You may kiss the bride...

We did it! On October 8th Michael and I were married in Las Vegas in the company of a few immediate family members.
We tied the knot at the MGM Grand, they had a "Hollywood Glamour" package that was just perfect for us. I'm not sure if I've really mentioned it here but I am a total sucker for the 30's & 40's era. The starlets, the fedoras, the movies, the music... Le sigh...
Ah so the package, hair & make-up at Cristope Salon, live pianist (played As Time Goes By, during the ceremony) All white bouquet of Cala Lilies, Stargazer Lilies (did I ever mention how much I love lilies) roses, orchids and tulips. And a studio photography session after.
The staff at the MGM Forever Grand Wedding chapel were so amazing! Angela, our coordinator, helped us pull together the wedding in just one month's time, she was so helpful, nice, patient, bubbly every time we spoke! Plus, when one of the buttons popped on my husband's tux, she was there needle and thread in hand to mend it for him while he panicked.
Before this post starts to sound like an ad for the MGM's wedding services.... I will share pictures!( < flickr set)




It was beautiful. The pictures came out so well I have trouble picking out a few favorites. I think the two of us pull off the black & white old style look pretty nicely. I mentioned to my grandmother how handsome he was in his tux, he reminded me of a young Gregory Peck and I felt like Joan Bennett during her femme fatal era. Maybe a little Ava Gardner. Our mini-honeymoon was great. I have tons of things about Vegas to share, pictures and stories and such. I'm still battling the black-plague equivalent of a head cold (goin on over a week now), so it may be a while before I get back to semi-regular posting.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my happy moment!

new boots call for new boot laces

I know I've been slacking on the blog posting but the wedding is a beast onto itself and has taken over! Just one week to go now......

In the mean time I got some awesome boots, they are like knee high converse hightops (although they are Airwalker brand and, well, knee high)
I wanted to make some funky boot laces to go in them, first I went out and got myself a set of sock DPN's sizes 00-1. I planned on making I-cord laces, but the yarn I wanted to use was worsted weight, not lace, sock or even sport would prolly have worked. I-cords were too thick with this yarn (peaches & creme, pink lilac colorway) and wouldn't fit through the grommets.
So I decided to crochet a set. I planned on jut a single row of SC stitches long enough would be good. When I started to work them up I realized that I loved the way the plain foundation chain looked. So I whipped up two sets. (and I don't recommend a 13hr crochet-a-thon my finger tips are sore!)


Pattern:
One set is just plain foundation chain, the other set worked up as follows:
(both sets worked with worsted weight yarn on a size E hook, one size down from recommended hook size)
Work a foundation chain as long as you want your laces to be, I took out the original laces and just held them together to measure, I made them a little longer than the original laces because i like the big bow. My laces wound up about 115-120inches long (remember these are for Knee High boots)
So you work the foundation chain to the desired length, then you work single crochet stitches into the back of each foundation chain stitch. Now I DO NOT mean back loop only, though that may look pretty neat-o if you'd like to try it. I mean the "camel hump" on the WS(wrong side) of the chain, that lil horizontal bump that looks like it connects the stitches.
When you reach the end just fasten off, you can wrap the ends in tape (maybe give it a lil melt), paint the tips with clear nail polish, if you used acrylic yarn you could just give it a lil melt on the end (this will only work with acrylic yarn, if you used organic you'll just burn up the end and ruin all that hard work, plus it will smell like burning hair in that room for like a week, ask me how I know)to give yourself a "tip" (don't now the technical term and I'm too lazy to look it up). mine are un-tipped at the moment, ha vent decided how I'd like to seal them up yet.

I plan on making lots more laces of varying colorways, the I-cord set is still planned, just for a little later. Now go forth and make funky shoe laces, and please share pics if you do, I'd love to see what you guys can come up with!

Had to share!

so two things I just had to share.. one.. I won some fiber from the Phat Fiber blog recently and it arrived today!

It is much prettier in person, the light in my kitchen is not so good today.
I can not wait to spin it up. I'm going to wait until I get through the other 4oz of roving I have and get a little better before I do though, because this stuff is awesome. It is so cushy and squishy and shiny. They are AstroBatts from Rocketyarn's shop on etsy go check out that shop if your into fiber/yarny stuff (I especially like the look of the Gemsations lace weight yarns)

And I've been working on my hand spun yarn. I'm so very excited to say when I took it off the chair when it was finally dry.... no more corkscrews! It really relaxed a lot! I started to knit this Whisp wristlet last night but was having issues. Half the ribbing wasn't lining up and I followed the pattern to a T. Then I realized that I could change row 4 to read purl 11 (p1, k1) to end, or keep the purl at 12 and (k1, p1) to the end to fix it. I frogged it and started over today.
Right Side:

Wrong Side:

I still need to knit the pocket and flap but I love it already! I actualy think if you didn't want to pocket you could leave it as is and wear it WS out ad it would look funky!

Semi Wordless Wednesday

I dyed my first handspun last night! I used pink lemonade and ice blue raspberry lemonade kool aide, two packets each for just under 2oz of yarn. I wound up doing it in the microwave, the man was confused as to why i was microwaving yarn at 11 o'clock last night, but also impressed that it worked. It was still a wee bit damp this morning and a bit tangled up so I wound it around the back of a chair to dry under a bit of tension...
It came out pretty well, it's kind of over spun, which you can't really see in this photo (under tension and all) but I'm still going to knit with it. I would be knitting with it right now if it would dry faster!!!
If you'd like to see the yarn on the spindle, and before it was dyed (or even just how twisty/over spun it is) you can visit my Handspun Adventures Flickr Set