New Beginnings

Today I moved back to Springfield for another set of rotations. Three months of internal medicine are behind me with a paltry bit of knitting that I can't even show you because I'm not sure that the recipient of said knitting has gotten it yet. I did manage a small bit of knitting over the weekend in between packing and meeting up with people and lunch and such things. But I forgot to pack my camera so I can't even take advantage of all of the windows in my room and take some pictures for you. I know...I am a bad knit-blogger...but med school is totally eating my life right now.

Speaking of med school, I just submitted my rank list for the lottery for next year's rotations. I've decided that I'm going to go for General Surgery internship and residency so there's a lot of surgery planned for next year. I got a very good number for the lottery so things should turn out at least half-way decent (I'm not even going to try to explain how the whole system works because the computer science majors in my class tend to find the algorithm "elegant" and other such words that mean "way too hard for anyone else to figure out."

As for right now? I'm starting my Neurosurgery rotation tomorrow...hopefully it'll be lots of fun. Baystate is a trauma center and the main referral hospital for western Mass so that should help keep things interesting at least. Alright...time for all good little med students to get to bed. Hope you're all having a lot more knitting time than I am!!

Whoh...where'd I go?!

Where did the last month go? Seriously! My medicine clerkship is more than half over...I find this more than slightly terrifying since that means I have another shelf in less than 6 weeks and I've barely started studying. Speaking of my medicine rotation things have been going pretty well. Outpatient is over (which in my mind is awesome) and I'm on my third week of the wards. My team is awesome, my resident has taken to calling me "rock star" at just about every opportunity. He is sufficiently impressed with me such that as of tomorrow he's going to start treating me like a Sub-I (I admit and take care of the patients on my own with only the resident coming by to cosign all the orders and double check me, no intern involvement at all). I don't know how much of my readership understands how odd this is for a third year student...but trust me...it's weird. I'm not going to lie...it makes me a bit uncomfortable, but more with respect to how appropriate it is for me to be doing this as a third year than my ability to do it well. I guess I'll find out next week when my clerkship director is my attending :P

In weight loss news...there hasn't been any. In fact there's been weight gain. This is what I get for eating pizza from the cafeteria on a semi-regular basis. I need to be stricter with myself as far as eating the lunch I bring goes. Part of my plan includes not having money with me (can't buy lunch if I don't have money!).


Knitting news...well there really isn't any. I was trying to make two baby sweaters...but realized pretty quickly this wasn't going to happen...so I amended my plans to one sweater, two sets of booties, and a hat...babies will be born before this gets done...le sigh. I'm not going to show pictures so that recipients who might read this blog won't get a sneak preview...also because I'm too tired to go dig out my camera and fight with lighting to get good pics.

Alright...it's time for me to read a little bit more about working up chest pain and then head off to bed. After all, my instructions when I was sent home this afternoon were to rest up for my big day tomorrow, my first day as a Sub-I. Happy knitting all...I hope that you're all knitting more than I am.

Update

Yep...lost about 4 lbs since the New Year...hope I can keep it up!

In knitting news...the hat is finished. I have failed you and have not managed to take a picture of it despite the fact that it's been finished for almost a week now. I have started casting on for the first baby sweater. A BSJ of course. This is for a non-knitting friend so I'm using some non-gender-specific acrylic that will survive a bit better (I hope). I plan to make some booties too.

In med school news...I've started my Medicine rotation in outpatient clinic (think like a run-of-the-mill doctor's office). Lots of colds and coughs with a few physicals on middle-aged and elderly men. The physicals are kind of painful in their own way...if I ever have to do a prostate exam again (which I'm sure I will before my 4 weeks on outpatient is over) it'll be too soon.

My parting gift to you? The fortune I got today when I met a friend for lunch in Chinatown: "In order to discover who you are, first learn who everybody else is. You're what's left." It's just too odd to not share with as many people as I can :P

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had good Christmases (or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate this time of year). Mine was pretty good...it's a bit sad watching my Grandfather decline so quickly, but it was good to be home and spending time with family. I managed to get a pretty good knitting haul. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that my parents got me some yarn (my mom seemingly abhors the concept of a stash). I also got a fair few books and some needles. As far as the yarn, my parents got me some Risata that I have been pining for as well as some Swish DK. More yarn came my way thanks to the lovely Alicia. She saw these and thought of me...I daresay she was right...it's like a colorway made especially for me...and it's even lot 1, I feel special :P She also got me a super cool needle gauge from 7 Yaks Designs. (Sorry for the blurry pic...it didn't look that bad on the camera I swear.)

In other news: I'm so excited words cannot describe. I feel like I'm a real knitter now! Now I'm trying to decide when I want to wear it...out to dinner and the movies with a couple friends on Thursday...or out with more of them on Friday...silly I know. What am I working on now? Well, I struck a bargain with my aunt; she makes quilts (she made the one on my bed here) and the one I have is about 15 years old and is really beginning to show it. She will make me a new quilt if I make her a hat, flip top mittens, and a scarf. So I poked around on Ravelry for a million years and chose this hat, which I have now cast on for. I plan to knit coordinating mittens based on this pattern. And a scarf/neckwarmer using this pattern. All of this using the same yarn I used to make my sweater (I can hardly believe how much I have of this stuff).

Now...New Years. I made some knitting resolutions last year. Let's see how I did.

• Finish my Warm Up America Afghan (including sewing it all together)
• Check. Got this one done some time around the end of September. Only took me a little over two years! :P
  
• Knit my Doctor's Bag
• Check. Finished up in April I think. I know I've used it a lot already this year...although I do want to reinforce part of it with fabric before I start using it regularly again.
  
• Knit for charity
• Not so much. I thought I would knit a lot of things for the Sharewood auction. But the auction came and I had nothing to give them.
  
• Knit primarily from my stash
• I look at the things I've knit this year and I've knit more than half of them from stash...but I bought so much yarn this year I accumulated more that I used...so I feel like I didn't really do this.

What are my resolutions for this year? I plan to include some more personal ones as well...accountability and all that :P

• Knit from stash as much as possible
• Avoid buying more yarn unless absolutely necessary (this yarn diet will also prohibit sock yarn...because I have plenty of that for the time being)
• Knit another sweater (I'd like to do NaKniSweMo again...perhaps with Francis Revisited. This will necessitate buying yarn...because I don't have a sweater's worth of anything anymore)
• Get in better shape/lose weight (I'd like to look at least halfway decent in pants again. I'm thinking a good goal for the year would be to get back to what I weighed at the end of Freshman year of college [about 40lbs less than what I weigh now] but I've love to make it to what I weighed at the end of high school [closer to 60lbs]. I think my high school weight is too ambitious a goal for me short term given how difficult it is for me to find time to eat well and exercise regularly...but it's definitely the goal long term.
• Knit some baby clothes for expecting friends (I've got a couple due around March that I really need to get cracking on)
• Be the best medical student I can be, read as much as I can, take a more active role in caring for my patients, do more procedures (when reasonable of course), and generally get as much as I can out of the experiences given to me.

Alright. I'm off to knit a little bit and relax. Happy knitting to all and to all a good night!

Close...

But not quite...

I'm a little bit farther on the sleeve now...but that's how far I had gotten as of midnight 11-30-08. Good effort I say. Not having the crazy Psych attending who kept me in the hospital until all hours would have been helpful but I learned a lot and that's what really matters.

I also bought yarn...some of it for Christmas presents...but mostly because it was pretty and I needed something to make me feel better after my three weeks from heck on Consult Psych...little did I know that Inpatient was going to be a whole new kind of painful. My attending has a very hands-off approach...which makes me feel totally useless and unwanted. I wander up and down the hallway of the locked ward talking to the 66 year-old guy with the teddy bear and the bajillion suicidal people and then go eat lunch for a couple hours go walk up and down the hallway some more and leave way too early for conference because I just can't stand it anymore. Innywho...here's the yarn: Lots of Happy Feet from Plymouth Yarn Co...courtesy of Webs.

And now a meme:
Things I've Done (In Bold)

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity (This has more to do with the fact that I'm dirt poor than my being particularly generous)
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (here...I'm the first one)
11. Bungee jumped (NEVER)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (But I slept on the commuter train at least once daily for the last two years!)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (But I have a small mortgage's worth of debt! YAY Med School!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (Give it time folks...I've only been on the wards for 6 months)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

On Sweaters

Well...it's about half way through the month of November and this is my current progress: I have no idea when it got that long (it's at my waist)...I was just freaking out the other day about how I was barely into the lace. Now, admittedly, I did spend approximately 20 hours in the library this weekend knitting and reading (not necessarily in equal proportions)...but I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. I also bought buttons...aren't they pretty!I love the iridescent quality they have...but then again I tend to like shiny things like that. So, right now I've used up about 2.5 balls of yarn (about 575 yards). I'm thinking that I'm gonna finish up the ball I'm currently using with lace and then decide whether or not I want to knit more lace before the garter stitch on the bottom. At this point I'm figuring that the sleeves are gonna use a lot more yarn that I think...because otherwise I can't quite figure out how I'm supposed to use just over 1000 yards. I'm also leaning toward making long sleeves...not only for yarn usage (I have about 1600 yards of this stuff total), but also because I tend to prefer my sleeves on the long side. Well, that's not entirely true, I seem to prefer either 3/4 length or half-way-down-my-hand length...not anywhere in between. But enough about NaKniSweMo.

Now, I don't know how many of you out there watch Grey's Anatomy. I feel like everyone does...but I'm a medical student and I feel like most of us feel duty-bound to watch it every week. But they are currently playing out a rather horrible version of the boyfriend-sweater curse. I noticed it this past Thursday and and started freaking out about how Izzie was a victim of the curse...and then had to explain to my two non-knitter classmates who were watching it with me what the sweater curse was, I suspect they still think I'm a bit crazy. Although I kinda doubt that the curse is meant to kill the recipient...but you know what I mean.

Speaking of spending 20 hours in the library this weekend...yeah I know that wasn't what I was just talking about but my brain is getting fuzzy...bear with me. One of my fellow classmates, who spends just about as much time in the library as I do, has been giving me a hard time about virtually living in the library. Admittedly, he seems to be of the persuasion that because I am on Psych I don't have to study. This would be true if I hadn't been completely stupid and chosen Consult. Seriously, I am regularly in the hospital until 6:30 or 7:00...Psych is supposed to be a "vacation rotation"!! The attending I'm with is brilliant and I'm learning tons from him, but it's kinda making me hate the rotation. My first day was by far the worst day of medical school so far. I was given two tasks for the day, do a Mini Mental on this patient, and find out more about what's been going on with her and her past psychiatric history. I was in and out of her room all day trying to do the exam, she wouldn't stay awake long enough for me to do it. I spent hours combing the records in the computer and the ones sent from the nursing home to find out who to call for more information and was greeted with dead-ends all over. I expressed my exasperation to the social worker who helped me get the records from one of the hospitals...but they didn't come until after 5PM. I met with the attending at about 4:30 and was basically forced to admit that I had managed to do nothing all day, though not for lack of trying. The records came from that one hospital before he was done with me for the day so it wasn't totally useless...but it was damn close. I actually almost cried...that's how frustrated I was. I will make sure to warn all of my fellow medical student about the horrors of Consult at Baystate. Now...I'll stop being a baby about it and just be grateful that I'm learning so much from this guy...even if he does think that it's perfectly acceptable to keep me in the hospital till 7PM on a Friday for no apparent reason.

Happy knitting everyone!! Good luck to all my fellow NaKniSweMo knitters!!

NaKniSweMo Begins!

This is was my progress after two days of knitting/studying at the same time...hooray for endless garter stitch. I now understand why people like have a "mindless stockinette" project. This is up to the row before the eyelet increases (essentially the entire yoke), which I have since completed after much math consternation. Seriously...I can do calculus...why was that so hard? Oh wait...that's right...I've never been very good at simple math. If anyone else out there is making the February Lady Sweater in the large and would like my incredibly OCD even and symmetric spacing for the eyelets leave a comment and I can email it to you...I'm good about sharing info like that :D So far I'm really liking the sweater. I have to admit I'm a bit surprised at how high everything is on me right now but I think/hope that it will all work itself out as the sweater gains weight and has something to make it stay under my arms.
In other news, my Halloween costume was a hit! I was even given an unofficial "Best Costume" by a good 5 people at the party (I think there were maybe 20 people there). A good friend of mine who's been having trouble conceiving announced that he and his wife are pregnant which is awesome...looks like I have some baby clothes to make!! Perhaps it's about time I bought the BSJ pattern. Good times were had by all though. And I continue to astonish people with my knitterly behavior...I was in the library knitting/studying today and one of my classmates (who watched me knit the hat and went to the party) was asking me if I was knitting next year's costume...I told him that I was knitting a sweater simply for the purpose of having a sweater. He actually laughed at me! :P

Yesterday was also lots of fun...after a good long morning/afternoon of studying I went out to dinner with several classmates/friends and saw the director for my current rotation at the restaurant celebrating his daughter's birthday. She was adorable and the director was great as always...right down to buying us a bottle of wine...now that was definitely unexpectedly generous. We "countered" with a piece of chocolate torte to his daughter with a candle and singing for her birthday...mostly as a thank you, but we realized much later that we are also the biggest group of suck-ups in the history of man...4 of the 7 of us at dinner are on that rotation right now...AWESOME. All in all a good weekend. Now I need to get ready for bed (when did it get to be so late!!!) so that I can get up and study lots more tomorrow!! Happy knitting to all and to all a good night!

HAT! ...and other ramblings...

I made a hat! And it fits my head!! I apparently have a very large head...too much stuff in my brain I guess. I'm relatively happy with it as an FO. It is reasonably good looking and it will serve its purpose well. I have to admit I'm not much of a hat person so that is kinda affecting my level of excitement about it...but here it is my Meg Griffin Hat:Looking at this picture I'm just now seeing how lopsided my glasses are...I should probably try to fix that a bit before Friday. Although in all honesty I'm not sure how long these glasses will stay on...see...I'm one of the fortunate few who does not have any significant visual acuity problems, my glasses are for reading purposes only. This means that when I'm wearing them I generally can't see things more than 3 feet from my face with any real clarity...which is bothersome because I actually have pretty good vision.

In other news, I'm enjoying my week in the nursery a lot. The babies are adorable...and they do hilarious things like sneeze so hard they send a jet of poop all over myself and my resident...and then the little guy peed on me too. Some of the moms are a little bit militant/crazy but that's to be expected...I mean they just carried these little guys around for 9 months and who the hell am I to want to look at their precious little bundle of joy? I say that with some degree of irony...I mean I get that mom wants to protect her baby from the medical student, but how does she think the doctor learned how to do this...magic? The doctor wouldn't send me in if she didn't think I was fully competent to do the exam and no harm the kiddo. I'm by no means saying that I'm entitled to learn from/on these babies...I'm just saying there's no need to be nasty about it when I introduce myself. Last night I was on call in the NICU...which was interesting. Premature babies with giant nasal cannula attached to their face are quite possibly the cutest/funniest looking things ever.

What will I be knitting next? I think I'll just bide my time until November 1st to start my February Lady. I have a fair amount of studying I can and should be doing so it's not like I'll be lacking for things to do. Happy knitting all!!

Craziness

Clearly I am crazy...there's really no other way I can explain this. I mean what medical student in their right minds would make such a commitment?! But I did it...I signed up. What on earth am I talking about? I have selected the famous February Lady Sweater (as discussed in my last post), I have measured myself...rather than just guessing what size I should make, and I have swatched. I got gauge on my Harmony US8s, and I've selected the Large size to accommodate the mammaries and I will now wait rather impatiently for November 1st so that I can cast on.In the meantime I will be busting my ass to finish my Halloween hat...how on earth did it managed to be a measly 5 days from Halloween? Uncalled for I say! Better get to it! Happy knitting everyone!

Thoughts on Practicality

As we all know, the February Lady Sweater has taken the knitter-verse by storm. Everyone and their grandma is making one (over 2000 projects and in over 6000 queues on Ravlery). I have to admit that I am very eager to make one myself. It's simple and lovely and professional and knitterly all at the same time. I can actually see myself wearing it on a semi-regular basis...although probably not while I'm wearing my white coat but only because that horrible piece of polyester is a marvel of heat conservation. I dream of making this lovely garment! (Actually I have no idea if I dream about it...the last dream I remember having involved a somewhat exciting trauma coming into the ER and my getting to do something other than stand in the corner and get in the way...yet another sign that med school is slowly destroying my brain) The point of all this being that I'm just not all that excited about knitting my Pimlico Shrug. Even the thought of knitting on the giant rectangle that turns into a garment after some clever seaming and endless amounts of ribbing makes me want to find something else to knit. Although when I put it that way is it any wonder I don't want to knit on it? So after a little bit of double checking and some serious consideration I think I'm going to rip my 1.25 repeats of the lace pattern for the Pimlico Shrug and re-assign this yarn to the February Lady Sweater. Because after all...what's the point of knitting something for myself if I a) won't enjoy the process and b) won't get much use out of the end product.

In other news, I am chugging along on my Halloween hat...no pictures because I'm lazy. I'm almost done with the endless stockinette...another inch and a half or so...then the decreases. The second Dorky Sock has been cast on...I think I knit all of 2 rows of the ribbing before I decided to do something more entertaining. My Lacy Scarf is in limbo...I'm also questioning the practicality of this knit...and seriously considering ripping it back as well. Not sure what I would do with the yarn instead...but I think actually knitting a pair of socks from it might not be a bad idea...some relatively simple ones so that I don't need to cart a chart around with me. As you can see...lots of thinking and not a whole lot of knitting. But I have another shelf in 2 weeks...so that's not likely to change all that much in the near future. What are your thoughts? Am I the only one falling out of love with her projects? Happy knitting all!!

Pilgrimage

I made my pilgrimage to Yarn Mecca...and I returned with 5 delicious balls of this:I am now faced with a bit if a conundrum as to what exactly what I want to do with it. Anyone have any suggestions for approximately 500 yards of DK weight superwash merino? I was hoping for a short-sleeved cardigan or something but I think my bust is not going to let that happen (one of the few times I will lament the reasonably ample assets God gave me). I'm sure I'll figure something out...in the mean time I plenty else to knit...and I can continue to pet it...mmmmm...merino...*drools...not on the yarn of course*

What about my knitting? I've made a fair bit of progress on the hat...a good 5 inches of stockinette so far...another inch and half or so before I start the decreases...this hat may very well be finished by the end of the weekend. No other progress since I NEED to get this hat done where as everything else is a labor of love or one sort or another. Back to the studying...shelf exam in three weeks!! Happy knitting all!!