Out of Habit.
I have totally fallen out of the habit of writing in the blog. There have been lots of goings-on so I'll do my best to update things here. For starters, we're married.
TheBoy is also now TheHusband and apart from being able to call him that (which I do with remarkable ease and regularity) we've determined that we don't feel any different, just less stressed. To pull a reference from Spiral Staircase, I love him more today than yesterday, but not half as much as tomorrow.
Most things went off without a hitch. We had an issue with the first flowers that we ordered, but we were able to get replacements without problem. The weather was less than cooperative--it was sunny but pretty cold. So, instead of dancing we had "gather around the firepit time." It was windy. We had to put up the tents we rented because weather.com was suggesting that we were going to get rain--we didn't --but the tents ended up keeping everyone from having to pick little bits of tree out of their food. The food was fantastic. The cake was beautiful and delicious. We received many wonderful gifts--now we just need to send our thank you notes. We haven't gotten many photos of the event, I'm thinking about mailing cds to some of the folks we know took lots of photos in hopes of getting those back. We're also still waiting on the pro photos and I'm not entirely sure when we'll have those. We spent a few days away from home, but not many. We're taking our honeymoon in August, to go to the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. Yep, we're going to a web comic convention for our honeymoon. We're also going to be visiting friends in the Seattle area at that time.
We bought a new couch. It is giant and comfortable. We then also had to buy a new, smaller coffee table. It is far from giant, but includes a handy drawer for the remote at the end of the day.
We have finally also logged a win in the war against melting that our apartment had engaged us in. Now, the 1970's were a terrible time for energy efficiency in building materials. Aluminum windows were all the rage because they were Cheap. And my apartment complex took that Cheap factor and ran with it. Our west facing wall--which has no shade whatsoever--has two large aluminum slider windows, one that is 4'x6' and one that is 3'x4'. That's a lot of heat gain in the summer with just inexpensive drapes between the sun and us. (It's also a lot of heat loss in the winter, but that's less of an issue because the heat gain from winter sun helps to offset the heat loss from lack of insulation. Plus, I can always put on a sweater. What kind of a knitter would I be if that weren't a welcome option?)
Now, we've lived in this apartment for over three years now and in the summer it's a never ending battle to keep the apartment cool enough to keep us from melting. The first summer we spent a lot of time in the pool. The second summer I wasn't here, TheBoy was living alone while I was in Alaska and he taped paper bags and cardboard over the windows. Yeah, I can't live like that. Last summer saw the arrival of a portable ac unit which helped a great deal but required being moved to the bedroom on days when it was really hot. Yesterday, at 7pm, our apartment was logging in at 86 degrees, which was only a few degrees shy of the outside temperature. I had the ac unit and a box fan chugging as hard as they could and it was barely making a dent. Enter blackout drapery liner fabric from Joann's. It's on the expensive side, but after installing it (we cut it to size and just used the drapery pins to tack it to the back of the ugly cheap drapes) the temperature has been much more comfortable. It's currently 88 degrees outside [and likely to get a little warmer before it cools off for the night] and inside it's 76. Score one for blackout and TheMarrieds! It's much darker in the apartment but by tacking it to the existing drapes we can still open them easily in order to let in sunshine in the morning, before the sun moves to that side of the building.
Knitting news. I am currently in possession of the Charity Blanket Swap blanket. Now that the apartment is cooler I can crank that out and get it on to it's next knitter. I'm also working on the Mystery Stole 3. Signups close sometime today (if they're not already). I've finished chart A and part of chart B, and hope to have charts A-C done by the time the next clue is posted next Friday. I'm waiting for yarn to knit for two new arrivals, a grand-nephew who should be making his debut in October (there is a large age gap between TheBoy and his siblings. His niece is 25 and has been married for something like three years.) There is also a new Minnesotan who is expected to make their debut on the 29th of December, the second child of some very dear friends of mine. And I'm plugging along on a few other things as well, including something that is an extremely nerdy gift for TheBoy. He knows what it is but I'm going to wait to reveal it here on the blog for a bit yet.
Anyone that's in Eugene, there are bagpipers slated to play at Washburne Park on Sunday at 6.30pm. We're planning to be there. Depending on how hot it is, I'll probably have knitting. Leave me a comment if you're planning to be there as well.
Sometimes I Wonder if I Made the Right Choice.
I began knitting Madli's Shawl early last summer. I picked out the pattern, bought the back issue of Interweave Knits and scoured the internet for a suitable yarn. My mom bought me that yarn for my 25th birthday and I was all set to start. I knit the first edging and 5.5 repeats of the center pattern and set the shawl down. In August. And I did not pick it up again until shortly after Christmas. At which point I made a goof. And my closest lifeline was 3.5 repeats down. So, I ripped and reknit two of those repeats. Only to discover that I had somehow swapped out my size 5 needle for a size 7 when I picked the shawl up again. My yarn-overs, they were gaping. So, I resolved to reknit and tucked it back into my purse. I decided that I needed to buckle down and work on it so Friday night I pulled it from the bag. And discovered this:
The black spots are ink. A pen exploded in my bag. The horror.
I gasped, and then I assessed. All of the ink was in the two repeats that I needed to rip out anyway. I have three times as much yarn as I need [due to a total mistake on my part--a happy mistake it turns out] so TheBoy held the clean end while I ripped the knitting, getting ink smears all over my hands. I cut the yarn, attached a new piece and away I went. I've knit back those two offending repeats plus one more. This brings me to 5 of 31. It's a good thing that I have a lot of time yet.
Beginning the Process
So, I've begun my wedding shawl. It's Madli's Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2004. It's a long, lacy, rectangular shawl with lots of fun "nupps" which are kind of a pain to knit, but I like how they look. I started it three days ago and have gotten through the first border and two repeats of the center lace motif. I'm knitting it in pale blue yarn from Knitpicks, 100% alpaca [Alpaca Cloud in Heaven--I think] It's lovely to work with, although my needles have a sticky join which means that I keep all my stitches scrunched up on the needle at all times. I'm using a lot of blues in the wedding. Most everything will be turquoise but I'm also pulling in peacock blue and pale blue as well as a few shades of green for accents. I just have to hope that I don't buy a dress that the blue yarn totally clashes with. At any rate, here's my first progress photos.
An image of my total progress so far, pinned to my bed:
And a close-up of part of the lace:
