I think the comments have pretty much stopped coming in over on Mason-Dixon Knitting, so I took them all and made one big list that I've been working my way through slowly but surely.
Things are still a little up in the air with respect to the date, so I won't make a final decision just yet. While I could conceivably feel good about a 100% merino or cashmere for an early April wedding (especially if it's anything like this April - sheesh!) I don't think it would be quite as nice for a mid-May wedding. The great wedding site trip is next weekend, so it's just a little while longer to wait and then the yarn ordering can commence.
Back to the comments! So many wonderful suggestions, from incredibly specific ones with color suggestions and weblinks, to general fiber ideas. About 30 different suggestions in all.
And that's just for yarn! There were also suggestions about the design - one of my favorites came almost in the form of a haiku, I have copied and pasted it here b/c to do otherwise would not do it justice:
daisys you knit daisys
then put them together
i would make an apron
with lovely satin ties
down the back
the apron could be removed
and then passed on
Posted by elizabeth a airhart at April 1, 2009 09:19AM
I don't think I'll end up using this suggestion, but there's just something about this comment. I keep coming back to it. I feel like elizabeth was in such a lovely Zen type place when she wrote it, it makes me calm just to read it. It was interesting to me how many people thought about the dress or the knitting being passed on - apparently I will be crafting an heirloom! No pressure there... but really, how many people wear a dress again? Particularly their mother's dress? Someone else had commented that she would never wear her mom's hippie dress, but her grandmother's Coco Chanel like 50's dress would have been perfect. It's funny, my grandmother's dress was definitely more like today's styles - big full skirt, fitted bodice, although not strapless as everything is these days. In some ways my design is more like my mother's - both of us will have empire waisted dresses and neither of us went strapless, but Mom's dress was high necked and long sleeved! She got married in January, but still... sleeves of some kind I will have, but definitely not the high neck. Anyway, the comments got me thinking about legacy, family, heirlooms, changing things between generations. I apologize now to my possible future dress wearing children! I will not be taking your theoretical taste into consideration. Hope you like green, otherwise you're screwed. But I digress...
On the design related front, I had a comment too from my friend Nutella about new & improved ssk's which I have to try for the next version of the right leaning swatch. I hate my ssk's currently. I always hate my ssk's, so it's not like that's anything new, but it's frustrating. I also have some ideas for improved decreasing which will better incorporate the natural decreases in the pattern - instead of starting the decreasing at row 1, I'm going to try starting in later in the pattern where the stitch count decreases already and the left side of the pattern comes to a natural conclusion. Hopefully the combination of these two things will lead to greater success.
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I hate SSK's too - I find it to be a hassle and it interrupts my flow. Harshes my knitting mellow, if you will. Anyway, I was recently reading a detailed explanation of the various kinds of decreases and increases (don't remember where...knitty maybe?) and according to the article, K2tog thru the back loop is the same thing (maybe everyone knows this but me, but whatever, I'm a relative newbie). So that is what I do and my stitches look a lot better and it doesn't interrupt my mojo.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, this is a very interesting project. I like the crochet thread idea - it would be so ethereal and barely there. Although knitting with it might make you gouge your eyes out with a 2mm dpn...
Sorry if you've already gotten this idea, but you haven't ssk'ed until you've done Cat Bordhi's slim and trim ssk. It always comes out so beautifully and perfectly for me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMHXK3JxrJA
I've really been enjoying reading your blog so far. I think I come back to your story for the same reasons you keep going back to your haiku comment. Thanks for inviting us along for your wedding dress ride. :)