Birthdays

Know what the best thing about a birthday is?

Excellent excuse to buy crazy yarn:


Blue Heron Rayon Metallic
Eggplant Colorway
IT SPARKLES!!

The yarn is going to be used for the oh-so-cliche Clapotis. It's the pattern that every knitter apparently has knitted, and for some reason I too have fallen under its spell, even though I want nothing to do with shawls and I've knitted 3 scarves already. I think there's some sort of subliminal message in the pattern or something.

The actual day of my birthday sucked (Thanks Pharmacology), but my wonderful husband made up for it by taking me out to Royal Bavaria, a German-themed brewhouse and restaurant. I indulged in good booze, had some schnitzel, and generally had an excellent time.

Next week and the week after are going to suck, then I'm going on vacation to Eureka Springs, AR with my husband, my parents, and my husband's dad and stepmom. We all get along like a house on fire, so it should make for some good times. My current theory is that I'll get quite a bit of knitting done that week, but don't count on it. So I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just had finals and a well-deserved vacation.

Pressed for Time

Well folks, it's the end of the semester, and that can only mean one thing:

There's a metric ton of papers to write and projects to finish.

What's more, we're in that panicky stage where everyone's working hard to get passing grades in these difficult classes. And it's very panicky this semester. I think every nursing school has at least one ridiculously hard class. There might be different things that make it hard (instructors who don't instruct but hand out dense and vague packets, for a current example), but for one reason or another, these classes love to have half the class failing. For this program, that class is Pharmacology. Unfortunately, pharmacology is kind of an important subject for us baby nurses, and the fact that it's extremely difficult to learn the material, no matter how it's presented, doesn't help the situation.

I really don't know what the right way is to handle a class like this. Work harder for the grade? Work less because you won't know the answers no matter how much you study? Relax? Stress? Get stomach ulcers? Contemplate (briefly) breaking an arm to have an excuse not to take the exam? I'm not sure. My method of going back and forth between stressing and not caring (depending on how imminent the exam is) seems to be working well for me, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. I don't know how to help my classmates because I honestly don't know what it is I'm doing that they're not. I use the same books, read the same packets, make flash cards together with them. I feel almost guilty - here I am, very close to an A, while other people are having breakdowns in the middle of the hallway after the test and they work for it even harder than I do. I guess I'll have to promise to tell you when I find out what the trick to these types of classes is.

All this hasn't left much time for knitting. I did manage to finish a quick hat though, just in time for it to get warm enough to not need it:

Coronet by Alexandra Virgiel
1 skein Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Ice Pool Heather colorway

Also, I had a yarn falling-down at the Medieval Fair last weekend. I think the fact that I gravitate toward yarn if it's within a mile radius makes me a Knitter.

Ursula's Alcove Kettle-Dyed Superwash sock yarn
Colorway Brazilwood

I'm also learning to knit two socks at a time. My husband decided it was wrong that I never knit him anything, so he decided he wanted socks. For his size 14 feet. I keep telling him hats are much more in vogue that socks. He's not buying it.

K3, P1 ribbing, basic sock recipe by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Regia Galaxy sock yarn

And, just because this has been a crappy week, here's a cute pic of Maggie the Boston Terror: