Church Wedding with Crafting

With the addition of a simple border on the swatch, a bit of handstitching, and some [cough] calligraphy, the wedding card for my pastor was finished. The inspiration for the project was Ann Budd's Knit Your Own Greeting Cards but the intertwined trees motif was taken from the Enchanted Forest Aran Sweater (VK Fall 1992, also P701). ETA: I just noticed the pattern is called Twin Trees II in Barbara G. Walker's A Third Treasury.

The wedding service was on an auspicious date (7/7/07) and beautiful. Or perhaps I should say complete, in both the earthly and the spiritual senses. Church of the Improv was full of family, friends, and church members of all ages, races, cultures, genders. The guest preacher crafted a liturgy that allowed for laughter, tears, joy, and solemnity and that was inclusive of wedding guests unfamiliar with Christian traditions. The happy couple was radiant. In the wedding party, the women wore satin, the girls innumerable crinolines, the men and boys barongs. The soloist and string quartet were superb and the organist played the Widor Toccata "a little faster than the metronome marking." There were bubbles (more fun than rice or birdseed) and a reception in a big tent on the parsonage lawn and thoughtful favors, fans (it was hot) and flipflops (for those who wore heels).

Afterward, there were fireworks. It was the annual township display, postponed from July 4 because of the rain, but it seemed like a fitting end to a very happy day.

Bean Poll

I had an eventful weekend, so to keep gentle readers amused whilst I catch up, here's a bean poll.



My pole beans have been behaving very strangely this year, none more so than this sprout emulating the St. Louis Gateway Arch*. It's been like that for five weeks. The stem gets thicker and thicker (see a normal stem in the background), but it doesn't lift its head out of the ground. DH thinks I should "help" it. I'm inclined to wait and see what it will do on its own. What do you think?

What to do with the bean arch?
	Help it
	Replace it
	Laissez-faire
	Something else (elaborate in the comments)
	Dunno
Free polls from Pollhost.com

My first tomato suffered a setback. It's almost ripe now, and that has not escaped notice.



Dang birds. Ah well, c'est la jardinage.


* The Arch frames the Old Courthouse, where the Dred Scott case was heard before going to the U.S. Supreme Court, 150 years ago.

Patches

Our Fourth of July holiday was cool and variously included overcast skies, thick fog, tempestuous wind and rain, and great peals of low-frequency thunder so powerful they shook the house (I've been in smaller earthquakes). Puny human fireworks were no match for the elements!

The bad weather kept me indoors, re-reading Order of the Phoenix and knitting swatches. For the Tour de France KAL I swatched Uptown Toffee, another Norah Gaughan pattern, published in Knitter's K61 Winter 2000 and also anthologized in Jackets for Work and Play.



I like the Nantucket Jacket swatch better, but prefer the Uptown Toffee silhouette. What I really really want is Nan with long sleeves and no hip-enhancing gores. Hm. [Ponders posting limericks, thinks better of it] More swatches to come.



One of my pastors is getting married at Church of the Improv. It's not every day one has a pastor get married, so I knit up the intertwined trees motif from the Enchanted Aran Forest cardigan to decorate her wedding card. After a bit of fiddling, I settled on No. 30 crochet cotton and U.S. 4/0 (1.25 mm) needles (pictured with Jersey quarter for scale, click to view larger).

My prediction that my first tomato would be ripe this week would seem to be another casualty of the unseasonable weather – the patio tomato is not merely not ripe, it's also got greenback (= patchy color, particularly noticeable on the shoulders, indicative of woody spots).



Greenback sometimes can be corrected in the garden by heavy mulching and by burying banana peels and Epsom salts in the tomato patch. A bucket or two of clean wood ash would be great too (but I don't have any handy). I'm not sure what to do for a container plant – erm, mebbe foliar feeding? Suggestions welcome. Heheheh, mad tomato science ahead.

Summer Tour

While pottering in the garden and pondering the vagaries of the Supreme Court the other day, I suddenly noticed a scaly tail sticking out from the weeds habitat. It turned out to belong to this Eastern box turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina. I noted her winning color, which is surprisingly good camouflage, very like dappled sunlight on leaves.



After the doping scandals of last year, I was feeling rather down on professional cycling in general and the Tour de France in particular. Even the novelty of the start in London and coverage on YouTube seemed insipid. Then Meg and Debby organized the Tour de France KAL (also, Katherine revived the Tour de Fleece SAL – à chacune son Tour) and I started brushing up on my scanty vocabulaire français. Merci, mes chèries!

I'm participating in the General Classification – that is, working on a project that poses no exceptional technical challenges and will not necessarily be finished during the Tour, July 7 through 29 (no sprinting for this tortoise). I have a bunch of lovely KFI Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in colorway 010 Pinewood that wants to be a cabled cardigan. Teehee, when I'm finished I'll have my very own maillot jaune – or perhaps one should say tricot jaune.



I haven't decided on a pattern yet. This is a swatch for Norah Gaughan's Nantucket Jacket on the cover of IK Winter 2006. Swatching is training – I won't cast on for the cardi until the Grand Départ July 7. Between now and then, there's U.S. Independence Day and more swatching. Happy Fourth and à bientôt!

Jersey Spinners

After much coordinating of calendars, Deb pulled together a meetup of local spinners at Risa's home. It was a relaxing day – perfect weather, congenial company, lots of fiber. I brought orzo salad for the table and lace flying discs for everyone as a keepsake of the day. Y'know, Jersey Spinners. Jessica, Risa, and Kim posed together with theirs.



Embarrassing to relate, I neglected to take pix of Deb [blushes, hangs head]. Er, here's one of her MOO cards, pictured with a familiar object for scale. I'd never seen a MOO card before – they have tremendous visual and tactile appeal, not to mention are just über-cool.



Even more embarrassing to relate, I did take pix of everyone's spinning (click on photos to view larger).

   
   

The wheel spinners did their subtle best to convert the lone spindle spinner (me). Before I so much as unpacked my spindle, hospitable Risa got out her Lendrum and some spare roving and let me try them. (Hm... the Lendrum is like a three-speed cruiser bicycle. Classic. Nice.) After the delicious potluck lunch, I reverted to my trusty spindle and my Spun Stitches project, the never-ending braids of Blue Face Leicester.

   

(It occurs to me that wheels have an unexpected benefit: treadling exercises the shin muscles, often a serious problem area for older women. Compared with, say, knitting needles, wheels seem rather costly, but compared with exercise equipment, wheels seem quite reasonably priced. Not to mention most fitness routines do not include yarn production as a bonus. Hm....)

The day wound down with some swapping. After the success of Jaywalker cycling socks, I've gone gah-gah for Magic Stripes in Jelly Bean or Regatta, so Risa swapped me some similar-looking Regia.



A happy end to a happy day. Thanks to all, and especially Deb and Risa!