Nettles, Treadles and Love

 

So Sean and I got married this year (well, twice,actually.)  We had an intimate City Hall wedding in January, and in May had a small ceremony at the Fort Funston cliffs overlooking the ocean with family and friends, and then a party at our house.

We did things very simply, just the way we wanted.  The love and support from friends and family was AMAZING to experience, as is the daily building of the loving container of our relationship with each other.

We are in our mid to late thirties.  I think we are both still so in awe that we actually found each other and get to keep each other.  We are so excited about all the things we get to do together over the rest of our lives.

Truly in love.  Truly inspired.

 

At the end of January, in preparation for Fort Funston, I began knitting a shawl to wear at the cliffs.  A beautiful light brown Mohair knitted with large needles for an open airy knit.  I know the basics of knitting and not much more.  I can do simple hats and scarves.  For 3 months I worked on this shawl every night for 30 min. to an hour. The day was approaching and I still wasn’t done.  I kept making mistakes and I didn’t have the time to get help to fix them so I would just keep going right over them.  I was still working on that thing at midnight the night before the ceremony.  I finished it, but it was nothing like I had imagined.  It is kind of funky and chunky and totally the wrong shape.  It is kind of a big square – not ideal for wrapping.

It is nowhere near the perfect wedding shawl, but it is oh so perfect.  I love it dearly.  It holds within it’s fibers all the anticipation and dreaming and love that filled me in those days.  It holds the imprint of that amazingly perfect sunny day – so warm and breeze-less that  I didn’t even need to use the shawl standing on that cliff over the ocean on the San Francisco coast.  The feel of those fibers on my skin is the feeling of love.

I also had the intention of making these handmade flowers to wear in my hair – but that project never even got started before the big day.  I found the tutorial to make them on this blog.  I finally got around to making them in August, and they are truly lovely.

However, the project uses synthetic material that you cut and then hold over a flame to melt the fabric so it curls up and looks scrunchy.  This is a cool effect, but it was so disgusting to smell the toxic materials burning.  I probably wont ever do this project again.  If I do make more flowers to finish up the fabric I will wear a mask.

 

I love the color of the blue fabric, but it was so sheer and lightweight that it literally instantly caught on fire.  So warning to you if you try this project.  Get a sturdier fabric.  And wear a mask.

 

By the way, the City Hall dress is so awesome.  I love love love it.  I got it on Haight St., but you can also find it online.  The brand is Stop Staring!   They make brand new remakes of old styles.

 

the Fort Funston dress is from Anthropologie.

and the shoes are Naot (super comfy.  well, at least for about 3 hrs.)

I’ve never been a big dress or shoe girl, but I must say that it was very fun and even healing to really indulge my girly side through this process.