Mother of the Groom Stuff

I've been procrastinating on one of life's more daunting tasks: finding a nice outfit to wear to my younger son's upcoming wedding. Like most mothers of the groom, I want something that looks fabulous but doesn't cost fabulous. I also don't have a lot of time or money to shop around, and the choices for someone 5'2" tall are a bit limited. The idea of floating around in an organza tent didn't thrill me, so I've been keeping my eye out for something I could make up for the occasion.
My first thought was four colors of Anny Blatt Victoria ribbon - two pinks and two grays. The idea was to match a beaded purse I'd been working on in those colors. Unfortunately, the half-finished purse disappeared on Pentecost morning. I'd been knitting on it before choir started, and apparently I'd left it in the pew when we started rehearsing, and someone cleaned it up. It may still be around somewhere, but nobody can find it. If there's a good thing to come out of the loss of a cherished WIP it's that I'm no longer bound to match it.

So.... I started looking around, and a lovely hank of Cool Stuff in Wisteria caught my eye. I also picked up some Anny Blatt Muguet and Victoria ribbon to stretch it out a bit. Here are the raw materials:

My first thought was to make a diagonally knit top that was in one of the Prism books, but then my eye was drawn to the mitered squares in "violetta" in the Twisted Sisters Double Trouble book. The squares looked gorgeous, but the more I looked at the sweater itself, the less I liked the contour of it. I wanted something with a little lower neckline, both because Central Pennsylvania is hot in August, and because lower necklines are more flattering on ladies of a certain mother-of-the-groom age. So I started playing around, and this is what I came up with as a start:

This is the front. I've knit a similar piece for the back, and I'll connect the two at the sleeves, and with two large squares at each side. My friend Pauli has agreed to make me a skirt to go with it.

On another note, I'm grateful to say that our daughter, who lives in London and takes the underground to work, was one of the many who were not involved in the tragedy that occurred there on July 7. I had fallen asleep with my Walkman on tuned to Letterman, and at some point in the middle of the night, I started waking up to the news reports of the explosions in the underground. After a few minutes, I realized that this wasn't just news - this was news that could affect someone I love. I got up and e-mailed Delara to see if she was OK. I even checked her blog. Within minutes, she called to say she and Dan were both fine. Later in the morning, I called my friend Monica, whose son also lives in London, and he's fine too. She knew immediately when she heard my voice why I was calling. I can't help but think about those parents, spouses, children, and friends who sent similar e-mails and never got an answer. My heart goes out to them.

Cool and other Cool Stuff

Kevin, our nice UPS man, delivered only a few small packages in the last couple of days, but they were full of fun stuff. In one of the boxes was some real Stuff - Cool Stuff, Light Stuff, and Wild Stuff from Prism yarns. The Stuff's pricey, but oh so gorgeous. Equally cool were the kits and gadgets from Nancy's Knit Knacks, including her handy Knit-Kard sets, some Scandinavian design Christmas stocking kits, electronic row counters, and circular needle ID tags. Nancy is a real innovator in our business. Nancy has come up with some things that cause us to wonder, "why didn't I think of that?" OK, I admit it, I'm a gadget nut.

I'm down to the decrease section of the Clapotis shawl I'm making using Feza Hawaii, which alternates smooth sections with some fuzzy sections. I'd been lurking on the Clapotisknitalong yahoo group thinking I'd like to make one of these when I saw this yarn and wondered what it would look like as a Clapotis. The pattern is intriguing because it's knit on the diagonal with drop stitches. The fuzz makes dropping the stitches a little bit of work, but I think it's going to be worth it. I'll post a pic when it's done.

Boxes and Boxes and Bags, Oh My!

This was a busy week. The fall yarn orders from the TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) show I attended two weeks ago started to come in, as did some orders I'd placed with strict instructions to the companies NOT to ship until after the show. So we had the sheer fun and challenge of wading through boxes from Skacel, Plymouth, Louet, Martingale Press, and Mango Moon, getting them priced and tagged, and finding places for them on the shelves. With 550 square feet of shop space, trying to squeeze in new yarn as it comes in is a real challenge. Esther, who comes in late afternoon to straighten up and put away all those balls of yarn that wandered throughout the store during the day, did an amazing job of rearranging things to make room for the new arrivals. I haven't told her yet about the other stuff that'll be coming in soon. I'm not going to tell her the address of this blog either. She'll find out soon enough ;-).

In the course of all that, I managed to finish two projects, both of them felted bags. The first one I knit mostly during meetings and business classes at TNNA and felted when I got back. It's based on the Vintage Bubble Bag in Pursenalities, but instead of the Cascade 220 and Silk Garden the pattern calls for, I used Plymouth Outback Wool and Outback Mohair. I knew this yarn would felt, but I wanted to be able to show people how it would look. The lovely sage, brown, and maroons on the shelf would speak for themselves, but the bright aqua, orange, yellow, and hot pink I wasn't so sure about, so that's the one I chose to try. Here's bag before it was felted. Note that it fills the seat of the recliner:

...and here it is after felting:

After felting, the colors weren't nearly so scary, and I've been carrying it around as my purse du jour.

Bag No. 2 was one I'd started as part of a Booga Bag knitalong on the Delphi Knit & Chat Forum. A friend had given me some white Lopi she didn't want anymore, and I was curious to see what it would look like felted. I added some light blue and aqua Plymouth Paradise and some light blue Colorlash, and here's what I got

before:

and after:

I'd like to find some grommets to put in so that the handles slide more easily. Some blue buttons would be nice too.

Blogging Day 1. Where to start?

I see that I started this blog on what would have been my parents' 59th wedding anniversary. How appropriate, since it was my mom who started me knitting in the first place years and years and years ago. She's been gone for a good while, but her influence, as well as her collection of classic knitting patterns, is still with me. So mom, this blog's for you.