Knitting in Iowa

So my trip to Cedar Rapids, that was supposed to happen last week, is happening this week.  They had terrible floods out there and we've got plant that was put way under water.  There are scads of contractor rebuilding, rewiring, etc. and they're asking safety folks to come and keep and eye on things around the clock.  I'm not sure I know what the hell I'm doing enough to DO that, but it'll be a good learning experience.  I'm also kind of thinking of it as fat camp!  Apparently it amounts to 12 hrs a day of walking around and around and around the place!   I'll be there Tues. - Sat., so I'll be missing my Tuesday night chicas - I'll be joining you in spirit though because I'm sure I'll be knitting, just in a hotel room!  That's the great thing about traveling - nothing to do but work and knit!  'Course I'll be working 12 hour days while I'm there, but aside from that I'll pretty much be knitting.  When you're sitting in a hotel room there're no dishes to get done, no looking out the window and thinking about how you really ought to be weeding that bed - nothing to make you feel guilty about knitting instead of doing anything else!  fantastic!  AND, I have the perfect project - a new test knit that Emily hooked me up with at the last minute!  Between the two of us, we'll be having a test knitting knitalong!  I've got a head start on her because I'm using stash yarn and she ordered hers, but I need the handicap because as soon as she starts she'll be flying past me, I'm sure!  It's kind of an odd situation because usually test knits involve patterns that aren't shown anywhere yet, but the designer has the pattern up on Ravelry already - it's called Eleanor and I suppose it'll be for sale after the test knitting is done.  Hopefully this isn't breeching some kind of test knitter code - but it IS on Ravelry,  so it isn't like I'm letting the cat out of the bag or anything, right?  Anyhoo, it's FANTASTIC and you should definitely queue it!  Here's a peek at mine - the colors didn't really come out well, despite about a million backgrounds and angles - it's a peacock blue and pistachio green!