Oh give me a home, where the Frodo-lo roam...

... and the Tweek, and the Mees and Eves play.

Lots of stress lately. Exactly 2 weeks until the wedding. There is no way my shawl is going to get finished with all the other crap I've been working on. Also, I have to say, I just don't want to knit on it. I want to knit socks, or a hat, or work on my sweater or something. Something different. No more lace for me right now. Just no. Maybe I'll finish it on the honeymoon. I just don't want to rush and screw it up.

I've been going through the house in an effort to de-clutter. I've started a "donate this stuff" box and my goal is to fill one box for each floor. If I can do that, then maybe I can do more later. Baby steps. There is some good news however. I finished all the laundry. ALL of it, and now I just have to put it away. That's a big relief for me. The kitchen is also clean, and the living room is making radical progress. Now if I can just convince The Boy to let me get rid of his huge eyesore of a couch, all will be well.

As for the title of this post, it's just a tribute to my sweet kitties. Their daily cuddles have been keeping me sane, and Tweek's recent hyperactivity has been keeping me entertained. Frodo is my buddy boy, always snuggling up for scritches when I get in bed. Evelyn creeps up by my head and chirps in my ear for her own scritching session. Mia splays out on my belly and purrs. And Tweek usually comes by in the morning for a short head scratch. Thanks to their efforts, and the wonderful attention from The Boy, I have to say I'm happy despite all the random stress.

The Wedding Countdown

21 Days. 21 DAYS y'all! Gosh I can't believe it's creeping up. So here are a few updates.

The shawl:
I am officially 4 repeats away from finishing the length of the shawl. Then I will have to knit the border. I really really hope I can finish the damned thing in time. One option is to knit the border later, and just use it borderless for the wedding. We'll see.

Bachelorette Party:
Went out on the town with my maid of honor. It was very fun, and I got my first tattoo. It's a cat doodle that has been kind of a family symbol for a few generations now. I got it a little more stylized and I looooove it. Here we are posing as pirates:

The dress:
It fits! Totally gorgeous too. I got my bustier so now my boobs fill it out better. It's a little gappy on the top, but nothing a little double sided carpet tape can't fix.

The shoes:
I'm so bummed. I got the cutest burgundy heels to wear with my dress. I tried them on and they fit just fine. WELL, I attempted to stand around for 15 minutes the other day during a dress fitting, and I almost died. I can't do heels. So now I'm back to zero on shoes. At least I can still return the heels.

The job hunt:
Don't ask.

The wedding:
Everything is getting done. Mos tthings have been taken care of. Now it's just waiting for the week before, to do the last minute stuff.

Sore Throat Blues

Yeah, I've been sick and at home for the last few days with a wicked bad sore throat. I don't have the fever officially, but there are chills. Chills people! We're keeping a wary eye out for strep throat. I hope it doesn't come down to it, but I suspect otherwise since swallowing burns like fire.

And now, general updates from my life...

Gladys has been joined by at least 10 more sisters! So happy. No photo, since the general grumpiness of sore throat has kept me from the downstairs area in general.

I finished my first project with intarsia, but as it is a gift for a friend I cannot post photos yet. He may see!

Wedding shawl has had no progress, because of crazed school schedule, the sickness, and the gift. However I'm hoping to pick it up this weekend and do at LEAST 2 more pattern repeats. Would like to get 5 done, but hey I get distracted.

The Wedding Scrapbook is coming along nicely. After staring at the 12x12 album and feeling incredibly overwhelmed, I opted for a smaller 8x8 scrapbook and creativity was born. I will take pictures tonight if I think of it. So far, the title page, the "bride" and "groom" pages (which are mostly blank until we get photos of us from the wedding), and The Boy's "The Early Years" page is complete. Since most of our relatives will be meeting us for the first time at the wedding, I thought a few mini-biography pages would be a good idea. I'm going to include a few blank, black pages for guests to sign instead of a guestbook. I thought it would be more meaningful this way, although I am not sure how I want to do them. I don't like the idea of signatures all over the place (too high school scrapbook for my taste), but I'm not sure about how to draw the writing lines. Mom suggested finding a black pen or marker that would show up, since the guests will be signing the page with silver ink. I don't know though, so I'm considering very fine lines drawn in white pencil. Whatevs. I got ... 4 months. Holy shit, only 4 months!? Crap.

And a gratuitous cat photo:

Knitting!

I finally have some knitting progress to show off. I've been working on Eunny Jang's print o' the wave stole to wear during my wedding. So far I've only done a few pattern repeats. Screwed up a whole lot at the beginning so some of that part looks a little wonky. Still, it's coming along a lot nicer now that I'm getting the hang of this lace thing. The color is slightly more ivory than the pic shows, and it's just lovely. Kidsilk Haze in color Pearl.

Wedding Shawl

I finally started Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave shawl to wear with my wedding dress. I'm knitting it with Rowan Kidsilk Haze in color Pearl. So far I've gotten 2 pattern repeats done. 20 to go (I think). I'm not going to knit it symmetrically, I'm just going to knit the shawl until I think it's long enough. I had a lot of problems when I had stitch markers at the beginning of each line repeat. Eventually, after consultation with another knitter, I removed the markers and haven't had any more problems. I guess there were some k2tog's and such that spanned a marker, and I just wasn't realizing this. So yeah, hooray for shawlness. Can't wait to see it blocked when it's finished.