Mind The Gap

A while back, Ryan and I were looking for a place downtown, in order to hang out at the places we like downtown more conveniently. (This kind of flopped because everything we looked at was stupid expensive, crappy, or run by shady/disorganized people.) During this time, Ryan’s brother Ross made a joke about the two of us hanging out at Maude’s, wearing matching handmade tams, and feeding our dog organic biscuits.

When I recently decided to take up crochet (again) this joke resurfaced. So, today I bought some fancy-schmancy hand dyed merino wool yarn from the new yarn and fiber store in town, and made a tam. I am so amused with myself, and can’t wait for either Ryan (or I, if it turns out this accessory is too girly for him) to show up somewhere in Ross’ presence wearing said tam. Hehehehe.

Pictures:

Construction Notes:

• The basic pattern is a free one I found on the internet [link]
• The site makes you register for a user name., btw
• Used Colinette ‘Cadenza’ easy care merino wool yarn in copper beach instead of the yarn specified by the pattern [link]
• Used N15 (10mm?) hook instead of the N13 specified
• I used the instructions for rounds 4-6 to do 3 extra rounds (so there are 6 rows in that portion instead of 3, to make the tam a bit floppier
• For round 13, instead of following the pattern for a decorative-type edge, I switched to a 6.5mm hook and did a double crochet in each stitch to finish the band.

** Update **

Pictures of Ryan wearing the tam:

Loving the new camera. I made a cozy for it today to keep it safe, using my ever-blossoming crochet skills, and some supplies I picked up after work today (super soft fuzzy wool yarn and a snowflake obsidian disk from the beading section to use for a button).

Pictures of the cozy:

Pictures of the dog:

Pictures of the cat (who hates you):

Pictures of the 16″ wall-mounted monitor across the room:

Okay well the first one was actually to test out how some setting handled photos with light sources in them, I just happened to notice that the TV screen came out surprisingly well.

All in all, good fun. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get outdoors such that there are things to photograph other than the pets and stuff in the house.

It’s been nice having a few days off of work, but now I’m thinking about having to go back tomorrow. With so many people out of the office, maybe it will be pretty chill.

The time off has been relaxing mostly, albeit also hectic in many respects (4 family gatherings over 3 days time). It’s all been a lot of fun though, and it’s also been weird to get so many presents. Guess that’s a benefit of being part of two families, what with the impending husband and all. Speaking of him, he’s finished installing his new video card, and he’s just re-beat the last of portal so we could see the ending as it was intended. He seems happy with that gift (from his brother, I think, I haven’t inventoried).

I received several really cool gifts (mp3 player, cake decorating kit), but probably the coolest is a new camera, which I’ve been needing. Here are some beautiful pictures I took with it:

Our tree

Ryan in the car between events

Arthur at my parents’ house

Princess at the same place

Crochet project in progress*

* My great-grandmother had an afghan like this on the couch in the den, I wanted a scarf like it, so decided to make one. As such I’ve been re-learning my crochet skills from back in the day. How awesome is the retro color scheme, surprised I could find the rainbow yarn. Once all the squares are done I’ll wash it and stretch it such that the sides are nice and straight, then I’ll crochet an edge around it to look pretty. Yay!

The camera can also do video. Here is a camera test, using the dog as a subject. She didn’t really care.

Lots of scoping to be done.

• Churches are pretty much out of the question because we are living in sin, and don’t intend to go to pre-wedding classes or counseling.
• The ‘town hall’ or whatever in Haile is a possibility, but it’s Haile, so I’m hoping to find something a little more indy than that.
• Renting common grounds on new year’s eve might be tricky.
• The women’s club might be a possibility.
• The hipprodrome needs a kitchen, and possibly also more space, but might be workable, worth calling and visiting.
• Outdoors would probably suck on new year’s eve.
• Savannah Grande…can be a little hood, had a high school prom there, but has the space.

Need to think of more options. Makes me wish my house was bigger. I’d really like the hipp to work out, that’d be cool.

Was originally going to do petit fours (sp?) but have instead decided to go much more casual and just do lots of mini cupcakes in various flavors. Still going to do the multi-tiered, hopefully cantilevered display though (if Ryan will use the maths to help me).

Planning to have lots of snacky things rather than a full meal, and do the whole thing in the mid-evening, like between an early-ish dinner and going out to party for New Year’s, for those that intend to head out in order to be in a pub before midnight.
Pretty sure I’m going to go for a small, fairly casual ceremony, then a hell of a party, or combining the two into one so everyone can be at both. Considering having folks all in and seated at tables and such, and then having the quick words and thing at the front like a dinner show. Think it would be funny. Also condenses the time line of the day, which at this point I’m down with.

Have decided that the clothing is going to be more casual than I had originally thought – leaning towards a more earthy/bohemian/renaissance fair kind of thing. We’ll see how that goes. Ryan might get a good scene in which to wear his sandals after all. I still haven’t really worked out what to do about the whole bridal party thing. Ryan has lots of friends that are obvious groomsmen candidates, however i have very few female friends, and the ones I have I like and don’t wish to punish too much, so that limits things. We’ll see how that one turns out.

Think I’m going to steal a page out of Jules’ book and buy flowers at fresh market (or somewhere similar) the day before and do what minimal arranging is required myself.

Have to start working on the invitation and RSVP business…planning to do that using the internets, which means I have to design something and get Ryan to build it for us.

After that, all that’s left is booking the venue, sorting out the music (or at least the equipment so that folks can jam at will as they desire), finding or making (or having someone else make) a dress, getting jewelry and crap, sorting out whether or not there will be a bridal party, and what they’ll wear, flowers, cooking, renting of table setting stuff, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Despite my desire to keep a low budget and creative control (without having to be bridezilla to some poor consultant), I am beginning to seriously consider a wedding planner.

Sleepy now, going to bed.