S is for Surgeon

These men are using silk to sew a very particular and important seam.   The stitch is interrupted mattress, placed one by one.  Surgeons don't weave in their ends.  The sutures are designed to be absorbed and eliminated by the body once healing has occurred.

By contrast, our sweaters are assembled with a continuous mattress stitch.

Imagine a knitting world, where technicians are hired to make sure all your knitting tools are clean, and in good working condition.  Any tool you could possibly think about needing is prepared for you in advance, and laid out on a special table.  The technician hands you the tool you request.  A really good technician looks at what you are doing, and anticipates what you will ask for next.  It is ready before you verbalize the need.  All your scissors are sharp.  Tape measures stay in this time-space continuum.  You never run out of yarn in a discontinued or unavailable dyelot. 

You are supposed to finish your WIP in a timely fashion.  This IS production as well as process.  The institution feels that Holz and Stein needles aren't worth the cost.  You do have Addi Turbos available to you, but the hospital is threatening to convert to Clover bamboos to save money.  One of the ball winders is out for repairs (who drops these things??), so that occasionally your WIP is delayed until the remaining ball winder is free.

In the end, all is well.   It looks good, it fits, and you move on to the next project.

Comments

[Carole]

Excellent analogy!

[Cindy D]

Thankfully our knitting is not a life and death matter,and we can be creative without cost to human life. Unless,of course,someone steals our handspun skeins or Lantern Moon needles.

Knitting,is in fact lifesaving;it helps us cope with life's many challenges.

[Manise]

Great post! Off to continue my WIP and be done in some form of "timely fashion".

[Theresa]

Lovely piece. Also, glad to hear Mr. E. is back to work.

[Marcy, Not Blogless]

What else would "S" stand for? I expect you spend a large part of your working life looking at just that scene. Do you ever offer to teach them alternative seaming techniques?

[Marcia]

Alternative seaming techniques, snort! Someone should have shown some to the surgeon/dermatologist that sewed up my poor hubby after his little "Moh's" proceedure last month...half of the stitches popped out. It's not pretty.

[Caroline M]

Knitting is more forgiving, the concept of ripping it back and starting over is one I don't really want to think about. Once upon a time I went out to work and one of my stock phrases was "It's accountancy not brain surgery, no-one dies if we get it wrong"

[Norma]

Haha, brilliant!!!!

[claudia]

Did you really bring your camera into the OR? Cause that would be AWESOME.

[margene]

You mean hospitals don't use the best tools available! It maybe good to save money but not at my expense. Nice post...good work!

[Lee Ann]

Add in the hardware used to make the wheel that makes the yarn, and you've just about got my surgery ;-)

I've decided my knitting does not need the staple gun. I accidentally on purpose looked it up on Google when I was looking up "surgical screws coming loose"...

Red Heart OWNS Québec medicine, dude.

I'm so happy Mr. E's better. Give him good wishes from me...I've been thinking about you both.

[rhelynn]

Hi - just had to say I am really enjoying reading your blog! Beautiful spinning as well.

[no-blog-rachel]

Thank goodness if you screw up your seams while knitting you can just go back and re-do it (or not) and not have the prospect of a potential major lawsuit looming ahead. Also, I find my saying 'oops' while knitting much less unsettling than a surgeon saying it while working on me (it HAS happened).

[Chris]

Wonderful S - and great analogy.

[June]

I had a momentary vision of you wearing (underneath scrubs, etc) the ThinkGeek T-shirt "I'm blogging this."

[janine]

interesting analogies :-) and a great post. As someone else said, thank goodness our knitting although essential is not life threatening - especially the amount I frog!

[Chris]

Blogging from the operating room and tying it in with knitting - I'm impressed! But not surprised. That's quite a wonderful and unique brain you've got. Hmmmm, with an MRI, you could blog that...

[Cathy]

Good photo and tie-in! Laughing tho - my son went from watching "ER" to working in an ER and I quit watching altogether after he came home with his stories. YOUR post, however, made my day!

[lisa Co. Springs]

Great post---and it reminded me so much of my hospital days as it relates to staffing. Yikes. Glad I don't have to make those choices anymore.

[Cordelia]

What a lovely connection.

[Lucia]

In knitting, the consequences of dropping a stitch are not nearly so dire. This explains why I'm a knitter and not a surgeon.

[Lorette]

Ha! And no need for malpractice insurance in knitting. Though I guess those lace lifelines might qualify.
And when I run the world, everybody will get Holz & Stein needles. (And Cadillac medicine, too, of course.)

[Barbp]

See I'm one of those patients whose body expels the sutures. I guess that's my analogy to frogging!!!

Lovely post Mrs. E.

[Dianna]

Perfect analogy! It is the same in my ORs and in all the ones I've ever worked in! LOL (One has to laugh, otherwise, we'd all be crying)

[Beth S.]

Foolish question, possibly, but do they use actual silk, or a special synthetic kind? I'm trying to imagine how the body would absorb and eliminate the real kind, and coming up blank, so I figure it must be something manmade, designed to biodegrade safely.

[Dorothy B]

Ah, to have everything I need right where I need it, when I need it. Sounds like most hospitals have all the fun of an industrial workplace. Except we had to jury-rig stuff to keep it going "until the parts get here". If they came at all. Sometimes the companies decide that the jury rig works well enough and won't get the parts in until the downtime to fix the jury rig starts getting excessive.

[Wendy M.]

Fantastic post!! I love the look of intense concentration on both faces. They look confident and relaxed, yet completely focused on the task at hand. I wonder - do I look like that while knitting? Hmmmm...no, I think there is more frowning going on with me. ha!

[vanessa]

you only live once, go for the holz$steins.

[Dr. Amy]

If only the scissors were always sharp... Felt like I was sawing away while trying to cut a suture the other day. I like my Fiskars in my knitting basket better :)

[kristen]

well said - and so timely for me. I haven't picked up my knitting in a long time and should probably pick it up tonight just to see where I'm at. Looking at things from this point of view might help me decide what I should be working on vs. what I want to be working on.

[Judith]

Such precision. Fabulous analogy. I'd call it Sci-Fi knitting, very futuristic.