I have an imaginary friend!

I mean, a secret pal. Mike seems to think that they're the same thing. Anyway, hello to my secret pal (wow, I sound like a dork) on the chance that you are reading this. Knittyboard is running a little swap, and I'm currently dreaming up stuff to send to my secret pal, as well as creative ways to communicate with her without giving away my (secret) identity. (I'm getting strange flashbacks of Jerry O'Connell...) We filled out questionnaires to try and give people an idea of our likes and dislikes...and I recently realized that I left one blank because I wanted to think about the answer, and never answered it! The question was "what music do you listen to when you're happy?"...Well, nothing in particular, I guess, or everything. I mean, music makes me happy, but I don't put on specific music to suit my mood (except when I want to feel sad and lovelorn, and then I put on 69 Love Songs, disc 2). I've recently bought a few new albums, which I hadn't done in a while, and those are Oppenheimer - s/t (great electropoppy stuff) Irving - Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers (not as good as the first two, but it has its moments) the Shins - Wincing the Night Away (also not as good as the first two...a little disappointing, actually, but probably deserves another listen) the Rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors (darker than their other stuff, but still good) Right now, I'm sitting in the clinic, and none of my patients are showing up, which is a nice reprieve for once (usually things are horrendously busy)...I guess Tuesday is a slow day. Sadly, my clinic month is ending, and so are my days of being able to sleep until 7:30AM, knit during lectures, dress in jeans because I'm not seeing patients, and have two weekend days off in a row (!). Lastly, I finished another small project, which is a variation on Miss Dashwood. I knit it in super-soft (but somewhat pilly) Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, skipped the bobbles, and instead created eyelets through which I could thread some ribbon. I really like the picot cast-on edge--if I knit this again, I'll probably cast on a nice round number to make the picot points, eyelets, and decreases evenly spaced. I only wish I could borrow a baby to model it rather than stuffing it with some tissue paper and hoping for the best. The table, strangely enough, gives a pretty accurate snapshot into my life--a Step 3 review book for whenever I get around to that, the reflection of a bottle of wine (Tempranillo, a nice Spanish red), my newest WIP (Dayflower scarf), and Diary of a Madman, which I haven't started yet but which seems somehow appropriate. ;)

Clapotis est fini!

Well, nearly. I have to weave in the ends...not so bad this time because I learned a new trick halfway through--Russian join. It really worked well with this yarn, the SWTC Bamboo. I recently joined a stash busting ring (not that I have a huge stash, just an overactive imagination and a need for spurring on here and there), and it motivated me to finish clapotis. So, without further ado, here she is! I couldn't wait for her to block, so that's a glance in the dim light of the bathroom...This picture, in natural light, is closer to the true color of the yarn. It's also a pre-blocking photo, but I didn't block all that much--just to get a little more length out of it. I expected the bamboo yarn to be slippery and silky, but it wasn't really. It does have a nice sheen, a little fuzz, and a slinky drape...and feels a little crunchy. It's pretty nice to knit with, but my needle kept catching on the strands and pulling them loose. I think for clapothree, I'll stick to wool. I think I may go back to a few small projects again before starting yet another shawl. ;)

She drop

Well, not quite yet. Clapotwo is progressing sloowly--I'm just onto the straight section. The bamboo yarn is oddly crunchy, yet soft to touch. I like it! I wonder if I should take out one repeat of the increase section to be double sure I don't run out of yarn...or just plan to leave out one repeat of the straight section. I think the latter--I'm too lazy to rip back so far. By the way, isn't our weirdo marble chess set cool? Mike's parents got it in Mexico. I just thought it was a nice warm contrast to the bamboo yarn.

Philosoraptor

2006 went out with gracefully, for the most part. I spent the evening and New Year's Day with good friends and caught up a little bit on sleep today. Er, yesterday. Over to the left is a washcloth I knit from a ball of Debbie Bliss Cotton DK yarn--isn't the teal blue lovely? It should be winging its way to Renita along with a slice of Lush's Fresh Farmacy soap shortly...Should being the operative word. Tricksy post office hours. Not much else to report. This month has worn me down quite a bit--supposedly Sloan Kettering is short-staffed in medicine residents somehow, and the upshot is that I'm working twice as hard. Not that I expected it to be easy, but it makes the two weeks at the end of the year when I'm back in Sloan Kettering much less appealing. I'm thinking of asking for night shifts then...at least they can't unexpectedly double my workload. Feh. Anyway, one more week and then I'm back in the clinic on 8 to 6 days, which will be lovely. And maybe I'll have the energy and mindpower to study again. (Philosoraptor, by the way, refers to a mishearing of velociraptor, when I was discussing favorite dinosaurs with friends. Ah, to be 8 years old again. Mike was reminded of Sir Francis Dracon, the great philosopher-pirate.)