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!!

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Today is my first blogiversary. I started this blog due to a combination of a desire to talk about my knitting and my extreme boredom at my summer job. Over the past year I've found many other blogs that I read on a regular business and made a few friends. In the future I hope to have the time/money to participate in some swaps and get to know more of my fiber-loving comrades.

I got my Pay It Forward Exchange gift from Alicia! They're beautiful aren't they? There hasn't been too too much going on on the knitting front lately. I spent most of my 5 weeks off reading for pleasure and hanging out with people that I never seem to get a chance to see anymore. But I do have a some progress to show you. First of all, I managed to finished sewing The Afghan together. I still have approximately 1 million ends to weave in. Sadly I don't have any knots to tie so I can't practice my surgeon's knot on it. I've made a fair amount of progress on my Dorky Socks...not that far from finishing it but I don't think there's going to be much knitting time on this rotation. I also plugged ahead a fair amount on the Lacy Scarf. I really like the way that it's coming out...and I love all the compliments I keep getting on it, even from people who don't knit!

I'm sorry to say that the likelihood of my updating frequently looks like it's going to be pretty small for the next few months as I will have very little knitting to show you. There's only so much surgery I can talk about before I might start grossing people out :P

Things that I have learned so far on my Surgical rotation:

• The OR is my crack...seriously
• ENT is awesome
• Head and Neck is even more awesome
• Holding retractors can be a lot harder than you might think
• My very asthmatic body doesn't like it when I try to sprint up three floors (each story about 15-20 feet) to get a scope and a light source for a STAT page for ENT to the MICU...the best part of that whole situation being that they ended up not needing us.
• Surgical rotation is the best diet I could have ever asked for, the combination of never getting to sit for more than 3 seconds and rarely getting to opportunity to eat is doing wonders for my weight.
• When they tell you to go home...GO!
  

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!

Thomasina

That's what we call the turkey that lives in my backyard. Why Thomasina? Because she's a mom...earlier this summer she had two turkey chicks but lately we've only been able to find her with one (sad panda :'( )...that is when we've been able to find her. She doesn't trust us even when we're in the house...to many sudden movements (such as running to go grab a camera to take her picture) and she runs away/flies into the trees. But one morning not that long ago I was awoken by my Dad with a "Where's your camera?!?" It took me a minute to figure out what was going on...since it was about 6AM and I am chronically sleep deprived/a med student...but I managed to get downstairs (without hurting myself!), grab my camera, and take the following picture of Thomasina in my backyard (She's that weird looking thing between the two trees...I promise)
In other, more knitterly news, I have completed my Gray Fetching and moved on to a pair of Dashing. Both are of Wool-Ease in Oxford Gray on size 7s. The Fetching took me about 8-10 hours I think. I'm quite a bit farther along on the Dashing since I took that pic, but there's still a ways to go. I think I'll knit for a bit tonight before I finally go to sleep...maybe I'll make it to the thumb.
Now, I love my DPNs...and I love fingerless gloves, but I need some more interesting patterns. I've been looking all over Ravelry...but I can't seem to find anything that I really like. I'm thinking about trying to make something up on my own since I've made a few pairs now and I have a pretty good idea of what I like and what I don't like...but it's a bit intimidating. So, I have a question for all of you: What is your favorite stitch pattern (links with pictures/instructions appreciated and welcomed) and why? Also, if you can think of any particularly awesome free fingerless glove patterns that would be good too...because I know that Ravelry doesn't have everything just yet.

Nate

Success! I have completed yet another pair of fingerless gloves! I have also learned that I *hate* making fingers. These are a birthday/Christmas gift to a friend of mine who saw pictures of my DK Dashing and decided that he *had* to have a pair for himself...I showed him a few patterns for him to choose from and he picked Natalya...but insisted I call it something more masculine. So here's Nate:
Nate is *just* over one skein on Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Gray on US8 DPNs (only the thumb and pinkie on the second glove are from the second skein...so close!). I made the arm portions a good 3 inches longer than the pattern suggested per the recipient's request. Now all they need is a wash to get all of the nasty train and lecture off of them and they are good to go!

Of course I have already started another project...because I would go crazy if I didn't have something to knit in class...so I show you my meager process on my first pair of Fetching. I say first because I intend to make a few pairs as gifts. I don't know if you have all seen the new Knitty, but there are two things that I want to make so bad it hurts. Obviously they've been added to the Ravelry Queue...to be added to the queue here when I have the time and presence of mind to edit that code.

Classes are progressing. They've decided to give us the questions we missed on our last exam as a separate "mini-exam" on Tuesday...which means that I do not get this weekend off from hardcore studying...and that makes me a little bit sad. But at least I only have to study the Psychopharmacology this time. I'm loving Neuroscience in the kind of dork-tastic way that only I can manage. You would not believe how totally enthralled I was by the lecture on the Thalamus that we had the other day...I actually stopped knitting *gasp*! Tomorrow night I'm headed to see Wicked as my birthday present from my friend Sarah.
I'm so excited! I'm meeting her and her mom for dinner and then it's off to the show! I have been listening to this soundtrack all summer and I can hardly wait to see it live! Someday when I have time (hahaha...hilarious I know) I'll read the book that it's based on...but that day will not be here anytime soon. Have a good weekend everyone!! Happy knitting!

OMG FO!!!!

Behold the finished Reversible Cable Scarf:
I have no idea why I am so proud of myself...perhaps because this is the second thing that I have actually finished since I started medical school. Also probably because unlike the purse I made over Christmas Break this is not going to fall apart on me. (I would like to point out that I am not actually tall enough to take this picture...I managed to get this on my first try just holding the camera in the air over the ironing/blocking board.) I'm actually really pleased with the way it turned out. Here are some more lovely pictures for your viewing pleasure one of the blocking process and a closeup.

I have been contemplating making some matching mittens, and I think I'll give it a shot, but I'm concerned that I won't have enough yarn. There's also the part where I have never worked with DPNs before and my first attempt a few minutes ago failed horribly. Alica, we need to get together and knit...and you need to teach me how to do this mitten thing!

I've also updated my queue on the side-bar. I was looking at my Ravelry Queue and noticed that I was very much behind on that front. I have no idea when I'm actually going to knit all these things, but the goal is to use up most of the yarn my grandmother gave me before I actually go out and buy some.

I hope that all is going well with your respective projects. Time for me to get back to work on the Champagne by Night Afghan...maybe get it done in time for my Grandmother's birthday on the 13th? I doubt it but it's worth a shot!

ETA: I'm sorry I suck at formatting so bad...I think I finally got it right this time!

"We don't knit for crack-hoes!"

Last night was Yarn Harlot's visit to Burlington. It can really be summed up in one word: AMAZING!!!! Her blog may be funny but she is absolutely hilarious in person. There was a bit of a fiasco on my part getting there. Because I work all day everyday it did not occur to me that there would be a Red Sox game getting at at the time that I was trying to get to the commuter rail station right next to Fenway (Yawkee for those who care/didn't know). So I got on the bus that the MBTA website told me to take at the time the MBTA site told me to take it. We turn onto Broolike Ave...and then we stop. We inch along for a while and I'm looking at my cellphone wondering if I'm going to make my train. So I get off the bus and I jog/power walk down Brookline, up Boylston, down Yawkee and then book it through the parking lot. Get on the train without issue but then there's a medical emergency so we're waiting and waiting. I was supposed to meet Alicia at 5...I got off the train at 5:30. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing...the traffic wasn't that bad at all. We got there at about 6 and decided to just grab seats and start knitting since there were already a fair number of people there. So we were just sitting there knitting and talking about the parts of Alicia's life that are not going so well at the moment, when Jess (Frecklegirl and Ravelry inventor extraordinaire). She skwooshed my Reversible Cable Scarf *glee*. Sorry, it's not too often that I find myself sitting nest to someone famous. That sucker's getting huge now...less than ten repeats left to go...I sense an FO in my future!! I also got one of the amazing Ravelry pins which is now prominently displayed on my backpack. Then it was Harlot time. Again...AMAZING!!! Then Alicia and I headed off to dinner at Not Your Average Joe's which was really good...and was made even better when Alicia decided to pay...oh how I love that girl.


As for other knitting, I have not touched Column of Leaves...I just can't bring myself to do it at the moment. So most nights I've been working on my Champagne by Night Afghan...I've determined that the best part about this project is that the needles are so huge that I have tripled the length in a few distracted hours. Still a long way to go since I still have quite a few balls left to go but it's making me happy and that's what matters.

Insanity

Ok...so I had heard how much Ravelry could eat my time and how I was going to have a million things I wanted to knit after browsing around for a few minutes but I didn't think it was going to be so bad!!! I have 11 patterns in my queue after 2 days...11!!!! So so many things I want to knit and so little time!! Hopefully once I get my big afghan projects out of the way I can move on to smaller things that I can actually feel like I'm getting something accomplished with. I've made quite a bit of progress on the Reversible Cable Scarf since Friday...watching movies for almost 4 hours Friday night definitely helped on that front:P Now if only my boss would stop giving me so many papers to read and experiments to run so that I could actually enjoy my summer and knit till my heart's content.

Ah well, at least I got my experiments up and running again today. I was having some issues with getting my gels to...well...gel these past few days. Turns out that since no one has done my kind of experiment (Westerns for those of you who are scientifically inclined) for years that one of the most finicky reagents had gone so bad that it made rancid meat look good. So I bummed some off of one of the other people on the floor and got everything working. Now if only I could figure out what happened to that fourth set of sponges...

Innywho time to get reading in the vain hope that I can knit a little bit later on tonight. Maybe I will take a break from the cables for a little while...maybe not...

Ravelry!!!

Finally got my Ravelry invite today. Quite possibly the worst day for it to happen since I am desperately trying to read approximately a million papers to write a review for the lab that I'm working in for the summer. But I think that I have managed to organize and play enough that I can concentrate now. But first as promised I have some pictures of WIPs and FOs

Reversible Cable Scarf
Warm Up America Afghan
Champagne by Night Afghan
Cabled Purse
Coasters
I've also cast on the Column of Leaves Scarf...because I have knitting ADD...but that only has like 4 rows on it and therefore isn't really worth posting. Ok...time to get down to business on this damn paper...