A Howlin' Good Time

That's not exactly what I think of when organizing a wedding, even a small one! However we finally got to my favorite part of the wedding planning: the cake. The only extravagant splurge we are allowing ourselves. The folks at  Piece of Cake in Mesa were fabulous and the cake is simply yummy. German Chocolate for the bottom, Almond infusion for the top, and the outside will look like a desert landscape. Those two guys are my cake toppers! I made them myself of polymer clay, hopefully we will have time to make a pair of tiny coyote pups as well :)  (hey, is Lady Coyote wearing a lace shawl?)

I also had a thrilling time blocking the lovely Cap Shawl I will be wearing. I even put on a skirt to model it for pictures.

So incredibly delicate and gossamer! I felt really bride-ly.
And of course, here is the dashing groom. Modelling an alpaca sweater on 110 degree weather. That is love!

Alpaca does grow a bit, even though I did not block it, but he seems to like his sweaters really roomy.
Enough wedding gushing, down to business!
6 Month Kalendar Update - and photo contest
The proofs are back from Kate, the tech editor/layout artist/whip-in-shaper. In spite of Kate's best efforts, the pattern is still a 26-page behemoth, so we will have to set it up as an e-book. I expect to be able to upload it in the next couple of days, and we will then open a second round of sign-ups for people wanting to hop on the KAL. Spread the word! Pattern will sell for $6, since it has been professionally edited and remastered.
One of the hardest parts was to choose pictures! I had over 75 pictures to sort through, thanks to all of you who sent beautiful, artistic pictures of our clues. I had many, many entries for June, August and April which seem to be the favorite clues. In the end, the choice came down to how well the pictures played together - I wanted a range of colors and textures but the pictures should go well together. Some of the clues i did not chose were so beautiful it broke my heart not to include them - but for instance, I had a lot of entries in red color.
All that said, I used pictures from: MissMootles, Pat Fennesy, Mirih, VirtualJ, Niemiecp, TBVD. Their names will be acknowledged in the pattern, and they will all receive a copy of the 6 month pattern.
And the winner of the Sunshinewalks bag is Melissa TwoKnitWit! Yay!!! She gets to choose a lovely medium drawstring bag from the Etsy store to keep her shawl nice and snugly. Her name was chosen at random among all the entries, and her pictures were quite gorgeous.
Keep snapping those pictures, at the 12 month mark we will have another contest for the next 6 month pics and FO pictures. 


August and September Clue Update

August clue is fresh off the keyboard and in the capable hands of Olga, Lise and Tammy for a final look over. It is one busy clue, and I had to knit mine through to make sure it looked OK. And it does - it is quite pretty and will keep you on your toes. Which is fine, because you have extra time to work on it! The plan is to release August by July, 22nd because I will be out of town quite a bit afterwards, and with only intermittent Internet access. 

 
September theme is a bit obvious - Falling Leaves. We just could not pass up all these lovely leaf and branch patterns. I do have a good idea of where I want this clue to be but I still need to get your input, because quite often I change my mind after I see a lovely suggestion. 

WIP cleanup is done!

Well... almost. Only one old WIP to finish yet, the Frostflower Shawl. It is a bit of mindless knitting that I carry everywhere whenever I anticipate a little dead time, and little by little it has grown. It uses lovely Malabrigo Lace yarn in Sealing Wax colorway which is a pleasure to fondle and to knit. I decided to power-knit through it, and within a day i was bored to tears with it, so it is relegated back to travelling project/waiting room project. I do promise to work on it more diligently, because i think I will love the finished piece.

Meanwhile, I get to start a few new projects. I finally got around to sorting out my stash and I was downright mortified at how much stuff I have. Lovely stuff, deserving of a project. So I decided to go on a yarn diet and dig out some projects for the lovelies.

 Out of the bottom of the sweater-quantity pile came this supersoft Madeline Tosh Merino in Tannehill. It is a somewhat sticky singles, but it knits up nice and even. The color is brown with loden green and a few emerald highlights. It calls for something vegetable. So it will become Jordana Paige's Silvar Sweater. It is a boatneck fitted sweater. I haven't made gauge on size 6 needles, looks like I will have to go down one size, and I hope this does not make the knit too dense.

This skein of Sanguine Gryphon Sappho in Coming from Crete colorway (seems to be same as Oak Timberworm, for Bugga! pundits) is busy becoming Anna Dalvi's Skuld, a lovely sideways shawlette. This colorway and my Harmony needles did not get along at all, the color blended with the needles so badly I did not notice a couple of dropped stitches. I ended up resorting to my bright pink El Cheapo Boyes needles, and it is growing nicely.
Alas, my designing is put on hold until I am done with the wedding, if I can hold it that long.
And, oh, my yarn diet resolution is already out the door. I have a couple of bags of Wollmeise winging it my way. Sniff.