Lots of knitting type stuff

Alright, onto knitting. Things have been kind of nutso around here, so I feel like there hasn't been much done to show. Tommy came home for a very quick stay last weekend and there's been a sporting event every night for the last two weeks. Tomorrow is Hell Day (aka the Big Evil Horrible Track Meet of Doom, aka the worst day of my year), we'll see how it goes.

So, I nearly finished the Atlantis socks on the NC trip. Was part way through the ribbing before it go too dark to knit anymore in the car. So they got finished the next day.
I really like how they turned out. Wow, my ankles look skinny in that photo. Huh.
The detail, is kind of hard to see, but I think it works really well with the colors. I almost finished the Caricia shawl on the trip too. Had started the final repeat while watching some Final Four basketball with the Prints.
It's done now, just needs grafted and blocked. Hopefully I'll do that Sunday, if I have the time and inclination after Miss Aubrey's birthday party (seriously can't believe that she's 1 already).

Onto some recent acquisitions. In honor of our trip to DC, I got Ellie and I some special yarn:
Colorway is "National Cherry Blossom Festival", from Destination Yarns. Seriously so pretty. Now to figure out what to make with it.

And remember that sweet little Irish doll I made for Kaylee? Well, it won a big huge prize over in a competition on Ravelry, and the prizes have started to roll in.
2 skeins of some very lovely Irish wool, a book of short stories, some nice soap and a skein of handspun inspired by the scenery of Northern Ireland.
Pretty sweet. More stuff will be coming in shortly, as a bunch of the prizes were gift vouchers and I had to pick what I wanted.
I ordered those 3 skeins to go with some other yarn that hasn't come in yet for a particular shawl, well, it'll end up being several shawls, but details get in the way. It's DROPS Delight, and I can't wait to see how it works up.

I started another sock, a re-do. I tried the same yarn/pattern combo when the pattern first came out a couple of years ago but it was too small. This time is much better.
Spring Forward from Knitty, with Lorna's Laces in "Somerset" purchased way back on my trip to Philly in '08. It's going with me to the track meet tomorrow.

Last up, I'm in the planning phase of a big shawl. Trying to figure out which beads to order and what not.
That's the swatch, with 4 different beads on it. Currently the blue ones are my favorite, but I can't really say why.

I think that's about it. I'm not very interesting this week. Wish me luck with surviving tomorrow, or maybe just not ending up in a straight jacket.

Spring Break

Or the closest I've come to one in a good long while. *Note - to get the full story of the weekend, you really need the pictures from both mine and Ellie's camera, but I've only got mine, so I'll do the best I can.*

Thursday, Ellie and I set out on our road trip. Headed south to North Carolina for Tommy's homecoming. We started off well, and things were great, until about 8:30pm. That's when we stopped at Rite Aid for cold meds, and I ended up locking the keys in the car. And an hour later, we were finally back on the road, which means that we ended up at the Print's house about 11:30p.

Friday morning, we hung out with Mr. Print before heading off to the base.
Note the sign - "Pardon our Noise - it's the sound of Freedom". We waited in front of the barracks for a few hours, good people watching time, and I knit on the second Atlantis sock. But finally, we saw this:
Can you see him? He's conveniently on the end, looking all skinny.
Finally home. And ready to celebrate.
First up on most of the returning Marines agendas was a trip to El Cerra's. They did restrain themselves though, jumbo instead of Monster Margaritas. Slightly tricky to order, seeing as it was Good Friday. See the plethora of goodness that everyone got with what they ordered?
And here's what you get when you order a cheese quesadilla.
How sad is that? It was good, just very sad and pitiful looking.
I'm not sure what look Ellie was going for here.... and how come I got the ghetto sombrero? Oh well, as you can see, good times.
Saturday, we went and retrieved Tommy (that's Ellie's favorite sign on base), and looked for an Italian restaurant, per his request. Didn't find one, so we went and had pizza with the Prints. And then hung out, watching some Final Four basketball. Jet lag soon got to Tommy, so we headed out, with stops at Wally World and DQ.

Sunday, being Easter, meant Mass - at the church close to base. Then mimosas and breakfast back at the homestead.
Obligatory family photo. We had a mostly leisurely weekend. Which was so nice. The pine pollen kept us from spending more time outside (it was seriously coming off the trees in clouds across the 8th green, which is the Print's back yard). And then we took Tommy back, said good bye reluctantly, and hit the road once more.
View of New Bern as we left. We headed north, towards DC. Hit wicked traffic outside of Fredericksburg (moral of the story - avoid 95 in Fredericksburg at all costs, this isn't the first time we've had trouble there). But eventually arrived in DC.
Some lovely blurry night photos of the monuments for your enjoyment. And then we proceeded to get lost looking for the hotel. Which, in fact, wasn't really all that close to Dupont Circle as it was advertised (seriously, where the frick is North Hampshire?!). Eventually, we did find it, amazingly without the help of the GPS (bad Maggie).

Monday morning dawned with jack hammers pounding, that's what you get with a swanky hotel obviously. But soon we headed out. And having used bing maps, I can say that we walked 10 miles that day, I have the blisters to prove it too. So first up, where else but the President's House?
And then past all the folks there for the Egg Roll - oi, lots of kiddos running around hopped up on peeps and jelly beans. Then the Washington Monument.
Bigger than I remember it being. But then again, the last time I was there sight seeing, I was 8, and my memory isn't all that great of that day.
The views each way from the WM. Then we headed off to see Mr. Lincoln.
Hello Mr. Lincoln! Then a rather silly picture from atop the steps.
Hehe. Couldn't help ourselves. Then, because it was closer to the cherry blossoms, we walked over to the Korean War Memorial.
Yeah, the kid got in the way the last second and I didn't realize it until later when I looked through the pictures. Oh well. We stumbled across the National Tulip Library in bloom (who knew we even had a Tulip Library?)
We were lucky enough to hit DC during the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was beautiful.
Loving the fact that it was so gorgeous, warm and sunny and all spring like, seeing as the drive through Ohio saw very few buds on trees at all, let alone flowers.
That's as close as we got to Mr. Jefferson. Why is he so far away? Anyways, back towards the Mall, to head up to the Capitol.
Lots of views of the WM, it seems to be everywhere, which is kind of neat.
So yeah, few issues with pictures at the Capitol, including a school group and an unsightly crane. Oh well.
There's that WM again, seriously, can't avoid it. Then we headed down the other side of the Mall, made a quick pit stop to see the Hope Diamond:
Some kid was overheard saying "I thought it would be ginormous or something, it's kind of small." Can't wait til he goes diamond ring shopping someday.
We saw the original Star Spangled Banner, but photography wasn't allowed in the exhibit, so you get the shiny display outside instead. Then it was off to the First Ladies exhibit. Pretty dresses.
Martha Washington's dress.
One of Jackie Kennedy's gowns. Sadly the wait for the pop culture wing was too long for us, so we saw the curtain dress:
or at least the Carol Burnett version of Scarlet O'Hara's dress. And the most detailed doll house I've ever seen.
That's not even all of it, it wouldn't all fit in the frame.
The gunboat Philadelphia, which was sunk somewhere, I don't know where, I didn't read the placards. I know, bad museum goer me.
George Washington's uniform.
The chairs from Appomattox Courthouse.
A piece of the Berlin Wall. And then we left. And the blisters began. Headed back to the hotel to pick up the car and head home.
See all the people still hanging out at the Egg Roll? 6 hours later? By this point, the kiddos were all having meltdowns as we passed them.

I don't have any pictures from the drive home. We took a quick little tour of Georgetown, and then hung out in traffic on 270. Eventually took a "scenic" tour of Cumberland, WV and then more traffic on 79, and finally home at 2:30am. A very long, but very good day. A knitting post will be coming soon. Hope everyone had a great Easter!