Finally a Finished Object

A pair of my generic Picot Ankle Socks (pattern on the sidebar) just in time to try out posting from my phone. Nothing special about these besides my substituting in a short row toe since I’ve been fond of the fit of them lately.

A Small Delay

So as it happens in the spirit of sharing on Christmas day, my DH’s whole family traded a nasty cold and I went home and posted while being an unsuspecting target. Being the newest member of the family I seem to have gotten hit hardest, probably because I haven’t been exposed to their particular set of germs long enough to get some good antibodies in place. Yesterday was my first day out of bed so as such I’ve gotten absolutely nothing done and I don’t have any knitting or  progress or work to show.

My goal will be to be posting on Tuesdays, since I neglected to mention that in my last post, however due to the ill timing of this cold I’ll be starting next week. I hope everyone else had a healthy and warm Christmas and New Year’s Day.

A Change of Pace

I’ve been quiet on the blog for a while now, and I thought it had been that I was simply dealing with a very hectic year and several huge life events, but now I’m not so sure.

Lately I’ve been feeling like maybe I should be writing a bit differently on the blog and that the direction might lead to a bit more structure and with different topics.

It starts with the title of this blog. Redeemed Rose. The rose is my favorite flower and I am a Christian, hence the redeemed side. By saying I’ve been redeemed, I claim that I am no where near perfect and my family can attest to that, but I am forgiven and I have given my life to God. I want to do things His way, and I think having a blog purely dedicated to knitting isn’t the way for me to put him first.

So I’ll be revamping the blog a bit, there will still be knitting, and sewing, and all around craftyness. But there will also be things that are a bit more current to my situation and some personal articles based on research as I deal with things that I struggle with because just because I say I’m a Christian also doesn’t mean my life is perfect and that I have no struggles. Through this just maybe some other woman who has struggled the same way I have will find encouragement and support or even just the sense that she is not alone when the current culture wants to do nothing but beat you down for feeling differently from everyone else.

So far I’m thinking that the basic outline I’m aiming to go for will be something like this:

Entry: Things that have gone on that week, general reviews and thoughts or an essay I’ve worked on.

Knitting: If I’ve been knitting on anything lately, since I’m hoping a weekly schedule will get me a better balance and give more of an opportunity to get pictures from the camera to the blog more efficiently.

Sewing/Crafting: If I’ve done something besides alterations.

Closing: I’m thinking I’ll be picking a Bible verse that has meant something to me or that I’ve found encouraging that week.

Hopefully this will allow for more and better pictures and more regular posts and maybe this blog can turn into something more productive than just a few pixels hanging in the nether.

Cross Your Fingers

It’s less than 10 days until Christmas.

I’ve casted on for my DH’s first pair of handknit socks.

I need to knit a minimum of 4″ (closer to 5) of sock per day to finish on time.

I’m pretty sure I can do it.

 

 

Also praying and thinking of the families in Newtown, Connecticut. My heart breaks thinking of what they are going through, I only hope and pray that God gives them peace and his love and mercy.

Where I get my M.R.S.

My Paternal Grandmother always had a joke that some girls only go to college to get their M.R.S. (as in Mrs. Prince Charming). I however met my “Mr. Right” at the ripe old age of 3  though we clearly waited quite awhile and stayed in the friends stage up until a little over a year ago and now tying the knot almost 3 weeks ago.

We made it to the altar in one piece. Me barely as I had a brief fainting spell during pictures after the ceremony due to me having eaten twice and slept a cumulative 9 hours in the 48 hours prior to the wedding. But once I had some grapes and crackers in me I was fine for the rest of the night.

All in all it was a great day although exhausting and surprisingly fast. We also got an absolutely breathtaking sunset to watch during the reception which makes that picture my absolute favorite.

*You can click the preview photo to see the gallery of our wedding pictures done by the photographer.

**If you’re curious my Something Old was the gloves I wore which my Paternal Grandmother wore to her own wedding in 1949, New was my dress that I made with only a month left for the wedding (yes I procrastinate), Borrowed were the gloves again since my Grandmother wants those back, and Blue was a handkerchief that my Mother bought in a little shop in Italy in 2006 when we went on a trip with my Senior class from High School to London, Paris and Italy.

Pre-Wedding Wormhole and a Corset

So clearly, there is one giant time wormhole that happens when you get engaged and time just vanishes in poofs and cleverly hidden wrinkles in the fabric of time.

I’ve been so busy trying to get things done and I can’t believe it’s already August. Thankfully the wedding dress is being worked on now so I’m pretty sure I’ll be done with that on time, if only I could find the right pair of shoes…

However, I have had progress on my to do list. Though I hit a few snags in the last week. I made my first ever corset from scratch, complete from making the pattern myself to being overly egotistical and thinking that a full over bust corset would be easy to wear without a busk or any way to get it around my waist besides shimmying into it from below. I had a bad epic fail of the project when I realized I had made the bust way too big and there wasn’t a way to fix it last week and I had to settle with the alternative of cutting it down and making an under bust corset. This one looked much better, though I do need to lose another inch or so in the waist before the top fits more snugly.

Unfortunately, I won’t be wearing it to the wedding as I had planned since go figure, I couldn’t make a fully proper corset the first time when on a strict deadline. Big ego for me? Check. The ability to realize when a plan won’t work? Also, Check (thankfully).

Miraculously (because yes, it is a miracle) I found a strapless bra at a bridal shop in my size. I had my doubts since I’m a very small size and I can go to 3 separate malls and not find one thing in my size, but wow it fits and it should help balance out the squish factor of strapless dresses on my frame in order to stay on. So yay!

I’ll be keeping the dress a secret for now. Since Jack does frequent the blog but I will try to post a bit more about the chuppah, though it looks like a giant blob right now. Unblocked lace… *sigh* More on that later however.

 

Surprise!

So, I’ve been gone for a few months and I actually have a really good excuse this time.

I’m engaged! Jack proposed a few months ago on my birthday and now we’ve been spending our summer swamped with wedding plans. The date is set for October 6th of this year so things are progressing quickly here. No pictures of what I’ve been working on but I’ll get out the camera later today to show some of my progress. I’m knitting a chuppah for the wedding ceremony as well as my own wedding dress.

I have to run right now, but I’ll write again tomorrow with the story of how he did it (It’s so romantic and sweet!) and also about the chuppah (which looks amazing, if I do say so myself) and the wedding dress as it starts to look more finished.

April 18

Tags

blanket, Knitting, lace

I am completely uninspired for a title this time. I refuse to use the actual names of babies and children because I’m a security nut online but unfortunately the name my friend and her husband picked lends itself to a lot of cute literature twists, but they’d run too close to his name. All I can say is that against all odds they have welcomed a pretty healthy baby boy and now he properly has a knitted blankie to wrap up in for the rest of his life. And maybe use with his own children one day… One can hope anyway.

So, I did finally finish the baby blanket I was making for said baby. I got to drop it off this last weekend, only a week after Baby S decided to make his appearance. He was early though, so *technically* I would have been done on time had that not happened… This is not the first close call with a project, as my Dad likes to say, I’m a procrastiknitter.

It turned out a bit bigger than I imagined, but that can be a good thing. It’s a decent baby blanket size that will work even for a 7 year old I think.

Pattern is from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (pattern on page 54, aka “Large Rectangle in leaf and trellis pattern with trellis border”), though it was worked with DK weight yarn and US size 8 needles. I did one extra width-wise repeat and only did 12 pattern repeats length wise in order to make this blanket sized. I cast on in the beginning of March but I wasn’t completely dedicated until I realized the kid was most definitely not going to wait for his due date. Otherwise, a pretty relaxing knit and I did love the center panel, it worked up like a dream.

Mt. Rubidoux Letterboxing

Spring has arrived here in Southern California and the weather is perfect for hiking. Which is exactly what Jack* and I did yesterday. We were in the mood to do something out of the house after church and somehow the idea of Letterboxing popped into my head.

If you haven’t tried it before, letterboxing is a sort of grown up treasure hunt but instead of treasure, you’re searching for a box containing a stamp and notebook. Luckily for us there was one right here in Riverside just sitting on Mt. Rubidoux waiting for us to find.

Mt. Rubidoux has both paved and unpaved hiking trails and luckily the Mission Inn Bee letterbox is along one of the paved paths. Luckily, because we were dressed for Church and going on the unpaved trails may not have turned out as well. It was a 1 1/4 mile trek uphill and gave beautiful views of Riverside while we got to enjoy the great weather and warm late afternoon sunlight.

We found the box and were happy to find that it was still there after having been planted there originally in 2007 and it was a great surprise to see the pages of stamps from other people who had been there as well and placed a stamp to mark their visit. We placed our own stamps to mark our visit and returned the box to it’s hiding place.

Here we are on our way back down, it was a great Sunday afternoon trip and there will definitely be more letterboxes in the future.

As for knitting, not much to report at the moment. I’ve been working on a huge baby blanket for a friend and I’m trying to rush and make sure it’s done before the baby arrives. Pictures to follow once it has been finished.

*Jack is his blog name, probably a bit too similar to a normal name but it’s a nickname he’s picked up and I like it. Because of this one of his coworkers calls me Sally as well. Extra points if you know the movie…

When You Can’t Sleep, Blog.

Tags

clothing, lace color, red lace

Somehow, blogging always seems easier when I’m most distressed. Writing as therapy? Probably. However, at least I have some photographic proof of what I’ve been up to this year. Or at least what I was up to semi-most recently. (Still looking for the pictures of my Christmas projects, I have a bad feeling that 12+ projects made it through and the 3 fuzzy pictures I found on my camera are the only ones I bothered to take in the wrapping rush. Ugh!)

But on to sewing, since I’ve at least been doing lots and lots of that and here is a project I was very proud to be done with:

This was a custom order dress for my friend M who needed a dress for her cousin’s wedding on Valentine’s Day. The main part of the dress doesn’t show it well but the sleeves show a hint that the main body is worked up 2 layers of a red lace on red satin. The bust had some pleating and it had more of a semi-fitted empire waist which I thought would be more flattering on her body shape. The lace only sleeves gave it more of a feminine flow since the red on red color seemed a bit severe and I like how it turned out. Actually I’m very pleased with how the whole dress turned out, if I were to change anything I would just change maybe the lace color or the solid color to break up the solid color scheme.

Clearly I seem to have forgotten how quickly I can do this posting thing when I have everything I need already on my computer, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. I need to start keeping a journal I think.