Lots of F.O.

Most of this stuff has been done for eons.

My husband actually began to nag me encourage me to take picture by putting the projects in a bag with the camera and sitting them in the kitchen by the deck. He even included my big glass head. I'm ashamed to say these are very late going to their charities, but now that they are washed and bagged, I can deliver them. And now, without further ado ~


Preemie Hats for Howard Co Hospital







Chemo Cap With Floppy Brim from Cancer Can't

It looks more like a cloche to me, but turned out nicely and is very soft, so who cares?

And of course another No Hair Day. This one I call Confetti.




Now then.

On Ravelry I have joined a new group that has become dear to my heart. Helping Kids At Hopkins (Ravelry link) is the brainchild of my friend Nittany Knits. You may recall her daughter Gabrielle had a brief but intense illness before passing last spring. The group knits items for (you guessed it) the kids at the Cancer Center at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. There are plans for projects in other Units too. The heart unit will be in February for instance. Every two months is a new theme - and there are even prizes, voted on by the knitters. But the incentive is the joy.

Our first effort was Halloween.

Isn't it he awsome? Oh! The hat too!

Charity Begins at Home

To quote the old Bartles & Jaymes commercials, “Thank you, for your support.” The messages from you guys when I got home just THREE days after my brain surgery meant so much to me. My knitting community and desire to return to it was, for some reason, something to focus on in the midst of so much fear surrounding this thing in my head.

I‘m home. The surgery went better than expected and I’m physically capable of more than when I went into the hospital six days ago. I was knitting in ICU the day after brain surgery expected to give me more paralysis of my right arm than I started with. My whole rhythm has changed and I can knit faster. Smoother.

Life is good.

So.

I’ve been remiss about posting my F.O. because life got busy. This I can fix as easily. I’ve had several charity items finished and now it’s time for the Second Annual Knit-A-Thon at the Lakeside Café in Columbia, Maryland this Saturday. Since I’ll be saying goodbye to them, I finally got my camera out today and went out on the deck for a photo shoot.

Up there is the Jimmie Johnson preemie hat I made at the NASCAR race in September. It is a lot stiffer than I thought, but I had a lot of fun with it. Even if a baby gets a picture and it hits the floor, it was fun. I’ll do more in soft sweet colors and cushy yarns, I promise. The little model is the Taco Bell Chihuahua. It was from the Godzilla promo commercial and says “Heeeeeeer leezard, leezard, leezard!” In the commercial he sees Godzilla and followed that with “I think I need a bigger box”. That used to crack me UP.

Next is the oldest Warm Up America block in the history of the charity. I wonder if I could get some kind of award. It’s been in the car forever. It’s been ripped out, re-knitted, put on the back burner, lost, forgotten, and pattern-changed. And I’m rid of it. Bwwwaaaaa haaa haaa haaaaaaaaaa!

After that is the Nemo II preemie hat. I actually started this little guy on the way to Richmond and finished him during the Busch race of the event. I decided to make a tail on the top and improvised some short rows to give it a scaled effect. It isn’t perfect, but again, a lot of fun. I like the creative outlet. Could be worth a pattern thing if I put my mind to it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. I still haven’t written Rainbow up yet.

It’s gonna look like a fish swallowing a baby’s head, eh?

When straightening out my knitting basket last week, I came across some leftover cotton. Knowing the Knit-A-Thon was coming fast, I used it for a face cloth for a knitting buddy’s pet charity in Pittsburgh. The name escapes me, but they give hand knitted cloths to battered women in shelters so they have something feminine and personal of their own. I used the same simple blanket pattern I’ve been using for a pet blanket I hope to have finish for the same event.

The simple rhythm of this cloth gave me someone other than myself to focus on for a while.

So yes. I’ve been busy. I’m gonna BE busy. But it’s so good to look at the little collection up there with pride.

Or simply choose a WIP and pick up where I left off.

Free Armwarmer Patterns

Gotta love free patterns. I’m making some things for me for a change too. With the cooler weather(August??), I need to keep my arms warm when I knit. I started these last week and they are coming along nicely. The pattern is April May by Cider Moon. No more Patternophobia for me. It was one of about 15 or so on my list of possibilities from some talented designers. The links are below.

Gratuitous cuteness courtesy of the baby bunny near our birdfeeder just now, sorry about the haze from the window but she's very timid. For reference - that step is five inches high.

Click the bunny to make her BIIIIG.

April May armwarmers

spookycabledmitts

Clapomitaines

Fetching

Dashing

Purple Skein

warm_cable_armwarmers

Wrist Warmer Pattern Generator

Web Surfing Mitts

Simple Wrist Warmers

Cabled_Fingerless

Diamond handwarmers pattern

fingerless_gloves

Bowhunting Skills

It was a tough decision.

I work on other things in-between because I need to concentrate on the pattern with the YO. It really isn’t bad though, and is shaping up nicely. It’s got just enough YO to look lacy without looking like they’ll catch in everything. Another inch or two and I’ll increase for the hand. I’m making them a bit longer than the pattern calls for because my arm circumference shortens the length a bit even though I added two repeats of the pattern. I want them plenty big to allow some shrinkage.

I’m using the Green Mountain Spinnery 20% cotton yellow yarn I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. # 2 needles – my smallest yet. They feel kinda rough now but should wash up nice and soft. I like that I can toss them in the washer – and although I plan to avoid it, if they end up in the dryer all is not lost.

I went to the Kiwanis Group today. I needed a small project and Miss Betty suggested Preemie hats - they're always needing more and will use up small bits of yarn. While I was rooting around, she suggested Orioles colors. What fun! I may do some little pumpkins for Halloween too.

I took my copy of Simply Knitting over to the Ladies too since I was done with it. There was much oooing and aaahing over the patterns, but Miss Betty is from England and got the honor of taking it home first. I really got a kick out of sharing it - I don't think most of them buy such things and they thought that my husband was quite amazing for picking it out for me.

But then I knew that.

But, he doesn't knit

So. Last night I finished another Red Hat Society - No Hair Day chemo hat. They're a quick knit and I needed something mindless the other day.

I cast on the little Down by the Seashore Preemie Hat again. I've been in touch with another knitter at Ravelry who made it. (did I mention that I really like Ravelry?) She is giving me some help with the pattern. The wonderful woman even offered to make another one and donate it to a charity so she could better help me. What an amazing gesture from someone I don't know. I cast on (the third time for this pattern) and was telling Bobby how sweet it was etc, etc. He asked me to explain the problem, which I did.

It's a lace pattern and has a section of stitches that repeat over and over. There is wording in the pattern that confuses me. Now, I've knitted Fair Isle with no trouble. The first row of this puppy reads:

1: p1, *k1, p2. repeat from * around. end p1

After my last repeat of the *pattern* I kept looking for one more stitch to purl. It got even worse later on in the pattern when yarn overs and K3tog came into play.

He got it.

He really did. Oh, he hasn't magically decided to knit and his hands are one with the needles. However the math part was clear to him. He picked up a pad of graph paper and wrote out the numbers 1 - 56 for my cast on stitches. Then he filled in a K or a P underneath to represent each stitch. I could see it. He made a knitting chart on a huge scale. He told me that his next step would have been to tape the ends of the pattern together to make a continuous loop - but I got it without that. Now I can boldly go forth.

This was the revelation: The statement " end p1" simply means the last stitch before the stitch marker should have been a purl. Kinda like a Spell Check. Sheesh!

My husband. I love him.

The Feminine Touch

I finished my Lace Edged Women's Hat for the Claudia Mayer Center ohhhhh last week some time. I just got around to taking pictures yesterday though. I swear. I am going to get some coaching on the lace thing. I know I'm using a non-breathing yarn (acrylic) because that's what the center wants, but I can see that my painstakingly following the directions didn't get the lace quite right. I know this for sure because I can compare my work to no less than 6 other knitters with pictures of their projects on ravelry.


I hate to sound like a broken record, but seeing how 6 different women knit up the same pattern with 6 different yarns is the biggest reason to sign up for a ravelry account RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

<------- click the shiny blinky ravelry button over there <-------

I'm currently working on the preemie hat. Arrragh. Well, it thinks it is a preemie hat. Once again, my gauge is right, but this thing looks rather large for any preemie I ever took care of in Labor and Delivery or The Nursery. Hrumph! I did wimp out on continuing the lace up the body of the hat. Instead I did a color change. It's very soft and suitably cute. I found a project for booties on ravelry too from Saartje, one of the designers who has her patterns available for download directly from the site. You can see them on the right side of her blog here. She has a newborn and should know a thing or two about what stays on a baby's feet. Besides, I've alway's wanted to use some of the ton of antique buttons from my Mother and Grandmother's button can. I plan to cast these on as soon as the hat is done - they are calling my needles so loudly.

Oh I hear ya. If I ever stop playing with ravelry and this computer long enough to knit anything again, right? Well in 30 minutes I'm off to Sit-n-Knit with K1P2 down at the Lakeside and have dinner with my husband at the concert afterwards while I finish this hat.

Watch me!

Group Therapy

I took the pink vacation cap over to the The Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource and Image Center here in Columbia. They liked my design, saying the ladies often complain the hats are too tight at the top. One of the women I met there a few weeks ago said she like exotic hats. She was wearing a green eyelash hat at the time resembling a Koosh Ball .

Knitting groups are cool. I already look forward to every Thursday night at K1P2. Before vacation, I decided to step up my efforts with charity knitting. So. Twice a month, I now knit with the ladies at the Center. It is a homey place associated with Howard Co General Hospital & Johns Hopkins. There is a humongous cancer resource library and salon for free consultations and product purchase/guidance for everything body image. Operators from some of the top salons in the area donate their time and talents there. We meet in the front room which is set up like a comfy living room. Many of the knitters are clients of the center, but the group is open to the community. There is someone to guide new knitters, donated yarn and needles and a few designated charities although you can knit what you like for whichever you like.

I picked up some baby yarn from them and made my first preemie hat for the hospital. Whew! Sooooo many stitches for such a little thing. 2 x 2 rib takes a long time. I finished it in two weeks though (me?) and am quite proud of it. I used the pattern provided by the center, but I would look for better resources if I make another. It was knit on straight needles and sewed. The crown had just a few decreases and was . . . odd looking. I got to use some of my ebay needles - size 4 (thanks Dad). That’s the smallest I’ve used so far. They felt strange in my hands at first, as did the cheap yarn, but after a few rows I trusted myself to not break them and we got along fine. The thought of keeping some little wailer from loosing body heat seems right after all the babies I worked with in Labor and Deliver and theNursery.

I decided to knit Koosh Ball lady (gotta find out her name) a new hat since hers had definitely seen better days. I found a site with a free pattern, No Hair Day from Headhuggers. and some unidentified donated yarn from my stash. Their site has lots of caps to knit and crochet geared/sized for folks without hair. I swear Koosh Ball lady's hat was made from that pattern. I went with another variegated yarn because her green one is made with several greens, yellow and cream. The pattern calls for 1 ball of yarn for a small. Since she is not a large person I went with that. Wrong! Luckily, a picture on the site showed a variation with a yarn crown, so that’s how I finished it off. The lavender yarn is very soft and should feel comfortable against her head. If she likes it, I'll make her another with two balls so it can be furry all over.

I hope she’s there the day I take it in.