The search for the perfect wedding knits

Photo from Andi Satterlund • Ravelry• blog post

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, I am getting married this coming October. I’ve already got my dress hanging up in the closet, along with my belt and dancing shoes. And then, because I’m a knitter and tend to think about life in relation to knits and purls, I started mulling over what type of knits I wanted to have at my wedding.

Opera gloves wouldn’t work – they would overpower my dress, which is a vintage-inspired delicate and romantic a-line. I don’y want to cover my arms, they’re one of my best features, and it would draw attention away from the embroidery along the bust of the dress. And I didn’t think I would wear the gloves again, either.

So then I considered a shawl. A gorgeous lace shawl to throw over my shoulders in the late fall evening chill, or to pose for a few photos with. But that won’t work either because my dress has adorable little satin bridal buttons running from the nape of my beck to my natural waist, ending with a perfect ivory bow from my belt. I couldn’t bear to cover those up, no matter how pretty the shawl was. Which meant by default that the shawl wouldn’t make it into any pictures.

I came to the conclusion that any item I wore – short of a garter – would cover up the elements of my dress that made me love it so much.  I wanted to wear something knit because it’s such an important part of me, but I needed to re-think when and where I was going to wear it. Clearly the photos were out: this was going to be a getting ready garment, or something I wore toward the end of the evening to stay warm.

A lovely knitter in my Ravelry group had offered to knit me a shawl for my wedding, so I am already covered there. She’s so talented with lace that I know she’ll knit something more beautiful than I ever could. But it would still be October in Chicago, which means I would need a sweater to stay warm since temperatures can dip into the 40s. Given the wacky weather we’ve had lately, I didn’t want to take any chances.

So I started looking at cardigans. I made a list of criteria that it had to meet. Once you see this list, you’ll start to wonder why I didn’t just design it myself:

• Must look good worn open – this is huge, as most knit cardigans don’t 
• Cropped
• High crew neck
• Long sleeves
• Looks good in black
• No heavier than light worsted weight
• Vintage feel
• Lace
• Age-appropriate

See? Lots of things.

I tweeted my lament and the darling Kristen came to my rescue, suggesting Agatha (pictured above) by Andi Satterlund. It was perfect, everything I was looking for in a cardigan. I snatched up the pattern and have now begun the exhaustive search for the perfect yarn.

Any suggestions on a great light- to mid-worsted weight yarn in black? Bonus points if I don’t need to alter skeins, and it’s machine washable.

Is it wrong that I’ve spent more time deliberating over the cardigan I will wear for an hour or two than I did over the dress that I’ll wear all day? Or does that just mean I love to knit?