http://www.examiner.com/knitting-in-chicago/knit-tips-tuesday-reading-charts
That said, if you have been following the blog you know I have two friends at work who are brother-sister in-laws, and their common relative (the man's wife and the woman's sister) has been battling cancer for a few years. Joselyn, the sister, mentioned to me one day that maybe she could learn how to knit so she could make her sister something. I told her I would like to make her sister a hat, since she was about to lose her hair for the third time, so I asked her a bunch of questions that are relevant when making a hat for someone with no hair whom you've never met:
How sensitive is her skin?
Is she allergic to anything?
How big is her head?
What colors does she like?
So here is the hat I came up with, made on size 7 DPNs with Universal Yarns Supreme Cotton Batik yarn. The quality of the picture isn't stellar, but you get the idea. It's just a stockinette hat with broad shaping, and a crocheted edge to make it more girly. Sidebar...I seriously couldn't say enough amazing things about this yarn. It's freaking fabulous:
So I gave the hat to Hector, the recipient's husband, on Saturday morning. On Monday morning, Hector said, "Did you check your mailbox? I left you something." I asked him, "Is it a pony?" It wasn't. It was the nicest thank-you note in the world from his wife:
If you have trouble reading the note, she said a few things that I think say a lot about the yarn (it's SOFT), the hat and asking the right questions when makings something for someone (it FITS), and just how warm and fuzzy a hand-made item can make someone feel. Especially, I might add, if it's made expressly for them.
All I can say is that in addition to hearing about her from Hector and Joselyn, her thank-you note (both the gesture itself and the words in it) indicate to me that this is one extraordinary lady. I hope to meet her before I ditch Texas altogether.
Now that I only have two projects left in my bag, I am going to make an effort this week not only to finish them, but also to do the technical stuff relating to my Scarf Pattern of the Month series. I write patterns in two ways...either I try something, write it as I go, and then knit it again based on the written stuff, or I conceptualize and write down the pattern first before test-knitting it. I have twelve scarves I have to design and test-knit, and while the expectation to the people knitting with me is to get one a month, I would rather get ahead of the game so I know the fellow-scarf-knitters are getting the best pattern possible.
Talk soon!
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