Friday, June 12, 2009

Wedding Knitting

Now that the wedding, and thus the wedding knitting, is all done, I have the leisure to write about it.


In the end, I finished all the knitting I set out to do. I knit 18-20 yards of lace to trim my dress, and I knit my veil.

The knitting was some of the most challenging I have ever done in my life. I knitted with teeny tiny needles (000's for the trim lace, 2's for the veil) and teeny tiny yarn (Halcyon Yarn Gemstone Silk 2/30).



For the most part, I figured out the design myself. I improvised the pattern for the edging on the overdress, and the insertion on the skirt of the dress.


The veil had EZ's Pi Shawl shaping, and I used the Cypress Edging from Victorian Lace Today (by Jane Sowerby),
but I adapted the stitch pattern on the largest section and worked out my own transitions between stitch patterns.


I liked the process. So much knitting gave me something to do during out 2+ year long engagement. In a lot of ways, the knitting reflected our relationship and our engagement.


Sometimes it seemed like the knitting and the engagement would never be over. Sometimes I would be frustrated and angry to be doing work that I thought I had taken care of, like the month or so I spent swatching when I had already knitted ¼ of the veil, or the conversations about how we are both still learning to talk to each other.


Finishing the knitting also left me in a similar place to the wedding being over. I finished the veil last, and blocked the Tuesday before the wedding. Once I was done knitting it, I didn’t know what to do with myself, I thought I should still be knitting, but I didn’t know what to knit. I had been so focused on finishing on time that I hadn’t made any plans for my next project.


Now I feel a little like that in general. I’ve been so focused on finishing school (getting my BA) and planning the wedding that I hadn’t thought much about what to do next.


However, there is reason to hope, I’ve found other things to knit, so I imagine once I decompress I’ll be able to find plenty of things to do.


1 comment:

Samantha said...

Congratulations! The wedding and the knitting look beautiful!