Chemo caps

The 2013 Charity Project for the Spartanburg Knitting Guild is chemo caps for our local hospital. We have given to the center in previous years, but they always need more. We started knitting these in January. This summer, as an incentive to use lighter cotton weighs, a LYS is offering a drawing for gift certificates when a cap using yarn purchased at her shop is donated before the end of July. Needless to say, many caps have been received! I turned in 15 caps at the last meeting, 8 of which had been made with yarn from the shop and qualify for the drawing. (Some was stash yarn, but had been purchased previousy at her shop.) The rest of the caps came from unknown members of my stash. I enjoy charity projects not only because the items are useful and knitting them brings a sense of peace, but also because I believe I have attained STABLE and want to use as much of it as possible! Of course, I continue to purchase more (ie cotton yarn from the LYS) but then, I am a normal knitter and of course I buy yarn!

First, here is the Roll Brim cap, from Head Huggers, using Dark Horse Farms.

These are the Lace-Edged caps, also from Head Huggers, using Rowan Softknit Cotton, Caron Simply Soft, and other unknown yarns.

This cap uses a generic waffle stitch/bump pattern. I used Dark Horse Farm for one of them and S charles victoria for the other.

Finally, my favorite pattern, the Eyelet Brim Cotton Cap by Candy Wheatcroft. Again, I used Rowan Softknit Cotton.

There is more stash waiting to become chemo caps. I'm taking a short break! My heart and prayers go out to the recipients of these caps- I wish chemo caps would go out of style/disappear/be unnecessary!

Un-biased

After a lengthy post about the legacy of knitting in my family, I am going to unearth a few "draft" posts over the next few weeks. These have been languishing behind the scenes of this blog. Some are more than a year old, but knitting knows no time boundaries...

This is a short post to introduce my "Un-biased" scarf. Not only is there a public "Sit 'n Knit" twice a month at the library where I work, but there is also a mostly-weekly gathering of 5-6 staff knitters.It is a wonderful way to end Hump Day. Sometimes we even go out to eat between working and knitting in the staff room. We work on individual projects, share laughter, and share new apps/games on our iphones! In the past, we have worked informally on various charity projects, such as hats and blankets for the local homeless shelters, scarves for the Special Olympics, and bears for the police department.

Last spring one of the group found the Unbiased Scarf in a magazine and thought it would be fun to do an informal, unhurried knit-along. Unhurried is right: so far, I am the only one who has completed it! Others are well on their way, and still others are in the planning process. I have a huge stash of sock yarn, and was anxious to use some of it for a non-sock project.

This is Sockotta. Unfortunately, the band with the colorway is long gone. It was fun to knit and easy to block. (Looking at the photo, I realize that my straight lines had a lovely curve at the end! Oh well.)

Her endeth this entry...

Legacy

My grandmother was a knitter. My mother was a knitter. I am a knitter. My daughter is a knitter. Three of my four grandsons have at least tried knitting (and two of them still do....at least once in a blue moon. I keep their projects in my car for when I go down to visit them. Knitting needles are also amazing light sabers, magic wands, swords and wonderful for just poking and irritating a brother, so they dwell in safety in the trunk!)

Blogs preserve memories, both in words and pictures. Here are some of mine.

Probably Mammie was taught to knit by her mother. I wish I had asked how many generations have this addiction. I know she knit dozens and dozens of socks and bandages during WWII, and might have even contributed during WWI. When I was about 3 years old, she knit matching bathrobes for Mom and me. Unfortunately, the robes languished in the attic, then deep in a closet. In my attempt to begin the downsizing process, they were unearthed, much to the chagrin of the critters who had enjoyed my robe. Mom's fared better! Hers even had shoulder pads!

                           

This cocktail dress also made by Mammie for my Mom, however, had lived in Mom's closet. It was used one year as the fashion show grand finale at our guild knitting retreat.

Of course, Mammie knit Christmas stocking for all her grandchildren. Mom always bemoaned the fact that they were so large, but Santa always filled them anyway! (Somehow the bells on the toes got cut out of the picture...just use the imagination to hear them jingle!)

Mammie made this elf sweater (and mittens) for me when I was in first grade.

Unfortunately, I do not have photos of the early sweaters Mom made for Daddy, my brother, and me. Matching tennis sweaters, aran sweaters, cabled cardigans- I was in sweater heaven. How I wish we had Ravelry back then, so there would be a record! (Memo to self: there will not be a record of my projects, either, if I do not make the time to take photos and record the information!)

The following are some of the high school/college/young adult sweaters that I thought I would wear again someday... if I ever lose enough to regain my former self!

Obviously I loved this pattern- these two sweaters could be worn with my entire wardrobe!

Then there were my own children. Mamama knit stockings for them, of course. I no longer have the stockings (I hope my children do!) but they were adorable. So are the children. In a box somewhere in the closet is a better picture of the front of these stockings, but here is one with the backs showing. Getting children to sit still on Christmas Eve is hard enough; getting them to display the front of the stocking was too much!

Mom knit these for my daughter.

Mom and I made matching sweater sets for my son and daughter. I do not remember who made what, but it was fun having a knit-along before knit-alongs became popular!

                                     

Unfortunately, I was in a needlepoint and reading state of mind when my grandchildren were small, and did not do much knitting. Each boy does have a knit stocking (rather large, much to the bemoaning of their parents!) and I did hand down this sweater to my grandson that Mom had made for my daughter. 

I knit this sweater for my other grandson (to be passed on to his brothers,) while sitting day after day with my Mom after her stroke. It seemed to be the right thing to do. 

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A new tradition for the boys is a Christmas Surprise ball. I have also knit a few decorations and ornaments for them. 

My daughter learned to knit when she was 6 or 7, and made the typical doll blanket and scarf. 

The bug returned to her while living in NYC after 9/11. She gifted me with a prayer shawl, in my favorite color. It has been my comforting blankie ever since.

Now, she is an accomplished knitter and spinner!