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Spinning

So a few weeks ago I learned how to drop spin. This was not something I had intended to learn how to do. I am definitely an instant gratification type of girl... why on earth would I want to spend my time learning how to spin, then spinning, then finally getting the time to knit with said yarn. Well the fate of the yarn gods apparently decided me learning this new skill was a good idea. I received a lovely present of roving from a Ravelry contest. It was so pretty.... but I wanted it to be yarn NOW. I tried to list my new found yarn friends in Connecticut to spin it for me, but all I got was we can teach you. No... I don't want to learn, I just want yarn. But the roving won me over, and so I embarked on learning how to spin. I was loaned a drop spindle and left over roving to practice on.... then less than 24 hours later I made yarn.

The roving

The first set of singles...

Half done

Plying

Skeined


Wound and ready to use.
(Ball winder and swift...best inventions and best present EVER)

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it....I think there's about 70 yards. It's definitely not consistent in thickness...oh well. Right now I am just looking at it. Now I have this to play with while I figure out the best way to use my new handspun...

The great de-stash of 08

SO.....

I've decided I am not allowed to start new projects until I finish a few of the WIPs that are sitting around. Moving gave me a perfect opportunity to reorganize my yarn. I found stuff that I had forgotten I even had. Between half of it being in Florida for most of the year and living out of my car, I could only have a limited amount of yarn with me at any given point. I am attempting to catalog all the yarn, add it to the stash in Ravelry and figure out projects for them. But first I have a giant Tupperware container filled with unfinished projects that need to be worked on.

The greatest part of reorganizing everything... I have a handy dandy ball winder and swift thanks to the lovely ladies from Blacksburg. (I miss you all greatly)

I've been knitting the Union Square Poncho from Weekend knitting for over a year...it's not a hard pattern I should be DONE with this thing. I measured it this morning and I am over half way done. I actually might not knit it to the 54' because the yarn has a lot of give, and I am afraid it will stretch out. I've started putting it in my bad daily so when I have a few moments I can get a row or two in... I really would like to finish this thing sometime in the next century.

I found the scarf I am making out of Be Sweet... a plain knitted scarf. I think there's 15 stitches across... yeah half done. Why don't I just finish these things? Also a bag I was making out of noro...everything done except the shoulder strap and the seams. Easy enough to finish.. now I just need to find the time.

With organizing my yarn I've found 8 different sock yarns waiting to be made projects. I pretty much have enough yarn to not buy yarn for the rest of the year and just knit from stash. I could probably go two, but I have no self control. I am hoping with my lack of free time to actually go buy new yarn, that I will get projects done,

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to make with this yarn.....it hasn't spoken to me yet, other than saying "take me home."I won this from Ravelry....so I may learn how to spin. I don't think I have time to learn how to spin, nor do I really have the desire right now... but I am dying to know how this yarn is going to take form.

Moving etc.

Well... I am officially moved and mostly settled in Connecticut. I still need to buy a few things and organize my closet. My clothes have a way of taking over my room. I did order TV and Internet today, so I guess I should actually go buy a television soon. hehe.. I have no couch, TV, microwave, or coffee pot. These things need to be fixed. I also need silverware, I have 4 spoons, that's it. I didn't realize all the stuff I had or didn't have because most of it has been in storage since December and I didn't live at home for almost a year.

Graduation was graduation. My family is crazy and they drive me nuts, but I love them. They are the only family I have. My Uncle hooded me during the ceremony and I got to spend some time with my cousins, who I never see, so that was nice. We visited a few wineries, which always makes me happy. I took the $250,000 piece of paper by Mosaic. I also knitted during graduation. I am only moderately addicted to yarn. :)










I started a new sock the other day, because I completely don't need to start new projects. I bought some lovely Socks that Rock yarn from Knitters Knook. If you are ever out in the middle of no where (aka Boons Mill, VA) Becky was very lovely and she has a good selection of yarn, and you should visit her.




The sock is a little big.... I need to start decreasing for the toe earlier than I think I do. I have ridiculously small feet and I apparently forget that. The pattern is waterfall rib from Sensational Socks. I have a feeling it's going to be a wearing around the house sock due to the largeness... oh well. I guess I could frog it and make it smaller, but that will most likely not happen.

I am thinking about venturing out to the Knitting in Public event in Windsor CT... but first I need to buy a TV and microwave.

Oh hello..

So I might have died, but no worries I have returned from the abyss that was living out of my car for the year. Ok I still live out of my car, but only for a few more days, then I am really homeless, and then I am moving to Connecticut, so all is good.

I am back in Virginia, finishing up my last rotation... 4 days left to be exact. Oh what a lovely number that is... Friday might be the greatest day of life EVER!!! and really I am not exaggerating at all. First it's my birthday, which automatically makes it an awesome day, it's the last day of med school, and really life doesn't get much better than that. But on top of all of that, it's my best friend Sarah's Bachelorette party. So pretty much the most fun had in all of history all in one day... oh can't it be Friday yet?

Then Monday it's off to CT to find a place to live, play in NYC for a few days, see Spamalot for my Birthday, hit up Boston for some food and times with friends. And my sister is joining me for the CT-NYC-BOSTON trip.. so that should be FUN!!!!

After all of that... Sarah's wedding, then 4 day cruise to Mexico with my other bff's Michelle and Gerri. I'll get to spend a little bit of time in Florida, hanging with the family, etc. Then back to VA for another wedding and then GRADUATION!!!!! *** does happy dance***

So that's the recap of what's going on. I am not uber stressed out about the housing thing yet, but I might get there Monday as I drive to CT.

On the knitting front... I've finished a couple of pairs of socks. A 2x2 ribbed sock made from Noro... the yarn is kinda scratchy when you knit with it, but once on... I didn't notice anything and it's very warm. My toes will be toasty warm.


I finished Charade for my momma. I put them in the mail this afternoon. I am sure she will forget to be nice to them, but that's ok. They look nice right now.


I made Knitty's Coronet with some lovely hand spun yarn I got from a LYS in Gainesville (Hanks Yarn). Very lovely store... if you are ever down in Florida.. you should visit. They were by far one of my favorite yarn stores of the many I visited this year.


As always I have a million WIPs... the forefronts are Cozy V Neck Pullover from Fitted knits... in Vermilion Malabrigo. The yarn is a lovely shade of red, the name makes me giggle, and it's just the softest yarn. I want to knit sheets out of it and wrap myself in the yarn...
(the picture was taken before I got to the ribbing.. so I am further along now)


On Ravelry.. the Mosaic Maniacs are doing an online KAL of the Lace Ribbon Scarf from knitty. I am 2 repeats in. I am using Schaefer yarn Anne. I don't the exact colorway, but it's red/pink/orange. It should match my lovely red sweater.


I am sure I'll cast on another sock in a day or so.. I like to have a pair on needles at all times. They travel so well and fit in coat pockets. I really don't sit around and do nothing very well.

I also have Jeanie on the needles... but this is going to be a long process for her. It's not a terribly hard pattern, I just have to pay attention and it's time consuming. Eventually I will finish.


Well I think that's about it.. hope all is well.

Honduras Finale

I wrote this before I left, but didn't have time to send it until now....

Well I am sitting in the airport waiting for m flight back to America, which technically means my Honduran trip is over as long as my plane actually gets here and it doesn't crash into a mountain taking off. The crashing into a mountain is a real concern….google/you-tube Tegucigalpa landing, I've heard the videos are enough to never make you want to visit the country. Apparently, right now there's a dog on the runway and security is running around trying to catch it…I'll be sure to make sure everyone knows I made it back safely.

Brittney, Dupree and I took the Whites, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco out to dinner on Thursday night. We went to La Cumbre which apparently has the most beautiful view of Tegucigalpa, but again it rained, so we only have pictures of fog and rain. I really think this "dry" season doesn't exist, it's just a myth to tell the gringos. The food was amazing, and the company wasn't bad either. If we could have made the rain go away, the evening would have been perfect.

Since Brittney and Dupree left on Friday, there was no clinic. Dra. Xiomara was also sick with laryngitis so you couldn't hear her anyway. Instead of Clinic we were able to attend the Baxter morning devotion. I haven't written much about the Baxter students, so I'll do that now.

The quick rundown of the program is…The students are in a 4-year ministry program. There are married couples and the single guys. We've been living in the married housing area, so we've gotten to know a few of the families. Douglas, who might be the cutest baby ever lives across the courtyard from us, and no I didn't try to pack him in my suitcase. J The married couples both go to class. The women go half a day, and then are able to spend the rest of the day taking care of their families. They don't get the bachelors degree but they get what's equivalent to an associates degree. The other dormitory houses the single guys. We eat lunch with them every day. They are so passionate about their schooling and of course about futbol. We had the chance to get to know a couple of them during our time at Baxter and they are just great guys all around.

They have a daily devotion after their first two classes every day. Seeing as we are in clinic at this time, we don't get to share that time with them, but Friday we were able to attend. They sang very beautiful songs about God and Jesus.. really that's all I could translate, but they sounded nice. They then have a short devotion by one of the third year students and then they have a prayer and concern time. It was very nice that they prayed for our safe travels back to America. After the devotion, all the students and faculty gave us hugs and thanked us for coming to help them. It was very sweet, they even prayed in Spanish and English for us.

Abraham was using the single guys as his test subjects for his PhD project. Something with a force plate and before and after effects of OMM. It sounds a lot like physics and math, which is just too much for my brain to handle. As part of the project to keep the boys involved he organized a futbol tournament for all the participants. Brittney and I were definitely cheering for the red team, even if they are kinda bad. Our favorite Baxter student is on that team, so we are all about the red team. We've promised to wear red on Tuesday in lieu of being able to see the championship games. We expect a full recap via email of the games.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Brittney and Dupree. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I did get lots of knitting done… although it doesn't do me much good now. During the inspection of my luggage, my knitting needles were confiscated. I can take them out of the country but not into the country. I really should stop traveling internationally with my knitting, a similar experience happened in Nairobi the second time I went to Africa. If anyone knows my obsession with yarn and yarn related things you can imagine I was almost in tears as I took the yarn of the needles and handed over 3 sets of addi tubors (2 of them being my new lace addi's). All my knitting friends may share in my sadness because they know those are good needles. I've been working on a really hard knitting project that I put it in my checked luggage in case this happened, so hopefully it will be safe there, or I really might cry. At least the only projects in my bag are socks, I can easily put them back on needles when I get home, now I just need to buy more needles… I've heard there is a very nice yarn store in Gainesville (my next rotation site) so I might need to take a trip there ASAP.

I really hope I am able to return to Honduras one day. The clinic here needs so much help. We are working on getting them the equipment for a lab. They have some of the supplies just the machines to run the lab tests. Steve (Dr. White- President of Baxter) was talking about setting up a minor surgery room. I told him I'll be all over that as soon as residency gives me time off. I doubt I'll have any extra free time next year seeing as most of my free time will be used for interviewing again, but maybe the following year on one of my weeks off I'll be able to return… I'll even be an official doctor by then. These little things will benefit the community so much, I hope one day that they become a reality.

If you have never had the opportunity to travel international on a mission trip I highly recommend it. While mission trips at home are also very important, there is definitely a different feeling from an international trip. I am thankful that I've had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and now Honduras. Thank you for supporting these trips and the people that attended them. I hope you enjoyed reading our updates as much was I enjoyed updating everyone at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u

Honduras Part 7

Well our Honduras trip is almost over… time sure has flown by…

Monday we had a day of clinic… nothing too exciting to write about there. Brittney has gotten pretty good with her Spanish.. me I am still working on it. It’s a long process, and I am slow at picking up languages. It’s a good thing smiling is universal.

Tuesday we all (Brittney, Dupree, Dra. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes and myself) got in the lovely VCOM truck and traveled 3 hours up and down and around the mountains to Catacamas. It’s a little town north and east of Tegucigalpa that has a clinic. The original reason for visiting this clinic was that their people came to see our clinic and we started talking about a program that they run for their chronic patients (diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension). They invited us to see their clinic and take the information they have gathered at their program so we can start a program of our own. Well anyone who knows me well knows that I do not fare well in cars, or boats, or plans, or basically anything that moves. So I had to be medicated and sleep through most of the trip. Brittney was glad she had Dupree to talk to while I slept. I am pretty much the most un-fun traveler in the world. I love to travel and see new places I just don’t enjoy the process to get there.

We met with the doctors that run the clinic and they told us all about their program; how it focuses on family education, especially in the diabetic patients. They have come to the realization that you can’t stop diabetes, you can only prevent the complications, so the best way to help the patients is to help the families learn about proper diet, exercise, you know all the really fun things in life. Apparently eating fried plantains all day is not a good meal plan… and yes, I would eat them at every meal if I could. The program sounds really amazing, and the doctors working on it are so smart. Someone really needs to do their PhD work on this, because it’s a really great opportunity. I hope Baxter is able to set up a similar program here because we see so many patients with chronic diseases.

After we learned about the program they gave us a tour of their facility…. I would go there as a patient or a doctor. Brittney and I were trying to figure out if we could start residency programs there or not. This place was beautiful. It’s in the valley of a bunch of mountains, and the clinic is clean and new and well taken care. They have everything from surgery, ultrasounds, EKG’s, x-rays, physical therapy. .. basically anything you need they have. We took a bunch of pictures there, so you can essentially recreate the entire clinic by photo. The clinic is Christian based and basically runs off donations. They have one main clinic and then several smaller medical clinics in the mountains…If you are interested in more information about the clinic visit their website .. http://www.predisan.org/ Hopefully the students after us will get the chance to work there for a few days, because it would be awesome, minus the 3-hour car ride.

After our lovely visit at the Predisan clinic we did a little site seeing. Catacamas has caves of glowing bones. There are caves in the mountains that were used as a second burial sites way back in the day. The locals would bury their dead, and then several years later take the bones and prepare them again and place them in the caves. The caves have many different minerals including pure calcium. Between the river running through the caves and all the minerals the bones are now covered in calcium which causes them to “glow” or sparkle. We didn’t get to see the actual bones, because they now have them blocked off, especially for those gringo touristas.. we are such trouble. But, we did get to hike through a cave and see some very beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Brittney and I also saw a bat… and yes it was a bat and not a bird, even if the rest of the group doesn’t believe us. There are some lovely pictures of the caves (from Brittney – my camera battery hates me), and pictures of the national forest.

Wednesday Dupree got to spend some time over at Hospital San Felipe catching babies. Brittney and I ran the clinic. Dra. Xiomara took Dupree over to the hospital and left us with Dra. Julieta came to supervise Brittney and me. We saw and treated patients all on our own with minimal translations. We were like real doctors… it was pretty cool.

In the afternoon, we helped organize some of the many boxes of supplies that the clinic has. Why anyone would need 300 French Tip suction catheters is beyond me… but in case you need some the clinic has plenty to spare. We made boxes of supplies that the clinic can’t really utilize (surgery supplies, etc) and made boxes to donate to the hospitals we work at, basically bribing them to let us keep coming to visit.

Brittney and I cooked up a storm last night, it was very tasty, and we had fried plantains. I told you I really would make them for every meal. Dupree came over, recapped his OB day, and told us stories from the farm. We were all laughing so hard we cried a little bit, so all in all it was a good night. We took our extra food and made up plates for the guards, thanking them for keeping the scary gang people out of the Baxter institute.

Today we had our last Brigade out in the community. Of course, Brittney and I took a million pictures. The Brigades are very fun because we get to go into the community, see where they live and help them a little bit. Most of the time it’s just antibiotics and ibuprofen, but it’s the thought that counts right?

Tonight we are taking Dr. Xiomara, Dr. Ayes, and Marco (who’s driven us around the entire month).. out to La Cumbere which is a nice restaurant on top of the mountains that over look Tegucigalpa. The weather is pretty horrible right now.. it’s windy slightly rainy and only 70 degrees. We hope to get to the restaurant before it gets too dark so we can get a couple good pictures of the city.

I’ll be heading back to the states on Saturday morning. Brittney and Dupree are leaving tomorrow.. I am not sure what I am going to do with all my free time tomorrow without new best friend.

Well that’s all for now…hope all is well at home.

Allison

Link to pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/gp/14059370@N07/4tGU5u