Lacy Hug-Me-Tight

the front

aand the back.

I finished! Just in time to wear it to opening night of Madame Butterfly last night. I was very afraid that it wouldn't fit me or that it would turn out badly in some other way, but I can truthfully say that it came out nicely. I did most of the lace for the body border in the car during a 12 hour round trip to Orange County last week. I was really tired of knitting that silly lace after I put in a good 5 hours straight on Sunday of last week.

Pattern: Lacy Hug-Me-Tight from Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman & Mel Clark
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas' Alpaca Silk in "Oyster"
Needles: I used size 8 Lantern Moon needles for the lace, and size 5 Clover circular needles for the interminable ribbing.
Timeline: About two and a half months, interrupted by my stupid arm stitches, plus a baby sweater, a pair of lace socks, the Fetching mitts from knitty, and Steve's scarf.

I like the finished project, but the pattern does have some problems.
1) Incomplete directions. There is no mention of blocking, which is needed. Also, as noted by Kellie, is the 60 inches of lace pre or post blocking? Is it with the lace stretched, or limp? I got lucky and my 57ish inches of lace slightly stretched that blocked to 62 inches was absolutely the perfect amount. I mean, EXACTLY right. I'm glad I stopped when I did. Also, it doesn't say anything about how you sew the seams, which was a little bit of a puzzler for me. I am a new knitter! I did mattress stitch on the side seams, and my own special invention to sew the lace on. It looks good, and that is all I care about.

2) The yarn requirements do not give a different number of balls to make the larger size. I had about 1/2-1/3 of a ball left, which would not be enough for all the extra material for the large size. How was this overlooked?

My life is way way busy right now!

Spent four days in Orange County doing wedding stuff, and as I sit here and look at my calendar, I can see that I have four unscheduled Saturdays between the beginning of June and school starting up in August.

5 weddings (Best lady, bride, and guest)
3 showers (2 for me, 1 I need to plan)
2 bachelorette parties (1 for me, 1 I need to plan)

I have never ever had to schedule out my life this far in advance. Makes me feel barfy.

Wedding thoughts part 2

You know how every girl sits there in class in high school, idly writing her future name on a piece of notebook paper? By future name, I mean her first name followed by the last name of the guy she likes who doesn't know she exists.....

I know I did that way back when. But now that my name will be changing in just a few months, I must admit that I haven't been writing it over and over, trying to get used to a new signature. I need to get on that. Now that it is actually productive.

I was not expecting this one

So I went for my wedding dress viewing appointment yesterday.

Looks like they accidentally sent me a petite instead of a long.....

I had some fleeting thought of something being wrong when I was stepping into the dress (it didn't seem as poofy and big as it should have) but I was utterly shocked when the girl pulled the dress up and suddenly my legs were free and bare.

Like the saleslady peeking around the corner? She was worried that everyone would be really upset. She thought I should just take the dress off, but I reassured her that my mom would find the surprise very, very funny. Fortunately, there is enough time for the company to remake my dress, correctly this time. It was supposed to be 62" long, but they sent a 52" dress instead.

Um, so... wedding dress #2 will be here by May 21st...

My apartment is probably the cleanest it has ever been. Niiice.