I did it!

Finally got a picture of the finished beanie sent to me from the owner. I taught myself
how to knit through the use of various blogs and crafting books, and ended up creating my
own pattern. Quite the adventure, took forever.

I'm on someone else's computer, which is without photo editing software (how that's even possible these days is beyond me) so as you can see, not the best view of the project.

I used size 8 needles, made the band separate from the bulk of the beanie by doing 70 rows of 11 across, then for the crown part cast on 75 and tapered my way up to the top - making a triangle. As I said, I didn't really know what I was doing, but with thread and needle and a fourth try I ended up with a passable excuse - and something that I think the kid might actually wear.

My knitting machine of a mother taught me all the basics (casting on, knitting, purling, tapering, etc) and then I started my intense internet search for ideas/patterns/musings about first time projects.

For reference and ideas I looked peeked into Azzy'sCrochet and Crazy Aunt Pearl's blogs for inspiration (CAP is one of my fave bloggers in general) as well as one other that I'm digging through my notes to find again. Piece of advice for you all - ALWAYS BOOKMARK YOUR FAVES. Backtracking through cyberspace to find that one gem is hellish.

-little a

Because we're GLAD you came!

The wedding week was a success. They got married, she looked beautiful, the bridesmaids dresses actually all looked fantastic together, and it didn't rain. And that's all that matters.

For wedding favors we wrapped Gladiolus bulbs in burlap, then tied the little packages with instructions for planting.

Then on the day of the wedding we strung these bundles up in our "Giving tree" for guests to grab as they wished. We ran twine through the branches and then held up the gifts with good ol' fashioned clothes pins.

Bride and groom also made a mix cd for the guests entitled "Love Songs & Songs We Love," provided flip-flops for those who didn't plan for the outdoor wedding to actually BE outdoors, and had matchbooks with their names and wedding date embossed on the covers.

While I was there I also finished my first ever knitting project. More on that later.

-little a