Nonnahs' Wedding Quilt

I knew I wanted to make Nonnahs a wedding quilt as soon as they decided to get married this September. It just took me a while to pick just the right one. I knew I didn't want it to be too busy and more classic looking, but I also wanted to take advantage of some of the great contemporary fabric out there. I hit pay dirt with the Cutting Corners pattern from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts.

It is simple, yet interesting and offers a great combination of straight lines and floral 'roundedness'. For colors I had two main inspirations: Nonnahs' fairly neutral living room and, of course, the Doogles. So I went to the fabric store and shopped the black florals until I found the perfect one: plenty of black but enough cream and taupe to give me something to work with in picking out the border fabrics. The rest came together pretty effortlessly. I was also inspired to add the red binding because there is the tiniest of red in the floral print on the inner cream border fabric...plus red is such a 'love'ly color! I opted for a solid black backing mainly for the practical purpose of living with a (mostly) black dog.

Main Print - Michael Miller for Fabrics LLC
Cream Inner Border - 19th Century Backgrounds II for Marcus Brothers
Taupe Outer Border - Floral Damask by P&B Textiles
Binding - Little Red Riding Hood for Red Rooster Fabrics
Backing - Black Solid Kona Cotton from Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I also knew that I wanted to add some kind of inscription to the back. I went back and forth about embroidering their names and/or the date of the wedding. But, nothing seemed 'just right'. I was also mildly afraid that by adding their names and date it would turn more into something that's kept in a closet vs. something that is used...and if its up to me (ha!), I'd rather it be something that's used! Then a lightening bolt stuck! I could add feng shui love birds to the back! Again, this idea went through many incarnations and it didn't materialize into the final product until I was putting everything together (mostly because of trial and error):

I used the side bird template from the Bird Ornaments pattern, also from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts, on fabric treated with iron-on fusing. I used a 'fancy' stitch from my sewing machine to applique the birds to the backing (also fused). Then I invisibly hand stitched the patch to the quilt back (like when you attached binding). Considering this was completely winged (no pun intended ;), I really love how the patch came out.

And finally, what would a quilt project be without fabric leftovers...which were promptly turned into a set of Quilted Coasters, again from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts.

I do believe Nonnahs will be an absolutely beautiful bride, don't you think!?! :-)

FO: Halekulani Wedding Shawl

So you may recall that I started a wedding shawl just a little over three weeks ago. It felt like a crazy move at the time, but I hoped that the fact that it would be for our upcoming wedding would propel me to finish it in time, and what do you know? It worked! With The Big Day less than two weeks away (two weeks, people- two weeks!), I now have a shawl to wear to wedding-related festivities.

Halekulani Wedding Shawl
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace (100% baby merino wool) in 63 (Natural) - one entire skein and just a tiny bit of a second.
Needles: US4

Modification: I chose to knit a larger shawl, because it would have been miniscule otherwise. No, really. Like SO tiny (it is still on the smaller size, even with the mods). Thankfully, Minty posted the mods she used while knitting her Swallowtail, because I really wouldn't have been able to handle figuring all that out with my time issues. Her instructions were fabulous. (Thanks, Minty!)

For the record, I absolutely loved knitting this shawl. Maybe it's because the charts were so easy to memorize and knit. Maybe it's because it knit up so quickly. Maybe it's because the Malabrigo lace is...just as fabulous and yummy as you might think it would be to work with. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because this knit is to commemorate a very special day in my life and I felt truly inspired. I am so pleased with the outcome, and looking forward to having this always as a reminder of our wedding.

Segue to...I am also pleased as punch about a recent purchase- my new Macbook! I've been coveting one of these cute little things for some time now, but have been holding out because B and I have been trying to save money. That said, I discovered that when planning a wedding/honeymoon, sometimes you just do crazy things (I'll get to our brand new camera some other time)! In my defense, this is not a completely frivolous purchase! It will definitely come in handy on our trip, which is why I decided to take the plunge now. And can I just say- I freaking LOVE this thing! If you couldn't tell.

This is my first laptop, and my first Mac. I am far from a tech person- gadgets rarely excite me- but, I am super geeky over this thing. I'm not exactly sure how many times is normal to hug one's laptop, but at least once daily seems to be working for me. I am officially a convert! Love(1).

And speaking of love, Julia's adorable baby boy was born last week and I couldn't be more thrilled for her and Moxie. I'm bursting with joy and cannot.wait. to meet little Griffin in person!

A February Sweater for a February Baby

Wow! I had no intention of taking such a long blog holiday! First and foremost - thank you so much for all of your kind comments and well wishes for this little growing baby that is slowly but surely taking up more and more space in my mid-section. I'm currently at 18 weeks and we are set for our 20 week ultrasound in about a week and a half. Initially we were going to wait and see how we felt at the time of the ultrasound to decide whether or not we'd find out the sex. But seriously, picking out names is hard and stressful! So, at this point, we are planning to find out!

Anyway, over the last few weeks I've been busy, busy, busy. Given that a certain someone is getting married this month, my biggest project has been unbloggable. But, I was able to give Nonnahs her gift last night, so expect another finished object post in the near future!

I've also been knitting again. I've discovered the secret to Dis's Happy Hands is continental knitting...exclusively. I had tried to go back to knitting with my right hand after my last break and it was just too much. I now use my left hand for everything, except binding off (I still can't get the yarn out of the way - how do you people do it!?!). I also used the excuse of baby knitting to pick out some fabulously squishy worsted wool yarn - Dream in Color Classy, which has also been very hand friendly.

The product of my latest knitting efforts has been a February Baby Sweater for a certain February baby of mine:

This was my first experience knitting an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern. While I appreciate that she doesn't spoon feed you line-by-line instructions, I am glad I didn't try to tackle this one as a new knitter. There were several things you just have to know how to do. She provides the ingredients, but you need to put the recipe together. It was a great pattern and otherwise pretty straight forward. I did get a little bogged down with the lace for a while, but I got my mojo back once I realized how close I was to finishing!

I used just about exactly one hank of Classy in the color Cocoa Kiss on size 6 needles (for the main body knitting). I did have to shorten the body by about a 1/2 inch to do this though. The yarn is wonderful! The colors are so great and the mottled nature of the variegation is very subtle and not distracting, but still just as enchanting to knit. I picked out this color first because I've loved it for a long time (and needed a good excuse to buy it!), but secondly because I thought it would be nice for either a boy or a girl. The color would look very elegant on a little girl, but also tone down the lace for a boy.

I've already decided that all the baby knitting I will be doing will be gender neutral because even though we will be finding out ahead of time what we are having, we certainly don't know who will be coming next. And I would like to use these hand knits for more than one baby! So along that line, I wanted to show you the other wee little sweater currently on my needles:

You probably recognize this as the Get Ziggy (Rav link) sweater that Nonnahs did such a lovely job on here. It is such a great little sweater and in this fun green (also Classy in the color Spring Tickle), I think it will be great for a boy or a girl. But I think my favorite part of this project is that when Nonnahs and I were talking about potential baby projects one day, we IMed each other the link for this pattern at the exact same time! Great minds must think alike ;-)

Just keep knitting...just keep knitting...

When I got an email this morning letting me know that my dress is ready, it really hit me - I am getting married in 19 days (and we leave in 11 days)! Holy crap! We still have a few details yet to nail down, but I'm sure it will work out. In the meantime, I just keep knitting away at my shawl. In my haste, I misread part of the instructions for the nupps section, so despite the progress shot last time, I had to rip out and re-knit the last 2 charts over. Which set me back a little, but now I'm back on track. I'm on to the first of 2 border charts. Getting close!

So yeah- this is pretty much what I've been doing in my free time. Shawl knitting. Fast and furious. Well that, and cooking veggies like they're going out of style. I've been on this kick for a couple months now. Cooking up a huge batch of veggies on Sunday (or Monday, as the case may be) and feeding off of it for as long as it lasts. (It usually carries me well into mid-late week). I've been steaming, braising, oven-roasting, sauteing. I try to vary the veggies every week, although there are some staples. And I always make some brown rice with lentils and/or black beans to go alongside. I've been pleasantly surprised at how filling these meals are, and how much healthier I feel. And most pleasing of all - I haven't tired of eating this way at all (yet)!

This week I also made a batch of Grandma's Grain, from the fabulous 101 Cookbooks. (Sorry, no picture this time.) These grains can be eaten with savory or sweet, for breakfast or substituted for rice in other meals. This morning I had some for breakfast with a little bit of brown sugar and rice milk. It was quite tasty! I look forward to experimenting with it more and incorporating this recipe into my repertoire.

I am far from what I would consider to be a healthy eater, but I do try, and I've been trying extra hard lately, for various reasons. As with most everything else I try, instead of making sweeping statements that I'm committing to something (which invariably provokes failure), I like to say that I will try to keep with it for as long as possible and see how it goes. So far, so good!

Are there any dishes/recipes you've been hooked on lately?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to shawl knitting!

We Have Nupps!

The extra long weekend was just what I needed! I have been knitting on this damn shawl like crazy. And, I even decided to do extra repeats on the main body of the shawl. Partly because it was looking teeny tiny, even when I fake blocked it (stretched it out), and partly because I was stupid and miscounted my repeats and ended up doing a whole extra one...and then didn't quite feel like tinking back 6 rows of lace. Call me crazy. So, as per many other Swallowtail knitters on Ravelry, I followed Minty's lead and extended 5 extra repeats. At the time, I thought I was just asking for trouble, given the time sensitivity of this project, but seeing how fast I was able to bust out the extra 5 repeats, I'm glad I did it. I am now on the second of the "nupps repeats." As per all of your comments to my last post, I am knitting them loose! Thanks for the advice everyone!

And so, I will just keep knitting along...26 days left...no pressure!

Switching gears, I recently completed 60 days of the my 365 days project. I can hardly believe it. Some days are easy, some are really challenging. Some photos are pretty good, some are- not so much. But I'm still having a lot of fun and I'm learning a lot. Here are days 31 - 60:

Happy short week, everyone (in the US)!