beauty.

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crock o flowers

The wedding was beautiful, and the bride looked absolutely radiant in the shawl. (Pictures soon!) On Saturday morning, I helped to gather and arrange flowers before the ceremony — dozens of vases filled with local blossoms. I stopped by this afternoon to take a pickling crock full of flowers off the happy couple’s hands. (See below.)

flowersgrowler

flowersbed

flowerswindow

flowerslamp

flowerstable

Sigh. So nice to have a house full of lovely flowers — especially after such a lovely celebration.

curlingupwithboh1

curlingup2

Boh and I did some serious lounging this morning as I recovered from the evening’s late night (which, for me, means I was out past 10) festivities.

wrinklyboh

quichesun

And this quiche just came out of the oven — a grad school friend is coming over for dinner. Perhaps later I’ll find some time to curl up with my knitting…

ready to go.

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readytogo1

readytogo2

(Note to self: while the blocking mats are awesome for blocking, they are not the most attractive background for knitting photography.)

So here it is, in pile form, ready to be delivered to the bride. (It did grow and open up quite a bit — ahh, the magic of blocking — but there was no way I was going to try to photograph that in the mirror BEFORE pouring my coffee this morning.)

Thanks for all of the encouragement this month, with this shawl and with lace knitting in general! I’ll try to get a picture of the shawl in action this evening.

nick of time.

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I finished the shawl. In order to do so, I took it with me to a meeting of a group that the bride is also part of. She is getting married tomorrow, so she wasn’t in attendance today. I was the bleary-eyed/loopy person introducing herself by way of explaining that I was so close to finishing something for the wedding, and that I was working on it during the meeting (charts and all) because otherwise I might not get it done in time to block it. After all, wedding shawls don’t really count if they aren’t done in time for the wedding, right?

unblockedshawl

Unblocked shawl.

blocking

blockingshawlcloseup

I splurged and acquired the Knitpicks blocking mats and blocking wires in order to properly finish this project. I pinned the shawl out around three o’clock this afternoon, just over 24 hours before the ceremony. Eight hours later, it is almost dry, and I think these mats are really speeding up the process. (Phew!)

I’m so pleased with how this shawl turned out, but mostly, I’m incredibly relieved that it is finished. I can’t wait for H. to wear it tomorrow evening at the reception! I spent the afternoon cleaning my apartment, playing with Boh in the big field behind the elementary school in my neighborhood, and cooking up a celebratory meal: eggplant parmesan (from Mark Bittman’s big yellow book) and mexican hot chocolate pudding (from mostly foodstuffs).

pudding

eggplant parm

bohsadeyes

Boh REALLY wanted some of my eggplant. Or maybe he’s making that face because he adores H. and knows he isn’t invited to the wedding tomorrow?

Happy weekend, folks.

t-10 minutes.

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asleep

LONG day. I intend to be right here, under the covers, very soon. No knitting photos, but I did knit 2 more rows of the wedding shawl. For those of you keeping track, I still have 16 more to knit. It would be great if I could finish the whole thing tomorrow.

awake

Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you? Maybe you should get off my side of the bed.

MIA (mara in action).

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wearingmara1

Monday.

wearingmara2

Tuesday.

laceshawlalmost

18 rows to go. I was intending to work on it tonight, but I accidentally (?) had a few beers after class today, and really should not work on it.

hollyhock1

Late last night, after doing substantial work on the shawl, I decided that while I could no longer look at lace charts, I wasn’t quite ready for bed. So I spun a bit of luscious falklands fiber.

hollyhockbob1

This is the first of four ounces of lovely falklands fiber in the hollyhock colorway from A Verb For Keeping Warm. There are two ounces of this green, adn two in a lovely pinky-pale purple. I’m spinning each color separately into a 2-ply, with the thought that I’ll make something stripey…eventually.

dogtired

This is what Boh looks like right now, and I’d say it accurately conveys how I feel at this particular moment — and it is only Tuesday. Hello, September.

high.

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You know, like alpine.

alpinemacro1

alpinemacro2

alpinefo1

I absolutely love the way the browns and golds interact with the blues in this skein. So pretty.

alpinemacro3

alpinemacro4

alpinefullskein

203 yards of 2-ply romney, from Hello Yarn, in the Alpine colorway. Romney is not as soft as the other fibers I’ve been spinning lately, but oh, that sheen. I wonder if this should become something sturdy, like mittens.

quiche

Yesterday’s quiche, and legwarmers:

legwarmers

Believe it or not, it was chilly enough to warrant wearing these around the house as I made coffee and rolled out pie crust yesterday morning. People routinely find their way to my corner of the internet by googling “legwarmers” and related terms, so I figured I’d announce that, yes, the mornings are cool enough that legwarmer season is officially open, at least for around-the-house wearing.

More soon, as I desperately need to make more progress on the wedding shawl…

twists and wrinkles.

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darkalpine2-ply

alpinehangingupclose

Twists: Hello Yarn romney 2-ply in the Alpine colorway, both on the bobbin and hanging to dry.

bohcouch1

bohcouchcloseup

Wrinkles: Is there anything more to say? I love it when Boh falls asleep on his wrinkly face. Sigh.

Today’s plan: more lace knitting — after a brunch for the incoming grad students in the department, which means I’m off to roll out a pie crust and get a quiche into the oven…

singles and shawl progress.

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alpinebob1

Bobbin 1 of the Hello Yarn romney in Alpine.

bob2alpineprog

alpinebob2

Bobbin 2, first in progress, because I thought I was going to stop, and then, in the second picture, finished. This stuff spins itself. I may cheat a little bit and ply later tonight instead of letting the singles rest a full day, We’ll see.

heathershawledge

The wedding is next Saturday, a week from today. I decided on two leaf pattern repeats (I think the last time I blogged about this, I was thinking about doing three), and this morning I began the edging. I’m 8 rows into 34, and I absolutely love how this is turning out. If I work steadily on this over the next few days,  I won’t have to stay up late and risk making stupid, bleary-eyed mistakes. My goal is to block this on Wednesday night, so that it has ample time to dry before I deliver it to the bride on Friday.

While I was working on the romney and the shawl, Boh was standing guard at the window:

longdogwindow

He really is a surprisingly long dog — I marvel at his length whenever I find him at the window like this, paws up on the radiator.

morepouting

Apparently surveying the backyard is pretty exhausting work. (There is loud snoring drifting towards my desk from the bedroom.) May your Saturday be as productive and restful as Boh’s!

romney.

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In all of the start-of-the-semester hubbub, my wheel has been empty for most of the week. I returned home from campus (where my office is growing ever cozier with each bag of belongings I move from here to there) today and decided to at least start something so that I can try to spin a little each day.

air1

air2

Sigh. So beautiful. These colors just make me yearn for handspun legwarmers. This is Hello Yarn fiber — Romney wool top in the Alpine colorway — and I love it.

forlorn1

forlorn2

Boh is looking particularly forlorn this afternoon, perhaps because he knows that the new semester means a bit more reading (me) and resting (Boh), and a little less frolicking (both of us).

back to school.

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back to school1

back to school2

The “back to school” photo was always a big deal in my house. Every year, my brother and I would pose by the fireplace, or in front of the flowers in the yard, with backpacks on our backs and awkward smiles on our faces. These pictures are today’s version of that tradition — and yes, I just emailed them to my mom.