Ideas for a Knitting Party

So since reading this post on Design*Sponge, I've been itching for an excuse to throw a knitting party.

How would this differ from simply getting together with lovely ladies to do crafty things? Not too much, I guess, except I love the idea of it being learning about knitting, and being centered around celebrating something, like the advent of spring. And of something planned a little more thoroughly, perhaps.

I'd love to celebrate the advent of spring by knitting. But my schedule is far too busy this month, and too unpredictable to plan something for April.

So here are other ideas--most of which are farther away than I'd like, but oh well.

-A knitting "bachelorette" party. This idea just occurred to me while writing this post, and it tickles me, because it is a lovely inversion of society's notion of having a final fling of singlehood while you still can. It celebrates something associated with domesticity and being a wife. Fun, no?

-A knitting housewarming party, after Keith and I move in to the new place. I have to say this is my favorite idea, because it would give me an excuse to use all my new teacups, show off the new place, play hostess for the first time as a married woman, and really and truly warm the new apartment up with the presence of lovely women.

-A knitting party to celebrate fall. Because after all, there is no lovelier season, in my opinion. The advent of weather that makes you want to cozy up in a sweater and cradle a cup of something warm in your hand is a perfect thing to celebrate with knitting.


Those are my ideas so far ... any others are welcomed. :)

Making it Real

Keith and I signed a lease on an apartment this week.

We're pretty happy. It's a two bedroom, like we wanted; it's in the neighborhood we wanted; the only less-than-ideal thing is that the lease starts May 1*, which means we could possibly be paying rent on three places in May.

I'm hoping to find someone to sublet my current apartment, though. I'll be moving back up with my parents sometime in late May; my stuff (half of which is actually Keith's stuff, really, which is ultimately a moot point anyways since it is soon no longer "mine" and "his" but "ours") will go into the new apartment and wait for us there.

It's crazy, really. You have all these images of being married, and even though the reality will be different, now there's a place for those images to inhabit. I have these moments where I picture the Fiestaware sugar bowl on the counter, our coats in the closet, our towels (courtesy of the bridal shower!) in the bathroom.

And there is something sacred about that space, and those things in it. The makings of our life together, of the home it shall become.



*Well, that and the carpet color. And the weeeeird mirror thing in the living room. But that's what life's adventures are made of!

Showers

I've definitely been something of a lazy blogger lately, but I haven't been without my excuses.

For example, last weekend I was completely surprised by ... a bridal shower!

Although I sensed that plans were afoot, I figured that it wouldn't happen until much closer to the end of the semester, so the timing was unexpected. And the set-up was perfect. My dear friend and matron of honor is pregnant with her second child, and her mom told me I was going to a shower. Which means when I walked around the corner, gift in hand, and saw a row of people ready with cameras, it took me a few moments to realize it was my shower. (Yes, I brought a gift to my own bridal shower!)

My mom and Stephanie threw an absolutely beautiful shower. Everything was coordinated in the colors for our wedding, including the beautiful tea-themed favors. These were put together by Vicki, a wonderful woman who runs a tea shop called The Still Room down the road from my parents' place.

It was great to get gifts from the registry, but I think what I enjoyed most was the unexpected things--gifts people chose themselves for me and Keith. I was showered with teacups of all shapes and sizes, so now I have a lovely collection.

But what made it most beautiful was being surrounded by a community and communion of women. Of my friends who were there, three were married (all less than three years), another four engaged, and the rest lovely single ladies. My mother and Aunt Jeanne and Stephanie's mother have all been married for much longer, and my Aunt Marie and Great Aunt Dolores were there as beautiful examples of living a single life. Women of different ages and places in life and vocation coming together to celebrate marriage--so beautiful!

And then Keith showed up near the end! While I was wearing an awesome bridal shower hat!

So yes, the bridal shower was wonderful. As you can imagine, I got little else done that weekend, so I'm very grateful my mom and Stephanie chose to throw it the weekend beginning break.

And now I'm off to another shower--this time my cousin Theresa's. It's showering all over the place these days. Fun times.

Wherein Rosemary Wishes to Knit ALL THE THINGS.

My mom and I are, apparently, bad influences on each other. Like mother, like daughter?

Anyway, she had some birthday money that was burning a hole in her pocket, and I just got my paycheck, so we made a trip to Natural Stitches today, which is really a sensory overload for anyone with a love of fiber. There's the colors, and the squishy-softness, and the sheen, and the various textures, and ... well, there's everything. It's enough to turn you into a yarn zombie. (Think someone walking around with glazed eyes and outstretched hands, caressing skein after skein of yarn and saying, Prettyyyyyyy .....)

I wanted to get something other than teal or purple, which are, granted, my favorite colors of late--which explains why I have a lot of them already. I got a skein of madelinetosh's Tosh Sock in Nectar, which is a lovely variegated peach color. All of her yarns seem to glow with color, and they are crisp and lovely.

I also bought two skeins of Road to China Light in Carnelian. (Or more accurately, I bought one, my mom bought the other for me.) This is a deliciously soft yarn, a blend of aplaca, cashmere, camel, and silk.

Camel! What has happened to me? I have become a FIBER SNOB. My roommate wants to learn how to knit, so I brought her to Michael's a few weeks ago to buy needles and yarn, but I bought nothing for myself because most of what they have is acrylic. But as I said to my mom, it's easy and fairly cheap to get a soft yarn spun from acrylic fibers, while getting something nice and smooth against the skin in natural fibers gets more expensive.

But is it worth it?

My vote is yes. :)

Now I just have to figure out which patterns to knit up with this precious stuff. I'm thinking a cowl and/or fingerless gloves with the Road to China yarn, since it is so soft. Or I'll knit the fingerless gloves up with the Tosh ... but there are some lovely shawls it could become, too ... really, I would just like to knit everything there is. But life and yarn (not to mention money!) are limited, so I'm happy making a decision between different pretty things.

NOW you tell me.

Knit Picks just came out with a mohair-silk lace weight yarn, Aloft.

What does this mean?

It means I just spent significantly more money on Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

Granted, there isn't a shade of green remotely close to what I wanted in Aloft. But I might have been willing to go with, say, silver, or maybe even another color entirely, considering that Knit Picks yarns cost half as much as Rowan.

Sigh.

The good news is, I'm glad this yarn exists, and I will probably someday put that existence to good use.

On Being Sandpaper

This is the third day in a row that I haven't seen Keith ... he's been shut up in Tilbury with the sickness that's been taking people out one by one: my roommate, various members of my program, a few others at the Newman Center. So far, somehow, I haven't gotten it. Hopefully it stays that way ... but I miss my fiance. A lot.

For whatever reason, I've been in A Mood the past week. (Or if I'm honest, it's probably been a little longer than that.) Not that I'm walking around with a cloud over my head, but I kindle at the slightest spark and can become a less-than-pleasant person to interact with over certain things.

It's actually pretty humbling.

I was talking to an old dear friend in MI who is getting married two weeks before me this summer--a beautiful conversation. Engagement is such an interesting place to live in: a waiting place, but also a present moment; your relationship isn't yet what it will be, and yet it has changed, is changing.

There are certain places where I know I need to grow if I'm going to be a good wife, and so my instinct is to hurry up and grow already, before July 16th. Get holy now. And while the desire to works towards the qualities and virtues that will make me a good wife is not a bad one, obviously, I feel that sometimes the impetus behind my sense of urgency is more pride than anything.

I have a lot to learn about marriage, and I know I won't learn most of it til after I'm in it. But I do know that marriage is about the sanctification of both spouses; and ultimately, that holiness and the ability to be a good wife is a matter of grace of state (which comes with the sacrament, not before) and practice (which I can get some of now, to be sure, but I will have LOTS more of it after getting married).

And here's the pride bit. I am perfectly willing to accept that my fiance will have flaws and weaknesses, some of which I won't discover til after we're married. But the thought of him putting up with my imperfections? Ooooh, that's tough. And if they're starting to come out now, how much more will he see after we're married?

But that is part of the gift given in marriage: a self that is, among other things, sinful and broken. The key is to give and receive with open eyes and clear sight. To know that sometimes we will be sandpaper to each other rather than silk, and those are the days when the rough edges can be smoothed away, so we're made smooth and perfect.

Arguing with dead people.

One of my students just wrote in his essay evaluation that he didn't include quotes from the text he was writing about because he didn't want it to seem like he was "arguing with a deceased person."

I could go on about how we've discussed writing as an opportunity for "conversations" with a text/author ... but the fact he said this is pretty funny on its own.