Work in Progress Wednesday v.95

Okay, guilty as charged.  Y'all were right when you laughed (albeit very kindly and gently) at me when I said something silly like, "Now that we're engaged (!), I'll have plenty of time to get back to stuff like knitting and blogging."  Yeah, right.

Over the last two weeks, we've set a date (Yay!), had it bashed (Boo!), then set another (Yay!) and again struck down (Boo!), followed closely by 3 more dates (Yay, Boo, Yay, Boo, Yay, Boo, respectively).  Now we're trying on another.  Sixth time's a charm, right?  If we could just find a pastor who has time to marry us, we'd be all set.  And then I'll have time for stuff like knitting and blogging.  Heh.  Not even I believe that this time around.  But this, I've decided, is a happy sort of problem.  Much happier than Will-we-ever-get-sob!-married???  ... which brings us back to Yay!

And really, I totally managed a teeny bit of knitting.  I finished Narragansett, who I really hope to show you on Friday once I add a slip stitch to my currently Flashdance-friendly neckline, and get 'er blocked.  It's lovely, though.  So soft, and so comfy.

Since I found myself suddenly project-less, and since I had a shiny new pattern from the lovely and talented Eskimimi, I fished a skein of Malabrigo sock (in the Aguas colorway) out of the stash, and cast on for a Nympheas, a light and summery lace scarf.  Here's how it's looking so far...

The pattern is great, really well written and simple, but just complicated enough to keep things interesting.  I'm having a blast knitting it, even though I can only cobble together an hour or two of knitting time a week.

In other news, the invitations are nearly done (or will be as soon as we have a date and venue to put on them), the cake and flowers are sorted, and the guest list is iron-clad.  Sort of.  The current plan is to have a small wedding in the next month or two here in Colorado, then hopefully a bigger party in California this fall.  Fingers crossed!

For more crafty goodness and less wedding angst, head over to Tami's to see what everyone else has been up to in the last week or so.  I'm betting it's something fun.

Cheers!

The Big Reveal

Today's post is what I like to think of as a multi-media extravaganza.  And, if you'll just bear with me, I think it will certainly enhance your post-reading experience.  Please note the youtube video embedded below.

Trust me on this one... Click play, then wait for the video to start to scroll down and read the rest of this entry.  Don't worry, I'll wait.









Is it playing yet?









Okay.  Ready?









We're ENGAGED!  It's a long story, but the main points are these:  On Sunday night, Mr. Right got down on one knee, pulled out the most beautiful ring I've ever seen and asked me to be his wife.  I said yes.  I can honestly say I've never been happier in my life.

The long and detailed version is this:  We've been working on this for a while, but Mr. Right's family wasn't happy about his decision to marry me and he's been trying hard to get them on board.  This has resulted in a whole lotta life stress for all of us, especially him.

Last week everything boiled over, and after discussing things with our pastor, Mr. Right agreed to go away for 48 hours to decide whether we should get finally get married or go our separate ways.  He left on Thursday night.  Needless to say, I was a bit of a basket case.  I knew that at the end of the weekend we would either be engaged or apart for good. No pressure, right?  He planned to come back on Saturday night and let me know his decision.

I muddled through work on Friday, spent some time with some really good (and very patient) friends that evening, then curled up in bed with my laptop and watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey on Saturday.  (Just as an aside -- Love. That. Show.)

Around 5 on Saturday afternoon, he called to tell me he was going to stay where he was for another night.  I was pretty sure this meant we were through, but tried to keep an open mind.  At 7 am on Sunday, while I was getting ready for church, Mr. right turned up in my bathroom and said this:  "You're my one."  I may have swooned just a little bit.

We spent a really fun day together, and while I was cooking dinner, Mr. Right called me over to come look at the view of the mountains with him (to his credit, he did wait until I'd washed the raw chicken gunk off my hands).  When I got there, he said the most wonderful, romantic, sweetest words I'd ever heard and while I was staring at him,  he got down on one knee, produced a jawdroppingly beautiful ring...

(Proof)

And asked me to be his wife.  Contrary to all my best efforts, I immediately burst into tears, then pulled myself together and said yes.  I couldn't have asked for a better proposal, a more perfect ring or a more wonderful guy.

Now comes the part where we live happily ever after.  I can't wait.


ps.  Now also comes the part where life begins to return to normal and I have time for things like knitting and blogging every so often.  Awesome!

pps. I'm also linking up to WIPW today, even though there's not a stitch of knitting in this post, because that's where all my friends hang out.  And Frontier Dreams, too.  Forgive me?

Work in Progress Wednesday v.92

Hey y'all!  I haven't forgotten about you, promise.  I do feel like it's been ages since I've managed a post, though.  Apologies for that.  The truth is, things around here are incredibly stressful at the moment and I haven't had the time or concentration skills to get much knitting done at all.  Boo.

As such, I'm *still* puttering along on Narragansett.  I realized, when I started sleeve 2, that I had done some seriously wonky decreases on sleeve 1 (See distraction and stress, above).  Now I'm having to work hard to match the wonkiness on sleeve 2.

No small feat, but it's coming along.  At this rate, I'll be finished just in time to wear it for the Fall.

Since I have nothing of interest to share knittingwise, I'll attempt to distract you with pretty pictures.  It turns out that there's a place in northeastern Colorado called the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  They take in and care for loads of exotic animals who've been abused and mistreated in some way or another, fix them up and give them cushy lives.  It is, all in all, a totally awesome place.

And they let you come in and wander around on walkways that wind over the animal enclosures.  How cool is that?

So on Saturday, we took our stress-addled selves out to the boonies for an afternoon of predators on parade. 

They have loads of lions (who do lots of yawning on Saturday afternoons)...

And tigers...

And bears.  Oh my!  (Sorry, couldn't resist)

There's even a camel who hangs out with a couple of horses in a pasture.

And several packs of wolves...

But seriously, the grizzly bears had the most personality.  It was so much fun to watch them play and tussle and blow bubbles in their pool...

... without a care in the world.  There's a lesson for me in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, I'm sure some actual knitting has taken place this week over at WIPW.  Go see for yourselves.  For my part, I'll try hard to have something more interesting to show you all next week.

Cheers!