A “net friend” is coming to Portland for the Sock Summit in August. She has breast cancer and has been undergoing chemo therapy. I wanted to knit something quick for her as a Welcome gift.
In Knitting To Share by Gerard Allt I found a pattern for an Angel of Beauty scarf for Bad Hair Days. Well, I think it would also work well for No Hair Days or Hair Growing Back Days.
The thing to keep in mind when knitting a chemo hat or scarf is that the treatment makes the scalp very sensitive. You need to use super soft yarn. I decided to double strand Shimmer – Shallows. I double checked with my friend and wasn’t surprised that she thought the color would look good on her.
The other issue is the style of the hat or scarf. When you are sick you are …

I’m inching along on my Classic Lines Cardigan, and I’m amazed to see how much progress I’ve made just by knitting in meetings at work and the occasional car trip. (Alice has discovered that her hands can GRAB things, so anything in my hands or on my person at home is not safe!)
On the right is how the cardigan looked a couple weeks ago, as modeled by my new dress dummy. (I think she needs a name! Any suggestions?) I just measured, and I am now only an inch away from the armpits. I guess that means I need to knit the other sleeve. I knit one sleeve already, but for some reason cast on the body next (even though it’s just more of the same in wider format).
If you haven’t been following along through the Classic Lines Cardigan knitalong, the pattern …

Now that the Gurumi Family kit has launched, we’ve added a video tutorial on how to work basic embroidery stitches (back stitch, satin stitch, and French knots) on your knitted fabric. You can use these stitches for much more than just the faces on amigurumi characters, though. For example, I recently finished knitting a sweater vest in WotA Persimmon Heather and I’m using scraps of WotA Kettle Dyed in Timber to add embroidery details around the neckline and at the back shoulder. <

Okay, I know a lot of you have probably knit dozens and dozens of sleeves in your time, so the fact that I finished one measly sleeve might not seem very newsworthy. But this is my first sweater! And I’ve finished my first sleeve! This feels like a major accomplishment. I’m one step closer to a whole sweater. Of course at the rate I’m going, I’ll be lucky to finish it by fall when the weather gets chilly again, but that’s okay.
Actually, it turned out knitting a sleeve wasn’t all that different from knitting my legwarmers (except that I’m double stranding Gloss Lace and adding in stripes of Bayou Shimmer instead of just using one strand of worsted weight yarn).
Legwarmer:

Sleeve!:

I’ve been getting lots of moral support from the Classic Lines Cardigan …

When my dad was here last month, we worked on my taxes together. While he was going through my paperwork and filling out some forms, I started knitting this hat using Wool of the Andes Bulky hand dyed in Galaxy and Kim’s Hat pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.
I’ve never thought of myself as a purple person, but I love this colorway. I used it around Christmas time to knit this hat for my sister.

The spiraling stripe looked really cute on her, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted for my hat, so I doubled up the yarn to break up the pooling and knit it on size 11 needles. It knit up so fast that I was done with the hat before my dad was finished with my taxes!
I’ve put on the finishing touches now. It’s still been …