Wingspan in Gina or Loving the Stripes

I just finished knitting the Wingspan pattern.  It is one of those patterns that everyone is making with almost 10,000 Wingspan projects on Ravelry.  I did not know it was a popular pattern when I decided to knit one.  All I knew is that I liked how this yarn, Plymouth's Gina, looked in a sample at a shop.  Fast forward a year and I finally got around to casting on.  I had knitted one skein before I realized I had made a mistake and had to pull it out and start over.  Somewhere I had read the pattern was better with an I-cord cast on, and started again with an I-cord cast on.  I kind of like how I-cords look on knitted things and added an applied I-cord edge.  Next came the I-cord cast off.  I even decided since things were going so well I would add an I-cord loop for a button.  I may have over estimated my knit abilities on that one because the loop looks a little clunky.  Okay, a lot clunky.  After reflecting on the loop I am going to pull it out and try again to make it look less ugly.  Notice, I did not say perfect, just better.  I-cords and loops aside, I really love how the yarn striped up and this pattern was a lot fun to knit.  In fact I have seen several variations of this pattern on Ravelry and I may want to try one of those too.  My wingspan is not perfect, but enjoyed the knitting. 


Notice I am hiding the ugly button loop in the photo

 



Love how the yarn striped up

The Gayest Cake!

Captured this cake at The LGBT Center in St Louis.  May not be the prettiest or cleverest cake, but that it is there at all makes it my favorite so far.  Much Love

Cakeway to the West

I love public art!  The randomness of coming upon a piece of art in a surprising location always delights me.  Sometimes the piece is not inspiring, but I appreciate the intent.  Back in my yarn bombing days, I hoped my little knitted things delighted those who saw poles wrapped with bits color. I know when I find public installations, I am like, "Yay, ART!"

Lyons Park, the first cake I found

Back in the 90s (remember those days?) everyone was inspired by the cows on parade.  Cities everywhere jumped on that bandwagon with their version of "whatever" on parade.  St. Louis even did a similar thing with people on parade, it was kind of lame to be honest.  With this year being the quarter-millennial anniversary of my home town, St. Louis city planners decided to revise this idea with four foot fiberglass birthday cakes.  The goal is to have 250 cakes placed in the St Louis metro area.

Chatillon Demenil Mansion Wedding Cake

I have seen several of these cakes popping up all over town.  I gave them some thought, but not much.  Last week I was having lunch with a friend and she mentioned the cakes and how she wanted to see them.  I felt I would help her by taking some photos of the cakes in my neighborhood.  I am up to 13 cakes, if I were to continue I would have 237 more to go.  I am doubtful that I will be that committed to cake hunting, but you never know.

Cherokee Street Cake, Beautifully Decorated Cake

I actually met other cake hunters today, so I am not the only one looking for these installations.  I actually, talked to a mother and daughter today who were up to 80 cakes.  I told them I really loved the crazy cake at Venice Café in Benton Park.  This cake has a slice out of it and you can see it is made of BRAINS!  So cool.  They looked at me like I was weird and moved quickly away to their car.  Takes all kinds, I guess.

St Louis Silly Hall Cake (see this one 5 days a week)

I found a website with information about the cakes (http://www.stl250.org/cake.aspx).  The site is very helpful and advertises an app.  The app looks like a fun way to keep track of the cakes you have found.  Looks is the key word, in practice the app sucked and did not work.  It does help finding the cakes, but the game function doesn't.   I tied 4 times to capture a cake and it never worked, GRRR...  Once I stopped fooling with the app, I enjoyed just taking photos of the cakes and posting the photos on my social medias (facebook, twitter, instagram).  I even used hashtags for the first time, #stl250. 

Venice Café Cake, My Favorite

As you can imagine some cakes are better executed than others.  I am posting a few of my favorites.  The Venice Café cake is my favorite so far.  Venice Café is known for their crazy decorations, on first sighting the cake looked rather bland, but once I walked around it, I knew it was the perfect cake for them.  It was awesomely oozing blood.  Anyway, love them or hate them, looking for cakes is a fun way to spend a day.

Building Block #4, or A Third of the Way There

Yay, I finished block #4 in the Building Blocks project.  Putting me a third of the way to getting the throw done.  This block was about increases and decreases.  I broke out the purple yarn to make the eyelets stand out.  I have been deep into knitting another project so I almost put off starting on this block to later in the month.  However,once Natalie cast on her block I relented.  It is always so hard for me to have more than one project on sticks.  I always feel like I am cheating on my other project.  Next month the block is all cables, excited to be cheating on my other project to do some cabling.

Wedding Crashing

Last night I felt like a wedding crasher, but I swear we had an invitation.  One of Natalie's co-workers ask her several months back to come to her son's wedding to his partner.  I think she asked us because it was a same-sex wedding and she was searching for same-sex couples to flush out her quota of guests.  Natalie has known the woman for several years now and we thought as elder queers we should be supportive.  It is so rare that Natalie asks me to attend these types of things, I immediately said yes.  Yes to making the investment in the couples social obligation bank, an account which finds me in the red more often than not.

The service was at a local community center.   I will not lie, I walked into the hall only having met 2 of other attendees once: the mother of the groom and another gay co-worker of my spouse.  There was an awkward moment, but I will get to that.  We were seated at a table where we knew no one, and were the only same-sex couple at the table.  However, Natalie and I  discovered we had been together the longer then any of the couples at the table, which was weird because one of the couples was significantly older than us.  We were a diverse group of people and backgrounds, but when we all went our separate ways each goodbye ended with a hug. 

The decorations, flowers, candy bar, and buffet were lovely, but the service was the jewel of the evening.  The young couple wanted a short, but sweet service and they got their wish, but those 20 or 30 minutes were packed with love and affirmation.  Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, co-workers, and friends witnessed the service offering support.  The best man and brother to the groom gave the toast.  He brought tears to many eyes when he ended the toast by telling the grooms how much he loved his "2 brothers."  Admitting I was one of saps looking for a tissue.

I was enjoying myself and had just finished my chocolate cupcake when both grooms came over to say hello.  One of the grooms gave me a very warm hug and then looked at me with a questioning look.  Of course Natalie, my ticket to this shindig, had taken this moment to be somewhere else.  I stood there looking awkward as I explained who I was and why I was there.  The newlyweds just smiled.  Natalie of course showed up right after they had left.

The wedding and reception were a wonderful way to spend the evening.  Having Natalie by my side brought back so many memories of our own Commitment Ceremony.  We did not invite a lot of family because we knew they wouldn't come.  Times have changed for the better, and to see such a supportive family was heart warming and affirming.  Soon same-sex marriages will be recognized throughout the country, but will be called marriage.  Wishing Ryan and Justin so much love.