Memorial Day Weekend

This is not turning out to be the weekend that I had in mind...

I thought that we were going to be going to Jason's sister Laura's house in Mt. Pleasant, TN but some unforseeable events occured and therefore the party has been moved...which is fine with me of course, but I just want it to be on the record that I had my dishcloths finished on time!!!


Now, I can live with not getting to party this weekend...what I can't live with is NO AIR CONDITIONER. That is right. When I got home from work on Friday I walked into my not so cooled home only to find out that my air conditioner was running, but not doing the all important task of cooling. In Mississippi in May this is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. Needless to say I've not been spending a grand amount of time there, mainly sleeping (which is managable due to some high powered ceiling fans). However, thanks to my landlord and the lovely folks at Franklin Heating & Cooling I should be all set up tomorrow. If not, this may be my last blog due to heat exhaustion...if you don't hear back from me soon, check the obits.

The Great Outdoors

No, this is not a mirage you are seeing. This is me sitting out in front of a tent! Believe it or not! I am not the outdoorsy type at all, but my fella is, so one makes compromises...he goes shopping with me, I camp with him. You can't tell from the photograph I am busily working on a crochet dishcloth for Jason's oldest sister, Laura. She is having a birthday party on Saturday and I am going to be equipped with all of my gift this time...there will be no promises of things to come like I did on Mother's Day. I was actually able to finish said dishcloth ( I will post photos later, when they are ALL complete) but I didn't start another because I didn't think that Laura would appreciate opening her lovely handmade gift and it being slightly reminiscent of bug spray. What can I say, I am a buffet for the insect population. :-(

Now, you may be asking yourself, WHY? Why was Mary Heather out camping? This is why:
Jason was taking part in a mountain bike race. He is quite outdoorsy, I must say...But all in all, a fun time was had by all. Thankfully it wasn't too hot and other than a round with a flying beetle and some disconcerting noises by some turkeys in the middle of the night, everything went A-OK. Yes, I may have a biology degree, but I still don't want a beetle as big as my hand landing on my shoulder, OK!!! I mean, there is a reason I studied PLANTS!!!

I hope to have my dishcloths finished on Friday, a whole day early! I will post their school pictures when they are complete.

Baby Bib for Brinn

My friend, Liz, had a baby back in December and while I gave her some adorable items for said baby, I had made no handknit for this child. UNTIL NOW. I think that this might be the cutest baby bib in the entire world, and I am not just saying that because I sprained my index finger while knitting the first row.

This bib pattern is from the Mason Dixon knitting book. However, a very talented, and obviously forward thinking gal on the MasonDixonKAL thought of adding the ruffle. Nice idea! She posted how to achieve the ruffle and I quickly took to it. The cast on was an obscene amount of stitches (to me). Since I am very slow at that, it took me about 30 mintes. Due to the fact that I also cast on INCREDIBLY tight, the result was the afore mentioned sprained index finger. Being ever so brave, I was able to push through the pain and accomplish the magnificent handknit. (It's a good thing this kid is cute.)

On a more charitable note, Maria, the demon possessed van driver, is a new knitter and has been inspired to knit blankets for the tots at St. Jude's after our sojourn there last week. She recruited me and then sent her hubby to Tupelo to pick up 2 pounds of love. I don't want her to get too excited when she reads this, but maybe we can borrow the van to deliver the blankets!

Driving in Memphis (Revisited)

I have been informed that I didn't wax poetic enough about the FANTASTIC Memphis driving abilites in a 12 passenger van by one Maria. So let me just say, Maria, you did a FANTASTIC job driving a 12 passenger van in downtown Memphis and on the interstate highways that got us there. I only had to yell at you about 5 times! HOORAY!!!

After our first trip to St. Jude's we parked the big U of M van in downtown Memphis over by the Opheum and trod the street of Beale. We were lusted after by one street vendor (Ha ha ha) before taking our lunch at Rum Boogie where they have fine mac & cheese and not so great corn bread muffins. In the south no less! This is sin. Maria says too much muffin not enough corn...but it is a cool place (with many guitars hanging from the ceiling) and their lunch menu is not to be missed.

After our luncheon, we made the journey back to St. Jude's so that Maria could practice more of her van driving in case she ever decides to take up competitive van racing. The nice man at the gate, obviously knowing that 2 girls in a huge van is just as close to a disaster waiting to happen as you can get, let us park right inside the gate. I ushered us into the gift shop POST HASTE where we touched just about everything in the store before making our final selections...very nice gift shop, people! After this shopping frenzy, we went over to the "Gold Domed Building", saw the tomb of Danny and Rose Marie Thomas, and toured their facilites (being the important scientific people that we are).

Now, no road trip can be complete without the stop for empty calories and our story is no different. Southaven has a Cold Stone Creamery and it was calling our names. I think that it called my name first, as most establishments of that sort seem to know my FULL NAME, but Maria's must be second on the list as she had no qualms about pulling that van into their very small parking lot. (There might be a side story about the Starbucks, but I've been sworn to secrecy.) We had a very tasty concoction and I am happy to report that mine was labeled 'sinless' while being tasty at the same time. Maria had a fine strawberry shortcake ice cream thingy. The ice cream server boy knows how to sell ice cream to two road tripping girls such as ourselves...he talked me into adding strawberries to mine when I am not even sure I wanted strawberries...hmmm.

Field Trip (We Made it Back Alive)

Today was mine and Maria's field trip to St. Jude's and I am proud to report that we made it to and from our destination unscathed. I have to say that St. Jude's is really a wonderful and inspirational place. If you are ever provided with an opportunity to tour their facilities it is really an opportunity that you should take. They also have a very nice gift shop. :-)

I set out on our travels with the best of intentions of finishing one of the two dishtowels I need for the remainder of my mother's day/birthday presents...As you can see, that didn't last very long:

Yes, that is about 1 inch of a dish towel that should be about 20 inches long when complete. Seeing as how today is Friday and I have to make 2 of these by Sunday it looks like my grandmother and my aunt will be receiving 2 cloths a piece along with the promise of a matching dishtowel to follow.
This is the sand stitch pattern that I posted about in my last blog. I really like the way that it turns out and for the most part it is a mindless pattern. These cloths are relatively small...they are about the perfect size to fit in the palm of your hand, so they knit up very quickly.

On another note, I have really enjoyed going to this Mason Dixon Knit-a-long site! You should check out all of the great items that these ladies are knitting from this Mason Dixon Knitting book. If you are a knitter and you don't have it by now, you really should RUN out and get it. The collection of ballband dishcloths on this site are making my one feel lonely. Once I get finished with my current dishtowels I am going to be purchasing many skeins of Sugar n' Cream. MANY.

I Really Should Be Knitting...

Since I have already given my mother her Mother's Day present, I am not really planning on knitting her anything, but I am in the process of making something for my grandmother, Mimi, and my aunt, Tracy (She is going to be having her birthday on Mother's Day this year and as my favorite aunt, I didn't want to leave her out). I like this sand stitch kitchen set, so I am making one set for each of them. So far I have two and a half of the cloths made. I am averaging about one per day during my tv watching in the evenings, but at this pace I am not sure that I will be ready by Sunday!

Excitingly enough, on Friday, my boss is actually letting a co-worker and myself travel outside of the building! (Our destination: St. Jude's to deliver some assay plates) While she is driving us I may just bring my knitting, so all hope for finishing my project in time is not lost. (She has vowed not to let me do any driving because she doesn't think that I will transition very well from a VW Beetle to a 12 passenger van. She routinely drives an Expedition, who am I to argue??) We will also be dropping off some traveling scholars at the airport on this our maiden jaunt of official business. She keeps saying that she can't believe they are letting us out of the building with the van key and the gas card...I say we are completely reliable girls!!!

Not a Whole Lot of Knitting Going On

Well, it's been a while since my last post as I have been a fairly busy girl. There was a day of taking my mother to the dentist and then I was in Sunny Florida. I was however able to produce these lovely pieces of dishcloth art for my bf.


I must give credit for the alien cloth to Nicole at purpleduckie.com (where there are some oh-so-cute dishcloth patterns-i see the dragonfly dishcloth and butterfly dishcloth in my future) while the other two patterns are from "The Best of Lily Dishcloths."

I can't say that I have been producing much else as far as knitwear goes. I did make myself a potholder/hotpad during my 4 hour stay at my mother's dental appointment and later a tea towel (which I quite like). I will try and get my act together and post a photo of both of these, but that will require me to weave in the ends. FYI: I hate to weave in ends...probably I am not the only one. Maybe with some fancy camera action I can avoid this. :-)