I'm in Virginia....Finally

I am on vacation this week. And I am glad to be home in Virginia. But it was a nightmare trying to get here. Because I was on call Friday night, I had to leave in the afternoon on Saturday. But because of the weather, my flight was delayed leaving. Then, I got to Chicago and had missed my connection. So, I tried to get on the next available flight, which was full. That was when I first got mad because the gate agent in St. Louis told me there were plenty of seats. So they were going to reroute me back to St. Louis, then on to Virginia. But that flight was late too, so I decided to stay in Chicago and take a chance on getting off the stand-by list for the later flight. But when I didn't get on the plane back to St. Louis, they must have assumed I was a terrorist, and so they took me off the stand-by list. So it was 8:00 pm, and I was stranded in the Chicago airport, and they told me, "Sorry, it was weather delay, we can't pay for a hotel room for you." So I started yelling, and then I started crying, and they still wouldn't pay. I finally got the room paid for, but it was a nightmare end to an already bad week. But I am finally in Virginia!

Today I decided to go to the LYS here. It was a great shop. They had every color imaginable of Lorna's Lace, and Koigu. I ended up buying some had painted cotton sock yarn. I will post a picture later. I am almost finished with the french market bag. I just need to attached the handles, and then felt it. I will take some pictures of that tomorrow. Next step is to start the back of the shapely tank.

The other news is that my sister in law said to me yesterday - "I want to learn to do that." Her sister stood there and laughed in her face, but I encouraged her that she could, and maybe I will teach her this week, or find her a class. Or maybe my mom could teach her, she did an okay job teaching me. Anyway, I am off to fix those handles. More later, with pictures.

Can't sleep

Well, I'm at the hospital and I am on call. It has been a realtively slow night, but I got a phone call at 2:50 am. Now it is 4:30 and I can't sleep! So why not post to my blog.

I have not had a very good week. It must be in the air, cause it seems that there are lots of bloggers out there who feel the same. All for different reasons, but now it is the weekend! Hopefully it will turn around. I am on vacation next week and I will be going home to Virginia later this afternoon. I can't wait to have absolutely no responsibilities.

What shall I do -- I think I'll knit! I will definitely take my tank, and hopefully get it finished. I have finished the front. I thought I might do the 3 needle bind off, but it calls to be seamed, so maybe I'll just do it that way. I haven't decided. I'll post a picure a little later. I bought some yarn last weekend to make a sweater from Knitter's magazine. (I'll have to post it later cause I can't figure out how to copy the picture on this Mac). Maybe I'll take that and start it. I picked up a great light blue cotton yarn last weekend. I think it will be great. And maybe I'll try and tackle some socks while I am there. I haven't scoped out the LYS at home, cause I wasn't knitting the last time I was there, so I'll have to do that as well. Hopefully I'll be abe to keep you all up to date while I am gone. Well, I better try to get some sleep.

Another beautiful day in St. Louis

I can't complain about the weather at all. And I am here blogging from work, which I feel guilty about. But I am on call tonight, so I need some down time. I gifted my baby blanket today, and they liked it a lot. They couldn't believe that I had made it. And the baby was born on Sunday, so they were going to wrap him up in it to take him home. But I have been struggling with white fuzz all over my black shirt today after carrying the blanket. Oh well. It is usually cat hair!

On the tank front, I am about halfway finished with the front. It has been moving along mighty quickly. I am glad of that. And I am contemplating finding a nice cardigan pattern and buying some more green cotton fleece to make a set. But I guess I'll need to find the same lot to match it. They have a lacy cardigan on the white lies web site that they suggest going with it, but I think I would rather have a non-lacy cardigan. Oh well. I will keep perusing the free patterns, and the mags that I have.

There are so many things that I want to knit. I think I may get some of the knitpicks summer yarns to knit up the vintage cardigan from the spring IWK. Well, enough rambling for today. I need to get back to this silly spreadsheet that is taking away my attention. I should be writing some of my article, but I can't get motivated. I don't really like to write. But I better get to it.

A busy weekend

Well, I got home from being on call Friday night with another package from my secret pal. She is the best. Here are all the goodies I got.

Two packages of hot chocolate mix. The new bookbookbook from Yarn Harlot, At Knit's End (which didn't make it to the picture). Three skeins of brown sheep cotton fleece in a beautiful green. Green is not a color that I would normally buy for myself, but I love it. It also came with a pattern for shapely tank from Whites Lies designs. So after I finished my baby blanket yesterday,

I cast on for the tank!


Other than all the knitting, I spent most of the weekend outside. The weather here in St. Louis was absolutely gorgeous. Mid 70's, no humidity. I spent some of both days in the park, reading and knitting. Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Pre-tax day

This is what Sam did while I finished my taxes today.

Wish I could have been laying in the sun too. But, I am such a procrastinator. And I hate taxes. I mean who likes them. But they don't take any out of my fellowship stipend, and I have to pay estimated ones, quarterly. Come to find out I underestimated my state taxes by half! So I have a hefty bill to pay. Oh well, it is my own fault.

On the knitting front, here is the scarf that I made for my mom.

It is made of Plymouth Eros, on size 13 needles. It is my own pattern. This is not a great picture, but I'm not sure how to make it better. I knit it on the bias. I hope she likes it. I had knit one for my research mentor at Christmas, and she liked it, so I decided to knit her one. I will give it to her when I go home in a few weeks as an early mother's day gift.

Well, the baby blanket is coming along nicely, but hard to take a picture of on the circular, so you'll have to wait til I am finished. Until then, more knitting.

By the way, I think I have found the sweater I am going to make. It is the Vintage pink cardigan in the spring IW. Now to find a good yarn. Always open for suggestions.

Alright, I'll give the posting another try

Well, ever since I lost my post, I have been hesitant to post. But here goes.

My trip to L.A. was good. I ate lots of good food, and spent too much money. But not much shopping. I did have some willpower. Tuesday night I went to Trader Vic's. It was pouring down rain and the restaurant was in the hotel. I saw Paula Abdul. She was sitting across the restaurant, talking about music. Wednesday I spent the day in my conference. Walked around Beverly Hills on Wednesday and window shopped on Rodeo Drive. Too bad I couldn't afford anything. Went to bed early Wednesday night. Thurday night we went to a restaurant called Asia de Cuba, a cuban-asian fusion restaurant. It was very good. While waiting for dinner on Thursday, we had an exciting time in out hotel lobby. I got a great deal through hotwire, and we stayed at the Beverly Hilton - and for only $136 a night. They were having an event for the Starlight, Starbright foundation to honor Steven Spielberg. We saw Carl Lewis, Tamyra Gray, Paul Hamm, and Teri Hatcher! She is so skinny. We had fun, and didn't see any other stars. And for some reason my friend and I must have seemed to fit in so we were able to stand there and see what was going on. Well, back to the restaurants. Friday we went to Crustacean. I had the best piece of sea bass I have ever eaten. And they have a fish tank like a river in the entry way. It was really cool.

The conference ended on Saturday, and then I went to Manhattan Beach. I stayed with a friend. We had a nice dinner at an italian place. I had a great walk along the beach too. Sunday was easter and we went to the sunrise service. It was really great. We hung around the beach for the morning, then I had to come back home. The weather was lousy the first few days. And it never was above 70 degrees. But most of the days it was in the 50s. Not what I expected for southern california.

On the knitting front, I have finished my scarf for my mom. And I am more than halfway finished with my baby blanket. Hopefully she won't have the baby before I can finish it. I hope to get some done tonight. I will take pictures tomorrow when the sun is out. I am wanting to knit a sweater for myself, but don't know what to knit. I'll have to peruse some magazines and some blogs. Hope all in blogland are doing well.

I have been remiss

Just cause my blogging has been sparse doesn't mean I haven't been knitting. I have lots to blog about, but I am just going to give a short update. I need to let you all know about my adventure in California. I also went to New Jersey this past weekend to see my sis, Ashley. We had a good weekend. I'll tell more about this too, but I have been knitting. I finished my mom's scarf, and I am almost half finished with a baby blanket for my friend. I will add more later, and promise to post some pictures, but for now, back to the basketball game. It is getting exciting.