Knitting With Granny LJ

Good morning.

Had a great week last week.  The weather has been almost balmy — and is balmy, compared to what is happing in Des Moines (where my eldest son and his family live) and New York City (where my second son and his wife live).  We have had sun shine, not much wind, and tides that are so low, it feels like you could walk to China.  As a result, Karen and I have been getting Parker and Red out for very long wonderful walks. 

I have been knitting my fingers to the quick, though, after the walks.  Karen and I found out that we are juried into a show in March.  This one is in Yachats, at the Commons, and it is over 40 years old.  The organizers have taken trouble to keep the show pretty exclusive.  We sent out the application on a kind of a dare without much hope of getting in to it.  We got notification last week that we are in it.  What a morale boost.

Enough news.  I was recently asked how I make a cap with eyelash yarn.  I do them as inside-out (IO) caps because of the peculiar way I knit.   The IO caps started out as a bit of an accident.  I was working a varigated brown Splash yarn with a coordinating brown Galway.  I had tried to do a cap out of only the Splash and it was pretty floppy and not very good for beach walking.  So with this cap I put it with the sturdier yarn and was knitting away.  Because of the goofy way I knit (I’m self taught, remember?) all the Splash yarn was on the inside of the cap. 

Needless to say, I was pretty grumpy because I thought I would  have to pull all the fibers of the Splash back through to the outside of the cap with a crochet hook.  I had done that on a couple of earlier caps and pretty much resented the time it took to get all those fibers back to the outside.  Well, the brown Splash and Galway cap got  topped.  I put it in the basket of “to be finished” work, and went to work on a new cap. 

When I finally got to doing the finish work, I grabbed up the brown Galway and Splash cap and turned it inside-out  to start working in the ends.  And I had one of those “No DUH!”  moments.  I did not have to pull all the ends of the Splash through.  I just had to finish the cap as if the inside were the outside.  And the 7-point top-off really worked well inside out.  And thus the Inside-Out cap was born.

If you are interested in doing a cap with an eyelash yarn, I would suggest that you do a simple watch cap alternating 2 rows of the eyelash with 2 rows of the base yarn.  The two rows of the base yarn give the cap a sturdiness that the eyelash lacks and the eyelash essentially covers the 2 rows of the base yarn. 

When the cap is knit and topped, do the finish work  on whichever side of the cap has the most eyelash yarn showing. 

I have also found that  making a chemo cap this way is better, too.  When I started chemo caps, I was just making them out of the Chinchilla, a Berroco yarn.   This method  gave them a floppy, almost too soft feel.  Once I discovered the IO cap method, I started using a base yarn for chemo caps, too.  And I am more satisfied with the outcome of the chemo caps with this method, too. 

Try it. I am sure you will like it. 

Happy knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning. 

Did a chemo cap  last week for Karen.  It is the first one I have done since I did one for my best friend, Jan, three years ago.  After she died, I went into a chemo cap slump.  Before doing one for her, I kept two or three in inventory to give to chemo patients.  My friend and mentor, Dodie, got me started on them when I was first getting into the cap making phase of my life.  I usually had chemo patients that I did not know. 

But Jan was different.  We worked in the same state agency for  15 years.  She was almost 10 years to the moment older than I am. Her kids were pretty much grown up and I was raising my son who had a way of dreaming up really weird things to do.  Fortunately one of her three had done something like whatever I was coping with at home.  As a result of her listening and her counsel, my son got raised to be a great and creative adult, and I did not end up in the funny farm.  After we quit the agency, we drifted apart and only emailed occasionally.  When I moved here I found out that she and her husband had moved to Lincoln  City, so we started getting together again and renewing our friendship. 

Jan had had a lumpectomy for breast cancer followed by radiation therapy, several years before, and the doctors said, “Don’t worry.  You are fine.”   So it was a shock to learn that she had a recurrence of the cancer and it was pretty wide spread. 

By then she was in the Portland area and we were back to emails.  I sat down and started a chemo cap for her, in a rich Navy blue.  When it was done, I decorated it with a silver finish pin that I had  — and sent it.

That was in about October of that year.  Before her birthday the following year, I got a phone call from her daughter telling me that Jan was dead.  After that call, I simply could not make another chemo cap.  And I still cry when I think about her and I still miss her.  Frequently I think:  ” I should tell Jan about that.”  or “I wonder how Jan and her grandkids are doing.”   “I should call Jan.  I haven’t talked to her in a long time. ” 

Then last week, Karen said to me, “My aunt who is also my godmother is having chemotherapy for cancer, and it is also her birthday.  Would you make her a chemo cap.”

I rummaged my stash and found a pretty lavender for the cap and then found a lavender base yarn that was an almost perfect match in color.  And a lovely pin to dress it up.

I gave her the chemo cap and it is now on its way to her aunt/godmother.

How do you make a chemo cap? 

Here is an outline of the way I do a chemo cap.

Yarns:  I  use a Berrocco Chinchilla yarn and a base yarn out of either wool or a wool blend. 

Cast on 92 stitches on size 6 needles in the base yarn.  Then alternate a row of the Chinchilla with a row of the base yarn.  The Chinchilla is fuzzy enough to cushion the base yarn and the base yarn makes the Chinchilla a little more substantial feeling. 

Knit the alternating rows until the cap body measures about five to seven inches, and then begin top off.  Again, I top off with a seven-point top off, but any favorite top off will do. 

I hope you never have to make a chemo cap for a good friend, but if you do, this is the one I would recommend. 

Have a good day.  Good knitting.  Granny LJ

Good morning:

This has been a busy summer.  And a good one.  Mostly it has been a good one because of the Wednesday Market.  

Have only missed two markets since May.  I missed once because somebody breathed on me and gave me a bad cold.  The other time was because the weather was not cooperating. 

But I have been knitting my fingers to the bone.  So that is good.  Last week at market I sold a cap that I thought was a real looser — and  would end up as a shop sister.  It was a basic watch cap that I had made in a handspun brown with wisps of white through it.   But some young lady with black hair came along, loved it and bought it.   I was busy with several other customers at the time and so did not pay much attention after I gave her  change.  Then a few minutes later,  I looked across the market lot and saw  a really great brown cap on a lady with black hair.  Obviously I was in some sort of twilight zone, because it took me a minute or two to remember I had just sold the cap to her.  It amazed me that it looked so good — both in color and in workwomanship.  That was the first time in a very long time I have seen one of my caps on a head and walking around.

Later that same day, the lady who sells herbs and garden plants put on the cap I made for her.  She was in the middle of the lot and directly across from me.  That kind of rattled me too.  It, too, really looked good.  And when I thought about it a little more, it seemed to me that every thing I wanted for the cap to be — it was.  It was pretty, and had room for all her hair and it fit just right.  

I told Karen how excited I was seeing my caps in action.  And she said, “What have I been telling you!” 

At any rate I came home  enthusiastic about getting the caps that need to be finished, topped and finished.  Right now I am working on a chemo cap for Karen’s aunt and godmother so that takes priority but I  will be back to work on the caps on the  projects-in-waiting table, soon.

Have a great day.  Good knitting.  Granny LJ