Knitting for weddings and then some

My immediate group of friends have all recently been bitten by the betrothal bug. I like to think Fiver and I started the trend! I have three weddings to attend in three months. What's a girl to do for outfits? Certainly I'm too cheap to buy a new frock for each one. So I knitted, naturally.

Wedding number one:
We have already been introduced to Butterfly. She debuted at a wedding in August. The auto focus on the camera didn't seem to want to co-operate so I have no in-focus photos of this dress yet, but when I get gussied up in it again, I'll be sure to get some more shots. All I have to show you at the moment is the bottom hem, which is quite lovely if I do say so myself:

I wore it over a chocolate brown slip with brown boots, as you can see. Although I was worried that the dress would sag once I sat down in it, I luckily had blocked it over the slip I intended to wear it with. As the slip fit well and was an unstretchable fabric, this meant that the frock was blocked to a size and shape where it wouldn't have to stretch no matter what. I only realised this in the taxi on the way to the wedding, and let me tell you it was a huge relief.

Over the course of the day, I noticed that the straps (which I made in i-cord instead of the called-for garter stitch) lengthened just a bit, even though I thought I'd stretched them right out when attaching them - so the top of the dress ended up somewhat lower on my body than initially intended. Of course as I was wearing a slip this did not present any fashion faux pas, but I will probably make adjustments before I wear Butterfly again.

All in all, I managed to wear this dress for several hours straight, and even dance in it, and no disasters occurred. I must admit, I was a little bit worried that disaster might strike - what if I'd dropped a stitch and hadn't noticed and the whole thing unravelled? what if I snagged myself on a passerby? what if someone tried to put their shopping in me because of my resemblance to a string bag??? And I was a big hit with the mother of the groom, who had also made (sewn) her own very stunning outfit. Otherwise I don't think anyone even noticed that I might have made my own frock. Ho hum.

Wedding Number Two
For this wedding, I picked up a great skirt of shot silk at an op shop for a Very Good Price. The skirt showed a myriad of colours in different lights ranging from dark rose through to gold and pink. I figured I'd just wear it with a simple black top and be done with it. But such a crazy skirt needed an accessory, and I suddenly remembered that I'd picked up some Kaalund Enchante 2ply silk recently, in the colourway 'Nectarine' which perfectly picked up the colours of the skirt. So I made a Sarcelle to go with the skirt.




This was a great pattern - easy to memorise and quick to execute. The whole thing took about 3 weeks start to finish. I made it only 5 pattern repeats wide because I was worried about yarn quantites. I had just 2 balls of nectarine, measuring about 600 metres. The original pattern used just over that amount with 7 pattern repeats of width. As it turned out, I had enough yarn - almost. Luckily I had also picked up some of the same yarn in a 'Silky Oak' colourway which was basically gold and matched one of the colours of the Nectarine quite satisfactorily. I only needed to use the Silky Oak skein right at the very end, for the last 20 or so rows. It's hardly noticeable at all.

I hate to do this to you but I am going to refer you to Ravelry to see the project details for Butterfly and Sarcelle. I have never done very well at keeping track of details in my blog and I think that's because I'd rather just show the pictures and ramble on a bit. If you aren't on ravelry and are really keen to know what size needles or how much yarn, please drop me a comment or an email and I'll give you all the nitty-gritty and then some.

Oh yea! I'm finally on Ravelry! My username is Daysfull. Please come and find me. In my first flurry of excitement, I managed to find and 'friend' several bloggers I follow - but I haven't found everyone yet so any help is much appreciated! And although previously I simply did not understand everyone talking about taking photos of their stash to put on Ravelry, I now find myself irresistibly drawn toward just such an activity. It's true I do not have a perfect mental catalogue of the stash so I think I'm going to take photos and organise it all on the big R. Goodbye weekend! (Luckily the weather forecast is bad, Fiver has a home brew to put on, and - unluckily - the Swans are not playing. So I've got plenty of free time for pottering around on the computer...)

And now for something completely different - remember the contest?

I don't want to give away too much but, there's a toe...

And there's a cuff...


And there's two of each! Your socks are on the way Polly...I hope you like them! And maybe they'll fit?! (But I don't want to push my luck too much.) More details on these once the surprise has landed at its home.