...when the repairman servicing your car advises you:
- you may not want to spend this much based on the value of the car
- you can get part of this service done some where else cheaper
- this may not be ready today


So I'm getting the minimum done, and now have to find another place to get an estimate on the rest of the work.


**sigh**


I finished the sunshine scarf last night (well, I still have to weave in the ends). I'll post some pictures soon.



Oh, and completely unrelated, but I am watching TV while blogging (yay for working from home), and I just have to mention how much I HATE the Febreze commercials with the people sniffing their cars and rugs and furniture. Why would anyone want to inhale all of those chemicals into your body?! And Febreze does not smell good, it smells like chemicals. I will grant that it does get rid of bad smells, but it just replaces those with a very chemically smell, not something to be deeply inhaled.

It seems Ms. Yarn Harlot is speaking 20 minutes away from where I will be getting married, on the day that I will be getting married. I've been dying to get to one of these events (I know, I know, there will be more), but it seems that every event that has been close by or within a several hour drive is impeded by something. Class, my own wedding. Bah!

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At some point when my sanity returns (maybe, say after the wedding), and my skin has stopped breaking out in random incurable rashes (eek! need to look nice for wedding pictures, but evil cycle of worrying about skin causes more rashes and more rashes causes more worrying), and my car is 100% drivable (hopefully, by Friday afternoon), and school work eases (HA! that one is never happening!!), I'll maybe have a neuron left to devote to knitting and blogging!

Have you been to the Mochimochi blog yet? Considering how dull I've been over here, I thought I'd send you somewhere cute for a little bit.


A knitted bathtub? Knitted toilet paper? A love gun?!


Very cute stuff that I covet. I've purchased a few of the patterns and maybe someday will get around to trying them out.



If you left a comment recently and it didn't show up, please let me know. I just found a few that got sucked into the Spam folder by mistake.

The Bridal Party at the Rehearsal Dinner

The wedding is over, which is so difficult to fathom because it seems that so much time and effort was devoted in the last year to planning and preparing, that for it to be over in the blink of an eye is crazy.

Everything was absolutely wonderful. Because I didn't go Bridezilla and because I wasn't concerned with perfection, I was able to relax and enjoy the day. I wasn't too nervous or emotional. In fact, I was smiling (and almost laughing) throughout most of the ceremony.


Photographer's pose.


Super-happy!


The Guys


Mandy and Me


Aisling and Ellen


Dancing with the Parents


First Dance
Pictures courtesy of my new sister-in-law!!



A list of some of my favorite memories...

• Listening to our friends read two lovely poems and play one of my favorite songs ("Speed of Trees" by Ellis Paul)
• Seeing the groomsmen peeking around Kevin's head watching as we did the ring exchange
• Listening to Kevin's brother give the perfect best man's toast (short and funny, but also meaningful) and hearing Mary shout out "that was our tree!"
• Giggling and laughing at dinner with the bridal party
• Kevin and I performing a live rendition of "Meet the Mets" for the bridal party (which was recorded and may appear on YouTube, which I may link to eventually)
• Eating lots of yummy food
• Looking around seeing family and friends enjoying plates piled high with food and working hard on their wedding quizzes
• Dancing with my dad while Kevin danced with his mom
• Our first dance to "Without You" by Motley Crue, which garnered a great round of applause from the crowd and then everyone holding up their cell phones like at a concert
• Not missing one fast dance
• Getting a good workout to "Cottoneye Joe" with my new sister-in-law
• Doing the "Electric Slide" with family and friends
• Doing the "Mummer's Strut" with my family (if you aren't from the Philly area, it is hard to understand the "Mummer's Strut")
• Dancing to "Baby Got Back" with my neighbor from when I was a kid
• Doing the "Chicken Dance" with Kevin and his grandfather
• Singing "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me" at the top of my lungs
• Watching Kevin do "the lift" from Dirty Dancing at the end of the night to "I've had the Time of My Life"

Thank you for all of the congratulations wishes and lovely compliments on the wedding pictures. When I have more, I'll post them!
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Yes, patient readers, knitting content has returned (in part because I didn't fall asleep on the couch this evening like I've done every evening for the past several weeks).


First we have a completed Sunshine Scarf...

The date stamp was when I remembered to take a picture, not even when I finished it. It had been completed for a few days before the picture was taken. It is very soft and lovely, yet I fear it will never get cold enough to need scarves this season.


Second, we have a foot...

The gator seemed to be lacking something, so I knit him a foot. Thus far he is a single footed gator, but so long as I didn't lose my notes for the foot, I'll try to whip up the other three.


The latest project on the needles...

An entrelac scarf of my own! After seeing how pretty Cordelia's was, I wanted to give it a try. I followed the directions in "Scarf Style" to get started. I would be finished with this if it weren't for the falling asleep after dinner problem mentioned above.


Well, that catches us up on the knitting here at the home of Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. The second STR Snicket sock was started and frogged, and now sits lonely. I'm still mad that the first sock is barely fitable. It seems pretty clear that I won't finish this pair before the next RSC shipment arrives.



And for good measure, I'm sure you've missed the adventures of the hammy. So here are some recent and not-so-recent pics.



Artistic hamster.



Fastest hamster ever!



The hamster chewed a hole in the screen at the top of his cage, so we plugged it with some hamster accessories. He seems to love sleeping up in the top part and loves climbing through the tube. We might invest in a Habitrail for him.






Smell ya later!

Courtesy of Mandy... here is the bride and groom's rendition of "Meet the Mets."

If you want to see more photos, check out my wedding Flickr group.

As soon as I opened the latest RSC kit, I knew I loved it. The yarn is purply and black. The darkness does make it a bit difficult to knit with in low light, but the overall effect of the colors is gorgeous. This is definitely a skein I would have picked for myself (although I probably would have not included the spiders).





The pattern for Lenore is also called Lenore and is by known other than the Yarn Harlot. Unlike the last pattern (blech!!), I actually kind of like this one, although I do have a pair of socks that have a similar lace pattern. The pattern is super easy and very easy to memorize, and for being on small needles (I'm not sure what size I'm using since the Knitpicks circulars aren't labeled. It seems oddly between a 1 and a 2).





I finished the first sock in four days and have started the second sock. I mentioned to Cordelia in an email that I think my lack of knitting over the past month was from wedding stress because now that that is gone I managed to whip out a 4 day sock, which is pretty impressive for me, especially with no sitting at home all day knitting sessions.


Pictures after work!