happiness is.....

- brunch with my parents and my mom wearing the pair of socks I made her AND the (one successful) sweater I made
- hot black coffee
- having a driveway, and thus not having to move my car for a parking ban (I’ll leave out that we can’t use the garage, even though it is *rightthere*) and my favorite bestest snow scraper ever (my foot included for scale)



- seeing the first Estonian woman win a gold medal (in the history of the winter olympics; she won in the Woman’s Pursuit Cross Country Ski race…it makes me want to knit Estonian mittens.)
-sock yarns that I dyed earlier cooling in the sink (the pinkish hank is a mish-mash of all of the old dyes I wanted to use up. Now I can mix up new colors and not feel bad about it…)



- having a great last week in my oncology rotation (what I learned will follow this week)
- taking stock in all of my sock yarn
- being almost done with the inner section of my olympic knitting hat

My mom’s birthday was this weekend and I did the best I could to get the pairs of socks I had started for her finished…but no such luck. The striped one is finished, but too small and will need to be reknit. The koigu sock is a current work in progress (and part of why I’ve been on the hunt for shorter size US1/2.5mm). My mom asked if I knew someone who had smaller feet and said that I should finish the pair and pass them along, but I bought the yarn specifically for her, so instead I’ll rip it out and start over. It shouldn’t take too long to get a pair finished, but my needles are busy with other things, so it might be a little while. (her last pair of birthday socks were, ummm, finished in…July? August? I promise it won’t be that long this year…)


one is too small, the other isn't finished....


My sockapalOOOza pal asked for yarn that could be machine washable and she likes greens, possibly mixed with other colors. I think I’ve found some yarn that fits the bill, but first I need to check a few more places. These socks will probably be my first pair of “lace” socks, and I hope to start them by March 1st.

My olympic knitting got off to a good start – working with the cotton for the inside lining has required my complete attention because the yarn is slippery and easy to drop. I hope to finish the last half inch of the lining tonight, and then I can set up the start of the wool fair isle sections so it’s ready to work on when I get home tomorrow. (and once I figure typepad out I'll post a picture over on the group page)

I love watching the Olympics – ski jumping is on, and they make it look easy. In fact, everything I’ve seen today looks easy. Speed skating? I could do that. (nevermind that I’ve never been able to skate, even with hockey skates on.) Ski jumping? Sure! Especially if I get to wear a sleek silver suit. I’ll save luge’ing for the professionals but might consider bobsledding (later this week?). Even the cross country skiing has me wishing I had time and energy (and skis) to go out and enjoy the newly fallen snow. (the ever-chattering announcers are beginning to grate on me though…good thing for the mute button.)

Tomorrow I start my next rotation: six weeks of psychiatry. It has the potential to be another long six weeks, but with any luck time will start to pick up and it’ll be over before I know it. It’s not that I don’t think it will be interesting – I’m sure I’ll see and hear things that I couldn’t possible imagine seeing or hearing; instead I worry that it will drain me dry. Classmates of mine who have completed this rotation warned me that it can be emotionally zapping and exhausting. I’m going into it aware of that, and if they give me an afternoon “off” then I’ll be sure to take it (and then I’ll go somewhere unexpected and get out of my head). There will be a few different cat-sitting opportunies during this rotation and I think time with a cat or two will be good therapy.

I dug out all of my sock yarn and was surprised as it piled onto the kitchen counter in front of me. I have a lot of possible socks in my future. A Lot. I’d love to give some if it away, but I knit two socks out of one ball or skein, and after looking at all of it, there are only a few that I’d pass along to other people because it no longer strikes me. Much of it is bargin bin yarn, and some is from my summer travels and all of it will, someday, be great socks.



That said, how many socks do you think I can knit, including the ones that are “in progress” right now? If you’d like to wager a guess please email me at medstudentwhoknits at yahoo com. (fill in the blanks/obvious) If you are closest, without going over, then I’ll mail you some yarn!

The options include Lorna’s Laces “baby stripe” (see above - blue/pink) or yarn that I’ll dye for you. If there’s a tie then I’ll dye yarn for all who guessed correctly. Note: if you win you will have to promise not to devulge how many socks can come from my sock yarn stash.

The guidelines…please email me the guesses by Saturday Feb 18th at noon, EST. I have skeins that are large enough for two socks (trekking xxl for example) and so that counts as two socks. I also have skeins that are “singles” (think one hank of a colorway of Lorna’s laces or a single Regia hank) but I’ll use for a complete pair so it counts as two socks. I have a few hanks that I have two of, and in that case the pair of hanks counts as a pair of socks. (for instance, there are two of the baby stripe hanks, so that’d be a single pair of socks instead of two pair.) I won’t count the baby stripe yarn, or any of my white-to-be-dyed-later yarn.