Yves Klein Blue scarf

I finally persuaded my sister to take photos of her scarf. She's been wearing it ever since I unpinned it from the row of towels on my bedroom floor, adding it to her work clothes, weekend outfits, and even her pyjamas first thing in the morning - which is obviously pleasing, but this bloglet is already too sparse to do without photos even of a plain vanilla scarf. And of course being my sister she stuffs it into the bottom of her handbag and leaves it lying on the floor, so it’s already looking a bit worse-for-wear. Also, my camera is broken, again, so I've had to ask her to persuade other people (thanks Ma!) to get involved in these antics, which complicates matters.

We're just about to finish our surgical rotation, and, as with many so things, I've only started to realise what I'm going to miss, and what I ought to have been doing with the last ten weeks of my time, as the ground slips away beneath my feet.

I haven't loved surgery; my feelings towards it are a strange mix of awe and horror, utmost respect and revulsion - not the actual operations themselves, which I find fascinating and beautiful, but everything else surrounding them, from the way surgeons behave toward each other to the post-operative complications.

In addition, we're moving hospitals, which is a bit like starting term in the middle of the school year. Half of my firm are coming with me, and the other half going to the third of our 'home' teaching hospitals, which means half of my next firm will be made up of new faces. It's exciting, but daunting, and I have really loved my time at this hospital, getting to know the regular patients and befriending people from the porters to the Professor of Cardiology who always stops to chat in the corridors and the SHO in A & E who goes out of her way to tell you when something interesting is happening so that you can go and see and learn. I feel quite sad to think that all these relationships, short-cuts through the hospital learned and bleep numbers memorised just disappear in a puff of smoke when I hand back my security pass on Friday.

Anyway, cheer up, P. Let's talk about some knitting.


Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, colour Azul Bolita, 2 skeins exactly. One skein from somewhere I don't remember, the other from Wool and Company, one of only two shops I could find on the internet selling this colour.
Needles: 5.5 mm Addi bamboo
Via the stash?: Kind of. I bought one skein years ago, intending to make a One Skein Wonder and try out some Malabrigo, and then the colour was too bright so it slumbered in my stash. A few months ago, Z mentioned that she'd love an Yves Klein blue scarf, and I realised that this yarn would pretty much fit the bill, gleefully thinking that I could make a tiny dent in the stash - and then I ran out of yarn, ordered some more (and of course ordered two more skeins, so that I wouldn't run out again, and now have one more skein of exactly the same yarn sitting in my stash, and am back to square one). For some reason this yarn doesn't photograph well, but it is a deep royal-blue-purple-ultramarine, similar enough to International Klein Blue.
Cast on: 22 November 08
Cast off: 24 January 09
Details: Cast on 25 sts using Estonian cast-on (instructions here). Knit in Brioche stitch: Plain Brioche Stitch Knit version - uneven number sts (good instructions here), with Annie Modesitt's Slip Stitch Double Knit Edge (Right Side: K1, sl1wyif, K1; Wrong Side: sl1wyif, K1, sl1wyif) until it seemed a good length. Cast off using EZ's sewn cast-off.

This would have been a very quick knit if I hadn't had to order more yarn in the middle, and one I'd happily knit again, if my To Knit queue weren't so intimidatingly long.

Hope you have good things lined up for the weekend! I'm off to Whitstable.