Menstrual Stem Cells

Yes, I'm going way off-topic. Also, this poor blog has had no attention for a long time. Instead of showing you pictures of my sad wips, I bring you this link for a press release.

It's cool, isn't it? Finally something good's coming from your monthly mess. If you were too lazy to click on that link, I'll summarize it for you: Your menstrual blood contains stem cells that may one day save your life or that of a close relative. And, how convenient, there is a company willing to store yor menstrual blood for a fee.

And yet, the press release contains this little statement: "The use of these unique menstrual stem cells in pre-clinical studies
for human cardiovascular, diabetes and neurodegenerative regenerative
therapies is under evaluation."

Pre-clinical? This means they have not done anything beyod the petri dish, maybe a  mouse or two. In other words, no human being has been treated with menstrual stem cells. I wish the company's website were a little more clear on that.

I'd give you that website, but you will easily find it with a google search. And I suspect it will soon pop up in many internet ads, too.

Moving on...

Yikes, I haven't posted in a long time. This semester's classes are, by far, the hardest, and I have had no time to post. Also, I've been knitting very little. The spouse is on a trip and he didn't even take the time to try his socks on, so I've no idea where to start the cuff of his socks, so all I am doing is knitting one or two rows of the pink thing every once in a while. By the way, the spouse took the camera with him, so I cannot show any progress pictures.

As for the job issue, I hesitate to blog about it. If I ever get hired, it would be inappropriate to talk about work here. Of course, I might not get hired at all, which means I can complain as much as I want on my blog. If I end up being hired, I might come back and erase this.

I got a call from HR. Since opening the permanent position is taking such a long time, they are hiring someone temporarily, and they suggested I applied for that. Well, I happen to know the person who already took the temporary position. She is one of my classmates and we actually work as a team in one of my classes, performing the experiments together. The HR person denied that anyone had been hired already. I told her that in any case I wanted to apply to the permanent position, not the temporary one. She said then that whoever got the temporary position would probably get the permanent one. So I sent in an application for the temporary position, even though I knew that my classmate was already working anyway.

Well, this HR person told the head of the department (who had already told me that I was getting the permanent job) that I wasn't really interested. One of my former professors corrected that notion, but I am still very annoyed at HR.

I hate it when people are lazy or just don't want to bother with anything they haven't done before. Like I said, changing my visa is not hard. They don't need to do anything except write a stupid letter, and then I would have travel back home and tramit my new visa, not them. But it seems to me that HR is trying very hard not to hire me.

I am now competing with my classmate for the permanent position. She is good, but I have more experience and there are certain tasks I am better at than she is. Of course, if she works as a temp long enough, she'll be much better than me in certain things: instruments and machines may operate all on the same principles, but each model has its own quirks, and she'll be more acquainted with the equimpent they have here than I am. Also, because she is now an internal candidate, she'll be able to apply for this position before I do, and she will get preference over me.

Life is unfair.

A family anecdote

Many years ago, my father worked for a British transnational company. He was based in Mexico City, but he got an extremely good offer to relocate to an African country. He accepted it, and patiently explained to us that we were moving to a far away land where lions and elephants came from. And yet, after gathering more information, he ended up declining the offer for a number of reasons, among them his fears on how we would fare in a ratially segregated society. Of course, by then I had already informed all my friends that I was going to live among lions and elephants. In addition to being very disappointed, I felt like a big liar.

Well, I feel a little bit like that once more. I told everyone I had gotten the position, but it turns out that they have to open it again to ensure fair competition.

Here we go again...

Good news... I think

I got the position! Yay! Wait a minute, I only have a verbal offer. That, and a few hours spent trying to learn as much as I could from the person who's leaving. I cannot work yet, I must change my visa first, and for that I need something in writing. Nothing fancy. A simple letter saying something like "We are offering Pioggia such and such position with this salary".There are a few technicalities that must be added, but overall, it doesn't seem that difficult, especially since I have given them a sample from a friend of mine and tons of information. And yet, even though the decision was made on Monday (and they already knew by then that all I needed was that letter), I have nothing to go by.

Meanwhile, my life seems to be on standby. The semester started three weeks ago and I keep going on without knowing whether or not I will miss a few classes, or maybe even drop altogether. Emotionally, I feel like on a roller coaster. On one hand, it feels great that they want to hire me. On the other, I fear that as long as I don't have anything in writing they could still get someone else. I've been moody and I cannot even knit much. I've worked a few rows on the back of the pink thing and a few more rows of the chocolate socks.

           
You'd think I should be trying to relax and knit, but it's not working. I hope I'll make some progress over the weekend.

Feeling Better

It turns out that I *might* still get the position. Nobody seems to know and I was unwilling to blog about this until I knew for sure what the outcome was going to be, but I'm tired of waiting. Also, other things have been going on. For example, my pooch was bitten by a spider, got an infection and was wearing that stupid Elizabethan collar once more.

I also finished spinning the purple yarn I intended to use for socks. The results are not very satisfactory. First of all, I have a few slubs.



Slubs aren't that bad. They are soft and if they end up on the sole of the sock you can still step on them if they're not too thick. The problem is what I call "snarls" (they might have a better name). They are the result of overtwisting the singles a bit too much and not having enough tension when plying. I have a few of those and they stiffen the yarn. I wouldn't want to step on those.



The rest of the yarn is not that bad and I might still use it for socks, cutting the bad parts out and then weaving in the ends, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I did keep practicing and made another skein, this time with much better results.



Sadly, that's not enough for a pair of socks, and I don't have any rovings left from that dye lot. Oh well.

The pink thing has grown a bit in the back, though the front is in standby. The chocolate socks have also grown past the heel turn, no holes this time. I had to do wraps while knitting the heel flap and chomping up the gusset stitches. I like the results a lot.

Discouraged

I spent all Summer waiting to apply for a position that was going to be opened "anytime soon..." Specifically, the person filling that position announced since May that she'd be leaving in September, and I was recommended for the job. But the position had to be submitted for approval, approved, filed, opened to internal candidates, waited on, internal selection made, no internal candidate found, approved for opening to external candidates, filed again and so on.

For those of you lucky to start working whenever you please, the fact that there is an emergency hire and they want someone to start ASAP wouldn't bother you.

Me, I cannot start working without changing my visa first. It's not hard, really, I make an appointment with a US embassy back home,  and a week later I present all my certifications and letters of recommendation along with a letter of employment. I get my new visa another week later and I can come back to the US and start working.

Not hard, but it does require a wait of about two weeks.

Well, this is yet another job opportunity I have to let go because they're not willing to wait two weeks.

So now you know why I'm discouraged.

Curly Singles

My singles were overtwisted on purpose, because I don't want any slubs showing once I'm plying. Want to see how overtwisted they were?



Just in case, I decided to also set the twist before plying.  A little warm water and overnight stretching has straightened those singles into submission.



Back to a cardboard tube, from which it will be plied once I'm done with the second batch of singles.



I don't see many slubs, so I hope I can really make socks from this yarn once it's been plied.

The chocolate socks for the spouse have grown a few rows, but I didn't feel like taking a new picture. I should be starting the heel now, but I want him to try them on briefly before that.

Weekend dye job

Last year made a pair of fingerless mitts with my handspun yarns and I liked them a lot, but I kept thinking I should have made them longer. So I'm using up the rest of my handspun yarns in a second pair of fingerless mitts.  That also gives me an excuse to spin the rest of the colored rovings.


It occurred to me that I am finally spinning singles that are thin enough to make socks from them. Of course, I could be wrong and slubs may show up while plying, in which case I would use the yarn for mittens. In any case, I'd need more purple singles, and that's why I dyed another batch of purple roving. I don't expect a match, but at least I'd be plying with a similar shade of purple.

          

I used solar energy, which I hadn't tried before. After a whole day on my balcony, this is the result.



As usual, I used regular food coloring and vinegar. I wish I had a white enamel pot so I could have seen clearly when all of the dye was taken up by the yarn. Also, if I ever move to more toxic stuff, I might not want to use the same pot where I cook my frijoles.

The spouse's socks are growing. I chose the undulating rib sock pattern, also from the Favorite Socks book. The pattern is very easy to memorize so it won't bother me that I'll have to return the book to the library before I'm done.

Done!

Stubborn as I am, I kept on knitting according to the pattern even if I knew the cuff was not tight. I did try the socks on before going on and they seemed to stay in place. I did a very loose bindoff the way Vaxgirl taught me and wore them right away, no washing or blocking. But wool socks in August are not a terribly good idea, unless you're wearing sandals. I believe wearing socks with sandals is in good taste if the socks are handmade. The spouse agrees with me.


The socks are very comfortable and I hope they remain so after washing them. My feet were happy and I guess I'm lucky, because that means I can choose either a gussetted heel or a short row heel when making socks for myself.

I picked up the pink lacy thing and guess what? I still hate it. But I did get to the armholes before starting something else.



Those are socks for the spouse. He will have his own gusseted socks and provide further input. I did not use a figure eight toe, but a Turkish toe instead. I think I like it even better.

Cuffing

My philosophy with these socks has been to keep knitting and, unless it's horrible or unwearable, don't rip. This applies to the cuff, which is sort of inelastic. Even the model has problems keeping her cuffs up:



Or maybe she's doing it on purpose because it looks cute. Still, should I be reasonable and rip in order to make a better cuff? Or just keep going according to the pattern? This is my cuff so far:



You can tell that the cuff is not pulling the stitches together and tightening the fabric like a cuff is supposed to do.

Both Andrea and Jennifer  pointed out that the short row heel is not as comfortable as the gusseted heel. So now I understand why so many people prefer the gussets. I will wear my gusseted socks and decide for myself whether or not I like them better than the short rows. If I do, I'll give gussets a second chance. Andrea also pointed out a tutorial by Grumperina to avoid holes when picking up stitches along the heel flap. Very helpful for cuff-down socks, but I need a better solution for toe-ups.

Ivy asked me about the yarn I'm using. It's Mama E's sock yarn, in Glampyre colors. I got the yarn as a prize from the Glampyre herself. I have checked Mama E's website but I don't see that colorway available. Maybe she just made this one batch for the Glampyre, who knows?

The pooch is doing well and his wound is healing wonderfully, but his behavior is less than wonderful. He obviously hates the collar, and he lets us know by reverting to his early childhood behavior, when he was a very naughty puppy indeed. I just hope he goes back to his old self when we remove the collar.