Sue's Chemo Hat Completed

Sue's hat is finally done, I hope she likes it. It is the Knitpicks Chemo Hat. I just need to find an envelope so I can send it to her. I also need her mailing address. I asked Rob but he didn't have it. Will check with Karen as I think she visited Sue recently; she is one of the most organized people I know. While I'm getting this one ready to send to Sue, I will also get the Branching Out scarf ready to send to my midwife. I meant to send it to her last month but haven't gotten around to it yet. Things move slowly in this house, especially with a "high needs" baby around. I couldn't go to the post office last week because of all the rain. I'm hoping there'll be a sunny day (ok, I'll settle for a non-rainy day) this week so I can walk over there. Mobility is limited with baby it tow.

The picture above doesn't really capture the actual shape of the hat because of the unusual shape of the model's head. You can get a better idea of the shape from the first Knitpicks Chemo Hat I made; that one is going to the UCSF Oncology Center. The model in these pictures is my baby girl's Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Puppy which she received for Christmas. She's still warming up to it. I don't know if she likes "noisy" toys, but I do know that the lights (on the bone) catch her attention. She squeals at this toy.

I love the swirls on top of hats. This one is especially pretty. It's hard to see on such dark yarn, it looks similar to the other Knitpicks Chemo Hat I made in lighter green yarn.

I learned something recently about chemo hats from a breast cancer chemo patient since last May who is on her third chemo treatment. She told me that losing hair is a real trauma along with everything else and that most people don't even want their families to see them bald, at home, in bed, or wherever, at first. She suggested making chemo hats out of cotton or lighter weight yarn that can be worn indoors as well. That's good to know! I hadn't considered this before.

Yarn: Austermann Peru sport weight yarn, 70% Baby Alpaca/ 30% Fine Merino Wool, color Juniper (75 m / 81 yds; 25 gm / 0.88 oz)
Needles: US3 (3.25mm)

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Chemo Hat #6 Completed - Knitpicks Chemo Hat

Here's another hat for the UCSF Oncology Center. This Knitpicks Chemo Hat is really cute. It even looks cute when I put it on my baby girl, although the hat is too large for her. Yes, I like trying on the hats on her, she even looked cute with Chemo Hat #3 on her. :) DH says she looks like a "mushroom" with this hat on. She never sits still long enough for me to take a picture of her wearing these hats though.

This yarn is pretty soft for 100% acrylic, I think anyone who is bald should have no problems wearing this against their skin. The hat is lightweight, so the hat doesn't sag or fall off the head. I have some yarn leftover, but not enough to make another Knitpicks Chemo Hat, I'll have to see if I can get another ball to make a second hat. While knitting this hat, I learned how to make a non-YO increase. I did a M1F increase for the very first time. It wasn't so bad. The pattern specifically states the backward loop method of increasing. I decided to go for the M1F method since the backward loop sounded much slower to execute.

Yarn: Lana Moro Brushed Super Soft 3 yarn, 3-ply sport weight, color 7440, lot 717 (14 oz/40 gm, 140 yds)
Needles: US3 (3.25mm)
Cast on 104 stitches, increased to 130 stitches after ribbing

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Chemo Hat #5 Completed

I really enjoy working on all these chemo hats, they're a lot of fun to work on. I think about what I'll do with the next hat as I am working on the current one. I keep coming up with all these wonderful ideas to try for future hats and wish I coud knit faster so I can start up all those WIMs (WIM=Works in Mind). Chemo Hat #5 is a little different, featuring a fold up cuff/brim with some cable detail. I'm pretty slow at working cables. I also find that the tips of my fingers get sore when I work on too many cables, it has something to do with how I work with the cable needle and how I use my fingertips to push off the knitting needles. This time I used a Brittany Birch cable needle which is infinitely better than using the metal "J" shaped one I used to use. Yarns tended to slip off the metal one. I didn't have to worry as much about this happening with the birch cable needle. I don't think I'll go back to using the metal one.

I've discovered that I don't know how to count. I casted on 84 stitches, and even counted them twice before I started knitting. However I got to the end of the 5th row (cable row) and was one stitch short. Doh! (Must be a combination of "Mommy Brain" and lack of sleep.) Well that won't work. I had to frog the entire thing and start over. Sigh. At least I joined the round both times without twisting the stitches.

This hat is pretty snug due to the cables in the brim. Cables tend to "compress" the knitting a bit. The non-brim portion of the hat is a bit "looser", but it stays in place because of the brim. This hat looks cute on me, and it feels very warm because it is essentially a double layer all around the sides. I like how the yarn gathers up at the top. I started the cable brim section using US8 needles, then switched to US7 for a tighter body. This didn't work out as expected because I had forgotten how cables tend to compress knitting. Next time I will either try downsizing to US6 needles or decreasing the number of stitches to 72.

Fold up brim type hats such as this one, and the stretchy fold up brim/watch cap types like the green baby cable rib hat and the blue marsan watch cap, tend to use a lot more yarn. Of all the chemo hats I've made so far, this one has used the most yarn, nearly 4 ounces of worsted weight yarn!

I'm going to look through Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns #1 & #2 for cable patterns to use in making another hat similar to this one.

Yarn: worsted weight yarn in pink
Needles: US7 (4.5mm) and US8 (5mm)
Cast on 84 stitches


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Chemo Hat #4 Completed

Since I don't have anyone to model my hats, it is being modeled by my Pottery Barn "office" bowl propped up by some Rubbermaid containers.

Chemo Hat #4 is finished. Although it was repetitive K1P1 ribbing, it was a nice change to do a right twist on the Knit stitches instead of doing plain K1P1 ribbing, however any type of ribbing is slow going compared to doing stockinette stitch. I took this hat with me when I went out, knitting a little as I nursed my baby in the Nordstrom ladies lounge. There was one time when there were three other women feeding their babies. Two women were breastfeeding, and the other one was using formula. It's nice to see other women breastfeeding, it makes me feel like I'm not the only one doing it. I love how the ribbing in the decrease matches up with the ribbing on the rest of the hat, very nice! It looks pretty from the top. The hat is stretchy so it will fit snugly.

Yarn: worsted weight yarn in blue
Needles: US7 (4.5mm)
Cast on 72 stitches

Chemo Hat #3 Completed

This Chemo Hat was fun to knit, but with any lace knitting it required a lot of concentration. I was unable to knit this while nursing my baby; I'd end up making mistakes, losing YOs, etc.

It was really hard to get a picture of this hat. The first picture I took (below) didn't do it justice; this was the best "focused" picture I could manage and it turned out blurry. I don't know what it is... something about the red color and lighting. My camera just couldn't focus. I tried taking another picture several days later, and this picture (above) looks much better. I guess the white background helped? I still couldn't get the camera to focus for a better closeup shot of the pattern. I should mention that these pictures doesn't show the true color of the hat. I have never been very good at getting the colors to come out in my photos. It seems my photos turns out out of focus without Macro mode, however the color is more true. And my photos are more in focus with Macro mode, but the color is sometimes a bit off. Unfortunately with this red hat, I was neither able to get it in focus nor able to get the color to come out right. :(

This hat is so pretty, I think I'm gonna make one for myself... :) The pattern is reminiscent of the Horseshoe lace pattern which you can find in BW#1 pg 209.

Yarn: Worsted Weight yarn in Red
Needles: US6 (4mm)
Cast on 83 stitches

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Chemo Hat #2 Completed - Baby Cable Rib

Here is a picture of Chemo Hat #2, a Baby Cable Rib hat. It's nice and stretchy so this should fit people who wear Small or Medium; you can fold it up as much or as little as you want. I really enjoyed doing this pattern. It's easy to pick up from any point because it's easy to "read" the pattern and figure out when I need to do the cabling. The cabling helped break the monotony of doing K2P2 ribbing. And this hat is easy enough to knit while nursing my baby. I even took it with me when I went out. :)

Here's a picture from the top:

Here is a close up of the pattern:

Yarn: Worsted Weight yarn in Green
Needles: US7 (4.5mm)
Cast on 88 stitches


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Chemo Hat #1 Completed - Nautilus Hat

Enfin c'est fini! I am so glad this hat is finally done. I frogged it 6 times; it gets old recasting-on so many times. I measured the circumference of the hat and estimate it to be a Ladies Large size hat. This is the first of several hats that will make their way to the UCSF Oncology Center. I'm trying to crank out as many as I can before Christmas, but I am a very slow knitter so they will get done when they get done. :)

I really like the how the top of this hat looks. Isn't it pretty? Of course the top will only be noticeable if someone short wears it, LOL.

Yarn: Pink mystery 10 WPI yarn
Needles: US6 (4 mm)
Crown increase up to 90 stitches

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Second hat is finished!

I finally finished my second hat, Sarah Bradberry's Rolled Brim Hat. This hat took me a longer time to finish because it was a larger than the first hat. I think I like doing the crown decrease most because it just gets faster and faster as the stitches become fewer and fewer.

I still have to weave in ends. I'm so lazy when it comes to doing the finishing touches to my knitting. Weaving in ends has to be my most hated knitting task.

This hat has the same "design feature" as the first hat. There is an obvious 20 stitch area where I switched balls of yarn (with my attempt at weaving in ends as I knit), a definite straight line across the knitting that doesn't hide itself well in stockinette stitch. Sigh. I need to figure out how to avoid this in the future.

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply DK superwash wool, Pale Iris color. Less than 2 balls.
Needle: 4.00 mm (US6)

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Branching Out Completed

Yay! I finally finished my first Branching Out scarf, after about 3 months of on and off knitting. I weaved in the ends and blocked it; just need to cut off the loose ends. I'm amazed at the difference blocking makes, the pattern definitely shows through after blocking. The scarf is about 6 ft long! This was good practice for me, the lace pattern became easier after several repeats and I can almost anticipate the next stitches by reading my knitting. Now I'm ready to knit this scarf again using nicer yarn. This was fun to knit, I think I might make several more. This scarf was knit with 2 balls of Schoeller Stahl Hobby "plum" color, although I don't think it looks very purpuraceous.

Yarn: Schoeller Stahl Hobby, Plum color. 2 balls
Needles: 5mm (US8)

Circular Knitting

I finally tried my hand at circular knitting without using double point needles. I used two circular needles instead. It was slow getting set up, but after several rounds I finally got the hang of it. Hey, this is the best thing since sliced bread! It's so simple!!! I don't think I'll ever try using DPNs.

I completed my first knitting in the round, a little pink hat, using Sarah Bradberry's Family Watch Cap pattern. It was fun! It went so much quicker than cable or lace knitting. It feels great to actually complete something, ya know? It wasn't perfect though, I got the "ladder" effect on the ribbing. Fortunately it is not very noticeable because of the K1P1 ribbing. I'll have to improve my joining technique next time.

Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply DK superwash wool, Pale Iris color. Used a little more than 1 ball.
Needle: 3.25 mm (US3) & 4.00 mm (US6)

My first dishcloth

I completed my very first dishcloth a couple weeks ago using Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth pattern. I used Lily Sugar & Cream cotton yarn in strawberry color (I think that's what it was called).

There seems to be something wrong with my knitting. I started on the lower left corner and ended at the upper right corner. It looks like YO holes in the first half of the dish cloth (left & bottom sides) are smaller than the YO holes in the second half of the dish cloth (top & right sides). Hmm...

SSSK and [SL1, K3Tog, PSSO]

My first experience knitting "lace" was challenging. Some of those instructions were complex and it was too easy to make a mistake ... but I eventually completed (after a few months) Marisa's Baby Blanket. The blanket is a bit "heavy" because I did not choose a baby or sport yarn. I used 11 balls of Filatura di Crosa 501 DK weight yarn in Dusky Rose with US7 (4.5mm) needles. I love this yarn, it became softer after I washed it. It is a superwash wool which means it can be thrown into the washer & dryer. Great stuff! I haven't measured the blanket; I'm guessing it is about 45" square.

Here is the lower edge of the blanket:

Pattern detail:

It was with this blanket that I realized how knitting is not very cost effective. I think most people assume that it is cheaper to knit stuff. The retail cost for this yarn would have been over $70. I managed to get it for $43. But anyone can get a store bought baby blanket for much less than this! However I would not have had the pleasure of knitting this blanket if I went that route. I have fond memories of knitting this blanket during a "mini vacation" in Carmel, CA in January. Marisa won't be able to use the blanket until she is 12 months old; I hope she will cherish it.

BTW, Grumperina was the one who suggested (on the Knitting Forum) that I check out the Filatura di Crosa 501 yarn that was sold on Elann. She has a great blog, Grumperina goes to local yarn shops and Home Depot.

Yarn: Filatura di Crosa 501 superwash wool, Dusky Rose color. 11 balls
Needles: 4.5 mm (US7)

More fun with cables

Knitting cables on the Irish Hiking Scarf was so much fun that I decided to knit another cable-intensive scarf, the Besotted Scarf. This one required a little more concentration since there are left cables and right cables. I never got the hang of doing "air" cables, so I used a cable needle throughout.

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Travelling Vine Scarf

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1/17/07: Edited to remove link to pattern since the target site no longer exists.

Here is the Travelling Vine scarf I completed in March. At first I didn't understand why it was called Travelling Vine ... until I completed the scarf, washed/blocked it, and then took these pictures. The pattern really shows through against the black background.

Irish Hiking Scarf

I am so excited! This is my first blog ... a place for me to share what I've been working on with family & friends. I am a knitting neophyte who just started to knit in November 2004. I have found it to be very relaxing, and it is something I can do while watching TV if it isn't a very complicated pattern. I have learned a lot since then, especially with the help of all those wonderful people at Knitting About.com.

I'm going to start by posting a picture of one of my early knitting projects, the Irish Hiking Scarf. This was my first cable project. At first I thought this was going to be difficult, but it is much easier than it looks! I ended up making 4 of these scarves. And I remember trying to finish one of them during a Lord of the Rings marathon just before Christmas. Let me just say that trying to watch the extended versions of all three movies over 2 days is a case of too much of a good thing. I haven't rewatched any of the movies since then.