Calla, a Dummy and an Anniversary

After the weekly Friday Night Dinner with my parents, I went home to finish up a knit tank I've been working on for a few months. It's really hard to photograph black yarn, but you can click here to see a picture of what Calla should really look like.



I screwed up a little last week when I joined a new ball of yarn and I tried to fix the big hole it created. I couldn't sleep as I was thinking about all the work I'd put in, only to have this hole in it. I got up after tossing and turning in bed and tried to figure it out. I gave up when the clock struck 1:00 AM but I had an idea of how to fix it.

Saturday morning, I started right on fixing Calla and after another hour or so of trying to recreate the stitches and ripping out, I finally got it. It's not perfect, but not bad either. Afterwards, I had John help me with another crafty project I've had in mind for a while. One of the things many knitters have is a body dummy or mannequin-type thing to help fit their garments. This is something used in sewing too. I hadn't priced what a body dummy would cost, but through reading some knit blogs, people have made their own using duct tape. So, I looked up some instructions and John did this:

Look at those CHUBS around my belly! I don't look so bad from the back side. You can actually see a waistline. If I could get the stomach to look as good... After the wrapping, John cut up the center back to let me out and taped it back up. We just need to find a way to close out the bottom, neck and armholes and stuff it with fiberfill. I think I'm just going to install and secure a hanger through the neckhole and hang it, but sometimes people will build a stand for theirs.

Saturday night, we were honored by an invite to join Matt & Alison in celebrating their 5 year anniversary. Freddy, the best man, didn't think it would last 5 weeks. Matt & Ali cooked up a wonderful dinner that included burgers, grilled chicken, pesto pasta salad, mixed greens salad with balsamic vinegrette, baked eggplant with tomato and sauteed zucchini and squash. For dessert, they picked up a really lovely strawberry cake with marzipan and some mini tartlets from Patisserie Poupon in Georgetown:


It was just a really simple, but elegant (and yummy!) meal with lots of vegetarian-type dishes that I don't tend to think of when preparing meals for parties. Not that M&A are vegetarians, but they definitely eat more healthy than John and I! Matt gave a little speech, and comments from the peanut gallery (namely Freddy?) had Alison in stitches:


The party was a small mix of friends in our normal group (Sean & Val, Nate & Linda, Freddy) and M&A's friends we've met before, including Glen & Faust, Jim & Mary and Lauren. Mangey & Shacky also came out for the party and took tons of pics with Mange's new digital camera. We also met William's friend, Tia, who came down for a visit from NJ:


Sunday, John was on call, so we didn't venture far from home. We had lunch at the tragic Laurel Mall, went to the library and then picked up a few groceries. It was actually nice to be able to just hang out at home and do a little laundry. I started a new sock too.


Hope everyone had a fun weekend!