Northwest Knitter

2009-06-06T17:46:00.001-07:00

MD!!!!!

2009-03-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

I matched!

I will do my Family Medicine residency at Swedish/Cherry Hill in Seattle!!! I am thrilled, happy for all my classmates who also got the program of their dreams, and grateful for the support of friends and family.

:-)

2009-03-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hedgehog harmony!!!

I finished putting eyes and a nose on my new heggie! So adorable!
The best part, though, is that they like each other! I hope she can keep his attention long enough to keep my other (non-knitted hedgehogs) safe from his advances...

Happy pi day, and have a good weekend!

2009-03-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

T-7 days and counting...

... Until Match Day! For those that don't know, Match Day is a tradition where, at the same time all over the country, thousands of graduating medical students receive an envelope containing the name of the program to which they are committed to do their residency training for the next several years. It is a major event for all of us, more important to many than gradation itself. Expect to hear from me on March 19th!

In other news, I finally coaxed my new hedgehog into the limelight! He is a bit difficult and uncooperative, but once I finish making him a girlfriend (pink with rainbow fur) he will hopefully get a bit more domesticated. Sadly, I made a significant error in my short-rows, and she may end up with a bit more of a boo-tay than originally intended. :-)A big thank-you to my friend Lois who is on a hat knitting streak!! My poor little ears would never have survived the chilly weather in Alaska this weekend without the thick wool hat she gave me as a surprise.

In garden news, seeds are started and growing indoors... My peas sprouted outside, but we then had a hard freeze. Who knows if they will live? Ah well, at least for this year I shouldn't need to depend on growing peas to survive... ;-)

I just finished up a month in the Emergency Department, and have a few days to catch up with life before starting Orthopedics. After that, Neurology... and then graduation! This is all coming a little bit fast for me...

EDIT: Bootay hedgehog is all done, and going into the washing machine even as we speak! Fortunately, since she was born a bit funky (what with the angular behind and the rainbow fur) she should not be as shy as the blue one... ;-)

2009-01-23T21:36:00.000-08:00

A little shy...

A new (felted) hedgehog was born today... he is still a bit damp, though, and VERY shy. Hopefully in the next few days I can persuade him to smile for the camera!

2009-01-19T17:55:00.001-08:00

Knitting, hiking, and photographic evidence...

First, the beginning of a Fiber Trends huggable hedgehog (prior to felting):

What an easy to follow pattern!!! I can't wait to finish and felt!

Next, a satisfying hike up West Tiger #3... There was a temperature inversion today, so it was about 65 degrees at the top (and 34 at the bottom when we started)!

There were some very aggressive birds at the summit... after they tried to steal someone's lunch, we discovered that they are easily bribed into a photo op!

Finally, proof that my cantankerous christmas cactus actually bloomed:

2008-12-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

General observations and thoughts (non-knitting):

1) On letting things be: I have been fussing with a Christmas cactus for 3 years. I got it from SO's mom as a small cutting, and planted it right away. Despite all the fussing, it has grown slowly and looked kinda wimpy. I have mainly ignored it this winter, except for the occasional watering. Lo and behold, flower buds! When I stopped trying. Perhaps there is a moral to this story?

2) On meditation: I sure do have a busy mind! I had stopped meditating 2 years ago, because of general busyness. I tried again today, by burning a candle and meditating until the flame went out. I am always surprised by the volume of unnecessary thoughts that fly through my mind! I put the lovely thin candle in a small flowerpot (the previous tenant of said pot died and shriveled up a year ago) full of old potting soil instead of sand (no sand to be found in my house). I got a surprise at the end, when the soil caught on fire!

3) On exercise and diet and weight: Just do it for heaven's sake! I spent far too much time planning and scheduling, and it is much easier to surrender and just go to the gym. Or put down the Christmas cookie and back slowly away... This spring, I will go back to my baseline weight from college: 15 lbs less than current. It will be great to fit in my drysuit next winter!

2008-12-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

More (holiday) knitting madness!

First, my very own Socktopus! (Rather, a gift for my 2 year old cousin...)

The best part about this pattern is that it was designed by my childhood best friend Laura, who I recently reconnected with after more than a decade of having lost touch! Awesome pattern!

Next, a hat for my Dad (terribly belated -- he picked out the yarn over 3 years ago!). If you look closely, there are neat texture details...

And then, there are the impulse-knit mittens for me! Some cream-colored clearance wool from the very beginning of my stash-building days combined with yarn that should look familiar to anybody that saw my rainbow sweater! So warm, for the deep, deep Seattle (??!!??!!) snow...
Happy holidays to everybody, especially you guys that I usually only talk to electronically (Liisa, Laura, Nancy, Andrew, Erin, Bernie, and on...)!

2008-12-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

Projects for the holidays!

First, a somewhat dressy neck-warmer in Manos silk blend:
Next, a warm and woolley scarf in Noro, made by alternating skeins of the same colorway:
A roll-brim original Manos hat:
And a ShiBui alpaca hat, for someone with sensitive skin:

All the cold weather in Seattle is being good for my knitting! Nothing like being trapped indoors to make the wool extra-lovely.

On the needles now:
1) a green pastaza ear-flap hat for my dad, just waiting for contrast stitching.
2) Anemoi mittens in Jamieson Shetland Spindrift, for me (1/4 done with the first one).
3) Socktopus (grey with multicolored socks) for my uncle's kiddo (if I can bear to part with him).
4) 3 different socks
5) ugly noro scarf
6) blue ribbed sweater

Can we tell I am a bit "project-starting happy"? More photos soon. Fortunately, my economic nervousness has helped me to do the unthinkable -- USE THE STASH! Instead of buying new yarn, I am actually checking out skeins from my yarn-library!

In other news, lots of residency interviews, now over. The hard decisionmaking part begins. I'm heading out to the midwest for Christmas, to see family -- looking forward to the family but not the air travel. My next rotation (Pediatric Endocrinology) begins in January, which I am excited about. Endo is one of my favorite areas, and kids are a joy to be around. What could be better?

2008-11-04T21:11:00.001-08:00

YES WE DID!!!!

Congratulations America! Unbelievable! What an amazing and historic night!

2008-10-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

MY SWEATER IS DONE!!!!!!!!!

Believe it or not, my rainbow sweater (that I have been working on since October 2006) is finished! Amazing!

2008-09-28T09:02:00.001-07:00

Fall...

It's a bittersweet time of year. The leaves are becoming yellow, it is getting chilly at night, and it's completely dark when I wake up. It feels like a time to be busy, preparing for the winter to come. Last weekend, I and two friends made soap from scratch -- it is now aging in the cellar, until it is hard enough to use and give as gifts.

Here is the recipe for soap -- make sure to consult a good soap-making reference before attempting, as lye can be very dangerous and reacts with many containers.

Mix 290 g lye and 600 g water together (exothermic reaction!!) in a well-ventilated area, using protective gloves and eyewear. Allow to cool to 110 degrees.

Mix 200 g palm oil, 400 g coconut oil, and 1500 g olive oil together and heat until liquid and clear. Carefully mix in the lye mixture, stirring with a hand-blender until opaque and thickened to the consistency of cake batter. Add any other additives (we used lavender flowers and 2 oz lavender oil for one batch and ground oatmeal and 1 oz tea tree oil for another). Pour into mold (we used shoe boxes lined with plastic wrap). Insulate with several towels/blankets and leave alone for 48 hours.

After saponification is complete, remove blocks of soft soap from molds and cut into bars. Allow to sit with moderate airflow for 6-8 weeks to finish drying.

************************************
From another friend, I learned to can. Last weekend I canned 3-bean salad in single-serving jars to take for lunch on busy days. Yesterday, I canned two types of pickles (bread and butter, and spicy garlic dill) and started a peach-raspberry jam!

Today's tasks include finishing the jam and building a cloche for my poorly-planned late-season garden! (Oh yes, and finishing residency applications...)

2008-08-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

Been hiding under a rock...

I apologize to people who I haven't gotten back to in months. I am working my way back through the thousands of emails I let slide this year...

Updates:
First, school -- 3rd year done, all rotations and exams passed with flying colors! I finished my Sub-I (likely to be my hardest rotation of 4th year) last week, and now I have a month of freedom! And residency applications... All I have to say is that I completely adore sleeping in my own bed every night -- q4 call wears me out!

Next, life skills -- I started some gardening this summer, planting things at two different friends' houses. Looking forward to learning some new skills! I also have been drying and freezing fruit in preparation for the winter.

Finally, knitting -- I have FINALLY finished all the pieces of my rainbow sweater!
Today's job is to start seaming the thing! :-)

Also on tap today is to pick up veggies from Jubilee Farm CSA, and get ready for a weekend away at the cabin... Ahhh, the life of luxury. It will be hard to go back to med school rotations next month...

2008-02-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

BUTTER!!

I just made butter! Woohoo!

I have been getting delicious raw milk from Seabreeze Farm, but have been a bit troubled by the fat content (when I am using it for cereal and whatnot). At the same time, I can ALWAYS use butter for my homemade toast. So, this time, I sucked off the cream with a turkey baster (leaving just the lower-fat milk in the milk container). Then, I shook the daylights out of the cream, making butter and buttermilk. I rinsed the butter and put it in the fridge, and put the buttermilk on my cereal!

Voila! No waste, and two delicious things! (Plus arm excercise!)

2008-02-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

Good things:

1) A guy got on the bus with three heavy boxes, and begged the driver to drop him off as near to his other bus as possible (since he was unable to carry all boxes together at one time). Another passenger offered to get off the bus at the same spot and help him carry a box, even though that is not where #2 was going.

2) Kale in homemade chicken soup (made from roasted free-range organic chicken carcasses), brought to school in a canning jar. Mmmmm...

3) Warm flannel shirts, since home is kinda chilly in the winter!

2008-02-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

Notoriously absent...

That's me! That seems to be what happens when you take on about 100 times more things than you believe you have time for...

At any rate, first the knitting updates:
Rainbow Cardigan: one sleeve left to go!
Socks: working on three pairs, including the first toe-ups!
Ravelry: got signed up, trying to flesh out my page!

Photos due once the camera charger that we left in Maui returns. By the way, Maui was a great place to relax and recover from life. Highly recommended.

I have gotten quite interested in food, both where it comes from and how it is grown/produced. I've been doing a lot of reading, including Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both of which have hugely impacted my eating habits. I have continued to participate when I can in local farmer's markets as well as Jubilee Farm (a local biodynamic farm in Carnation WA).

I have also just read Better by Atul Gawande, which explores how people across disciplines have improved their performance at a variety of tasks. It is a great book and has very concrete suggestions for how to get in the mindset to get better oneself. It makes me think about my own tasks, and how to improve (as well as what to improve). It would be an overwhelming task to get better at everything simultaneously, but if one selects certain areas to improve, over time one can have dramatic effects. This has pretty far-reaching implications both for doctors (in caring for patients) and for individuals on a very specific level (weight loss, organization, study skills, or what have you).

At any rate, betterment is the name of the game. Off to study some radiology!

EDITED TO ADD:
Now that I have accomplished a few things on my to-do list (taxes, studying, cleaning), I want to muse a bit more on what I want to improve in my own life...

1) Environmental impact: I am realizing what a gigantic impact I have on the environment. When I realize how much trash I throw out, how much recycling I dump, how much water goes down the sewer, how much fuel emissions I cause to enter the air, and how much waste is caused by my consumer habits, I cringe. Often, perfect is the enemy of good enough, and I start fantasizing about living "off the grid" and weaving my own clothes out of natural fibers, eating only what I grow, and so on... Then I remember that I am training to be a doctor, and with that career plan there are difficult choices regarding my environmental impact versus my ability to help others in our current system. For example, I have to be at many different locations and many inconvenient times for work. It's pretty hard to walk home 12 miles or catch a bus at 2:00 am, which makes me have to choose to drive a single-occupancy vehicle fairly often. It is critical to use gloves and other disposable safety equipment at work to protect myself and my patients -- at a cost of bags of plastic waste going into landfills daily.

However, I CAN make choices to limit my consumerism. I can go out of my way to take the bus to work when I am able, even if it is sometimes 2 hours each way. I can be conscientious about recycling and yard waste, and sort the trash when I go near the bin. I can eat locally more often by purchasing food at farmer's markets and not from other countries. I can be better at shopping for used clothes. In short, I CAN choose to change my behavior.

2) Academic diligence: It is commonly tossed around in conversation that there is so much to learn in medicine that it is not possible to learn it all. Consequently, I often arbitrarily decide when to throw in the towel regarding studying, believing that each bit is just a drop in the bucket. Now that I have settled into my future specialty, I know that I need to learn about everything, as much as possible. There is no time like the present to dig in and add some knowledge!

3) State of mind: Complaining is dangerous. In the book Better, Dr. Gawande discusses lunch time conversations between health professionals digressing into complaints about things out of their control -- resulting in everyone going back to work in a worse mood and more burned out than before. THIS IS NOT NECESSARY! If I surround myself with people who are committed to either appreciate their life or change it, and learn to stop (or at least reduce) my complaining, I am pretty sure that I can be both happier and more effective. Here's to change!

Let's see how I do with these three things, for starters. No small task, but manageable nonetheless.

2007-09-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

I da' ho!

We drove from Seattle to Boise, ID yesterday so that I would be here and ready for my surgery rotation at the Boise VA Hospital. We stopped several times to taste wine from Yakima to Walla Walla, and particularly enjoyed the wines at Steppe Cellars, L'Ecole 41, Isenhower Cellars, and Reininger Winery. The very best dessert wine I have ever had came from Tertulia Cellars! I don't think I get to buy any wine for the next year or so...

We also found an alpaca farm in Walla Walla, where I was able to meet some beautiful alpacas and then purchase a bit of their fiber! I sent it home to Seattle, though, so I won't be _too_ distracted! I don't need it anyway, since my very thoughtful friend Beth gave me a care package for my adventure...

Since I am all alone out here, I should be able to get a ton of knitting done (or studying, yeah, that's it...) She also thoughtfully included ear plugs (yay for wierd sleep hours!) and heat packs (yay Idaho winter!), and emergency chocolate and tea!!! I might make it afterall...

The VA campus is beautiful here, with an expansive lawn and tall trees... Right behind the campus is a park with hiking/bike trails through the hills. A river runs through town, so there is a green strip down the middle of the windy, brown valley.

Med and pharmacy students share an old brick dorm with a new kitchen and laundry. I got all set up in my room today, and am very glad I brought my own sheets!

I also brought a lot of food, just in case my schedule keeps me from our assigned meal times! Anybody who knows me knows I can't live without study snacks!
Now I just need to make sure I get enough sleep tonight, so I am ready to go for orientation tomorrow...

2007-09-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

3-month update?

Knitting: I got my invite to Ravelry! Now I just have to find some time to post! I would love to get some advice on some ongoing projects (rainbow sweater, the elusive lace sock) once I get them up online. I tore out a lace sock last week because the yarn kept striping without permission, and now I am without a lace sock pattern/yarn combo that makes me happy... Perhaps I should break my cardinal rule of yarn buying and get something that is only one color??

School: One rotation down (Family Medicine) and one nearly finished (OB/GYN). Turns out that I love OB/GYN! Who would have thought? I have also been loving working in the OR during GYN surgery. Perhaps this is a good sign for my upcoming Surgery rotation? Almost all the nurses on Labor and Delivery knit, so it feels safe for me! Even more so when the Attending shows up in handknit socks... :-)

Delivering a baby is one of the most incredible experiences that I have ever had. I have never had the same feeling as I had when I delivered a baby while looking into the mother's eyes -- a patient I had seen every week for 6 weeks. It sent chills down my spine, and I cried for hours afterwards just due to the overwhelming sense of connection and purpose. Wow.

As soon as my big exam is done this week, I head out to Boise ID for Surgery... Since I will be staying IN the hospital for 6 weeks, I expect a bit more knitting and posting time in the near future. Hopefully I can finish a project for once!

2007-07-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

loose ends...

1) Boards: OVER! AWESOME! I took them June 27 and got my score on Saturday. I am shocked and thrilled about the outcome, and that chapter can now be laid to rest. :-)

2) Friends: I have the most wonderful friends ever. A 4-layer homemade cake, 24 beautiful roses, and a bottle of champagne? Amazing. Thanks guys! I could NOT do this if it wasn't for you. Seriously, I need my friends to keep me in line if I start getting too weird from this process...

3) Vacation: Before my rotation, we went to Pacific Beach for the weekend with some of the previously mentioned amazing friends. Kite flying, swimming in the ocean, delicious meals, knitting, good books... How can you get better than that? Then my Dad came down and we had hiking and sailing and more good food. Again, awesome!

4) Rotation: I seriously won the rotation jackpot! I am at a community health center in Seattle that serves a wide variety of people, including low-income, non-English speaking, HIV, OB, families, students, people with fluctuations in their insurance, sex-workers, drug users, grandmothers, doctors at other local hospitals, and others... What a phenomenal variety! All of the providers are incredibly compassionate and brilliant people, and I am learning a ton. As part of this rotation, I am spending one half-shift per week in the ER at a local hospital (quite a trip!) and one lunch-hour per week taking blood pressures and chatting with people at a community lunch program. This is the best rotation I could imagine.

5) Cats: I love being a foster cat mommy! Last week I was dropping in on two young kitties as a friend was out of town. At the same time, another friend had her geriatric cat stay with us while she moved to a new home. It is so nice to get some kitty-time without having to make a huge commitment. Yay!

More soon I hope!

2007-06-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Status update: T minus 6 days...

First Aid chapters studied: 12/16
BRS Physiology: done!
BRS Pathology: 22/24
Micro MRS: 15/34
(There's another heap of books that ain't gettin' no love...)

Looking forward to "the afterboards"! In a week, I will be free! In the meantime, it is crunch-time. I can't wait to start a celebratory knitting project!

2007-06-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

chard and garlic scapes and ravioli, OH MY!

I just made a delicious lunch to go with my frantic studying! I sauteed onion and about 1.5 cups of chopped garlic scapes in olive oil, added chopped stems of red chard, and finally added the chopped leaves. I seasoned it with a tablespoon of butter and salt/pepper. Finally, I put it over some 4-cheese ravioli. Delicious, and so colorful! (As long as you like greens and garlic...) :-)

Back to the books.

2007-06-13T07:56:00.001-07:00

Ack!

Well, I am officially so far behind on studying for the boards that I made a new study schedule. Now I am exactly where the schedule says I should be! Heh.

I am very lucky that I have good friends looking out for my mental health. Erin is especially awesome, because she spun some gorgeous yarn for my birthday and it is going to be my reward for a job well done when I take this beast of an exam... (I would post my own pictures, but I think I have to not fuss with the camera today)

Also, I'm looking forward to going out to Jubilee Farm on Friday to volunteer some hours of work. They are an outstanding local farm with a CSA program with high quality produce and strong values that appeal to my new thoughts on food. I'll detail later when I actually have time for a break... My thought is that I can really use some manual labor to make me chill out a bit during all of this.

It freaks me out when I read on the web of people taking 5-7 weeks to study for the boards, when I am taking 3. I hope I know myself as well as I think I do! *knotted stomach*

Back to the salt mines! (Or GI system, as the case may be...)

2007-06-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

What my days are like:

So far, I am *almost* keeping up with my study schedule. Looking forward to June 28!

2007-06-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

check out my updated header!

Well, I'm now officially a 3rd year med student! YAY! We just had our "Clinical Transition Ceremony", received our short white coats, and were sent on our way... Now, I have 3.5 weeks to study for the boards, and I start my first rotation in Family Practice at a community health center.

Schedule:
July 9: Family Medicine (Seattle)
Aug 20: OB/GYN (Seattle)
Oct 1: Surgery (Boise)
Nov 12: Psych (Seattle)
Jan 7: Urology (Seattle)
Jan 21: Opthomology (Seattle)
Feb 18: Pediatrics (Anchorage)
Mar 31: Internal Med (Seattle)

I also went to Duck Dodge last Tuesday night with some friends, and had a great sail dressed as pirates! Arrrrh!

2007-05-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

Fortune cookie of the day...

This evening, at Super China Buffet, I received a fortune cookie that was strangely appropriate:

"You will pass a difficult test that will make you happier."

Hopefully that is in reference to my last final of 2nd year on Friday! :-)
(Or the boards!)

2007-05-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

school rant... sorry...

*begin rant*

Anybody that has talked to me in the last two years knows that I take issue with the behavior of a subset of my classmates. I am very frustrated at the way people treat our professors, as if they know nothing and exist only to serve our whims. Today, we got an email changing the entire grading system for a quarter-long set of assignments that virtually assures that anybody doing them will qualify for an honors grade because people complained so much that it was unfair to do "full-credit" work and not get honors. Doesn't "honors" suggest that you did BETTER than just the typical expectation??!! AAARRGGHH! The email ended with the sentence "Please stop the hate mail."

It makes me absolutely crazy that people would actually send angry email to the professor about this, rather than saying "oh well, I will just have to work a bit harder" and going with the flow. These people have collectively been teaching medical students for longer than many of us have been in school! Don't you think they might have learned a thing or two about the subject and the process of teaching?????

Call me old-fashioned, but I really believe that professors deserve respect (even when you are disagreeing) and the benefit of the doubt, they deserve not to be bothered for stupid things or questions we can easily answer ourselves, and they should have the latitude to make reasonable rules/policies for the class and have us shut up and do what they say. Med school is supposed to be hard, and it is their job to motivate us to do our best, not give everyone a cookie and an honors grade and a hug! (By the way, I do NOT expect to get an honors grade in this class and I am not trying to be exclusive about it, I just think people need to be nice to professors.)

BE RESPECTFUL. BE KIND. HAVE PERSONAL INTEGRITY. WORK HARD. In the real world, we don't get to change "the grading system" just because we don't like it!!! We will get whatever patients we get, with whatever illnesses they have, and we have to roll with the punches and do our best to help them.

Imagine this: "Excuse me, nurse? I don't think it is fair that I have to see this patient today. His medical condition is too complicated. It is too hard to figure out what's actually wrong; I think he should just be happy that I gave him a bandaid and some random pills, so I don't have to get all stressed out... He should pay me a lot anyway, since I tried..."

*end rant*

2007-05-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

psychiatric disorders...

Does studying psych indoors when it is 80 degrees and sunny outside (for the first time this year) cause affective disorders? Ack! I should make a cold, frosty, SSRI cocktail and go enjoy it and study on the deck! :-)

2007-05-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

warming up...

This set of finals feels different than usual; it feels like the warmup for the big game (boards) rather than the event itself. Fortunately, my clinical skills professor (we are in small groups to learn these things) has proclaimed me "ready for 3rd year". Whew! :-)

I've been knitting still, although it has gotten a bit simpler lately; here is a nearly-completed scarf made from Noro Kureyon inspired by Brooklyn Tweed (although not nearly as nice!) and using some yarn I got for Christmas from my aunt.

I've also been learning to run! A friend referred me to an excellent podcast, the "Couch-to-5K" put together by Robert Ullrey. The program uses intervals of walking and running, along with great music, to coax some running out of even the most running-phobic! I'm on week 4 of 9, and it works great!!! Thanks, Robert!

Well, sadly, it's back to studying "Neurobiology of Mental Illness". Yum!

2007-04-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Better late than never...

Finally, I have finished my first pair of Jaywalkers!

STR "Fire on the Mountain", of course. The color pooling is very interesting on the feet; the BOTTOMS of the feet have the pretty blues and pinks!

Funny how much toe-finishing can get done when my last midterm of all time is in a few hours...

2007-04-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

still here, barely...

I was reading a "you might be a med student if" list, and realized that in fact, I MIGHT BE A MED STUDENT!

My top three for the week:
1) Friends (non-medschool) wanted to throw me a birthday party, and I told them that I might have time in a few weeks if it was only two hours long and had no booze (so I could study after)...

2) I played House bingo, and won on a rerun with "It might be vasculitis!"

3) Nobody sat next to me on the bus home yesterday, and I couldn't tell if it was because I kept reciting psych drugs to myself or the giant picture of a penis on the handout in my lap...

Anyway, I finally set up the "new" blogger dashboard, and will attempt to post some catchup photos of knitting and spinning this week. Believe it or not, I have actually managed to knit a little bit!

Two weeks of classes, two weeks of exams, three weeks to study for USMLE I, then a short break before I start my first rotation. Whee!

2006-12-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

I'm back!

Ack! Last quarter kicked me square in the butt, but I might have finally slept it off. Now I am on vacation at the Quillayute River Resort (near Forks, WA) to celebrate the new year and have one last break before school starts again. Surprisingly, I have great wireless internet access, so it's time to update the blog! First things first: I got tagged by Erin. Here goes:

"Six Wierd Things About Me"
1. I am OCD about my alarm clock. I have to click the switch to "alarm" three times before I am satisfied that it is set each night. I also set it for exactly 8 hours from when I go to bed unless I am prevented by an early obligation.

2. I only like weak coffee! Pretty wierd for a Seattleite. Diner coffee is my favorite.

3. I hate wearing jewelry. I have tried at several points in my life, but can't seem to understand why you would want to wear something that gets caught in your hair/clothes/food when you can avoid it. For that matter, though, I rarely if ever subscribe to the idea that it is a good idea to be a bit uncomfortable to be beautiful. No fashion, no makeup, no pointy shoes...

4. I love bright colored yarn and fibers, and collect them with wild abandon. I avoid buying clothes that cost more than $25 unless I have to, but dropping $200 on yarn in one outing is not unusual... Oh, and I have enough sock yarn to keep me in socks until I retire.

5. I hate raisins and bananas unless they are partially green. On the other hand, I love almost anything pickled! Pickles, pickled asparagus, peas, garlic, olives, even bologna! (As I write this, my sig o handed me a pickled asparagus spear despite having no idea what I was writing!)

6. I hate making dirty dishes, and I go to great lengths to keep reusing dishes rather than have to wash more. (And we have a dishwasher!)

Alright, back to the knitting. The back of my rainbow sweater is 4 rows from being finished!

2006-11-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

observation and judgement...

Sometimes, when you finally wake up from the typical human stupor, you realize that the world is trying to send you a message. They tell us in medical school that everything we really need to know will be repeated over and over. It's just a bit embarrasing that life lessons require the same repetition...

Some background. Lately, I have been in a stressful situation at home. There are some behaviors/attitudes that are leading to trouble for my SO, and although I can see several possible solutions, I have been unable to catalyze the necessary changes. At the same time, school has been overwhelming and I have had little time to appreciate or reflect on my experiences and the things I learn.

I am taking a class in Mind-Body medicine once a week, in which we are learning many "self-care strategies" and techniques for ourselves and our patients. On Monday, we were told to meditate and observe our feelings and thoughts as they come upon us, and rather than trying to make them go away, just let them flow past us. Just observe, without judgement -- like rain drops flowing down a window pane.
(Great, says I. This seems easy enough.... OM.......)

Tuesday morning, I go to visit the medical school counselor to discuss the issues going on at home and how they are influencing my motivation for school. I felt so proactive! Rather than actions for me to take, however, he reminded me of the Serenity Prayer. He reminded me that I can merely observe what happens in other people's lives, offer love and support, and not force myself to act or judge. I was encouraged to find peace in letting go, and not being responsible.

Wednesday morning, I was to see a patient at the local hospital to practice history-taking and physical exam. I have had some negative feelings about some of the things I have seen at this particular hospital, especially strong odors and misplaced bodily fluids. I have been questioning my motivations to go into medicine, and feeling ill-at-ease about my commitment to serve all people who need someone to care for them. I have been asking myself if I am too weak, uncaring, petty, or something to look past the things that bother me. In the afternoon, I happened to stop by the office of a professor who I deeply respect and who I feel connected to in a very real way. Somehow, I ended up talking about this concern with her, and she had much wisdom and many thought-provoking ideas to share. A major theme was that the most important thing was to honestly observe my own reactions and thoughts, and watch them change (or not change) over time. She pointed out that the thoughts themself are passing and are not so difficult to accomidate -- it is the judgement that I put onto those thoughts that was keeping me awake at night. At this point in medicine, my job is merely to observe and recieve and learn. There is no hurry to judge myself, as long as I can honestly live in my own moment.

Wow! Would you believe it! On the bus on the way home, I suddenly realized that I could just acknowledge things in my life WITHOUT feeling that I am responsible for everything at every moment! Who would have thought of that?! I have to laugh that it took three times before the message actually got in. Late is better than never, right?

2006-10-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

knitting in quiet desperation

I am currently trying to decide if I am contaminating my "knitting experience" by using it to keep myself from passing out in class. Hour after monotonous and dimly-lit hour, I knit to keep my head off the desk and my mind on the lecture. I feel like I miss some information at the expense of not dropping stitches, but I retain more than if I were sleeping entirely. Besides, if I fall asleep, I will poke myself in the eye.

The terrible thing is that the information is FASCINATING and NECESSARY, and if I did not have such a large volume of exams I would love to learn it all.

8 and 1/2 weeks until the holiday break.

2006-10-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

you know that medical school is damaging you when...

1) You need to leave your torture chamber (aka study room) so desperately that you go sailing when it is drizzling and there is no wind just to sit on the water and get away from school... and...

2) You quiz yourself on pharmacology while you drift so that you don't waste valuable spare moments that you could be studying!

ACK!

2006-10-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Whirlwind

My life seems like it is moving at the speed of light! Last time I checked, it was mid-August and I was getting ready for my friend's wedding. Now, all of a sudden, the trees are shedding their yellow and red leaves and it's raining and chilly. How did this happen without my notice?

I have a lot to update, so I will do this in two parts. First, the yarn part. Next, the school/life part. Feel free to read the part of interest!
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Fibers!First, some finished projects and new fibers! Two finished pairs of socks, courtesy of long hours of lecture at school... I sure have been knitting up a storm to stay awake! Also, some LOVELY Dicentra Designs silk/wool blend fibers to spin -- a gift from Erin from the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival that I was unable to attend. Now I really need a wheel!
Here are some of the "in-progress" projects. The first is a Noro Silk Garden scarf for my significant other's sister. It is really neat that the colors are mirroring each other where I joined the new ball of yarn! The second is the very beginning of a sweater made from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Twisted" yarn that I got from the fiber show in April (with the bottom cuff of Cascade 220).

I am also still spinning yarn from the purple and pink wool that Erin picked up for me at the last show, but since I masochistically decided to spin this spindle in "spider-web weight", it is going fairly slow... Oh well!

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School and real life!

Just before school started, my friend got married and I was honored to be her maid of honor. The preparations were stressful, but the wedding was AMAZING. The bride looked like a fairytale princess, and the rest of us looked great as well. It was so worthwhile to see the groom's face when she walked down the aisle -- I think everyone's heart felt what he was feeling at that moment. Wow.

(For those that know me in real life, you would understand how strange I felt when they spend two hours on my hair at the salon, and another hairdresser walked by and asked the TWO that were doing my hair, "Wow! That's big hair... can I touch it??")

Second year of medical school hit like a ton of bricks, and it has been non-stop since we started over a month ago. We have had two final exams, and a lot of new experiences. One in particular, deserves mention. I learned how to draw blood from patients, and it was perhaps the most stressful thing I have encountered so far in school. I am not afraid of needles, nor of sticking them into people or animals -- but I have some deeply ingrained standards of ethical behavior that came head-to-head with my training that week. They had us learn first on each other, then put on a coat that had "Phlebotomy" embroidered on it -- and draw blood from patients in the outpaitent blood-draw clinic! The thing that was so difficult for me was that we were not supposed to identify that we were students unless we were asked, which felt very wrong to me. I felt as if I were "stealing" my training opportunity from patients that did not have a choice simply because they didn't know any better. Now I know that this will be a common occurance in my training, but I felt as if I COULD NOT make a mistake, since I was impersonating someone who was supposed to do it right. My adrenaline was sky-high, and it really wiped me out that week, but as far as I know I didn't hurt anyone. Whew. I feel like this was an opportunity to learn about how to respond to this level of stress and still maintain my sanity rather than a time to learn a technical skill.

A couple of weeks ago, I did the Run Wild 5K at NW Trek -- it was a great location to take a long walk! After the Seafair half-marathon (in July) walk and this, I feel like I really ought to sign up to walk the Seattle marathon half walk. It is becoming a huge challenge to get my excercise, but after studying lipids and diabetes, I feel like I have no choice!

I would love to update more, but sadly the Cardiovascular System (and Pharmacology) are calling my name. School never slows down for a second.

2006-08-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

a challenge!

A relative of mine challenged me to answer a few questions, so here goes:

1. One book that changed your life: The Marrige of Sense and Soul (Ken Wilber) -- This book effectively and persuasively makes you think about the nature of consciousness and reality, and promotes self-exploration on an unusual level.

2. One book you’ve read more than once: Mountains Beyond Mountains
(Tracy Kidder)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: The Worst-Case Scenario Little Book of Survival

4. One book that made you giddy: Any of the Harry Potter Books

5. One book that wracked you with sobs: ??? I'm sure there is one, but I honestly can't remember a title!

6. One book that you wish had been written: A biography of my mother. She died a few years ago, and I wish that I knew more about her life.

7. One book you wish had never been written: I can't think of anything! I really believe in having things written down so that one can always look back and lend thought to events and situations.

8. One book you’re currently reading: Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease (Jeanette Farrell)

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: Collapse (Jared Diamond)

10. Now tag five bloggers: Erin, Clare, Andrew (ack! I don't know two others to tag!)

2006-08-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

new yarn!

I just recieved some surprise SweetGeorgia yarn in the mail from Erin! Thank you!!!!! This really makes my week! I have been drooling over "mango" for months!

In other news, one of my houseplants (a cutting of a plant that was rescued when my mom died) is flowering! The last time the original plant flowered was when a friend of mine, Dave, nursed it back to health over a year ago! It makes me feel so good to know that it is thriving now.

2006-08-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

tardiness...

Well, I can't say that I have much to report in the fiber-arts realm of things... I have had such a hectic life the last few months that I have barely accomplished anything! I finished a baby sock, spun a skein of yarn, and spent the rest of the time working in the lab, worrying about my friend's upcoming wedding, and dealing with some personal things.

Speaking of the wedding, whoever invented "shapewear" was clearly employed by the spanish inquisition, and frankly it seems to be well suited to making someone renounce all that is good and holy in the world! Obviously kidding, but anyone who knows how low-maintenence in the fashion department I am would explode with laughter thinking of me post-Clinique makeover in a dressingroom with two kinds of shapewear on AT ONCE (I'm not trained to use this kind of equiptment), attempting to step into the bridesmaid dress without catching it on the sandals I forgot to remove while I could still bend over...

Whew.

Fortunately, my friend Erin has come to the rescue and I am told to expect some knitting emergency supplies in the mail soon... Thanks, man!!! *hug*

I WILL post some pictures within the next few days.

2006-06-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

first non-practice skein!

54 yards of beautiful wooly goodness! Hooray! And there is a lot more fiber where this came from. I expect at least 250 yards from the whole batch...

I call it... "mixed berries"...

2006-06-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

first skein of handspun!

Well, it has been in the 80's and clear outside, with a reasonable breeze... so you know where to find me! Out sailing (and swimming)! I have been remiss with the fiber projects lately, but I swear I have a good excuse... Lake Washington was calling to me...

But look! My first handspun! The red mini-skein (18 whole yards) is two-ply wool of mixed type, spun and plied on the drop-spindle. Erin is a wonderful, sweet, fantastic friend and she brought me back some goodies from Oregon (Black Sheep Gathering) since I couldn't make it. I will post those pictures soon, but for now just the pretty roving that I am actually using is in the picture. On the drop spindle is some beautiful Blue Faced Licester from Baa Bette's Fleece that I am spinning up right now.

My friend Beth also came over to play, and today was her first time spinning! She used Erin's Lendrum to spin the fiber, and here is a picture of her plying with the drop spindle... Way to go Beth!

2006-06-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

long walk

This weekend was a wild one, dring which several of us took care of our friends' twins. Each time I borrow someone's kids, it reminds me why it will be a while before I am prepared to have any of my own! They were great kids, though, and I got a bit of time to work on some baby stuff for my classmate. We went to the zoo on Saturday, and got to see some fabulous creatures -- I love the zoo, and it is a place that I tend not to go to unless I have kids with me...

Yesterday, Rebecca and I set out from Lynnwood on the Interurban Trail to take a long walk, in training for walking a half-marathon at the SeaFair Marathon in July. We walked through 5 different municipalities, including Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline, and finally Seattle. Unfortunately, one aspect of the trail is that it tends to have random gaps between stops and starts of sections, and we managed to get a bit lost after a while. We ended up losing the trail entirely (when we took some other trail by accident), and heading mostly south and east to get to my house. The question of the day is if we will be able to walk at work!

2006-06-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Dye-o-rama swap goodies!!

I know it's been a while. I had to spend the last week sitting on the couch and sleeping, so I was much too busy to write... *grin*

Anyway, look! MY NEW SWAP YARN ARRIVED!

Huge thanks to Kimberly for creating such lovely yarn. I feel so spoiled for the gift of not one, but TWO stunning skeins of sock yarn! Check out the beautiful weaving on her blog, too.

In the meantime, I finished two single socks featured previously in the incomplete state:

Now I have to get cracking on baby stuff before the baby beats the knitting projects in the race to completion!

We went on a sailing trip this past weekend, to Port Orchard. This is the best marina facility that I have EVER been to. It is reasonably priced (the fuel price is very fair!), and the restrooms with FREE SHOWERS are clean and well-stocked. There are some restaurants and a supermarket within easy walking distance, and even a store that sells yarn (or so I am told). We had sunny weather both days, and enough wind to get a lot of sailing in! We also found a fantastic used bookstore that was just opened by a brilliant fellow with great taste in books. I will definately be back.

In the real world, I started back in the research lab this past Monday. It is a nice change from school, working 9-5 with no homework! Things are going well so far, and I expect to actually get some experiments underway by the end of the week. I am also teaching a Communications class for a group of high school students this summer, and I need to finish up my lesson plan before classes start next week.

2006-06-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

frolicking in fibers!

Now that I have had a chance to sleep enough to recover from school, I can show off some of my recent activities! First, my "garden":

So far so good... Perhaps I have grown out of my "brown thumb" afterall! Leann and Lois passed the pansies my way, and they were perfect for my little deck box...

I have had knitting party after knitting party the last couple of days. I am almost done with blue socks for my aunt (just a bit of redoing the toes left), I finished the first of my pair of pink socks (BMFA Sock Candy), and got a few more inches done on the sweater that will take forever. More exciting, however, is that Erin came over on Saturday night and taught me how to spin! She gave me a spindle and some fiber, and once I spin through it all, she will teach me how to ply!

I also started a Crusoe sock with my "Azalea" yarn, and it looks fantastic so far! I love how the stranding in the pattern brings out the pink in the yarn. Love it!

I hope I can keep up this pace for a while... then I might be able to justify some new fibers at the Black Sheep Gathering this month!

2006-06-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

HOORAY!! Life goes on!

Guess what, friends? I have officially passed my final exams, and I am now a second-year med student! I am so relieved that I don't have to retake any exams. Whew!

Now I can start the fiber-arts binge!

Thank you to all my friends that work hard to keep me from losing my mind. You guys rock!

2006-05-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-05-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-05-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-05-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-04-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Knitting Expo... and the azalea bush that attacked...

I turned another year older this week, and thanks to a few wonderful friends, had an excellent Indian food birthday party! My parents also called to tell me that they were sending me flowers. Well, I naturally assumed that they were sending a vase of cut flowers, and was looking forward to getting something new for the table. Thursday morning, I got up and got all ready to catch the bus to school. With a few minutes to spare before my bus arrived, I opened the front door... and there it was...
The delivery person had pushed the nearly waist-tall azalea shrub so close to the screen door that I could not get out of the house! It took about 15 minutes to wiggle and push the shrub far enough away to open the door, making me miss the bus and late for class. And what a lovely shrub it is, too! Thanks, Dad and Andee!

I also recieved some LOVELY hand-dyed yarn from Erin for my birthday (top right in the below photo), which I can't wait to knit up! She knew exactly which color I needed. She also was my savior on Friday, and rescued me from class to go to the Knitting Expo! See the loot below:

On the top row, we have two skeins of Sleeping Dragon sock yarn, 3 skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, 2 skeins of BMFA Sock Candy, and 2 skeins of Erin's spectacular birthday yarn. On the bottom, we have four skeins of BMFA Twisted yarn (and 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden, from a recent emergency purchase).

A teaser for this week: the BMFA Sock Candy yarn knits like a dream. I wish I had gotten more! I can't wait to finish this sock. Also to come: finished sock for aunt, and finished baby sock for classmate. Photos after the big exam on Monday!

2006-04-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

When life feels hectic...

It is very easy to take on the stress of the people around you. In med school, there is plenty of stress to take on if you allow it! Usually I step back when it gets overwhelming and knit for a while, but for some reason I forgot my knitting at home today... Fortunately, I remembered to take a look at my favorite poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot. A particular passage always calms me down when I am feeling chaotic, mostly because it just feels so human:

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

We have an exam on Monday, and I am torn between swatching my new *birthday yarn* from Erin, knitting some baby things for a classmate, and studying. Obviously, my choice appears to be playing with knitting blogs! It's a good thing I never subscribe to being truly efficient... :-)

2006-04-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

there's a first time for everything...
(no knitting today -- don't read if you're squeamish!)

Today started off relaxing... I got up when the sun came streaming in my window (hooray, it's finally spring!), and sat down with a cup of tea to read some knitting blogs. At 8:30, a classmate called me to tell me that my group was being paged to view an autopsy at the hospital, and that I had to get there within 45 minutes. That presented a bit of a problem, since the only bus that would get me there in time was scheduled to pass by 7 minutes later and I was still in my pj's...

With nothing but tea in my stomach and a muffin in my hand, I shot out the door 6.5 minutes later and barely made it to the bus stop in time to get to the hospital! At the autopsy office (which, I might point out, is VERY near the cafeteria), we suited up and entered the procedure room. Now, I have seen a dead body before, having had gross anatomy dissection last fall -- but the bodies used for gross anatomy are fixed and stored for quite a while before the class. That means that they are a fairly uniform grey color and smell like chemicals, and besides the face do not really resemble the living. The decendent on the table, however, was quite lifelike and bore evidence of many recent medical procedures.

As we watched the procedures being performed by pathology residents, the attending physician floated around the room kindly explaining both pathology technique and basic bodily structures. She gently prodded us to recall what we had learned during classes, but focused on teaching us and making sure we could see all of the process of autopsy. My biggest fear going into this experience was that I am highly sensitive to bad odors and that I might be overwhelmed by smell... and in retrospect, it was a very relevant concern! The "blood and guts" seemed only fitting to be inside of a recently alive person, but the smells and noises that came out during the procedure made me quite uncomfortable!

The process also made me reflect on when my own mother passed away several years ago... at the time, I was frustrated by the autopsy results (and the lack of a definitive cause of death), and did not have any depth of understanding about autopsy in general. As I thought about the dry respect offered by the autopsy personnel towards a body that they had never known, I focused on the decedent's family and what this process feels like from the outside. This may be the only chance I have during my entire career to focus on the emotional aspects of the experience without any pressure to know or to produce results.

In the end, reaching out to touch the back of his hand and wish his family well left the strongest impression on me. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculosly hectic nature of medical school, 5 minutes later I was scarfing down a sandwich in the lecture hall and cramming pathways of the motor systems of the body into my brain. It feels good to process life a little bit, every now and then...

2006-04-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

it's good to learn a new skill...

Yesterday, towards the end of neuro class, I was startled to discover that I was finally knitting without looking at my project! I have been reading other med student blogs, enviously noticing when they mention studying and knitting at the same time... I had never been able to keep from dropping stitches before, but it worked so well yesterday! Hooray! I had been working on this lovely blue sock for my aunt (yarn brand unknown -- bits from the stash):
Speaking of sitting in class, I have to congratulate our Microbiology professor for his fine work in entertaining a tired group of med students on a Friday evening. To learn about gonnorhea using Frank Zappa's great song "Why does it hurt when I pee?" as a case study was a great way to end the week. *grin*

As promised, here are some pictures of our lovely balled yarn (we had to do it in two batches):
The lower-left ball that looks a bit like a flower was an unfortunate winding accident -- the yarn got stuck under the ball at the same time as the swift jammed, popping the ball of yarn off and across the room! I tried to jam it back onto the winder, resulting in this interesting pattern...

An interesting kool-aid discovery, for those of you interested in trying it: I was able to mute some of the "kool-aid fluorescence" by adding a sprinkle of grape to a number of colors. The grape looks very muddy on it's own, and didn't mix well with other colors when I used more than about 1/4 package of it. But just a sprinkle really made reds and greens look beautiful!

2006-04-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

quick update

Well, school has been a bit of a wild ride the last couple of weeks. I finally get to come up for air after a particularly difficult exam! Somehow, I think I may not become a neurologist...

We are learning how to do physical exam this quarter as well, and we have finished the "easy" parts (head and neck). This week is our first week of more "sensitive" material, as we learn the breast exam. In two weeks, we have paid volunteers coming to teach us how to do a rectal exam. Honestly, these are the parts of medical school that you forget to think about when you are in the scramble to apply to school! I had never actually thought about the process of learning to examine other people's bodies -- it just seemed like you would graduate knowing how! I have a lot of respect for people that would submit themselves to teaching a medical student how to examine their intimate areas, and it adds a layer of seriousness to our program of studies that was missing when we were doing only classroom/lecture learning.

Anyway, on to knitting... Last night we finished balling up the yarn from our dyeing sessions, and it was a bit more trouble than expected. Pictures to come soon. I learned a few lessons about keeping the fibers in order to be able to untangle them later! I am nearly done with all the socks that are Christmas presents from 2005... I just have one and a half pairs left, then I can send them out to the family!

Weekend after next, Erin is taking me to the Seattle Knitting Expo, where I hear there will be a great marketplace with some hard-to-find yarns. Looking forward to that trip! I promised myself I get to buy some new yarn for my birthday if I can wait until then. It was brutal to watch Felicia post so many beautiful colorways at the Sweet Shop and not let myself try to get any of them, but I feel like poor students can't justify increasing their stash QUITE so fast... :-)

Oh well... time to get back to the Microbiology studying...

2006-04-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

koolaid dyeing part deux

This time, we assembled a few more troops for our koolaid dyeing madness. Inspired by a lovely description of a warping board courtesy of Scout, we put some quick-grip C-clamps around my kitchen table to set our yarn up for different length stripes.

This was quite a workout! It took us several hours to set up all of our skeins. Next, we soaked our yarn in slightly soapy water like last time. Meanwhile, we mixed up our jars of color with a splash of vinegar and distilled water.

Some of us chose to use the microwave, others used the stove, and the crock-pot was even pressed into service to accomidate the striping storm overtaking my kitchen...

Meanwhile, a few other methods were tried, including drizzling color on with a syringe.

After most or all of the color had exhausted, we gently rinsed the yarn, and hung it up to dry...

Now my whole house smells like fruity goodness! I can't wait to see how it knits up! We were pretty tired when it was all over...

2006-04-02T23:34:00.000-07:00

it works!!!!

Koolaid dyed striping sock yarn, round one. Knockout! Looks like we cracked the secret code. I can't wait to see this one leap off the needles. I love it! *grin*
*dancing around the house*

By the way, I finished the Black Orchid socks (pic coming soon). I hope my aunt likes them!

2006-04-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

flash your stash! (and koolaid part one)

First, take a look at the results from Erin (KnittingRN) and my preliminary koolaid dyeing session. See the progress through the day here. The ones on the left are painted sock yarn, the ones on the right are self-striping (we hope!) and the middle ones are our playing around skeins...Next, the obligatory flashing of the stash. Wools:Cotton:
Bulky lopi:
Wool:
Sock yarn
Eyelash/crochet:
Cheap acrylic:
Mixed polyester, mohair:
Pouffy things:
Silky wool:

2006-03-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

first week back from spring break

I thought I would be able to flash it like the rest of you out there this week, but the first week of class is getting the better of me. No stash pictures until the weekend, I'm afraid. The tough classes are Neuro and Microbiology, and I am expecting a serious "info dump" this term. In addition, being the first week back it is serious recruitment time for the sailing club. I have this little problem with overbooking myself, and now I have agreed to teach TWO sailing classes this quarter. What was I thinking?!

Anywho, I am looking forward to "round one" of yarn dyeing this weeking. Pictures coming soon.

2006-03-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

dyeing yarn has arrived!

A big box of white yarn from KnitPicks has arrived today, so that the knitting group can proceed with our KoolAid yarn dyeing party soon. All together, we ordered 25 skeins! Self-striping sock yarn coming right up... If anybody has good tips/tricks for this project, please let us know!! Just use your imagination:

I also finally just finished a pair of socks for my grandmother (second try -- the first ones were a bit small/short...). Koigu knits up so nicely! Only 5 more pairs to dispatch my Christmas 2005 obligations. I sure could use another few days of uninturrupted knitting time!

2006-03-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

knitting out at the cabin

Ross and I spent the last two days out at the cabin on Hood Canal. I got a lot of knitting done out there, in addition to eating deep-fried oysters on the beach for the first time. It was spectacular and sunny the whole time, and it was great to have no time pressures whatsoever. I did learn a new lesson, though: knitting by campfire/lantern does NOT increase my accuracy... I finished my red hat (di.Ve' Teseo wool/microfiber) with plenty of yarn left for the matching scarf, with a few *charming* mistakes courtesy of the darkness.

I also got some work done on my sweater (blue Silky Wool, pattern in Knitter's Stash)...
...and my sock (SweetGeorgia Black Orchid speed demon sock yarn). So far so good! I just need to finish a few more warm things before my trip up north...

2006-03-21T22:22:00.000-08:00

first post!

Time to take this new blog for a test-drive! Hopefully I will get some photos of my current knitting projects up soon, in time for the 1st of April. Knitting RN's beautiful stash photos inspired me to get my act together and get a blog going so that I can show off my recent knitting progress. I sure do love spring break! I'm not sure if I am quite ready to go back to classes next week...