonight's meeting.  I am happy to be done with that little bit of weaving.  Next topic is double weave but it is not due until our September meeting.

Whew!

The dress fitting was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It is a wondrous thing when a dress is ordered to fit you from you actual measurements.  I was actually able to zip the whole thing up (normally nothing fits around the bust).  In fact the dress has to be taken in at the waist and hips but fits through the bust (yeah, I'm a bit top-heavy).  I like the way it looks.  I feel comfortable in it and I feel like the dress suits me.  I don't feel like I am trying to be someone I'm not.  All good. 

Now comes the issue of what I am wearing under the dress.  Could be a tough one.

First Dress Fitting

I have my first dress fitting this afternoon for my wedding dress. My co-worker keeps asking me if I am excited (she is getting married next spring and is still in the stage where she is excited about everything) and I had to admit to my nervousness.  Not about the wedding itself but about being disappointed in the way I look in the dress.  I try not to succumb to body image issues but this is such a loaded outfit it is hard to avoid worrying what I am going to look like.  I am trying to be practical about my feelings and worries but sometimes they still breakthrough the wall.

I think I am in denial about the whole thing anyway.  It doesn't feel real.  Maybe seeing myself in the dress while make it more real. 

I haven't gone to a lot of weddings so some times I feel like I am flying blind.  I know that it is all going to work out because both my parents and my step-father are all experienced party throwers but it is just hard to know what to expect, I guess. 

On the crafty front:  I finished the pair of socks I was knitting from my hand dyed (but not hand spun) yarn.  I am very pleased with the way they turned out.  I am just about finished with the scarf that was my 'walking knitting' so I started another one to have on my daily strolls.  I spun more of the Shetland from my spinning class at Asilomar.  I am spinning it lace-weight and then I am going to three-ply it for socks.  I also washed all the fleece from that class but then it started raining here and I haven't been able to dry it completely.  It doesn't help that my cat insists that washed fleece is her bed and I can't leave it unsupervised.  I swear, it is like catnip for her.  I also finished the first set of samples for my guild's 'weave-along'/sample exchange.  Now I just have to buckle down and re-sley it at the new sett and get a move on.

When I took off for Chicago I started 'I Do' from the Spring Knitty in Rowan's All Season Cotton.  It has stalled a bit on needles since then because I don't know if it is going to be drape-y enough.  I picked it up again last night and I think I am going to push through.  I would like to wear it at the reception and on our honeymoon.  We are going to Hawaii and I think it would be perfect for the evenings.  I better get those needles clackin' if I am going to have it done in time...