Saturday, January 22, 2011

I'm Like an Internet Celebrity Now or Something!

I've finally added some of my wedding pictures to my Flickr account, most so I can share them with the Offbeat Bride Flickr pool.  I eventually want to submit my wedding, though I don't think it will be posted.... I was hoping I might make it into the "look at this cool dress" pile though.

What I got was a wonderful surprise!  Ariel, of OBB, likes my favourite dress picture! Enough to use it!! Squee! And I'm now on the OBB website! woohoo! (below is the image you are looking for)

Bride doing some Important Reading before the Wedding.

So excited by this! So very very excited!


I'm also now showing up in the Flickr Pool, which was the original goal, but seeing my image as first has me really happy, and proud somehow.  It's just SO cool after almost a year of reading the site and loving all the wonderful, unique weddings, to see ME as now being inspiration for other brides! Yay!


I most definitely am morbidly obese (that's the clinical term), but damnit, I looked gorgeous on my wedding day! And it's really important to me that other women who are more my size see it's possible to be stunning, and different, and large. And for them to know they aren't the only ones, they aren't alone in it all. 

Planning a wedding, preparing to be married, is huge, and can be totally stressful.  Suddenly there is this whole section of society some of us never knew existed putting all kinds of demands and expectations on us, to be thinner, prettier, more mainstream, more white, more something. It's so damn important to hear other voices! Voices that say, whatever size, skinny, fat, somewhere in the middle, you will look beautiful! And that plaid taffeta party dress you want for your wedding gown? That will be TOTALLY awesome! Offbeat Bride did that for me, and so many other women.  They helped me feel less alone. And they showed me how many different kinds of weddings are out there, right now, happening. I want to give back, I need to.

Sure there are 10,000 photos in the gallery, but how many are fat chicks? How many of those are fat chicks in colour?  I know when I was looking a year ago I had a hard time finding a woman that looked anything like me. There were quite a few plumb women, but most of them had boobs bigger than their head, and amazing hour-glass figures - that's so not me.  So maybe I'll add something different, maybe not, I mean, 10,000 photos! I know I'm just another drop in the bucket, and I'm totally okay with that, I just want to add another drop!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

First Cast On of 2011!

I've just bought the blanket pattern in my last post from Brookland Tweed, and am about to cast on for the blanket! So excited! Squee!

I forgot just how lovely and bouncy this yarn is! It's going to make a wonderful throw!

Tried to add more repeats because of my thinner yarn.. only to realise I would totally NOT have enough. *sigh* Had to rip back almost a whole ball of yarn. Am only going to add 2 stitches instead, to create a 5 stitch seed boarder instead of 4... Hopefully I will get a decent sized throw. 

Umaro by Brookland Tweed

This!

This has me totally excited! It looks almost the same off-white/beige colour of the yarn I have! Okay, well I think the yarn I have is more caramel coloured, but I could totally see this working for it.  The pattern/yarn used is very close to what I have I think. Close enough that it would still work.  It looks interesting and yet not too difficult to work.  I want to get started NOW!

But I have other things to finish first. Namely the mittens I promised my husband.  Oops.

Ironically, now that I have the yarn to make myself a sweater - the sweater and yarn I spent a week obsessing over in November, I think it was, possibly December as well - I no longer have a driving urge to knit it.  All I can think about is how FAT I am now, and how I may not have enough yarn to knit a sweater for my current size, and how much I wish I was smaller, yet I do nothing to get there. Bleck. I swear  my brain is broken, just like my useless body.  And so I don't want to make anything for me because it would feel like a waste of time. I hope to get smaller, and yet if I knit for me smaller, I may never get there. Gods, it's just all kinds of depressing.  I guess that's why I've shifted my focus to blankets....

And this one just looks so cozy!  I have a real softness for off-white knits.  They look horrible next to my skin, and really, I'm too sloppy not to get a blanket all stained up, but I just love the richness of them.  They appeal.  I sure hope I can manage to find a way to make the caramel coloured yarn I have turn into something equally appealing.... This I think could do the trick....

Saturday, January 1, 2011

11 Blankets in 2011, or 1+1 Blankets in my case!

So my friend Mio of fantasticmio.com, who is like an insanely fast/amazing crocheter, is doing 11 Blankets in 2011, I thought I'd attempt to join in.  Only, there is no way I could ever knit 11 blankets!  So, instead, I'm going to attempt 2.  I think I've only ever knit one blanket in my entire life, so this isn't going to be easy for me!

I actually have plans for many blankets, so we'll see what I end up with.


One :: Beige Throw

I have some Debbie Bliss Chunky merino wool in beige.  It was supposed to be a wedding gift for one of my closest university friends when she got married back in 2006, but like 3 days after I ordered the yarn I got an email from her to the wedding guests requesting no physical gifts... So that cut that plan down.

I have enough for a throw, and I really really want to knit something with it.  I have a pattern all picked out - Burridge Lake Aran Afghan - but I'm not sure I actually have enough for a small version of it.  All those damn cables really suck up yarn. And it's huge as well, requiring something like 3,000 yards!! I only have 1,500 yards or so. Leaving me unsure how much I could do. But I could likely do the outer panels I like, and just pick a smaller inner panel.

Thing is, I don't actually know who I would give this to! doh.


Two :: Brown and Orange Octopus Blanket

I was given some very retro brown and orange yarn as a wedding gift.  I'm pretty sure there's enough for a child sized blanket.  When I was looking around on Ravelry for what to DO with it, I found an intarsia pattern for an Octopus, and I just thought it would make an excellent centre to a blanket. I'm not sure how I want to knit it.  I'm thinking either log cabin rectangles around the octopus, or garter stitch squares in varying directions. The yarn is too multi-coloured to make it worthwhile to do anything but texture patterns.  Besides, garter stitch is nice and fluffy, perfect for a blanket.

My other thought was to do a lion instead, like this:

gryffindortote

This I am planning to knit for Cooper, one of my nephews via my husband. I thought Lion because Cooper was born at the end of July, and is thus a Leo.....

Though if I knit him something, I really need to knit something for Callum, the other nephew, and that won't be easy.  I offered to knit him a blanket, and got turned down by his parents. I only other thing I could knit him is clothes, and I'm terrified to knit him clothes because:
(a) I don't have a clue what size he is (and even if I had a size that doesn't tell me measurements!), and
(b) I have terrible luck knitting for little people.


Three :: Wedding Gift Blanket

Two of our friends are getting married (to each other) this summer, and although we won't be invited to the wedding (it's a money thing, not a they don't love us enough thing), I really want to make them something. And I thought this would be perfect:


It's LionBrand's Cable Comfort Throw in their Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn. Hopefully it would be a nice fast knit, and also not freak out anyone's skin due to the high acrylic content.  I'm thinking eggplant for the colour, so a purple just a bit darker than this....  I'm not sure though. I want to ask, but I also want it to be a surprise. doh.


Four :: Minimalist Log Cabin Blanket

I also want to knit myself a blanket.  While looking for blanket ideas on Ravelry, I found this:

Minimalist log cabin blanket

It was love at first sight! I want one just the same, or at least close. I just love the colours! I don't even like garter stitch!  I find it hard to do even.  And yet this blanket calls to me.  It says, "Knit me! Love me! Buy a couch so I may adorn it! Knit me now woman! Now! Now! Now! Don't you want to feel my soft yarn slip through your fingers? Don't you want to marvel as I grow, block by block, square by square? You do... So knit me! Knit me now!"  It's a demanding blanket.... lol



I'm honestly not sure which ones I'll get done.... We shall see, I guess?