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.



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.



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.

tiny February baby jacket

February baby jacket, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This is my favourite thing I've knitted so far for Tiny. I started it in January, before I knew my sister was pregnant. The yarn was a freebie from Yarn Forward magazine and it just seemed to fit with the pattern. Then when Debs found she was pregnant, it had to be for her baby. And here she is, finally and it fits.

Yarn: Merino wool, reward for renewing my subscription to Yarn Forward magazine. (Looking at my ravelry notes, it's called Sensation. 100g, 300m).

Needles: 3.25mm circulars

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby sweater on two needles (Ravelry link), with gull lace as she suggests.

I followed the directions, which mostly made sense to me. I think I had to redo the button holes near the top when I realised what she meant - button holes every 7 garter ridges, I think. It's such a beautiful pattern! I can see why so many people knit them. Purple buttons came from John Lewis. I love the contrast between yellow and purple, it makes both colours pop. More baby clothes should be in bright colour combinations!

tiny kimono

tiny kimono, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

More baby knitting!

Tiny was beginning to get a little grumpy here. This was the second garment I'd tried on her.

Yarn: More hand-dyed sock wool from Hay on Wye. Now identified by Anne as being from Wool and Willow and dyed by Jenny Cook.

Needles: 3.5mm (I think)

Pattern: Clementine's Baby Kimono by Diana Jones

Mods: None in the knitting. I finished it with three purple buttons (one inside) and sewn button loops instead of ribbons.

I like the construction of the kimono, though the ribbing will need blocking each time it's washed. It looks pretty cute, I think. Ribbons would probably make it more adjustable, they just seemed a bit fiddly.

tiny socks

tiny socks, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

I have been knitting. Mostly for my little niece, blogname Tiny, who was born on 7th October. This was taken on her first evening at home. She has enormous feet, so I don't think these socks will fit for long. :)

Yarn: Hand-dyed sock yarn bought in Hay on Wye. I've now lost the ball band, so can't tell you the name of the dyer.

Needles: 2mm circs

Pattern: Better than Booties Baby Socks by Anne Budd. (Ruffle rib version)

Started and finished: sometime in September 09

The blanket you can just see was made for me when I was a baby by some relative or other (not quite sure who. There are various knitters in my family. Even my dad has been known to knit). It's lovely to see it being used for the first of the next generation.

wedding cake

wedding cake, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This was a joint effort. The bottom tier is fruit cake made (in a bucket) by my mum and Hannah's now husband Steve. The upper tiers are chocolate (made to this recipe) made by me and my mum (the top layer was gluten-free for my dad and grandma). We covered the cakes with ready made icing and added lime green polka dots and brown ribbon.

The finished cake was very heavy and tricky to transport, but we did it. (Well, my mum and dad did). It looked good and tasted pretty good too.

bridesmaids' dresses

bridesmaid, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

Rather a lot of the past 6 weeks has been spent making bridesmaids' dresses. With a chocolate brown and lime green theme, it was the easiest way to get four dresses which (semi) matched. This is mine, which I spent most of the day hoiking up. Oops. Not as well fitted on the bust as it could have been.

The pattern is Vogue 7848. The fabric is (scarily expensive, but rather lovely) silk satin from Borovick's. I don't have pictures of all four of us, but here's Anna, along with my gorgeous sister Hannah.



My other sister Debs is 33 weeks pregnant, so she needed a different style of dress. This isn't the best angle, but you can see the empire line and straps of her dress (Burda 7630).



The silk was a little intimidating to cut and sew, but with some patience, fine pins and lots of tissue paper, I got the hang of it. It felt gorgeous to wear and looks pretty good in the photos I've seen. Debs felt a bit too hot, but I think she'd have been too hot whatever she wore. The silk sashes tended to slip very easily, of course. I'm pleased with my work, though it has put me off the idea of making bridesmaids' dresses for my own wedding. I want to make my own dress and I think I'm going to have enough on my plate without adding 4 more. Though maybe I'll make a dress for the smallest bridesmaid...

What I've been up to

pom poms!, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

For the last few months, I have been mostly making these. My sister got married yesterday in a lime green and brown pom pom strewn wedding. We made a few hundred pom poms in different sizes to be used as decorations and thrown as confetti.

The inspiration came from this wedding blog - How engaging! - and this gorgeous post in particular. Way back when HP got engaged and started thinking about wedding colour schemes, she liked the idea of using chocolate brown and maybe lime green, but wasn't totally sure. I think showing her that blog helped her decide that it could work and was definitely a big influence on the final scheme. I'm going to blog some of the other things we made for the wedding, but if you can't wait, click through for some tasters on flickr.

Rob's socks are done

Finished socks!, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

And he likes them.

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Mardi Gras

Needles: 3mm circs

Pattern: toe up, 60 stitches, spirals made by slipping every 6th stitch every other round, flap heel, 1x1 rib.

Started: 9? April 2009

Finished: 5 May 2009