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!

Lecture time...

Today was a long day class-wise. I had lecture starting at 8AM and classes of various sorts running until 4PM with a 45 minute lunch break. I was very productive today seeing as this is what I accomplished in the 5 hours of lecture I had today:
It's another pair of Subway Mittens (Ravelry link) using the Cashmere blend that Alicia gave me for Christmas. Thus far they seem as though they will be an impenetrable shield of cashmere and acrylic against the Boston wind...I'm very pleased. I plan on making some kind of neck warmer to match...perhaps Tudora.

As promised I give you the people that make my day...in no particular order
Alicia
Dorothy
Yarn Harlot
Wendy
Soule Mama
David

I won't be holding anyone accountable for passing it on since I took well over a month to get around to it. Med school is eating my life. Which reminds me...I have some studying to get back to...happy knitting!

Photo Blogging...

...because it's just been that long.

I won Miss Me's contest. She is awesome. Smarties are almost as awesome as Miss Me.
I finished the first panel of my Doctor's Bag (Knit 2 Together). I'm a decent way into the second panel. I feel like I'm gonna run out of yarn...but I'll deal with that when/if it happens.
I finished the Alpaca Handwarmers (Hand/Wrist Warmers from Last Minute Gifts). They're purty.
I got a Christmas present from Enid and Adam. She addressed it to Dr. Moriah Wright...this was quite possibly the most awesome part of the present simply because I laughed REALLY hard.
Column of Leaves in finally done...all of it. It has been blocked...and worn a fair amount. And I finally got a color accurate picture...shocking!
I succumbed to the lure of a yarn sale...and escaped for less than $10...I was proud of my self-control.
Dorothy told me that I make her day. I will tell you who makes my day when I have more of my wits about me. Happy knitting!

Last Day of Freedom

First: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you all had a good time ringing in the New Year. I went to a friends house for a little party and had a lot of fun. I don't really make New Year's Resolutions because I know I'll break them within a week and here's a few knitting ones for you:

• Finish my Warm Up America Afghan (including sewing it all together)
• Knit my Doctor's Bag
  
• Knit for charity
• Knit primarily from my stash
  

Second: A contest. Head on over here for a blogiversary contest for yarn or fiber...and don't forget to tell them I sent you!!

Third: Christmas! I've gotten a fair amount of knitting related items for Christmas...mostly yarn so I can't really complain to much about that! Here is a little collage for you so that I don't completely drown you in pictures :P Now admittedly the one in the top left corner isn't knitting related but it's from Alicia so I wanted to put in in there anyway...by the way Alicia, have I mentioned lately how much I love you?

Fourth: Knitting!! I know...it took me long enough. There hasn't been as much knitting as I would like this break but I did manage to turn one long-standing WIP into an FO. The Champagne by Night Afghan!! I started this shortly before I started medical school but since it ws on US50 needles it was anything but portable and difficult to stay focused on. But after a long day of knitting yesterday, with the help of LibriVox, I finally managed to get it done. I used Jiffy in Camel, Color Waves in Pebble Beach and Trellis in Champagne.

I've also gotten a teensy bit of work done on my Column of Leaves Mittens. I've been running around too much trying to see everyone to get much done but I will show you my meager progress: I'm sure with the 14 hours of class that I have between now and this weekend that I will get a fair amount done...if I can just manage to stay awake! I doubt you'll be hearing much from me this semester since it seems to be a bit of a marathon but happy knitting! And remember, knit fearlessly!

I DID IT!!!

I finished the semester and my Christmas knitting and I'm still in one piece!! I also abandoned my blog for about a month but I was doing a lot of knitting during that time I promise. I'll even show you most of it! I spent most of the last month studying my buns off for the three finals that I had this past Wednesday. I'm sure I passed all my tests but I won't know how well until probably a few weeks into next semester. Speaking of school, my class does a Secret Santa-esque gift exchange that we call Holiday Ho (not sure why but we do) and this year I opted my make my Ho the Subway Mittens from IK Winter 2007. I know that she rides the T everyday and that she's always cold so I figured I couldn't really go wrong. I missed her face when she opened them...but I found out from one of our mutual friends that she not only loves them and wears them everyday...but she thought that I bought them at a store!!! I love that. I already felt super smart when I was closing up the holes at the tops of the mitts and the thumbs...but to find out that it didn't even occur to her that they were hand-made just makes my month. My Holiday Ho gave me a Dunkin Donuts gift card which is always loved and appreciated and the book Knitting for Peace. I read the book pretty much in one sitting and I want to do all of the projects now. One of my other in class knitting projects over the past few weeks was a pair of Irish Hiking Fingerless Mitts for my Mom's friend. She works at BJ's and sometimes ends up working the registers and the cold from outside was really bothering her carpal tunnel so my Mom asked me to make a pair for her for Christmas...so I did. I like the way that they came out...but if I ever have to work with whatever yarn that is again it will be too soon. It's a very thick acrylic that just made my hands ache.I also finished up the Column of Leaves Scarf! I haven't blocked it or woven in the ends yet but I also want to make mittens and a Calorimetry to match so I'm gonna wait until they're all done so that I can wash them all together. I started out just planning to modify the fingerless mitt pattern to make them mittens, but I decided that I didn't really like the way that they were coming out so I'm improvising something on my own. I'll post details when I'm finished. Yesterday I exchanged Christmas presents with my friend Sarah from home. I gave her the Gusseted Dashing and she took me to Graceful Stitches in Medfield. She bought me three beautiful hanks of yarn and I love her for it.

Cascade 220 The Heathers in 9491Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in 1107 Camacho Periwinkle

Hopefully I'll be writing again soon. Most likely after Christmas. Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Solstice or whatever you celebrate at this time of year but most importantly Happy Knitting!!

Charging Forward

First...I got my Microbio exam back this afternoon...I did pretty well on it...but it's hard to tell how I actually did since they dropped 7 questions and took 2 answers for another 2. Knitting has been progressing quite nicely. I finished my second Calorimetry, my last Christmas present, and I've actually made some headway on my Column of Leaves scarf.

Second Calorimetry: Cast on 100 stitches and 12 repeats of row 5. It's a little bit smaller than I would have liked so I think it'll be 112 stitches for the next one (yes I am already planning to make another one).

Christmas present is top secret so no pictures for you!

Column of Leaves Scarf: Started using the charts on the pattern website...much easier to read than the written out instructions. When I first looked at it I wanted to run and hide but it's a lot easier than I thought it would be...and I get to frighten/disturb my classmates by having it out next to my notes while I knit during class :P I frogged what I had before(a little more than one repeat) and started fresh on US8 needles. As of right now I have about 8.5 repeats completed!!!

I have been all kinds of exhausted lately. I mean I'm used to being able to fall asleep sitting upright without much difficulty...I'm sure this will come in handy during internship. But it's not that often that I manage to sleep a full 40 minutes past my alarm...and even then I only wok up because my Dad came in to see why I wasn't moving around. This weekend doesn't look too promising on the sleep front either. My plans for the long weekend? Saturday: Study in the local public library Sunday: Church, drive to school and study in the library Monday: Drive to school and study in the library...I am so not prepared for the finals that are coming up right before Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend...and I want stories so that I can live vicariously through all of you :P Happy knitting!!!

Ultimate Me-Time

As some or all of you may know. I take the commuter rail into Boston everyday. Depending on my level of exhaustion and the amount of room I have I usually knit on the train (there is another knitter on the train that I usually take home that seems to be making a sweater in a very pretty orange). This past weekend I saw on SouleMama's blog mention on Librivox, an awesome website that offers free audio recordings of books in the public domain. Well after my recent run-in with Jane Austen I felt compelled to listen to all of her novels. So now I have turned the train into the ultimate me-time: knitting and Jane Austen. My mood has improved remarkably...despite having class at 8AM all week. I can't show you much for knitting since I am working on Christmas presents and I do not want the recipients to see the finished product ahead of time. But I do have one thing I want to show you:
Not only am I knitting something that isn't gray...but I'm using the beautiful stitch markers that Alicia made for me.

I got all of my finals back today...I passed everything...no honors again *le sigh* (Medical school is honors/pass/fail) hopefully someday soon I will stop missing honors my mere fractions of points. Back to work! In the hope of maybe getting honors in something this block.