Krewe de Vieux

One of the first parades of the Carnival season, Krewe de Vieux, rolled this weekend. This is one my favorite parades and a definite must see. The only parade to roll through the streets of the French Quarter, Krewe de Vieux is one of the wildest and features lots of political satire and adult themes. There are small floats and lots of costumed marchers who throw beads, paint you with glitter and dance in the streets. It also features some of the best brass bands in the city. My family was in town for the weekend and had the chance to see the parade. We initially were at the beginning of the parade route and watched the entire parade. After catching tons of beads and throws my family insisted we walk near the end of the parade route and see the whole thing again! They had a blast! Here are a few pics I was able to capture in between dancing, catching beads, and throwing back drinks!


These are the mild pictures; I just can't bring myself to post the pictures of floats with genitalia and such.

Being that Krewe De Vieux is one of the earliest parades, it's also often a cold and sometimes rainy parade. This year since Mardi Gras is so early and that weird arctic freeze thing is passing through the South, Saturday was miserably cold and wet. I decided to knit up a scarf to keep me cozy and warm while parade watching and playing tour guide for my family.


Pattern: Uptown Scarf from Weekend Knitting
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky
Needles: size 35!
Started/Finished: January 2008

Given that this pattern calls for bulky yarn and huge size 35 needles, I was able to complete this project in less than an hour. It's a great quick project and a wonderfully warm and soft yarn. The scarf is also super long and able to be wrapped around my neck several times making it extra cozy. The perfect weekend project!

Feeling Blue

This month, I'm the resident on the wards at one of the hospitals and have been pretty busy. My on-call nights have been kind of draining me. By luck of the draw, I’ve been getting all of the altered mental status patients; no fun at all. On top of that, my call schedule has me missing out on my favorite parades of the Carnival season. I already missed Krewe de Vieux and Barkus; this week I’ll miss Muses, a fun night parade with cool throws. And to make it even worse, I’m post-call on Mardi Gras! This is actually the first year that I’ve had to work on Fat Tuesday, so I guess I can’t really complain. When I first moved here it amazed me that Mardi Gras is a full on holiday. Holiday as in a day with no school, no work (for some), and no postal service!

I’ve also been interviewing for a fellowship position this month. I like having the opportunity to visit different programs, but interviewing with 7-8 different people in one day can be tough! Talking about my background, research, and career plans gets old after about the second or third time in one day. On a recent interview I was asked: If you could be any cell in the immune system, which type cell would you be? I chose to be a T-cell, which my interviewer admired. Per my friends (medical and non-medical), the fact that I even had an answer to this question makes me a big nerd. I’ve never been called a nerd (at least not to my face), but if it gets me a fellowship spot, hey I’m a nerd.

As for knitting, I've put down that second sock I was working on. I just can't look at it any more. I swear, the next pair of socks I knit will be done two at a time. Right now, I'm participating in Project Spectrum II. February and March are dedicated to blue, white and grey. These aren't colors I normally reach for, but one of the reasons I joined PS was to explore more colors with my knitting. I've really been inspired by the colors this month and raided my stash for some options. I'm really feeling all the various shades of blue...

My current project is Clutched, the cute handbag in YarnPlay. I'm using the recommended yarn Peace Fleece in the Siberian Midnight colorway, a pretty mix of midnight blue, blue, grey, and white flecks.

Love the color, love the texture! My photo doesn't really do it justice. It's coming along pretty quickly and I'm searching for some buttons to add to it.