Perhaps you stopped by for the knitting?

I know. You don't want to hear any more about the wedding. You've tolerated my whining and ranting because you just want me to get back to the fiber arts, for the love of pete. I know this because I don't want to hear any more about my wedding. I'm wedding-ed out. And more friends are getting married this weekend! And Nick and I are in the wedding! And today our own wedding is one month away! Panic!

*smack*

Okay. I'm fine. Where was I? Oh yes, yarn and lovely things made from yarn. What a pretty concept. I like yarn.

The wedding shawl (I just can't get away, can I? Good lord, I'll be so happy on the 23rd) is coming along nicely.

Here is the latest round, at one of the points. The points are getting bigger and may eventually take over the whole thing, like The Blob or a really sparkly fungus. This is the one thing that I want to be really elaborate (or as elaborate as I can make it in the next month. One Month! Oh My Freaking God!), because I'm making it myself and boy howdy do I want my on-display handcraft to pop.

As I mentioned before, I had run out of the Patons Brilliant I was using. I went to my lovely LYS (The Yarn Exchange, visit them because they are lovely people and if you're ever in DeKalb let me know and I'll meet you there because it smells like cozy wool and it's delightful and I love it) to purchase some but they were also out of the color I needed. Not wanting a two-tone shawl (though the Ruby color would have looked stunning, not so appropriate for my blue/pink/yellow wedding), I asked for more and they of course ordered more and it was very nice. I went in after a week to check on my order and the owner said that she told Patons it was for a wedding shawl and they put a rush on the shipment (!!) and and that Patons wants a picture of my wedding shawl when it's all done.

Holy crap, Patons wants a picture of something I made. I'm falling over every time I think of it.

Remember that yarn I had rambling everywhere willy-nilly on my green post?

It is now a sock. Or, more accurately, the beginning of a sock. It's a tube, people, and it's a pretty one. I love it, and I love the ChiaGoo 5" dpns (size 4 for this sportweight yarn, good for a first sock which will become winter boot socks). I can't find a website for them, and Google thinks I mean "Chicago double pointed," which opens up a whole new realm of possibilities, so you'll have to take my word for it that they are pretty darn good. And pointy enough that I can stab the living daylights out of this yarn and split it quite effectively.

It may be because I've completely lost my ability to focus due to the wedding and its never-ending torrent of details that must be attended to this very instant! or all will come crashing down and don't you want everything to match exactly, you heathen?, but I've been casting on for a bunch of projects lately.

My latest obsession: Picovoli, because I am a sheep. But a sheep who knows what looks amazing. The yarn is KnitPicks (to whom I cannot link because--and I kid you not--"There has been an overflow or underflow of GC memory pressure.") Shine sport in Orchid, and it looks stunning on Ziggy, I think. Hopefully it'll look nice on me too. Considering I have no idea what my gauge is (I used to kind of know what it was when I was a thrower, but now that I pick ... ? Who knows. Maybe I'll measure my gauge today. Hmm.)

I also swatched for the Baby Maggie sweater (the yarn for which was purchased a hundred years ago, or maybe just back in February),

and got confused. The pattern calls for Size 6 (4.0mm) needles. My size 6's (from Clover) are 4.25mm. What the damn hell is going on?

If you clicky-clicky you can see that the needles clearly say 6 4.25 mm. Clearly something is very wrong, because all the charts I have seen comparing needles sizes (that would be a total of one, in Stephanie's latest book) say that US 6 = 4.0mm and US 7 = 4.5mm. Where does this mysterious 4.25mm needle come into play? I couldn't figure it out, so I went with my US 5's, which are aluminum and so very annoying when paired with 100% cotton. I'll probably use my mutant 4.25mm bamboo needles for this sweater anyway... I'm making the 18-month-old size and if it's too big, the child can grow into it. As children do.

And I haven't cast on with this stuff yet, but I did buy KnitPicks Shadows laceweight (3 skanks) and plan to turn two of them (maybe?) into lacey scarf-type gifts. After the wedding is over and everything is back to normal.

Heather turned one skank into a ball for me. Man, I want my own ball winder.


And finally, there is a new e-zine out there built (does one build an e-zine?) by Yvonne of Cogknition, called Faces of Yve. It's all about web design in the smaller scale, how to tweak your blog template, how to make buttons (I asked her a question and she used it in her button column--way cool!), etc. It's a good resource, and she writes in a totally approachable style so you don't feel like a heel for not knowing what an HTML tag is, exactly.

And finally finally, I leave you with a picture of my new notions bag, advertising our honeymoon destination and the kind of people we hope to meet on the way.