A Little Progress

There's not been much to report around here over the past week. It's been my long week at work, so the majority of my time has been spent working and trying to sleep. I say trying because I've not been as successful as I'd like in the sleep category lately. Some of it may be late winter blues, though I've not particularly felt like SAD has been an issue this year and haven't been nearly as bothered as some by this winter's heavy snowfall.

There has been a bit of progress on the knitting front. The wedding vest is going slowly, but I'm nearly through one full vertical pattern repeat. I'll need to get through a bit more than two, increasing as I go, before I'll be ready to begin the armhole steeks, at which time I'll be starting to decrease for the armholes, followed by the V-neck, and then the back neck steek, all of which will hopefully speed things up nicely. This photo is of the center back panel, so that you can see how the main pattern is reversed on either side.



I can generally only manage two or three rounds at most before my hands start to cramp, which has slowed things down a bit, but I try to do at least one round a night, which I figure should make up for the slowness. I love the way this pattern is knitting up, and it seems to be coming out to gauge, or at least close enough that it won't look like a sack on me (I hope).

In Other News

The other big thing I've been up to of late is looking into graduate programs. After my last attempt fizzled out, I still wanted to pursue a degree in epidemiology, but I knew it would have to wait until I were in a better position to be able to complete my studies. As much as I enjoy emergency work, I don't think that I can keep doing this physically for the next 20+ years. Besides, disease at the population level fascinates me - why do things small?

So I've been doing a bit of investigation into distance learning programs that will allow me to pursue a degree on a part-time basis online while continuing to work. The University of North Carolina, which has a very well-respected School of Public Health, has an online certificate program in field epidemiology, the coursework for which I can then use towards their Master of Public Health in that area.

So over the next few weeks I plan on compiling application materials to start that in the fall, with a course that I actually took at UNC ten years ago during my first go-round in the graduate world. The refresher will be nice, and at a leisurely one class per term, it should be no sweat to fit into my current schedule. And then in a few years, who knows?