Chuppah Update

I have one panel of the chuppah finished. The 392 edge stitches are strung on waste yarn waiting for the other panels to be finished so that I can graft them together.

I strung some corner stitches onto a chopstick here in an effort to show the lace pattern, but the pattern really won't show until the entire thing is finished, grafted and blocked.

The Start of a Home

I've been to several Jewish weddings, and have been told about various traditions by friends. One of my favorite traditions is the chuppah. It is usually a canopy of some sort suspended on four poles. As I understand, the canopy represents a couple's first home together, and the open sides symbolize hospitality towards friends and family.

I love this symbolism, so I'm excited to carry this tradition in our wedding, too. For some reason, it's one thing that I started turning over in my head months ago before many people even knew there was going to be an impending wedding. I had been watching Franklin, of The Panopticon blog, work on a lace christening shawl for his baby niece. He designed it from scratch, using different lace patterns to symbolize different things, then handknit the entire thing from start to finish. I was floored by the thought, the beauty, the effort. A labor of love.

By the time he posted photos of the finished product, I knew that I wanted our chuppah to be a project like that. Something of magnitude, something symbolic; a labor of love.

At first, the image in my head looked very strongly like the shawl linked above. However, I was pretty sure I wasn't quite up to designing and knitting something like this from scratch, and I was concerned about running up against a deadline since I'm not the world's fastest knitter. I thought about the significance behind a chuppah some more, and decided that I'd like to make something we could use in our home to keep the symbol of home. A quilt? A wallhanging? Bedspread? What about a tablecloth? When I thought of it, I knew that it was right. Not only would a tablecloth be used in the home, it's also a symbol of hospitality just like the open sides of the canopy.

I started looking around for a shawl pattern I could use as a tablecloth. I found many that were interesting, but didn't seem quite right; I was worried that some of them might be too thick and bumpy to make a good tablecloth, and still worried that I wouldn't be able to actually complete a huge lace project. After asking around on a few message boards on Ravelry, someone suggested the pattern for Hannah's Tablecloth from Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice.



As soon as I saw the photos online, I knew this was my pattern. It's delicate and lacy, but the large linen panels mean that there isn't an insurmountable amount of knitting and that it will lie relatively flat on the table. Furthermore, the way the elements fit together, by completing each square separately and only grafting together at the very end, this is a project that can be split up and worked on by multiple people. Mom can knit a square or two in Texas, my roommate, Sheila, can work on bits and pieces. Like any good home, it's a community project, and a project of love.

I ordered the supplies and received them this past week.


I've marked the first napkin, whipstitched the edge, picked up and knit the whipstitches, and knit the first three rows. At this point, it looks more like a giant showercap than anything; the lace bunched up on the needles with the linen napkin ballooning out from the bottom. One trick with knitting lace is that it really won't look like much more than a snarl of yarn until the entire project has been completed and blocked.

So for now, as with many labors of love, I start with a few steps and a lot of faith. Eventually, with the help of loved ones and some time, this will become a home.

The Rumors are True

As of this morning, Matthew and I are officially engaged. (I say officially, since this probably won't come as much surprise to anyone...) What started as vaguely knowing each other from class turned into chatting last summer because we were both out of school and bored, turned quickly into writing long emails and getting to know each other the old fashioned way...by letter...while he traveled around the US shortly after we met. Soon, we were pretty inseparable, and this seemed like a forgone conclusion within a few short months. We're really excited to be able to share the news with everyone else at long last!

As engagement gifts, we decided to choose rings for each other. We wanted to have some similar elements but have them unique to our own styles. They are both the same metal and have the same stone cut, which we decided beforehand, but we picked out each others' independently. We felt that for us, both purchasing rings for each other and wearing them was a good symbol of equal partnership.

Since we both had rings for each other, the cat was kind of out of the bag on the whole "surprise" element. We had planned to spend the day sight-seeing in Rhode Island as an anniversary celebration, exchange rings sometime while out, and tell everyone when we got home. This was not destiny. First I got a flat tire last night, so we needed to deal with that. This morning, it was pouring rain in much of New England, so we decided that driving to RI in a huge storm was not the best idea. While waiting for inspiration to strike, Matt was helping me fix my work computer that I have already managed to bungle up. I went out to the kitchen to get a drink, thinking we would be going out later to celebrate so not really thinking about the engagement. When I came back from the kitchen, I was slightly startled to find Matt on the floor in full on-bended-knee proposal. About 15 minutes later, I vaguely wondered what had happened to my drink, and found it sitting on the bed...miraculously upright and not a drop spilled!

We're both really excited, and are looking forward to enjoying the process with family and friends. I feel incredibly lucky to have found a partner that makes me laugh, is devoted and supportive of me in every way, and with whom I work well as a team. I can only hope that I'm half as good for him as he is for me. ;)


Matt's ring was custom made by a company I really recommend, as they were a pleasure to work with: Krikawa Designs. They specialize in an ancient japanese sword-making technique called mokume-gane, which is what gives the metal its swirly appearance. The diamond is a small step-cut diamond chosen to match my stone.

My ring was actually custom-ordered from Kay Jewelers. I wanted a lower setting, and have been in love with an Asscher Cut diamond forever, so Matt had them change the setting on a band we both liked to be lower, and replaced the original princess cut diamond with an Asscher they special-ordered for us. I'd recommend Kay to anyone; they were a huge pleasure to work with.

You can see more photos than you probably ever want at our brand new website: (soon to be) sachsfam.org