It was an absolutely gorgeous day...near 70 if I remember correctly, and blue skies. I really couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Ed and I started the day with breakfast at Easthampton Diner. Yeah...I know...bride not supposed to see the groom and all that jazz, but I like to do things differently, and I can't imagine going the whole day without seeing Ed. Plus, it was time for us to just relax and enjoy eachother's company.
Ed dropped me off at my parents' house and mom, Anna, and I headed to the salon to have our hair done (Salon Karma in East Longmeadow - great people!) We met my bridesmaids, Shelley, Andrea, and Abbie, the flower girl, Chelsea, and Ed's mom there. We got ourselves all spiffed up and headed back to my parents' house to have our makeup done and have some food. (Pizza for me...what else?)
Someone made a comment that is was the most relaxed pre-wedding preparation they have ever seen. Pretty funny if you know me, but for some reason, I really wasn't nervous at all.

We got dressed, took some fantastic pictures, and headed to the church. Yup...still not nervous. It was fun to sit in the limo and watch people walk in. I pride myself on being punctual, and I wanted to make sure my ceremony started as close to the 4:30 time as possible. There were some stragglers as we were lining up, but I didn't really care. My band director from middle school and high school, Brooks Holmes, played the trumpet when I walked in, and throughout the ceremony. I was so happy to have him there. He was by far, one of my favorite teachers. Probably because he knew me so well...eight years will do that! I'm sure he sounded wonderful, but I really don't remember it! :) I walked in with both my parents. My mom had done the same thing when she married my dad years ago (in the same church, actually). Because I'm such a nervous person, and because they both raised me, and I love them both, I wanted to have both of them there with me. I couldn't imagine it any other way!

The ceremony went well...I think...we had to knee for 45 minutes. Ed was sweating like crazy and I started to get really concerned, but he kept insisting he was okay.

The reception was lovely, and I only freaked out about a couple of things (again, good for me!). Ed and I danced to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra. It was going to either be that, or "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis. The organist actually played the Elvis song in church, so I did get that one in there. :) I think, considering that neither of us know HOW to dance, Ed and I did a pretty good job.
The food was good. My favorite part was the cake from La Fiorentina. Chocolate of course!

My dad and I danced to "Stranger on the Shore" played on the clarinet by Aker Bilk. Not your usual father-daughter dance, but this had special meaning. My mom's parents, my Babci and Dzadiu have both passed away. We were very close and I still miss them nearly every day. "Stranger on the Shore" was one of Dzadiu's favorite songs, so dad and I danced to it with them in mind. (and now I'm tearing up again). I didn't cry at all during the song, but once we were done, and I saw my mom, I kinda started to lose it. Luckily, my cousins were nearby and helped get my mind off of it. (and I thank them for that). Ed and his mom danced to "Wind Beneath My Wings."

Then there was more dancing. We almost didn't get Chelsea dancing to her latest favorite song "I Like to Move It" (Madagascar--lemurs--you know), as she was beyond tired, but we got her dancing, then her and Billy fell asleep on chairs. They were fantastic though! No naps, and they were so well behaved and did what they were asked. One of my favorite pictures, even though you can't see our faces it this one of Chelsea and I dancing the "Cha Cha Slide" I love that we're both holding our dresses nearly the same way. I love those kids so much!

It was a beautiful day. My parents looked amazing, my sister looked fantastic. Ed and I cleaned up pretty good if I do say so myself---heck the entire wedding party looked pretty good :)

Oh, another favorite picture, my "work people." They had to listen to me through all the planning and the house hunting and everything, and I'm so glad they were there to share the day!

I did knit the top of Billy’s pillow, and I think I have a picture somewhere…I’m just not sure where at the moment :)

If you want to check out all the pictures, visit www.kubasek-haber.com and you’ll find a link. (Sorry these pics are so small…I kinda forgot how to post to the blog and Ed isn’t here at the moment).

Oh, and after all this, we went to DISNEY WORLD!

Other than that, I don’t have much to show for the summer. Planning a wedding and buying a house are much more exhausting than I thought they would be. I mean, I knew I’d be tired, but I didn’t realize just how tired I would be. The good news, is we should be closing on the house soon, so we can get it all set and move it just before the wedding. Luckily, it was built in 1984, so at this point, it doesn’t need to much work. Some paint, a new kitchen and bathroom counter, but nothing MAJOR. Things that I’d like to change will go on the list as the years go by, but those are the kinds of things that come with being a homeowner, I suppose.

So, knitting…

For my shower I knit the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug from Fitted Knits, but in one color of Valley Yarns Goshen. I had not had the chance to work with it yet, but I can’t even express how much I love this yarn. I am NOT a fan of cotton. In fact, I have Hey Teach languishing in the UFO pile right now because I had it with the cotton. It’s such a pretty sweater, and I’m nearly done with the back, but UGH cotton! Anyway, back to the shrug…I couldn’t decide which size to knit, and I had two people measure me and get two different results, so I went with the smaller size. I think it is actually a pretty good fit!

(mmm, margaritas)

The next project I completed this month (wow, that’s two for August so far…maybe I can get one more done!?!?) is a shawl out of Louet Mooi. I wasn’t sure about this yarn when it arrived, but I’m absolutely thrilled with the results. I made a fairly nice sized shawl out of just one skein, which is nice because it’s not the cheapest yarn in the world, but it is absolutely lovely. It is bamboo, bison, and cashmere. Every time I tell someone about the bison, I’m met with the response “bison??.” Yes, there is bison on cashmere that lend to the softness, and the bamboo adds just the slightest sheen that I think does wonders for the lace pattern.

The pattern is Garden Shawl from Knitting Lace Triangles. I think Evelyn Clark is a genius and I absolutely adore her patterns. There are several more of hers that I want to make, and I really want to experiment with the book.

While we are on the subject of books, allow me to introduce my new favorite that arrived the other day.

Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard

I’ve been reading her blog, Knit and Tonic, for a while now, and love most of her designs, so when I saw she had a book, I was really excited. I love nearly every pattern in the book, and even the ones I don’t love, they are still really pretty. I can’t wait to fish some yarn out of the stash and get going on one of them (though I do have some things to finish first, and I’m sure moving will have to be thrown in there too!).

So, I’m going to try very hard to be a better blogger. Maybe it will help me start crossing things off my “to do before I move list” (I did throw out 8 contractor bags of stuff this weekend!)

We sampled ALMOST everything. There was one place we didn’t try that we had tried last year and weren’t impressed enough to go back. We also didn’t try Firefly’s, as they are Boston-based and we could go there. We wanted to make sure we tried all the out-of-staters.

Where to start…

Yes, one of the vendors came all the way from Australia, and it was totally worth it! The Aussom Aussie. They had some fantastic sauces. The Raspberry Chipotle comes to mind. A little sweet, a little spicy…very different from your “regular” BBQ, but very, very good. So good in fact, Ed actually ate shrimp. He’s not a shrimp eater, and neither am I. I can’t say that I liked it, but at least I tried it.

We had some excellent ribs and beef brisket from Rasta Joe’s. They put “real Jamaican Rum” in their sauce. It was pretty darn tasty too!

Oh, and allow me to introduce you to Wicked Whoopies. We sampled several of the flavors. The best, was just the plain old original. I am kind of a whoopie pie snob. We have a fantastic recipe for whoopie pies that my parents have made since I was little, and it’s really hard to beat. None of that stinky Big Y giant whoopie for me! (ICK!) These were quite yummy though!

Yet again this year, we visited Cowboy’s for a fantastic beef brisket sandwich. I got my own here. No sharing for me, which is actually how I worked most of the time. I just took bites.

This is the most delicious beef brisket ever. The sauce is yummy and the beef is just spectacular!

And finally, where was the absolute best of the entire trip? When we walked up to order, the guy said to us “You’ve tried the rest, now try the best!” and we were kind of skeptical. It was so good, Ed went back up to him and told him he was right, then got more ribs!

So, Q, you win as most delicious ribs in our book! (Alas, there is no site, but they are out of Virginia and I love them very much now!)

It was a great mini-vacation and we can’t wait to go again next year! (Especially now that I’ve gone back through and done all of the linking and looked at the pictures!) I didn’t get much knitting done, but I did get to relax.

I've done a lot in the past couple weeks. I took a spinning class, yarn of course, not the bike. With my luck, I would fall off with my feet still strapped in if I took a bike class! So, now I know how to spin, which leads to the problem of wanting a wheel, but not for a while. I've got knitting to do for the store. LOTS of knitting. Plus gift knitting. Jeesh, no wonder I'm stressed! :)

Last Thursday, I drove up to Burlington, VT to be on press for the next catalog. It was a LONG day, but they were really nice there. Even had my name and our designer's name up on this tv they had on the wall with the image of our catalog welcoming us. At least it was a beautiful day. Though, six-plus hours of driving is exhausting for someone who isn't used to driving (gotta keep that low mileage insurance discount!)

Yet another recital has come and gone.

Isn't she just so cute?? I can't believe she's done with kindergarten! Where does the time go. Pretty soon, she's going to be a grown up too! :(

I'm going to attempt to forget all I have going on for the next two days. Ed and I will be in Boston wearing our purple (if only in our hearts) for the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party. I'm sure I'll have pictures. And, hopefully, some knitting done.

I hope she won't mind me sharing pictures. I don't think she will, because I don't have many readers, and honestly, I'm pretty sure most of my family doesn't even know about my blog. Plus, she looked gorgeous, so she has nothing to worry about!

Here we have a blurry picture of Steve, Steve's mom (left) and Laura's mom, my Cioci Mary Ann (yeah, we're Polish, want to make something of it :)?)

My cousin Deb, the matron of honor.

Laura and her dad, my Uncle John. Isn't the dress pretty?

I don't have any good pictures from the ceremony. Too many heads in the way, and they are grainy.

This was the first "you're next" face. She had a lot of fun rubbing that in while I was freaking out wondering what I'm thinking doing this in front of everyone!

The first dance! Don't ask me the song, I can't for the life of me remember it, but I can hear it.

This is when she was telling me about how she can't wait until it's my turn because she can just sit and watch. I love her smile in this picture because it totally reminds me of the smile she used to get when she was really excited about something. I can see 5-year-old Laura jumping up and down in my head when I look at it! :)

And a series including the cake....

And now, my freaking out can commence. The entire time, I've been like "oh, I'm okay, Laura's wedding hasn't even happened yet." Now, I need to get a move on. I've still got a few details to work out. I have to register still, oh and that whole pesky finding somewhere to live thing, but we're working on that. I haven't done much knitting this weekend, but it's been unbearably humid. I can deal with some heat, but you throw humidity in there and I become pretty useless.

Perhaps a little later.

Melissa was signing her book at FoxFire Fiber's booth. Which brings me to my first purchse:

Lovely, squishy, soft Cormo Silk Alpaca...mmmm

Followed by my second (Sojourner Design Evol-HUE-tion....super cool!)

And third (a pretty kit from Ball and Skein)

And fourth (a last minute decision purchase from Enchanted Knoll Farm)

So, in the end, I spent a little more than I wanted, but I'm not going to be at Rhinebeck this year (yay honeymoon!!), so I figure it's okay. I didn't take any pictures of sheepies, even though I LOVE them (Mary did have a little lamb after all) because we were watching the shearing, and one of the sheep had two cuts...for all I know they were there before, but it totally freaked me out, and couldn't get the picture out of my head. Even today, all I can see are the two gashes on the poor sheep!

After, we went home, helped Dad with the new pool and headed up to Northfield to catch Indiana Jones and Iron Man (which we had already seen, but it's a good movie!)

Look, hot dogs...hehehe

After I took this picture and watched the first 10 minutes of Iron Man, I fell asleep, which was really disappointing, because as I said earlier, it's a pretty good movie. Even the cold wasn't keeping me awake (because it was chilly Saturday night). We had fun anyway. I'll have to build up my stamina for later in the summer. It was a late night the night before and I didn't get a chance to take a nap!

I have finished Chelsea's Frangipani and a project for the store. Now, I'm working on a pair of socks, which are being exiled at the moment because they are making me angry, but I'm sure it will be better in the morning.

I finished up the last minute knit for the catalog. It's a Fiber Trends pattern knit in Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky. It was a pretty quick knit, and considering how much I hate finishing, I think I did a pretty gosh darn good job. (Must be that Fearless Finishing class I took!)

Here it is on me...far to small of course, but I think cute anyway. (Yeah...no head...bad hair and glasses, not a pretty sight!)

And here it is with buttons and on a mannequin in the store.

Mother's Day was fantastic. We had brunch, but I didn't eat too much. Okay, maybe I had half a waffle too many, but I love waffles! And the weather was absolutely fantastic. Look at this:

Soon those will be delicious blueberries. I can't wait. They were so tasty last year. I just hope we remember to get them covered in time so the birds don't munch them all!

I've got two projects going right now...actively. I'm working on Frangipani for Chelsea (isn't that a cute pic from Sublime book 610), knit with Berroco Comfort DK (I am loving this yarn!!)

And still working on the Pea Pod sweater for Ed's cousin's baby. I must admit, I am not loving working with the Cotton Fleece, making the project REALLY easy to ignore. I'm not sure how much knitting I'll get done this weekend...as it's Tent Sale time again.

Cotton candy dusted with cocoa (served on silver!)

Black Forest Glasses

Look at the "stations"

Made to order chocolate crepes

Chocolate fountain anyone?

Chocolate stuffed panini - mmmm

Really - it was excellent

Fixins for crepes and ice cream

A beautiful spread

Ed loves chocolate covered strawberries.

My favorite on the other hand was the chocolate croissant bread pudding. Oh, it is the stuff dreams are made of! I wish I had some right now. Warm and comforting. There was also chocolate soup. Delicious cakes and puddings. Oh how I want to go back, but not until next year. :(

I used almost the whole skein. I kept weighing it as I got toward the end to determine if I had enough left to do another repeat. It came out a bit bigger than I thought it would, but I can't say that I'm unhappy with it. I'm actually quite pleased. And since I stretched it out, the blotches of color from being handpainted spread out a bit and hide the pattern less.

And, since I was in the mood to finish things, I polished off the socks I started for Billy in February. A little late for Easter, but they are cute. They are garter rib in Cherry Red Louet Gems Sport. I really like knitting little kid socks in sport weight! They fly!

Finally, I am EXHAUSTED. Want to know why? Approximately 1000 knitters. Just 1 Yarn Harlot.

It was a fantastic event. I generally don't get to talk to the customers, but as I was on post-it duty for part of the morning, I was able to talk to people and listen in on their conversations. There were some really fun people in line. They made my morning fly by! I didn't get my book signed this time. I'm a little sad, but there was work to be done, yarn to be found, and water to put out. I got to meet Stephanie last year though, so it's okay. Considering how tired I was and I'm not on tour, I can't even imagine how exhausted she is! I'm slowly recovering from the tired though and working my way back into knitting...a few rows at a time on a Pea Pod Baby Sweater for Ed's cousin's baby (expected in August).

I think Ed and I are taking a day trip on Saturday, so I'll miss out on some knitting time (unless I can knit in the car, but the sinuses have been acting up, and my in-the-car-knitting-issues are worse then), but it will be nice to get away for a day. It should be pretty fun (and tasty). I'll be sure to fill you in when we get home. Friday I have big plans to exercise (have to counteract the planned eating), relax, lunch with Anna and dinner with friends. It should be fantastic!

Skip to last night. I went to bed thinking, I'm going to finish that sucker tomorrow night and I'll have it blocking in time to be tucked in and asleep before 11:00. All was going well...until...

We had a meeting at the Hotel Northampton tonight to make our choices for the reception (eek....it's real!) and I left work and had fantastic plans to sit in my car in the parking lot with the windows open knitting in the sun while waiting for Ed. I go to take the shawl out of my bag, it snags on my purse (I don't even know how) and it gets a HUGE pull. And I mean huge. I'm pretty good at covering up knitting mistakes (if I do say so myself), but this was a good 7-8 inches of yarn just pulled out. I tried stretching it, but quickly decided that wouldn't work. Did I have a lifeline? No. Of course not. I like to knit lace dangerously.

My eyes welled up a bit, but off to unknitting I went (I hate the term tinking). We had our meeting, made some interesting choices for the reception and home we went. I had dinner and unkint some more. Then I turned on Bones and unknit some more...and unknit, and unknit and unknit. In the end, I only had to go back 4 rows, but since I'm towards the end, I'm working with some pretty long rows. I have two rows reknit, so I'm 2 rows behind where I was at about 3 o'clock this afternoon. But, I'm going to be optomistic. I'll get up early, go for a refreshing walk, get ready for work, get there and work, work, work (though I have to be careful, I'm running out of words, must reserve them!) and go home and knit, knit, knit. I will finish the shawl tomorrow.

By the way, I keep weighing the ball, and I am seriously knitting the never-ending ball of yarn. I knit 10 rows and it weighs practically the same! Off to bed.

It is knit in Cascade Ecological Wool color 8018. The yarn is surprisingly soft. The bind off didn't take nearly as long as I thought it was going to. It only took a few hours, which was pretty good considering it was over 600 stitches.

I have been up to other things too. I found a free project on beadingdaily.com that I really liked, so I walked myself over to the bead store :) and asked them for some help. I needed a pointing in the right direction. I'm thrilled with the way it came out. It's Swarovski crystals, pearls and seed beads, plus a sterling silver chain. The best part was that it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. So, now in addition to the yarn bug, I'm fighting a bit of a bead bug!

I gave it to my friend for her birthday. It was a REALLY late birthday present, but I think she liked it.

We also got our engagement pictures taken (but have yet to send them into the newspaper with the announcement). Here are my two favorites. They don't look anything like me! 

Now that's I'm back, I'm pretty excited about finishing my next project....a Flower Basket Shawl (it's a Ravelry link) in Misti Alpaca Lace Hand Dyed. I'm not sure it's the best pattern for the yarn, or any lace for that matter. The color repeats are very short, but when I stretch it out it doesn't look horrible. I hope to have it done tomorrow night or Saturday morning. Then I'll move on to another project. Either finishing something that's been languishing or I'll start on of the new projects I'm excited about. I also have baby stuff to knit (again!) because Ed's cousin is expecting and I'm sure the shower will be here before I know it! I'd rather be prepared this time than last minute.

We went and picked out the bridesmaids dresses and everyone was measured. A few weeks ago we picked out my mom's dress. My cousin's wedding is in two months, so we had her shower last weekend. All of this stuff is making me start to wonder if I'm really that excited about the whole wedding thing. I'm not exactly one who likes to be the center of attention. Though I am excited about the honeymoon. It's been far too long since my last trip to Disney and I'm excited to be staying at a deluxe resort.

Yesterday I met up with a few friends from high school for one of the girl's "bachelorette party." We ate at FitzWilly's and they proceeded on to the bar, but since that's not my scene I went home and knit and went to bed early (I've been really tired lately...I think I'm fighting something, and since I refuse to get sick, I'll just go to bed early!) It was nice to see them. Since I haven't seen them in almost seven years (eek, has it really been that long since I've been out of high school!?), it was fun to catch up!

Anyway, I did finish the Hemlock Ring Throw tonight. It's blocking right now, so I should have a picture in a day or so. I'm not totally thrilled with the way it came out. I wish it was a little bit bigger, and I wish I had more energy to give it a good, thorough blocking, but I blocked it as well as I could. I'm happy it's done. It's soft, and I like the yarn well enough, but I may send it to the office with Ed or something (now that it's not cold anymore).

I do feel a bit like I've got my knitting "mojo" (for lack of a better term) back. It's been a while since I've finished anything, and now that I've reminded myself that I am in fact capable of finishing projects, I feel like knitting a lot more.

We've been really busy and not busy at all at the same time. With wedding planning and house hunting, plus work stuff and just being tired overall, it's been a little rough on the knitting. I'm coming along on the Hemlock Ring Blanket. I hope to finish it soon. I started a Flower Basket Shawl and it's coming along fairly quickly.

I'll have some pictures when I have a bit more time and some natural light.

I recently snapped a bunch of pictures of my stash for Ravelry. I have decided I have WAY too much yarn, but the Anniversary Sale has started and I don't know if I can say no to anything. Also, the next project-a-long on Ready, Set, Knit is Babette and I really want to crochet it. I've been feeling the urge to crochet lately. Though I should probably use that urge to finish the blanket I've been working on for Ed for years now...

Be back soon.

This one really got me thinking. Why on earth do I even have such a large stash. It's not the largest I've heard of. There's some in the closet, some in a basket, in a wicker hamper, under the bed, in my (ahem, large) nightstand, but really it's not that much. Or, perhaps I'm in denial about the size of my stash because it is in so many different places. When I purchased pretty much everything, I had a project in mind for it. There are a few Tent Sale purchases that I made where I decided I had to have it just because it was discontinued and I love the yarn and I don't want to lose out, but really, now that I think about it, I'm not thrilled with the decision. Yes, they are nice yarns, but now I have no clue what I'm going to do with them! Yet, I don't know that I'm really interested in parting with them because they are such nice yarns.

So, do I go with the same goal, and plan to knit my stash down (and gone) in 2009? I don't know that I can. I'm not that speedy of a knitter, and I have a short attention span with projects. Halfway through I want them done, but there's still half a project to go, so I give up and start something new. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I've got stuff that's been hanging around for far too long (this has been addressed before...Tangled Yoke Cardigan, Log Cabin Blanket, Ed's Crochet Blanket...). I feel like if (I mean when, don't I) I can get these projects done, I will feel lighter. I will feel accomplished. I'll have stuff checked off the list (I love checking things of the list).

I guess I'm planning on trying not to buy new yarn and using the yarn I have, but it's really hard, especially considering where I work. I suppose I can try and bribe myself. I could say I'm going to reward myself with an iPhone if I do not buy any yarn between now and...let's say July (with the exception of the Tent Sale), but I know I can't keep that promise to myself, plus I've already got the iPhone riding on another goal. Now, yes I could just buy the darn phone, but what would that teach me. I feel like I need a focus, and right now, it's going to be reaching my goal so I can get a silly phone. (It's better this way....new and updated will be out by the time I reach said goal).
I'll just try as hard as I can to knit what I have and not buy more. I really don't want to have a stash that exceeds my life expectancy. I have no one to leave my yarn. I don't like clutter, and right now, the stash is starting to have a life of it's own...it's closing in on me and I can't breathe.

So with today, I take a deep breath and say no thank you to the latest yarn to come in, or the desire to knit the pattern in the recommended yarn, because I have yarn. I will not let my stash smother me. It is one of the few things I can control right now, and gosh darn it, control it I will!