knitting a wedding garter

I put all of my other knitting aside to work on the wedding garter. Instead of doing the easy sure thing, I decided that I should keep trying knitted edgings from Barbara Walker's books until I find what I like. The problem is that I like trying out patterns so much I haven't made any progress on the garter! I can't decide which to use. Because most of the patterns I'm trying are from her second book, they aren't charted (the charts didn't start until her third book). I'm getting lots of good practice charting patterns! (Not because I can't follow written instructions, because I just like to chart things.) I really enjoy this part of knitting--playing around with stitch patterns and other design options. But tomorrow I will have to come to a decision and get started knitting the garter! Here's one of my possibilities:

May sweeps, wedding garters, gauge issues, and Mother's Day

Well, I wasn't very productive over the past few days because I didn't feel well last week (I was kind of worried that I had the swine flu b/c of a headache and just feeling lousy, but it never got any worse than that so I survived), and because I've allowed a lot of distractions. As always. I enjoy television way too much in May, and watch shows that I never normally watch just to get in on all of the May sweeps escapades. All of the tv weddings, hook-ups, break-ups, near death experiences, natural disasters, man-caused disasters, outrageous stunts, and shocking episodes of Oprah have me watching WAY too much television. Rotting my mind. And not doing enough yard work (though I did put in a full day on Monday, it's a jungle out there). OH WELL. I can hardly wait to watch House tonight, even though I'm worried that the House/Cuddy hook-up last week will destroy the show.

My Blossom has been sidetracked by intense gauge issues. I've gone up a few needle sizes, but am still getting 6 1/2 sts per inch, instead of 6. I figure if I walk away for a few days, it will magically resolve itself. haha.

I have a few weddings to attend this summer, and I have been thinking up gift ideas that involve knitting (I have a lot more time than money nowadays, so I figure knitted gifts are perfect). I was thinking about working up a lace edging for a set of pillowcases as a wedding gift. And I was stumped about a shower gift, until Kniterary Club on Sunday, when I remembered that Caitlin knit up a garter for her friend, and I got some info on knitting garters from her. EXCELLENT. I came home with a ball of crochet cotton so that I would be able to get started on my lace edgings, and I ended up using it to experiment with lace patterns for a garter. It was fun! I tried the Beech Leaf Edging from Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns (pg 362). I'll see where it goes.

For Mother's Day, my mom told me that she wanted to get take out ribs from Ruby Tuesday for dinner. At first I was kind of upset that she didn't want me to cook for her, but on Mother's Day, mom gets what she wants! And it was good to do take out, because it can be stressful to take grandmother into a restaurant. What I did do is make a dessert she requested, Pistachio Pudding Bars. Which I managed to not get perfect, despite the fact that it involves very limited baking and impossible-to-mess-up convenience foods (cool whip, jello pudding). Though no one complained, I'm going to make them again to get it right (I kind of made up the recipe I used by combining several things from the internet, so I should really get the actual recipe from my aunt) and maybe then they'll merit a blog photo. But it was a good day for my wonderful mother, and I'm really glad we didn't buy any tender plants at the nursery for a gift yesterday, because there's a frost advisory for tonight (it affirms my conviction that you don't buy sensitive plants until after Memorial Day in Michigan).