The Wedding Shrug

 

When my daughter got engaged in June, and as we were planning the wedding we were having one of the hottest summers on record. She picked out her "dream" dress with lace, and a beautiful strapless sweetheart neckline.   But the date of the wedding was October 20, I kept thinking that her beautiful strapless dress might be  a problem when the weather cooled down in October.  So I began researching and trying to find a pattern for a shrug that would have a beautiful lace design, and not cover up her beautiful dress.

I ended up putting together a pattern for stockings (Vogue magazine Spring/summer 2009) with a stockinette knit back, and then added a knitted lace edging at the sleeve and along the bottom of the back.  The yarn I used was Blue Skies Alpaca and Silk that I got at my LYS.  I was guessing that the color would work with the color of the dress (Ivory), as the dress didn't come in until late September.  Luckily, the color was perfect.  I also added pearl beads randomly throughout the knitted shrug to tie it in with her dress and the overall styling for the wedding.

 

It took a couple of restarts to get the sizing of the lace and sleeves right.  I was trying to make the shrug as a surprise for Kelly which meant I couldn't try it on her.  So it was mostly knitted by looking at some of her sweaters and crossing my fingers :>).  I ended up giving it to her 3 weeks or so before the wedding and did have to do some alterations to sleeve length, but otherwise it fit really well.  Whew!

 

 

Considering the temperatures ended up barely reaching 50 degrees that day, I think she was so glad to have the shrug.  And as you can see in the pictures it added some warmth for her arms and shoulders without covering up any of her dress.

 

 

 

And can I just say Kelly and Doug are so cute together.  The wedding ceremony was outdoors in a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees, and the reception was in a barn on the same property.  The wedding day was amazing.  And I have to thank the amazing photographers.  The first 3 pictures are by my friend Rissa, the rest of the photos are by Toni Price Photography.  Toni and Rissa did an amazing job.

 

And yes, we had quilts draped on some of the chairs in case guests were cold. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, Sylvia

 

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