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I don’t know what this is actually called; my dad was a draftsman for an architectural firm and I remember seeing him sitting at a table, with blueprints spread in front of him and a carmine pencil in his right hand, counting electrical outlets. With each touch of the red pencil on an outlet symbol, he’d click the thing.
here's how you use it
I keep it in the drawer with my other miscellaneous stuff next to the couch; now and then I see it and think “maybe I’ll use that to count rows” but of course I don’t. My dad died in 1982, and this is one of 2 things I have, of his. If you know what this is called, let me know! It’s probably just called a counter. 
But I like old things like this, old machines.
For a bit of knitted content, since that’s the ostensible reason for this blog, I set aside my circle socks to finish (or at least almost finish) Marnie’s wedding shawl. Here’s how it looks now, with the heel flap. I just adore the color changes.
heel flap done, ready to pick up gusset stitches
And finally, since I’ve mentioned that Marnie’s wedding is handmade, I thought I’d show you a bit of her invitation. She is a print-maker and artist and book artist, so she put it all together for a truly unique wedding invitation. Guests received a giant mailing tube in the mail; inside was a large woodblock print of the wedding cabin, done in the style of the old WPA National Parks posters. It’s amazing. She carved the blocks by hand, of course, and printed them all one at a time.
Also in the tube was a small handmade book providing all the details – the when, where, how, what else to see, etc. It’s so charming I wanted to show you a couple of things from it:
adorable, right? this is the front cover of the book.
When you open the book, you get the charming story of the beginning of Tom and Marnie’s life together. She handset the type:
the top of the page (click to enlarge, and you can read it)
the bottom of the page
Then there are a few pages of specific information, followed by the schedule of events for the wedding day. I draw your attention to one part of that page:
look in the red box. are they cute? YES.
I love this. I was never clever enough, or self-confident enough, to think about any options beyond the norm. It worked, and that was good enough!
But isn’t that adorable? Really? It’s not just me, right? She also included unique postcards in each tube for the RSVPs. Each postcard featured a great old woodblock print of the WPA National Parks. Ever the artist, she created a flickr set to show all the responses. They’re often quite wonderful; click here to see them.
We’re dying here in NYC; today it hit 102 in Central Park. Lest you southerners or westerners scoff “102, big deal!” keep in mind that people here don’t have central air, for the most part. They have little window units, if they have anything at all. My husband was telling me that when he first moved here, people used to leave their apartments and sleep in Central Park when it was too hot, but then it became too dangerous to do that.
Stay cool, yo.
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it's nice to share! mom was right!
Oh it’s totally adorable! And so creative! I’d never come up with any of that in a million years. I can’t wait to see your pictures especially one of her in the dress you made for her. And so cute she proposed to him!
We’re getting the 102 you had tomorrow but our weathermen keep pointing out it will be dry heat as opposed to humid heat. Seems to me 102 dry or humid will not be fun… Do you have window units?
Your socks are beautiful! Good luck with the shawl.
I had to co Alexandria again – 217 sts! -because I made the mistake of trying to do the set up row too late in the evening and I got off 1 st so it was easier to start all over. There are 4 pattern sections and 8 markers so I did the pm on the last row of the ribbing which made the set up a row A LOT easier
On her own blog, Laura just said ..Pretty in Pink
OH…..too bad about starting over, but what a great idea to place the markers on the last row of ribbing! How did you think of that!
Absolutely fantastic invitations! Truly creative! Today I hermited in the bedroom, onlyroomwith a/c…tomorrow’s not suppose to be as bad, but still in the upper 90′s
On her own blog, Tammy just said ..Buttons
I’m a bit worried about tomorrow, even though it’ll be a little less scorching; at 5pm my coworkers are giving me a big going-away part ON THE ROOF OF A HOTEL in midtown. Part of the roof has a little canopy, so we’ll all be underneath it, panting and drinking. Here’s to a bit of relief!
That is a wonderful wedding invitation! Marnie is obviously wildly creative – isn’t it fun!
I had a very routine but perfectly happy wedding, but Meg is another creative one. She and Jeff had a Renaissance wedding. Not only were they and the whole wedding party dressed in Renaissance costumes, but so were almost all of the guests. We had a fantastic time – only wedding I ever really had plain old fun at. (And Meg wears her wedding dress at least twice each year to go to Ren Fests.) Oh, well, we just aren’t all creative alike. I’m glad we share the great gift of creative daughters!
You’re so right about us not being all creative alike; my oldest daughter teaches 1st grade and she blows me away with the creative things she does with and for her kids. Things I’d never think of in a million years. It’s really wonderful, getting to see that in your kids, isn’t it.
Did you dress in a Ren costume too?! I’ll bet that was a lot of fun….
And a hear, hear to routine but perfectly happy weddings, especially when they result in a happy marriage!
love those unique invitations. i am sure the wedding will be a wonderful time!
On her own blog, gibknitty just said ..Runway On Broadway
thanks! i’m sure it will be too, no matter what the weather does. i just hope it’s not as blistering hot as it is here, this week.
… the invitations are just adorable… how clever she is! and you must use that beautiful old counter for knitting… it’s perfect
thanks pip – i love that beautiful old counter a lot. one of these days i might figure out how to easily use it in mid-knit.
[...] you look back at this post you’ll see how well Marnie captured the lodge in her wedding invitation print!) wild and [...]