up to my eyeballs in school stuff

Whew! One test down, one to go. The neuroanatomy final exam kicked my butt... fortunately, I can put all those materials away and just concentrate on bacteria/viruses/fungi/parasites for the next 48 hours. No need to see how I did on the test until after the last exam, right?

I have been knitting a couple of rows in between each hour of studying, and I am actually getting close to finishing my aunt's blue socks! I also found some spare time to pot a bunch of pansies on my deck, weed my mint garden (actually a window box with some scraggly mint from last year, but I have to think big, right?!), and recussitate my azalea after trying to kill it last week.

I am dreaming of knitting Knitty's Crusoe sock out of some of my new Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn -- I think a sock marathon is in store for "end of first year of med school" therapy!

I'll post some pics as soon as I recover from Thursday's exam!

Ack! School!

Just a quick update before I head into four hours of microbiology lecture... mmm, parasites!

I just mailed off yarn for my secret Dye-o-Rama swap pal, so hopefully I will get to see it knit up soon! Erin has graciously offered to teach me how to spin in the near future, so that should be a great new project for the summer. Not much knitting this week, since I have been fairly swamped with other things. I fell in love with a Byron Birdsall print "Field of Dreams" this weekend as I left the local street fair, and I am going to have to figure out how to afford it... maybe I should Ebay the yarn stash?!

We're arriving at final exams starting tomorrow, so I doubt I will blog much until later next week...

acid dyeing adventure

Things have been busy this week! It's suddenly been in the high 70's to low 80's, sunny and breezy... Perfect sailing weather. I taught a beginner class on Hobie Bravo sailboats this weekend, which was wonderful. The students were all excited to be there and the weather was just right. Life would be great if my sinuses would agree to cooperate!

Sunday was studying for the exam this week, and buying dye for my post-test dyeing adventure. It sure is hard to study when it is so nice outside!

Erin hosted the little dye party, and we stayed up late watching the Grey's Anatomy season finale while we dyed yarn for Dye-o-Rama! I dyed one for me and one for my secret pal. Since I am obsessed with hot pink azaleas, I dyed the top skein to be an "Azalea" colorway... The bottom skein is a striping sock-yarn for my secret pal.


Azalea used hot fuschia, teal, brilliant kelly green, and emerald (Jaquard dyes), and the purple skein used purple, violet, scarlett, brilliant blue, and teal. The pink is much brighter and more distinct in normal light -- I am not that great with photo quality right now...

empathy

They teach us a lot about empathy in school: why we should have it, how we should express it, when is it professionally useful, how to restrain it so as to not be overwhelmed... Well, I believe in learning by doing. So, we're studying viruses -- what's a girl to do to work on her empathy? Why, get sick, of course!!

Sarcasm aside, this is the WRONG time of year to get a nasty cold. The exams come hard and fast this time of year, with two next week, one the week after, and then finals the week after that. It's pretty hard to study when I can only breathe well enough to eat popsicles and watch "That 70's Show" on TV all night. (Did I mention that you can watch "That 70's Show" for 4 hours straight if you have cable?!) I couldn't even really knit.

There is one other benefit to being sick -- my classmates had all kinds of interesting things to look at during physical exam class! "Wow, look -- a real, live, enlarged lymph node! And goodness, what fine tonsils you have!"

And the best one, "Hey, can YOU feel her liver? Tell us if this hurts too much..."

At least I don't have a prostate.

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The high point of next week will definately be dying yarn for the Dye-o-Rama with Erin! I am looking forward to coming up with some beautiful sock yarn for my secret pal using Erin's new-found acid dyeing skills. I just need to think of some other great Pacific Northwest treats to send along to my East Coast pal... I just don't think packing up a salmon with the yarn is a good idea...

All of the socks, great and small...

So, it's been over a week. With that much time to knit, what can I say for myself? Socks. I finished up the ends and sent off some Koigu socks for my grandmother and some Sweet Georgia socks for one aunt; I have one sock to go for another aunt and a pair left for the third. Then, I will be caught up for my promises through last Christmas (2005)... That will teach me never to say "Oh, of COURSE I can knit 5 pairs of socks in 6 weeks!" again.

Here are my fine specimens for this week:


The blue one is a gift sock from the stash (I wish I knew what yarn!) on my foot, since I wear the same size shoe as the recipient (size 39 in Danskos). The tiny blue one is a gift for a classmate's baby due this summer. By then, I expect to have another sock and a hat to match... It is made from GGH Scarlett yarn in a pale blue and a beige. The pink sock that is nearly finished is the most wonderful yarn ever! Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy! I love knitting it, and I can't believe that it is actually cotton. Cotton and "easy to work with" have never before gone together in my knitting repertoir. *grin* That sock is for me.

In other news, Beth and Lois (two of the koolaid dyeing co-conspirators) have been working on their self-striping socks! I expect them to provide me with photos soon, so that I can brag for them.

Now, if I can only survive learning about viruses for another two weeks! I hope I make it to parasites with my sanity intact...