Tag Archives: Chemo Cap


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sneaking one in

If I wait until I’m fully caught up to show some current knits, then I might be playing catchup forever.  Well, until I’m sidelined by a newborn.  Anyways…I thought I’d sneak in a second(!) post today to share a quickie with you.

This is the chemo cap that my mother-in-law requested for her cousin.  For a last-minute project, it was great!  The yarn was on sale for $1/ball, and it took me exactly one ball with enough left over to add to my project ball and still have a few “emergency” yards to give the recipient.  I’d bought 2 balls just in case, but I think that instead of returning the second one I’ll keep it and knit a silly little stuffed animal with it one day.

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Pattern:  ”No Hair Day” Hairy Chemo Cap by Sue W. Thompson (Ravelry link and direct link)

Size:  21″ (the smallest size).  I don’t know how big of a head the recipient has, but my mother-in-law had tried on the one for my cousin, and it was a good fit on her.  She thinks her cousin has a slightly smaller heat, but I think that when the recipient has undergone chemotherapy, it is probably better to be a little looser than tighter so it doesn’t irritate.  In any case, she is going to bring with some elastic thread when she gives it to her cousin, so if it is too loose she will snug it up for her on the spot.

Yarn:  Bernat Boa Lash in the Silver Fox (grays with a tiny shot of blue/steel) colorway.  I used about 90% of 1 ball.

Needles: 5.5mm needle

Dates:  December 29 2008

Modifications:  None.

As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.

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holiday wrapup part 1

Sorry for the little absence there!  Nope, no baby yet.  Just the fun surprise of getting home from work on Christmas Eve to find out that our internet was down, and Bell had no plans on sending someone out until Friday at the earliest.  By the time the internet was back up, I was down, having caught a cold from Jakob.  I spent Saturday taking care of him instead of going to work (Yannick went in my place) and Sunday (yesterday) was a blur of sinus pressure, headaches and attempted naps.  And yet- there was knitting!

Of course, before I get to the knitting, I have a bigger and better completed item to share:

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Technically the kids’ rooms aren’t decorated, but I did go through and move absolutely everything of Jakob’s into his new room and set everything up and it is DONE.  He has been sleeping in his “big boy” room (although, still in a crib) since last week and doesn’t seem to notice any difference.  The spare bedroom furniture has been moved into the baby’s room, and all “baby” items and unisex clothes, etc, have been unpacked, put away and organized.  Any final decorating will be done once we know the sex of the baby.

It feels so good to have all this accomplished!  My boxes of office and craft supplies are stacked in the new office, waiting for me to be off work and/or have time to unpack them.  They can wait.  In the meantime at least I know that should I go into labour early, everything else is set for the baby.  I’m going to try and cook stuff to freeze, but even if I don’t get around to that, I don’t care.  As far as I’m concerned- we’re ready!

As for the knitting…I’ll begin with a little spoiler: all holiday gifts were completed in time to be given as gifts.  I’m going to post the photos in the order I finished them, however, so I don’t miss something.  I’m also going to spread them out between posts because otherwise this would be one really long, photo-heavy post.

After finishing Sheldon I tackled my mother-in-law’s remaining sock, and as I mentioned last week, I finished it with plenty of time to spare.

Pattern:  Queen of Cups by Nathania Apple (Ravelry link and Non-Ravelry link). 

Size:  I knit the narrower size.

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It is really hard to photograph black socks.  Pretend you can see the lace, m’kay?

Yarn:  Regia 4ply sock yarn in Black

Needles: 2.25mm

Dates:  November 13 – December 18 2008

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Modifications:  None. 

As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.

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Here are the socks all wrapped and ready to give away.  For each handknit gift this year I made a label on the computer with the yarn content info and care instructions, and also gave each recipient a little bag with a few yards of spare yarn “in case of emergency”.

More gift knits coming over the next few days…in the meantime I’ve got 2 projects on the go.  Once the deadline knits were completed I finally started Kayla’s Lace Cardigan for my friends’ daughter.  I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before…it was supposed to be her “birth” gift, and now Kayla has just celebrated her first birthday.  [Insert guilty conscience here!]  This is the project that I had to purchase the pattern for in Norwegian, and between some online resources and a nice woman from Sweden who volunteered to double-check my work, I managed to translate the pattern.  I’ve been working on it since Christmas Day and it is coming along nicely. 

Yesterday my mother-in-law called and requested a chemo cap for someone she knows.  She’d seen the furry black one I’d knit for my cousin, and asked if I could fit in one more before the baby comes.  She requested a gray color so it would look kind of like real hair as the recipient is in her late 60s I believe.  One of my car’s coil springs broke somehow over the weekend so thanks to a lift from my cousin Robyn I picked up the yarn for it this morning and I’m hoping to get the hat done today so I can a) get back to the cardigan, and b) give it to my mother-in-law when I see her on New Year’s Day.

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for a good reason

Sorry for having been incommunicado the last few days.  My in-laws have been coming in every Thursday and staying the weekend to help us do the necessary renovations to get the house ready for baby.  They sleep in our current office/spare bedroom, which is where the computer is.  We turned the computer off for them Thursday, and I only turned it back on last night.  I still use “real” email (as opposed to web-based email, like Hotmail or Google) and prefer to not check it online, so I haven’t been able to reply to any emails over the weekend.

But boy did we get a lot accomplished!  On Thursday Yannick’s sister also came by and his mom and sister painted our living room.  That wasn’t strictly for the baby, but we all hated the Crayola Flesh color that the previous owners painted this entire house in an attempt to “freshen” it up to sell, as well as the hideous brown plaid curtains on the picture windows at both ends of the living room and dining room.  While they were in Florida his parents bought us new curtains and rather than wait until Christmas to give them to us, they decided it was time to fix up the room and put up the curtains.  We painted the two rooms (really one long room) a soft shade of gray which sounds strange when you think of it against a dark brown and tapestry Louis-the-something reproduction living room set and cream curtains, but it looks so soft and peaceful in there now!  Really inviting and cozy, almost like a country house, if that makes sense outside of my head. 

While that was being done upstairs, Yannick and his dad were busy working downstairs.  It’s not quite ready yet, but my future office now has the framing built, insulation, vapour barrier and firenze (sp?  The wood you put over the vapour barrier to attach the gyprock to) put up, most of the gyprock on the walls and ceiling put up, and all lights, plugs and cable installed.  I’m so happy with the speed it is coming together!  This coming weekend we’ll finish the rest and plaster it, and next weekend paint it and move the furniture down.  Woo hoo!

I couldn’t do much to help them with painting or renos, so Saturday night I emptied the dresser I will be putting into the baby’s room.  I then brought down ALL of the clothes Jakob has grown out of, folded them and put them into bags by size.  While doing so I took out any unisex clothes in the 0-3 months range.  I emptied my big metal chest (you might remember it from my old office, if you’ve been reading long, it’s a blue metal army trunk-type chest) of all the yarn and put that yarn into storage buckets with the rest, and put the bags of baby clothes into the trunk for storage.  I then washed all the unisex clothes I’d pulled out, and on Sunday I folded them all and put them into the dresser.  Now once we’re able to switch kids’ rooms all we need to do is move the furniture…at least the contents are already ready.

I was on such a roll that I started getting everything ready for my hospital bag as well.  I can’t find the bag I’d used with Jakob, which is really bugging me, but I did pull out the baby clothes I want to bring, as well as my toiletries and such.  I will be picking up a pack of newborn diapers today and by tonight my hospital bag will be fully packed and ready to wait by the door.  My due date is in 5 weeks from this coming Friday…so no matter what happens with the baby turning or having a c-section, no matter what I’ll be having a baby by the latest 5 weeks from now.

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Because of all the work going on and catching up on sleep when not working, I didn’t get to knit much.  Since I’d finished the Eye Lash chemo cap on Tuesday, Wednesday night I cast on for another hat for my cousin.  I managed 1 repeat (10 rows) before bed.  Thursday night I had my last prenatal aquafitness class and I did another repeat before getting to bed early.  Friday I did the same, leaving me with 1 repeat left to go on Saturday night.  Sunday I worked the crown decreases as per the pattern but realized after gathering the final sts together that it was way too short- when I tried it on it didn’t even reach the top of my ears.  The actual pattern calls for an aran weight yarn and I am using a sport/light worsted.  Doubled the hat would have been too big, used singly the width is perfect but the height wasn’t enough to follow the pattern as written. 

I ended up undoing the crown section and working another 2 repeats before redoing the decreases.  Flat on a table the hat looks long and funny, but now it is long enough to cover my ears and down to the nape of my neck, and I think that my cousin will prefer it with the extra length.  If not, it can always be folded up at the bottom.

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Pattern:  Lacy Slant Hat by Anastasia Roeszler (Ravelry link and Non-Ravelry link). 

Size:  As written – fits 21″ to 23″ head without being too snug.

Yarn:  Bernat Natural Blends Soy – in a soft blue shade whose name I forget right now.  My ball had been started already so I had to dip into another for the crown decreases, but I’m pretty sure that 1 full ball would be enough.  Don’t forget- I also added 2 repeats so it is a bit too long.

Needles: 4mm

Dates:  December 3 – 7 2008

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Modifications:  See the details above.  I also used a much smaller needle than required, omitted the final non-decrease round of the crown shaping, and modified the pattern to be worked in the round as opposed to flat then seaming.

As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.

Oh- and while they were here I had my in-laws each try on their 1 completed sock (while blindfolded so it wouldn’t technically ruin the surprise).  Both claimed the socks fit perfectly, so once I finish the last Flower Scarf neckwarmer (to be cast on today once I get around to winding the yarn) I will complete their pairs of socks.