Wow—What a Weekend

It included several of my favorite things-- VT Hokies, Knitting and Knitters, and Baseball.

Friday:
I left work at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and made it to Blacksburg in 4 hours 10 minutes. Yes, I know….

Saturday aka Hokie Healing Day:

I woke up Saturday, got my stuff together (Chibi's, scissors, ibuprofen...) and went to Starbucks since I won't be back for awhile and didn’t want to open a new can of coffee. I noticed activity at Mosaic, and saw the crew, Gina, Sandy, Mimi, Belinda, Debbie and others loading up squares, silent auction items, goodie bags, so lent a hand take stuff to the VT Alumni center.

What a time we had!!!

Gina and her crew did a really great job setting things up. We sort of spontaneously made little work groups, and it all came together.
There was coffee-- Hurrah!!! and cookies, sandwiches, barbecue (from Top of The Stairs). YUM!!!

The goodie bags were great fun-- I wish I'd taken a picture of mine. It had a tube of Bioque cleanser and little samples of all the products to make us beautiful, a packet of coffee from Starbuck's, a Red Bull, yarn (mine was Elsebeth Lavold silk and wool in a really pretty golden tweed), "naked" yarn and Kool-Aid in Hokie colors to try one's hand at dyeing, coupons for $$ off at Firehouse Pizza and a free pass to the health club, and best of all, a 25% coupon off yarn at Mosaic. And there was probably more that I can't remember right now.

The silent auction was a kick, too. There were some amazing items-- a full set of full-sized Bioque products, numerous autographed knitting pattern books (I got one by Debbie Bliss and the "no sheep for you" book that I'd been eyeballing), some lovely Lantern Moon bags and needle cases, a Hanne Falkenberg shawl that I drooled over but forced myself to resist, and so on. There were also a bunch of door prizes. I won a gift card to the nail shop across from Mosaic which I gave to Suzanne who's going to be in a wedding next month.

Look at all these squares—Before

And After.
Go to the Mosaic site for lots more pictures.
I just had to get a picture of Debbie and me in our Hokies United t-shirts. Over 115,000 have been sold-- and if you want one, you'd better order soon...




We finished 16 of the quilts. People took the rest of the 32 home to finish, and took additional squares to make more quilts.

It was really neat to see some of my squares sewn in with others for this wonderful project. Gina had hoped for 2000 squares. They received over 6000 from all the states and something like 16 countries!

I thought about all the different knitters and crocheters who had contributed—I wonder about their lives—do they have small children? Are they great-grandmothers? Do they have professional careers? Are they the service people that make our lives livable? Did they knit all day to fill their hours, or did they squeeze in a few minutes each night before going to sleep?

Every stitch is a prayer. I wonder how many millions of stitches, and how many thousands of hours went into the contributions for the Hokie Healing project.

I met some really neat people—and unfortunately, I can’t remember all the names. Some who have remained in my brain are Kathy and her mom Charlotte, Suzanne, and Nancy (who will be moving up this way soon). (If I met you and can't remember your name, please email me-- my mind is a terrible thing to lose.....)

I took a couple of the quilts back to the condo with me to crochet around the edges. It was nice, contemplative work, fueled by a couple of glasses of wine and some movies on the tube.

Sunday
I woke up, ready to finish the second border, but needing some coffee. So I was getting ready to throw on some jeans and head down to Starbuck’s, when I remembered that they had donated 1-pot bags of coffee grounds for the goodie bags! Hurrah!!!! So I put on a movie, drank coffee, and finished quilt 2.

I spent much of Sunday at Mosaic with Mimi, and got another border completed. It was lovely to just sit and chat, crochet and watch the shop activity.

When the shop closed, I went over to campus and walked around. They’re putting in a semi-permanent memorial in front of Burress Hall that echoes the spontaneous memorial placed there by the students.

I am continually impressed by the sensitivity and respect for the students displayed by the leadership of Virginia Tech. How thoughtful to include student representation on the committee that planned this, and how they honor not only the victims, but the students by echoing the design that evolved in the location on the drillfield that has come to be so significant for so many. This memorial will be in place until a more permanent one is constructed, and the Hokie stones will be offered to the families when the semi-permanent memorial is dismantled.

After I dried some tears, I headed over to PK’s for a brew (the cold, wet kind) and some buffalo chicken. I just love that place.

When I’m in Blacksburg, it's usually pretty busy, so I took the opportunity to just drive around. The road past our condo gets really rural, really fast. I enjoyed driving along the very winding road, up and down through the mountains. There were creeks, and horses, farms, interesting little cottages and large houses… and I kept thinking of how nice it would be to live here, and wondered what it would be like to drive on this road during a blizzard in the winter.

I completed about 1-1/2 borders, then to bed.

Monday:
I woke up and finished the second border without benefit of coffee. Rugged. I took the 2 bordered quilts in to Mosaic (with the Loopy Ewe-- who is on vacation...) and then headed north.

I had a very pleasant drive up I-81 and across I-66 to meet up with friends and co-workers for the Nationals' game against Detroit. Our Nurse Executive invited a whole bunch of us-- and we had a super time. The game itself was a bit sad until the 8th inning when the Nationals got in gear, not quite grasping the game from the jaws of defeat, but coming out looking rather respectable in a 9-8 loss.

I wore my new "Knitting for Healing" t-shirt.

And then I went home.