May 15, 2010

That's the date kids. That's when it's all happening. And quite frankly that is the absolute deadline for the dress to be ready.

Where's it happening? Why at the Baltimore Museum of Industry! Yeah, we loved it before we got there and we loved it even more after we saw it. With everyone word spoken by Jessica, the awesome site coordinator, we loved it more. In fact, it was the second place we visited and we canceled the rest of our appointments. (okay, that's not strictly speaking true. We canceled two and went on one just to make sure that the BMI was THE place. It is.) It has everything we wanted - it's a very different place, big, spread out, tons of stuff to look at, near the Harbor and it screams Baltimore. Weather permitting we'll get married outside on the brick terrace under the neon glow of the Domino's Sugar sign - a Baltimore landmark. Inside we'll party around a crazy variety of exhibits. We are so, so thrilled. Mom said it was great to see both of us so happy - eyes lit up like little kids. When we were driving back on Sunday afternoon/evening Justin turned to me and said "I just can't believe that it's so perfect."
Well, one thing - it was built years ago, so it definitely wasn't under construction when those scenes from "The Wire" were shot. So we'll just have to look out for drug dealers (kidding! No one read that and freak out.)

Got back to NYC and the hand pain which has been plaguing me a bit settled down, so I figured it was time for some more dress work. Took my size 8 swatch and did some math for the top of the dress - know the number of repeats I want for that. Monday night cast on a sixe 13 swatch. Plan is to have 3 "panels" - two side panels of 7 repeats each, which will form the front, sides and part of the back. One larger panel which will be triangular and will form the train and possibly a portion of the center back. I put panels in quotes b/c it will all be one big piece, but I'm still visualizing it in dressmaker terms as pattern pieces. Don't know if that's good, bad or just how my mind works. Anyway - the purpose of the size 13 swatch is to make sure i have sufficient fullness at the base of the skirt - we're going for a gathered A-line shape here, with most of the shaping provided by decreasing out the back triangle panel and by switching to successively smaller needles.

Gotta say - size 13 might be a little big. It kind of looks like a knotty mess right now. But then, lace does look bad until blocked and I did want a "frothy" look. Only time will tell I suppose.

Oh - in case you couldn't tell I decided to throw caution to the winds, knit with Kay's laceweight and dye it at the end. Procrastination at its finest.

Also it was pointed out to me by someone (Hi Nana!) that I write an awful lot of words. Such is my way I fear. Plus I'm afraid that if I don't write all this down in multiple places, I'll forget.