FINALLY! I can blog about the WEDDING SHOWER!!!

(The wedding shower cake!)

With the exception of the Manchvegas Knitters, most of you had no idea that I have been knitting and planning SECRETIVE things on the "side". Today is the day that I can finally, finally tell you about it and share all the wonderful (and sometimes stressful) details.

But, before I go into the hows and whys of it all, I am dying to share the pictures of a couple of things I knitted during this time. (It was HELL not being able to put these things on Ravelry!)

First, THE WEDDING AFGHAN!!



A bunch of the Manchvegas Knitters grabbed their knitting needles/crochet hooks and one ball of Moda Dea "Washable Wool" in ivory and created a 12x12 square (design of her/his choice) for the engaged couple of our group, Chris and Ericka.

I collected all the squares and created this afghan (and pillow, not pictured) with it (and I even crocheted a border around it!). I think it came out beautiful....all of the individuality of each of the knitters/crocheters shines through.



Knitters/Crocheters in order from left to right, top to bottom: Denise (who recently got married....Congratulations, D!!!), Melissa, Laurin and Me. Me again, Heather, Jackie, and Marion. Julie, Laurin (two), and Mike. GiGi, Heather, Jackie and Blogless Amanda. Sarah, Lora, Caroline and Denise again. (Donna and Amanda also made one, which went into making a matching pillow.)

Second, THE WEDDING SHAWL!!:



In April and May, I bought some Knit Picks Telemark in the Poppy Colorway and made Ericka a shawl for her wedding. (Her wedding dress is a gorgeous ivory with red trim....red is her favorite color.)

I used the "Children of the Liur" lace stole pattern from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman...a fantastic book for knitting lace shawls...a must have for any lace knitter.

The pattern was simple, but very elegant looking. Here is a close up of the lace...the wrong side is facing:



Whew! Now that I got THAT out of my system.....I can share more of the Knitting-Red-Origami Themed Wedding Shower!

I'll try to be quick, so you're not reading all day....

-The Invitations I Made (it's handy being a scrapbooker!)...this one is Ericka and Chris' copy, with a few more embellishments than the ones I sent out.



-A sample of the origami cranes that we all made for decorating my house...this one was made by either Marion or Caroline....(I think we had over 120 cranes in the end!)



-The tiara I picked out for Ericka so she could feel like a queen on her shower day...



-Ericka's face as she opened the door....she was expecting a birthday party for Donna, another Manchvegas Knitter...but was totally surprised that the party was for HER! (Chris, the MVknitters and I had been trying to keep this from her for MONTHS! She had no idea...which made it absolutely perfect!)



-Here she is wearing the shawl and tiara, while opening gifts. Gigi and Jackie look on at Ericka's left and Chris, her fiance, on the right.



-Here is Chris brandishing the butcher's knife that Jackie got them....with a card that said, "Ericka, don't use this on Chris." LOL!



-Lovely Julie sitting at my Ashford Traditional wheel to try it out...She's getting one for herself to try out for an unlimited time! So cool!...with Marion looking on.



-Here is group photo of everyone who came to the shower (please excuse the lack of linking....my fingers are very tired...look above for links, k?)....



(L to R)
(back row) Marion, Sarah, Gigi, Mike, Julie, Melissa, Patti, Blogless Amanda, and Jackie.
(front row) Lora, Donna, Heather, Caroline, Laurin and Chris's mom, Donna.
(Just Ericka's sister, Mandy, isn't in the pic...she came with Ericka and Chris)

-Did I mention that Julie and Patti, the owner of the Yarn Sellar came all the way from Maine for the shower??? It was pretty wonderful to see both of them and I know that Ericka appreciated it. She was very surprised!

Besides me slightly freaking out as hostess (you know...I get very nervous before parties...I want to make sure everyone is having a good time), I think it went extremely well. Everyone had fun, we knit, danced, Jackie and Lora did cartwheels in the backyarn, we drank LOTS and LOTS of liquor (Melissa is a fabu bartender!), knit more, drank more and laughed constantly.

The favors (oh, man, I forgot to take pics of those!) were donated by me, Donna and Sarah. Donna bought some gorgeous mini skeins of yarn (in green and brown) from WoolGirl, I got red hearts of Lindt chocolate truffles in a red gauzy bag and Sarah gave the patterns and gift bags. We also had a big basket full of skeins of cotton to make dishcloths/washcloths, as well. Heather brought the basket with some yarn and me, Jackie, Amanda, Marion, Laurin and Sarah filled the rest of the basket up with yarn, tied with white ribbon. Donna printed out copies of 6 different free dishcloth patterns for us to pick to go with our favor bags. I think everyone liked them!

The funny thing was that we ALMOST didn't pull the shower off. For weeks, we'd been "talking" on our other website so we could email and plan without Ericka and Chris knowing....The Manchvegas Wedding group. And, at the last minute, I had to send off an emergency email saying that Ericka's wedding dress fitting appointment was on the same day and the same time as the shower! Ahhhh!!!!

After freaking out and trying to decide what to do..this was only two days before the shower, we decided to just move the shower time up a little by a few hours. We were able to contact everyone in time (well, except Blogless Amanda...sorry!) and everything went very smoothly. Chris called me off and on during the day of the shower to give me updates on where they were and what time they would be there. We are SO LUCKY that things happened just the way we'd hoped.

Ericka said it was the first time in her life that she was "speechless".

Mission Accomplished.

P.S. Wanna see what I knit during the shower?

I'm not usually a dishcloth girl, but I really liked this pattern! (Less than 1 ball of Sugar and Cream cotton yarn, size 7 needles and this pattern with a crocheted border.)