FO Friday - Yet More Preemie Clothes

I found another bit of the pink Sidar Baby Crofter in my sewing box, which surprised me as a) I don't put yarn in my sewing box, and b) I'm sure I used up all that yarn, at least, according to Ravelry I did. Anyway, I decided that since I had an unmatching set of preemie clothes, as I had run out of yarn. I would turn it into two matching sets. This was in January, and the last cardie had been sitting in my knitting bag needing some sleeves since then. So yesterday, I picked it up and finally finished it

I now have 4 matching sets to take into the Student Volunteer Centre to take to the NICU. I love making these, they're so cute and so easy to make!

I've also finished my Sooper Secrit Swap Project, but more on that at a later date!

For more FOs check out Tami's Amis

Spring has Sprung!

So I spent the afternoon lying on the grass in the sun. The ladybirds were out in force, I counted 17 at one point

 Lord of all he surveys. And of course, there was lots of ladybird porn:

After my day of on call yesterday on the emergency surgical admissions ward, when I was in a boiling hot room for 14 hours (8am to 10pm) full of very ill and understandably upset or cross patients, I needed a bit of sunshine. I did have an amazing day, being trusted to not only clerk the patients and take blood, but also having my diagnoses listened to and acted upon by the doctors who trusted me to get it right, that I didn't even realise I hadn't had lunch until 5:30. I hope I helped the patients I saw, and I know for a fact they were seen hours earlier than they would have been because I was there to help.

Excited Exhaustion

I thought I'd do a quick post about what's going on in my life at the moment. I can't believe the massive change in my life. I went from being your typical student, spending a few hours a day sitting in a lecture, to watching open heart surgery in the space of one week.

I spent Monday morning of my first ever day on the hospital ward watching two different people having life saving lung surgery, one to remove a lobe of the lung to get rid of lung cancer and one having a massive blood clot removed from the lung to be able to breath again.

I got to talk to those patients afterwards and see how they were doing, and see the happiness that they were getting better, even though they were in pain.

I talked to many patients on the ward who had gone through similar things, listening to their story. I also talked a patient before he went into surgery to have two heart valves replaced and a bypass graft. I then went to see him afterwards, and got to follow his story.

It really has reaffirmed that this is what I want to do with my life, I want to be the person that makes a difference in their patient's lives, be it big, doing life saving surgery, or small, taking bloods to make sure they're continuing to get healthy (which I also did this week for the first time).

I actual knitting news, I finally got my Valentine's day present from the boy:

It's watermelon self striping sock yarn from knitpurlgurl on etsy, which I have been coveting for a long time. It also came with a really cute watermelon stitch marker. This picture gives you a better idea of the bright colours

I've also "read" a couple of books. To be honest, these were both audiobooks, which I've been listening to on the way to placement, since reading on the bus makes me feel ill.

These are the first two book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy. The audiobooks are read by  Rupert Degas, who has the most amazing Irish accent, which makes me grin each time I hear it. I'm really enjoying them, and have just started listening to the third book. They are a children's series, with magic and a skeleton detective. They're very easy listening but well written and captivating, as well as being relatively original. I can recommend them as something to listen to at a time you don't really want to think about the book (so great for lace knitting!)

FO Friday - Cute Card

Just a little FO this week that I sent off to my giveaway winner. I thought I'd be nice to add something a little personal to the package

It only took me about a night to finish, and I thought it was a very cute card! The eyes are a little wonky, as I'm not the best at French knots, but I think it adds to the charm.

For more FOs, check out Tami's Amis

Year of Projects Week 35

Well the scarf seems to have stalled, it's at 66 inches now, and it's on hold. There are 2 reasons for this, the first being that even though the yarn I bought was from the same dye lot, and I alternated the skeins, there is a definitely stripy appearance to the section with both skeins. I'm really not sure what to do about it... Even the boy says it's obvious, though he also says it doesn't matter, as it's a bit that will be round his neck. I'm not sure anyone else will notice, but I will!

The other reason is that I've started a sooper secrit swap project, which I can't tell you anything about, but I love! It's not on my list either, so you won't guess...

I have to also share my amazing competition win. I entered a competition over at Poetry in Yarn, and was so excited when this came in the post yesterday:

It's a wool felting kit to make a very cute kangaroo! I've never tried needle felting before, so I'm very excited to give it a go.

I also received these from the UK Karma swaps

My first ever set of stitchmarkers, and they definitely make life easier!

My final bit of news is very exciting, I'm going to Woolfest 2012! It was mentioned in Knit Now magazine, and I looked at the dates and was excited to see that it coincides with my summer holiday, and I will only be 45 minutes away. I can't wait, I've already started saving!

Year of Projects Week 34

As will probably be kind of obvious, settling in to clinical has taken up most of my time this week, and so I've not had much time for crafting. I'm still plugging away at the Scarf of Doom. It's now 64 inches (5 foot 4) and I think I'm nearly at the point where I can do the pattern at the end and then it'll be finished. Only problem is, I can't try it on the boy to check as he's not here at the moment. How long a scarf does a 6 foot 4 person really need though?

I really, really can't wait to finish it! I've been having a look at my list, and it's way too ambitious! There is no way I'm going to be able to finish everything on it in the next 20 weeks, so I think most of it will roll over to next year.

I did get a nice evening out on Sunday as well, so I couldn't even do much crafting this weekend. I went to the joint Asian Soc and Hindu Soc production Kangna,  as two of my friends were in it, once doing traditional and Bhangra dancing, and one in the fashion show in an amazing sari. There was also Bollywood, Street, Breakdancing, beat boxing, traditional music, and a comedy play. It was so much fun, and really professional.

Hopefully some time soon, I'll have a finished project to show you!

Gigs and the weekend!

After my very busy week, I had an amazing night last night, it was exactly what I needed! My Dad came up to Nottingham so that we could go see Rammstein at the local arena. But before that, I went for a couple of drinks with all the people who are based at the same hospital as me. It was great to meet everyone, especially as we have been joined by the Graduate Entry students, who we haven't met before. It was very weird to discover that one of them went to University with, and is good friends, with my history teacher from sixth form!

Rammstein were incredible! Since we were a bit late, we ended up standing quite close to the back. But half way through the show, the band walked across a bridge over the audience and played on a little stage right next to us!

We were that close for three songs! And the pyrotechnics were amazing; they put they keyboard player into a cooking pot and turn a flamethrower on it. It was just a brilliant night.

I've also had a bit of reading time, and I've finished "Size 12 is not Fat" by Meg Cabot.

This an adult book from the author who wrote the Princess Diaries series, which I really enjoyed as a child. It's a murder mystery book about an ex-pop star who now works in a NYC dorm room. It's relatively good, though very trashy. I don't find it as well written as her books for teens, as I don't think she has experience of writing for an older audience. I think I will probably read the next book in the series, as her writing style improved throughout the book, and so I think the next one will be better written from the start.

If anyone has any good book recommendations, I'd love to hear them. Oh, and I'm on Goodreads here

New fibre

I've been taking part in the UKarma group on Ravelry which is a brilliant idea. You offer up something you don't want, and somebody claims it. They then have to offer up another item in response for somebody else to claim. If you offer up an item without claiming something first, you get a nice point, which you can redeem against any offer that is made.

I offered up a cone of sparkly blue "yarn" (I say "yarn" because it wasn't really yarn, but I have no other way of describing it. I then used my nice point to get myself some fibre someone else was offering.

It came yesterday, and I'm so excited to practise my spinning and dying. There's about 60g of unidentified wool, and 50g of wool and linen, which I'm not sure how to spin or dye. I guess some experimenting is in order!