The Canyon Less Travelled

July brings a great event in my life that I am delighted to share with all of you: I am getting married!
Let me back off a bit... there is more to the story.
My husband and me have been together for about five years. Our families have been jonesing forever to get us to quit living in sin and make our kids legal. At some point, we were getting an average of two phone calls a week asking when the wedding would happen.
A year ago, in the wake of the great economic crisis, he was laid off. We made numbers and decided we could afford for him to stay home to be with the kids. However, in order to get him medical insurance, we got married. We piled the family and a well-meaning friend or two to the courthouse, got the license, even got a jeweller to size a ring in a hurry, and tied the knot. It was a hasty, prosaic ceremony. Not boring though, and we even got to be witnessed in the wedding of a trucker to his girlfriend in a pinch. We were too chicken to tell the family what we had done, since everybody was SO looking forward to a wedding. So, we kept up the pretense of the sinful life, endured the phone calls, and eventually organized the wedding everybody would enjoy.

And so, this July, we are gathering at the Grand Canyon, Arizona's best knows natural wonder, for a rimside, sunset wedding. God puts the church and the special illumination.

If you every visit the Grand Canyon, but you don't like to deal with crowds, consider coming to the North Rim. The less travelled side of the Canyon. North side, in comparison to the South Rim, is wooded with acres of pinyon and ponderosa pines, cottonwoods, and lovely native brush rather than cactus. It is harder to access, and the accommodations are scant, but with the most lovely views ever.

The drive is also quite lovely, but a bit longer from Phoenix. There are some breathtaking views of the Colorado River, the Navajo Bridge and Glenn Canyon/Vermilion Cliffs area:

So, of course, our July Clue has a wedding theme. It is inspired by the wedding sign at the top of the page, and its lovely heart shape. Although I borrowed heavily  from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury, it is mostly an original clue, made specially for this KAL. I can tell you, that it has one single, large motif. This is something we have not had yet!

The release date is tomorrow, July First. I will leave the June clue in for a few days still, so make sure you download the correct one. Because of the wedding, I will have to hurry with the August clue as well, but hopefully we will recover our stride after September.

Of course, will all the car time, much knitting happened. A few WIPs were completed, including these:

Vogue's yellow harvest mittens. I started these in 2008. I knit the first one using the gauge suggested in the magazine, and I got an oven mitt. Seriously, it was HUGE! This was the beginning of my love-hate relationship with Vogue Knitting. I then went down to a gauge that seemed reasonable to me, and voila, properly fitting mittens.

The yarn, by the way, is Malabrigo Worsted in Glazed Carrots. The loveliest orange ever.
Those are already in the "Christmas Gifts" bin :)

And the Victorian Lace Today Cap Shawl is done! The edge took over 400 yards of yarn and well over a week to finish. Here it is unblocked, and I am (sort of) looking forward to blocking it.
I am a bit concerned that the variegation in the Knitpicks Shimmer  in Lilac Dream (a discontinued color) will obscure the pattern and make me look like I am wearing a tablecloth, but we will see. This is supposed to be my wedding shawl!

(meanwhile, my wedding dress which my mother bought for me in Spain, is lost in the mail, last sighted in Russia, so I don't have a dress...sigh!)

Designs in progress are moving along.

The Yellow Shawl has a name, the testing process is completed, and is out to Kate the Editor to whip it in shape and weed off my poor English. I expect to release it in one, two weeks tops. And there will be a KAL!

My Child Sweater knitting is mostly done, needing one sleeve and the finishing. I will keep pictures off the blog for now in case I decide to send it for a submission! It is going to be a LOT of fun to knit and wear, as it has a couple of nifty tricks in the construction.

As you may have read, the 6 month pattern is in progress, and I need your photos. There will be a raffle with all the submissions! and a second run of enrollments once it is released.

No yarn pictures this week - I need a yarn diet!. However, I have these ubercute pictures of my new Sunshine Walks Robot Box Bag. Just a great size for a small project, like socks or a shawlette. The inside is lined in red and white polka dot fabric. My son loved it! It will make a lovely travel bag and will come with me to the Grand Canyon.
Stay tuned, for tomorrow's grand release. Happy knitting!