Thursday, October 29, 2009

wedding shawl beginnings


Wedding shawl swatches, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

It's time to do some knitting for me! I originally planned to make my own wedding dress, but having made bridesmaids' dresses over the summer, I decided I could do without the stress. So instead I bought one from eBay, which may need some adjustments (and I need to lose weight to get into it), but it is beautiful and I couldn't possibly make something like that myself. So instead, I will knit myself a wedding shawl. I'm getting married in March, it's bound to be a little chilly and a beautiful shawl is the perfect way to keep warm.

Some searching on Ravelry and posting on the Cambridge Ktog board lead me to Aeolian. Now I need to decide on a yarn. I originally thought I'd make something cream/offwhite, but talking to people made me think about colour. Then I found this silk 4ply yarn in my stash. It's softly variegated in shades of lilac and pink - perfect for my colour scheme and the romantic lace of my dress.

silk swatch

I love the colour and the feel of it. The only problem with it is that so far, I havent found beads which fit onto the yarn. I've got sime size 9s and size 8s, both are too small. If I found some beads which fitted, went with the colours (I'm thinking either a pearly bead or a metallic/pearly lilac), I'd go with this yarn.

There's also a laceweight option.

laceweight swatch

This is some hand-painted laceweight I acquired at the most recent stash swap. I think it came from Jackie and was painted by Heather? I should probably message them to check. If so, I could ask Heather to dye me some in similar soft colours to the silk. The beads on it are (L-R) pearly lilac, pearly cream and a metallic darker purple.

Of course, neither of these swatches have been near my dress yet. I'm going to my parents' house where my dress is hiding this weekend, so I shall take my swatches, see what goes and go from there. So, what do you think? Which yarn? Which beads? Decisions, decisions.

2 comments:

Leslie - Wedding Noise said...

Bekki,
I couldn't imagine the time it would take to knit your own wedding dress. I think you made the right decision in using eBay and then adding your personal touch with a wedding shawl. From the photos you posted I'm sure the final product will blow us out of the water.
On a personal note, I run a wedding blog and would be interested in exchanging links with you on your blog (like "wedding knitting"?). Let me know how you want to be linked and I can add you by tomorrow.
I also have a quick business related question. Friends of mine over at Exclusively Weddings are interested in being listed on your blog for their wedding invitations in a new category possibly titled "Wedding Resources".
They can pay a one time insertion fee for your trouble by Paypal. If not interested in that they could also provide a helpful article on wedding invitations for your website to assist your visitors. I'm sure their open to any other ideas you may have too.
Look forward to hearing back from you!!

Sincerely,
Leslie Jenkins
Editor - http://weddingengagementnoise.wordpress.com/
"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. That is what makes a marriage last"

Reed said...

This is a very long shot, but did you have your wedding photos on the steps of the Fitzwilliam Museum on Saturday the 20th of March? Because I was in Cambridge that afternoon and I saw the most charming bride wearing a lovely mauve and pink Aeolian shawl there. I still regret not coming up and saying to her (you?) 'congratulations, I hope you will be very very happy together, and your shawl is beautiful'.