revisiting

In my very first post here on the Sparrow--which seems like so long ago--I showed you this little ring pillow-substitute that I'd tossed together.  I thought the thing was cute, and it went over quite well at the Salvage Bride workshop, but I knew almost before it was even done that it wasn't the right ring-holding-thing for our wedding.

I want to say that I've been puzzling over the matter ever since, but the truth is, I've had other, more pressing things to puzzle over.  I'd kind of forgotten about the whole thing until a few days ago, when I had a teeny-tiny eureka moment.  I remembered that a few winters ago, I made about a dozen felted wool bowls, a few of which are still kicking around our place.

No, they're not super-fancy, but I like them.  And my man likes them.  And they're kind of--us.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight when I was knitting and felting these in late 2008 to make them nice and shallow, in order to properly display a pair of small-but-important rings.  So, I picked the best of the bowls and decided to make a little cushion to tuck inside it.

Over the weekend, we found some fabric to play with--actually, my partner-in-crime found it, but I'm going to take partial credit.  The pattern is called "Key Tree Yellow Plume" and it's by Tula Pink for Moda.  It looks a little bit like this:

I think it's cute, and if you like it, too, you can find it in this Etsy shop, among other places.

I've already been very up front with you all about my miserable sewing skills, but one of the few things in my repertoire is, in fact, tiny pillows.  I sat in the kitchen and sewed while my man cooked dinner.  It took about twenty minutes, and while it's not perfect, I think it will do just fine.  I still haven't gotten the rest of the thing figured out, but I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track.

I'm going to take a moment now to say that if you're a knitter and you've never made a felted bowl, then it's time to get down to business.  It will be one of the easiest--and most fulfilling--little things you ever make.  Go to ravelry.com and get yourself an account, if you haven't got one.  You'll find plenty of patterns there for felted bowls, boxes, and everything else.

(And if you aren't a knitter, and you live in the Seattle Metro area, I will gladly exchange one half-hour "intro to knitting" for a small cup of coffee and a cupcake with pink or yellow frosting.  The ball is officially in your court.)

With all that said, I'm still not absolutely sold on the whole "rings in a felted bowl" thing.  I kind of want one of these:

(from Pomp & Plumage)

And I'm having a hard time not just ponying up for one of these:

(from Paloma's Nest)

Really, though, I know that we don't need either of those.  The details of our wedding don't need to look like something in a magazine.  They should look like who we are and what we do.  There are some finishing touches that still need to be figured out, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with what we've got...