cold meds make me high

last Wednesday i babysat Owen for a few hours, and then spent the rest of the afternoon with him and Tara (Owen's mom), helping her do a few last minute errands before her wedding on Saturday... only problem was, Owen was sick. and so - lo and behold - two days later, I was sick too - and so were all of the other bridesmaids, the bride, and even the groom! Fortunately, a few cups of coffee and a few tylenols (aka paracetamols) were enough to get us all happily through Saturday's events. Unfortunately, between the haze of being sick, and all the dashing from one place to another, I totally forgot to take any photos until the reception! Here are the few successful ones I do have - I will post more later, when we have a chance to order the professional ones.

here are the bride and groom sharing their first dance:

and here they are cutting the cake:
such a happy couple! Dave is the middle brother in Mike's family - Mike is the oldest, and Geoff is the youngest. I think it made Mike feel a little old, seeing his brother get married - good thing Geoff hasn't got any similar plans at the moment, or he might really start feeling his age! ;)

in the midst of all the last minute wedding preparation, i finally finished the blanket and eventually remembered to take some photos before I send it off to its new owner. Here it is in the fading, bluish light of yesterday's 4 hour power-outage:its funny how the light can really alter the look of somthing - most of the time, this blanket seems very green to me, but here, it looks more blue... oh well, either way its still quite suitable for a boy. here's the run down:

pattern: wild stripes baby blanket from knitty.com

yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style on some generic grey 3.75mm circular needles.
this yarn is great - nice price, easy on the hands, good child-oriented colour selection. I think i might be hard pressed to select a colour to use on something for myself, aside from a basic black or dark blue or something, but that's just me. mind you, I did find some of the colours to be different from how they look in the knitpicks catalogue - the yellow in the above photo (its called harvest), looks much more orange in the catalogue photo, and even online. but colour cards are available if you think you need them.

comments: Despite the endless rows of stocking stitch, i really didn't mind that part of making this blanket - you have to change colours every few rows anyway, so there isn't enough time inbetween to get bored with it. especially if you do what I did and lose the pattern when you're 3 rows into the second repeat of the colour sequence, so you have to keep looking at your work to figure out what colour and how many rows are in the next section. The part I disliked was the assembly process. If at all possible, follow the pattern notes and use a gingham or plaid or some other fabric with straight lines in it. I couldn't find one to match, so I used the fish fabric - it ended up being a little crooked, which then made it very hard for me to keep my running stitches and french knot rows straight... blah. The other issue I had was that despite all my best attempts at measuring, the fabric ended up being a little too big for the knitted part of the blanket. its not super noticeable, but I know its wrong, and therefore it bothers me. But not so much that I was willing to un-stitch everything, cut the fabric and start again! besides, with my luck, i'd end up making it too small!
If you need help on the embroidery part of this (as I did) look at the "how 2" section of sublime stitching - i needed a more visual tutorial than the one offered in this pattern. my french knots are actually bullions, because I wrapped the yarn around the needle 4 times instead of just two - i didn't think they had enough oomph as french knots :)

here's one final shot of the blanket, with all its fishy goodness...

now that this project is finished, its time to start the holiday knitting - gifts for others, a sweater for me, and maybe a little sewing too, if I can find the time (and borrow Tara's machine). I'm starting german lessons tonight, and advanced french lessons on Wednesday. Class should be interesting, considering I'm currently floating a little higher than usual, thanks to the non-drowsy additives in my cold medication... i only started taking them yesterday, and even on half the recommended dosage i can feel the effects on my brain... this morning I ran a whole cycle of the dishwasher without turning on the water (its portable, so you have to roll it over to the sink to hook it up manually and then turn on the faucet. i only managed the hooking up part before turning it on), and when I was driving mike to the airport to rent a car I realised that it was taking far too much effort to actually keep thinking about driving. I like the breathability that my cold meds provide, so rather than stop taking them, I'll just put myself on "walking-distance only" arrest for the next few days! :)