Sickness = Knitting Productivity

I am sick. I caught one of those nagging colds. It's mostly annoying from the perspective that I am trying to study and when I try to read I get a headache. Thanks to my sister I am surrounded by everything a person needs when they have a cold: Tylenol, OJ and Ginger Ale, chicken noodle soup and lots of kleenex.

Happily for my knitting, some of it will start fulfilling its destiny since knitting doesn't seem to worsen the sinus headache. I finished a present for next winter:

It's been awhile since I finished anything so the feeling was good. I can't post the pattern because it's from a WW2 knitting pamphlet, the wool is LionBrand Fishermen's Wool, which I personally really like because it felts really well. They are actually the only thing I have every felted and it was purely by accident, my fiance wanted to wash the mittens and he put them in the dryer and lo and behold, they were felted. The result was better than the original product because they were even warmer so he felted the second pair I made him. If anyone wanted the pattern I could email it to them.

Following this bout of sickness I may have some more finished projects to post soon! Then I'll get back to studying...

99....98....97....96

The last 2.5 weeks have been incredibly busy; very little by way of knitting or studying actually happened. Separation anxiety from my knitting settled in after 3 days, oddly enough I don't get separation anxiety from my textbooks though. To relieve this I did what always works: I daydreamed about owning sheep (I think just one, but maybe two. I wasn't sure if it would be sheeps since that sounds funny so I left it ambigius). See, I have big dreams for these sheep, I would pet them and brush their hair until they had nice luxurious wool and then I would shear them and spin the wool and knit lovely things.

Just a few minor problems exist with this plan. I have no where to put a sheep, much less sheeps. I don't know what they eat or drink (?water...or do they need variety?) or if they need to be walked (since I have no backyard maybe they would need to be walked. But how would I get a leash on it?) or actually how to shear one. Can I just chase it around with my fiancee's head shaver thing getting little strips at a time? Would it be safe on the leash if I had a shaver in my hand?

I also don't know how to spin.

I feel like these are all relatively minor problems I could overcome.

These are the things I think about when I'm on call and I'm hitting the refresh button for the thirtieth time waiting for bloodwork to magically appear. Hilariously, many members of the public have recently expressed shock at the resident duty hour discussion going on right now (mostly on facebook but sometimes on CBC). It seems weird to me when people don't know that we work 26hour shifts (or longer on the more demanding specialties, no idea how these residents do it for 5 years....they actually deserve medals in my opinion). At least I can go home and dream of sheep.

Uh oh

I did not bring enough knitting to academic day and it's only 10am. Two more inches and I need to switch colours, but I forgot to bring my contrasting colour. Maybe I can find string somewhere...

On the plus side, I just learned what a "K hole" is. Ketamine, a potential drug of abuse, can produce a catatonic state that is also known as a "K hole." Medicine never ceases to interest me.

20% Off!

Thank you everyone for the emails/texts/posts for Tiki. Torch is still adjusting to being the only dog in the house but he is coming along.

So I was promised a trip to the big knitting store by my fiance and I was extremely excited to go. I decided I had to sort through all of WIP's and items in my queue to figure out what I really needed to buy; so I sorted everything and separated the projects that were all ready to go. Approximately an hour later I was finished. And then I was dismayed:

I had 6 projects all ready to go, not requiring a single thing from the yarn store! Six projects will keep me knitting for awhile, however I went to the yarn store anyway and lo and behold they were having a 20% off warehouse sale! Just for fun, here is another picture of the knitting corner after little Tiki crawled into it:

I'm not really sure why this looked like a comfy place to nap, but she slept there for a long time

Purchasing yarn is just so much fun that I bought some sock yarn, and then of course had to buy the "2 at a Time Socks" book by Melissa Morgan-Oakes so I can increase my efficiency. Reading the 71 page Guideline for Primary Care Management of Headaches in Adults has given me a headache this morning, so I'm going to go take a knitting break and maybe dip into the new bag of fun stuff. Hopefully the next post will have some actual knitting progress to post!

Sad Day

This week was a sad, sad week. One of our little Pekingese dogs, Tiki, got very sick and had to be put down, late Thursday night. I've cancelled my trip to Toronto to see family/friends because I was too tired to drive and thought I'd be sad all weekend and that's no fun to put on everyone else. So instead I will just stay here and maybe get some distracting work done. I didn't pay great attention in teaching yesterday so I might review those topics, knit and clean, and do other distracting things. Most of the friends I have told have a similar story of losing a pet, often a childhood friend, and commiserating yesterday certainly helped.

No knitting pictures today, just Tiki and her best friend Torch.

On their way home from the shelter, Torch (left) and Tiki (right)

Tiki with her new sweater on

They liked snuggling

Always wear grey pants to an interview, no one can be offended

Two very exciting things happened yesterday. One, I finished the monkey socks. Also, I finished the monkey socks way ahead of schedule! The second exciting thing was that I met with someone to talk about jobs. Gah!

It was kind of like a job interview, in a weird way though. We talked about contracts and remuneration and work hours and the like, but it doesn't feel right because there are lots of family doctor jobs out there and it's more about me making a decision then them. The whole situation did take me back to age 14 when I was interviewing for my first real job, I remember putting on the only dress pants I owned, a pair of light grey pants. My mother drove me there and waited in the parking lot of the dry cleaner warehouse so I could interview with the three large Italian owners (I was a bit intimidated). All went well and I ended up working there throughout high school. When I arrived at Second Cup for my current interview I realized I was wearing similar pants and I felt 14 years old again, pretending that I was all grown up.

Well enough of that boring stuff, here are the socks! And they are the same size as each other!

The Monkey Socks turned out to be a well written pattern. I think the choice of yarn worked fairly well, Indigodragonfly, which is a Merino cashmere sock yarn. A lighter colour would have shown the pattern a bit nicer but overall I'm still happy with it. Now if only I could figure out how to make all the pictures show up in the same row.

Reset

It was -10 degrees outside. Apparently my internal thermostat has reset itself after the week of -30 to -40 and now -10 feels so warm outside I had to have an Iced Coffee to cool myself down. Baffling what us Canadians think is reasonable, isn't it?

Someone who knows me very well pointed out several more ways in which I am like a 90 year old, much to my chagrin. I left that party when it was bedtime for me, which was around 10pm...I think that is a completely reasonable time to leave a party. My sister, while planning an event, mentioned starting at 7pm. Since I thought the plan was to include dinner I said if we started at 5:30 or 6 we could have dinner too....yeah she meant 7pm was to start dinner at 7:30. How could I eat dinner so late?! That's right before bedtime!

I was quite focused this week with the podcasts and knitting so the first of two mittens is about half way done (first of two does actually need to be emphasized because the last time I made these mittens one was lost immediately so it became first of 3 mittens). Hopefully the intended owner of these mittens will be more careful.

Mittens continued....made from Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool and the WW2 pattern. Pretty soon I will start the finger part and you will be able to see how they are rifle mittens. I think it's cool.

One of my friends just had a baby girl! So she will get the little purple and pink girl sweater from List minus four projects. That was a perfect baby sweater to knit, super fast and easy and only one button to sew on. You can find the pattern on Ravelry at May Baby Sweater.

Hmm....I'm not sure how I feel about this pattern. I followed the measurements but the hood part came out pretty big. Babies have big heads and all but adult size big, not quite....unfortunately the hood part fits me. It's going to make the baby look like yoda.

I am starting to worry a little bit about my upcoming graduation, namely whenever I learn something and think, "hmm shouldn't I already have known that? It seems important..." This week I learned that smokers need a special formulation of Vitalux (if they are using such drops) without beta carotene because the beta carotene puts them at higher risk of lung cancer. Lung cancer is about as serious as it comes...so then I stop and think, have I ever put someone on Vitalux? No, thankfully, because I would not have known that since I just learned it. I think the bombshells will just keep coming, that's what the upper years told me anyway. Avoidance is probably not going to be the best strategy for this. Back to studying.

Oh to be young again

I came to a very disturbing conclusion last night while counting sheep (which clearly doesn't work or I would have been sleeping instead of having the following conversation with myself).

How I am unlike a 90 year old woman:
?

How I am like a 90 year old woman:
1. I knit
2. I don't understand pop culture
3. I drink fiber every day and the only thing I want to talk to my family doctor about are my poops
4. My vitamin D tabs are soft chocolate chews
5. I say things like "When I was young... (we used warfarin instead of dabigatran and squirmed in our seats when being pimped rather than surreptitiously consulting an app)"
6. I went to a party on the weekend and I was one of the first to leave because it was bedtime (I was one of the chronologically youngest people there)


So 6 to 1....it's not looking so good.


On the more hilarious side, here is a picture of a knitted object from my women's health elective:

It's a vulva

I haven't progressed much on my own projects except for the baby wrap, it's almost done. Too bad it's -30 out and all the babies are concealed in snowsuits all the time right now...no babies for playing with!

Time to try and think of a youthful thing to do.

When all else fails...verbal diarrhea

I guess I never got around to putting up the pictures of my cast-on frenzy. Here are a few:

Using some random cotton yarn I found in my stash this will magically transform into A Hooded Baby Wrap which is a nice free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn 

Another Lion Brand Yarn project, although the patter is for Rifle Mittens for he who shall not be named (I've been watching the Harry Potter movies for study breaks) and I cannot post a link because it is from a World War II pattern book a very good friend gave me. They might be a present for the 2013 holiday season so their actual destined recipient will remain in the dark.

Nice King Cole Bamboo Cotton yarn will be made into a cardigan for a little one with this free Ravelry pattern Silver Cardigan

The knitting has taken a back seat to a few marginally more important projects, such as studying for the licensing exam, so the projects are not much further along. Also more important is the first day of a new block; despite going through this every 4 weeks, I still get a bit nervous before rotations where I don't know what to expect. Rotations I have gone through before don't have an effect, not surprisingly it is only the new ones. I study the weekend before so I at least have some random facts I can verbal diarrhea when all else fails, but I still get nervous. There is no real point trying to work on this issue since I only have 2 more new rotations, and after today just 1. Yea!

On a side note, I love and hate the new $20 bills. They frequently stick to each other, which is bad for counting them and looking in my wallet and thinking I only have $40, but great when I feel through them and discover I have $60! Then I go buy potato chips.

The Post Holiday Hangover

So my sister does read this. Apparently I must thin of another way to hide future ink stains.

Cast over hangover, that is what I have today. I went on a casting on binge and now I have way too many WIP's. Rather than headache and emesis though I feel tense and edgy. It's quite tempting to stay up late knitting but I have an out. The project I most want to work on, the monkey socks, are at the perfect point (heel flap) for brainless knitting and I have a friend coming over to knit on Sunday. Thus I am saving them for that.

Monkey Socks made with Indigodragonfly merino sock yarn

(No one knows the monkey socks were supposed to be a Christmas present for someone...they are now magically morphed into a birthday present. This gives me until March. It'll be our secret).
I found a new way to embarrass myself at work the other day, that's always fun. Turns out when they say hand wash only on your favourite front clasp bra they mean if you repeatedly wash it in a machine it will weaken the clasp. This will cause said clasp to give way while you are bent over examining a 4 month old. And of course, this was the only baby I've seen brought in by the father, I feel like it would have been much less awkward if it was just the mom. Running out the door while mumbling something about drawing up the vaccines was also not the graceful exit this situation required. The bra has been retired. I am considering writing a letter to the bra manufacturer.

Test, Test

So I know some people are actually reading this (or at least telling me they are). One of those people is my brother; he is very loyal. My fiance reads it whenever I ask him to, which I don't do very often because he is subjected to my endless chatter on an almost daily basis and has likely heard everything in here already. My sister...well I'm not too sure about her. Rather than just ask her, I am going to test her. I am going to confess something here and see if she finds out. Here goes:

I spilled printer ink on your new beige carpet. I am not saying when, where or how much of it came out (although there is only one printer in the house so with your strong powers of deductive reasoning you may just figure out where).

Let's see what happens.

In other news, I have decided to use the ugly pink acrylic yarn someone donated to my stash to make a dog sweater. I should probably make dog booties since the poor little things are getting salt stuck in their paws and then they walk all antalgic like and I find it really pathetic to watch. There's something about a limping dog that tugs at the heartstrings (limping children for some reason don't have that effect, one reason I never went into paed's). I made a cute little mouse for a certain cat I know to play with:

The first monkey sock is finished and in order to avoid second sock syndrome (it's a real thing) I started the second one right away. Pictures to come soon.

List Minus Four Projects!

A few things were finished. Most weren't, but that's ok. In the end everyone will still get a present.

Why does it never look like the photo on the pattern?

I stopped the ponchette a bit shy of the 53" long mark because I couldn't take it anymore...I don't think it's any worse because of that. Hopefully its destined owner will still like it.

Due to factors completely beyond my control I substituted a scarf for mittens and voila, the basketweave scarf

The picture makes it look like some other textured pattern but trust me, it's basketweave. I know because last night when trying to finish it I was drinking a beer and every fifth row (where I reverse the pattern) I had to tink because apparently 1/2 a beer is my threshold for being able to knit without making recurrent mistakes. Damn Innis and Gunn.

Thanks to my lovely mother visiting two other projects were finished (i.e. Buttons! Normally I outsource this part. It's right up there with ironing on my list of things I need to be bribed with potato chips to do).

I was extremely fortunate to be put on an outpatient clinic rotation during the holidays so I have more than the expected time off. Lots more knitting (and a bit of studying via podcasts) will be accomplished. Given the bombardment of snow recently I have been reminded of the numerous employees who won't have Christmas Day off work. No matter what holiday you celebrate, it sucks being the one left behind. So thank you to all the hospital staff, fire station staff, police station staff, tow truck drivers, snow plow operators, 911 call centers, and everyone else working this holiday!

I'm having way too much fun

I got a swift and a ball winder for Chanukah! My internet has been very slow the last week (maybe someone has hacked in, I'm not even sure if it needs a password) so I have stayed off the computer for a little while. It's actually good for my studying anyway, although now I have fun new toys to play with. I'm a little worried about damaging the table I mount them on/off of but a coaster seems to do the trick for protecting the wood. I of course had to get new yarn so that I could practice using them and now have more sock yarn than I can knit with, given how not any further along the monkey socks are. The ponchette is only about 8inches away from being finished. The only thing that can stand in my way now: starting a paediatrics rotation during RSV season....gah

I guess this means I lose my street cred

I didn't have much to begin with so I haven't fallen far. Reading last months CFP journal I came across the line "Topical application of cocaine to the nipples is dangerous and contraindicated during breastfeeding."

Um....what?

Why on earth would anyone do that? I can't imagine that was part of a trial unless it was during the pre-ethics review board era. Even then, why would they think to test that? Maybe this is what people are doing nowadays?

I do tend to get a little lost when talking to a person who uses recreational drugs, I am simply not up to date enough on the lingo. Although I'm not fully sure that's a bad thing, it does leave me at somewhat of a disadvantage when this comes up in a workday. Why wasn't this part of medical school? We sat through lectures on complementary medicine, why not the third kind of drugs?

Oh well...just a little less cred

Hooray for progress!

Finally some progress has been made, it's amazing what can happen on a weekend off. I can't figure out how to incorporate the picture into the text and then have the rest of the blog not be part of the caption (I'm not all that concerned about it though).

Unfortunately this does not necessarily mean I will have any knitting finished before the holidays so they can be given as presents. I did manage to get to the button store (very exciting for me, a lot less so for the person I dragged with me) and buy buttons for 2 baby sweaters for a babe that is due in January (sex NYDiagnosed so I made a pink and a blue sweater).

Not much else was accomplished unless you count washing and rewashing floors because little puppies like to play in the rain. Personally I find that less than accomplishing something since they came out dirtier than they were originally (new mop has now been acquired). The shawl has had a bit of progress, I don't have a picture because it will be finished soon (although I'm still not sure who it is for). 

As usual, minimal studying has been accomplished unless you count hours on the phone listening to hold music for clinics and consults and what not. I count it towards meditation and stress relief time. The nurses all think I'm crazy for "ohm'ing" while on the phone (jk, I only do that when someone drags me to a yoga class and I feel left out if I don't ohm. I don't know what it means and I hate yoga).

I did manage to check which Yarn Harlot books I haven't read and play several miniature air hockey games. Very productive. 

Monkey Socks are coming along!

TLC

There is an unwritten hierarchy in medicine that relates to taking care of the younger members. The junior residents buy the Med students coffee, the senior residents buy the med students and juniors lunch, and the staff buy the med students, juniors and seniors dinner on call. Not every day of course, just on occasion.

On some teams/services this doesn't happen, and I've noticed a definite trend on those services to the younger members not being as cared for as I would like to see. To that end I have developed a set of rules for my junior team members:

You should not be more oliguric than your patients (I know where each water station in the hospital is)

You should not eat worse than your patients (unfortunately I also know where all of the vending machines with my favourite chip flavours are)

You should sleep about as well as your patients do

They're pretty simple; I'm not a big fan of complicated lists (hence why I did not go into internal medicine). Basic TLC goes a long way with your junior team members, just like it does with your patients. Hopefully I will remember these when I'm a staff....one day....

The list of what I did accomplish is much shorter: " "

I didn't get any further in my knitting. I didn't study. I didn't clean. I didn't cook. My one attempt at baking mostly failed.

What did I do all week?

I haven't a flippin clue. This weekend I'm on call so I don't expect to accomplish much either. Knitting can come to the hospital with me but I think it is a jinx (if I bring it it'll be busy and I won't knit a single stitch and if I leave it at home I'll be sitting there wishing I had knitting because it's the "q" word that ER and OB staff yell at you if you say). Many of you probably have a list of Christmas knitting that you're frantically working on...hopefully you're also continually adding to it and not crossing any off finished so that I feel less hopeless.

I saw a picture that was a textbook with gummi bears on each paragraph so that when you reached that point in reading you got to eat the gummi bear....I wonder how I can use that strategy but with knitting, and without blocking the words....something to ponder

What not to do post call (a way shorter list than what to do)

I've just finished my last obstetrical call shift, a major milestone for many residents to be sure. In true resident fashion, it was crazy busy and I was a bit run ragged, although excellent outcomes all around. At handover I was more than a little weird from lack of sleep and having breakfast with a friend, albeit delightful and delicious, prolonged sleep just a touch long. I eventually slept and then woke up at 4pm....in need of food. This is really never a good scenario.

After all these years of call I am slowly comprising my list. The list of what not to do post call. It is crucial, one bad post call day can really make or break the next section of life (and by life I of course am referring to the next residency block that I am on). So here is my list so far.

List of things never to do post call
Not in order of importance

1. Go grocery shopping unsupervised (unless I want to repeat the week of potato chip dinners)

2. Make major life decisions

3. Operate heavy machinery

4. Internet shop (same sorta deal as the grocery shopping...I think my impulse control is eradicated by lack of sleep)

5. Start a new knitting project (I seem to have to learn this lesson every post call day....is there no limit to how many times I can rip back a new project because I cannot comprehend the cast on or joining instructions)

6. Clean out your closet for donation (pajamas and scrubs being the only reasonable clothes I can think to wear at the time, but my closet being painfully empty after)

7. Walk the dog that likes to jump off the curb just as a car is coming (not sure if he is suicidal or just really stupid, either way I don't want to test my reflexes)


It's a work in progress. I am sure future blocks will result in the list lengthening as I mess up my life further. I should probably add "write a new blog post" to the list since I can predict some very weird blog posts coming up....oh well.

Slight progress on the Monkey socks

Monkey

How many hours of my life have I spent knitting?

So I'm sure by this point many of you are thinking "if only I knew how to knit I could be as cool as the knitting doctor." Here's how you can (learn to knit, not to be cool like me):

Have an acquaintance beg to teach you (i.e. be the only one in Rez with a tv).

Have said acquaintance come over to teach you while you watch grey's anatomy together (before med school ruined it for you).

Become good friends with said acquaintance because now you need her to fix all of your knitting mistakes (thankfully she is a nice person to be friends with anyway).

Compile a list of public-appropriate swear words (you don't want to be dropping the f bomb when your bus hits a bump and you drop a stitch).

Learn the lingo: knit, purl, tink, frog, psso, ssk, k2tog, kbl, etc etc
(The Knit Witch has good youtube videos for learning different stitches)

Learn how to read a pattern (learn how to read a chart if you're really keen...I still filter out any patterns with a chart).

And if you're male and you worry it's too feminine, just think of it as playing with ninja sticks (do those really exist? If so I want some).

You're basically a pro know. Some people go on to become spinners who spin their own yarn. I have not. It sounds like too much work and I tend to hurt myself when using machinery (hence why I did not go into surgery and am not allowed to use the tool kit at home)...maybe one day though...

Go on, fight the grizzly off with the knitting needle

Recently I participated in a survival course... for various reasons. I was absolutely shocked and delighted to discover several knitting skills that actually transform into survival skills. Who knew all these years you weren't just knitting, you were preparing!

Knitting improves manual dexterity (I'm assuming, I don't actually have a study to quote to back this up). Manual dexterity will help with a variety of tasks such as feathering wood and lighting finicky matches. If you knit outside when it's cold the ability to use your hands in subzero temperatures will help too.

The Russian join could be used to secure 2 cords into 1 long cord....just think what you could do with one long cord! 

(I really have no idea, I didn't pay stellar attention to the entire course...but they kept mentioning the importance of rope).

Braiding, as in the braided join, could be used to join 2 cords or just braid 3 pieces together to make them stronger (same purpose as above).

Four double pointed needles, joined to knit in the round, resemble the configuration of the way you pile logs for a fire. You put them 2 by 2 to make a square then put kindling in the middle and use your already weather savvy hands to light it with the stupid finicky matches (I'm not a camper, for various reasons).

Honestly, I think the knit kit alone would serve more purpose than my skills. With scissors and a thread cutter and something to count steps with, it’s practically the same as a Leatherman multi-tool.

And last but not least, the items you knitted for others that are hopefully by your side in said disaster will have created goodwill so they can get you out of the situation, since you're a knitter and a doctor and have no real world skills (not talking about myself, of course).

Stay safe,

TheCdnKnittingDoctor