Chemo Hats - an easy batch

My mother mentioned that one of her good friends was undergoing chemo, and would I make a hat?  I'd done some for a cousin of ours when she'd had chemo and lost her hair, and I told my mother that if her friend went bald I'd send hats.  On a call a couple weeks ago, my mother mentioned that her friend had finally lost her hair, and I quickly whipped up these hats:

The one on the left was finished on one of my trips to Long Island, I took the picture before I left because I didn't think I would remember there.  Very simple crochet pattern.  I mailed them, Mom delivered them, and her friend raved about them.

So I made more:

Actually, only the two knitted ones on the right are for the friend.  All the knitted ones are a plain hat pattern, just cast on a multiple of four stitches, work 2x2 ribbing for a bit, and then simple stitch pattern or not.  I can whip one out in a day that has a lot of conference calls, and they are all washable.

The crocheted one is for a court administrator that Mom knows who is also losing her hair to chemo.  I entered it in a local fair, it won no ribbons, but it took only a couple hours to whip out so I didn't expect huzzahs.  I did think that the pattern was too short for a chemo cap and added a round of the lace pattern to improve it:

Washed and ready, these get delivered to my mother this weekend, and she can hand them around to the ladies next week.

It's Breast Cancer Awareness month.  One thing of which people should be aware: The disease is not limited to women.  If you have breasts, you can get it, and this includes men.  Of course, men usually can rock the bald look better than women!  I have made hats for men, to help them stay warm.

The place I get my hair cut (and dyed when I feel like it) is doing a fundraiser later this month.  I have been thinking of making some funky chemo hats to let them sell or hand out or whatever, to people who need them.

A quote I like

I get the daily set of quotes from The Quotations Page, and like this one so much I want to share it.  Since it's too long for a .sig file, here it is:

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

                                Andre Malraux (1901 - 1976)

Dish Rag Tag - and Out Again

I decided to join something called "Dish Rag Tag" this year.  The idea is that teams of ten compete to pass around a box containing a pattern and yarn, each one knitting the required item and sending it off to the next person with the pattern and a fresh ball of yarn.  First team to finish, wins.

Not that I needed anything else in the queue, but it sounded fun at the time.

Yesterday, when I picked up my mail, I had a box.  It had been mailed two days before, so the fact that I usually get boxes only on Saturday wasn't a problem.  In it was the following:

An emergency suppplies kit, a little package of items for the organizer and her helper-daughter, a pen, and the completed dishrag made by my predecessor.  Also, a ball of cotton yarn and the pattern and instructions, not shown in this photo.

As soon as I got home last night, I cast on:

Yes, those are Brittanys.  They were the quickest pair I could find in the correct size, and I thought it a worthy use of them.  I do love them, although mostly I knit on circulars.  I knew I'd be doing this at home and not have to worry about dropped needles.

It went very quickly, and by the time I went to bed I was about halfway done:

I finished it this morning.  I decided that a nice treat to my successor would be some soap (since these look more facecloth-sized than dishrag-sized to me, and that seems appropriate for facecloths), and quickly created some in Tropical Mango scent.  For fun, I used some almost neon-orange melt-and-pour base, and the white part reads "Go, Girl!" which seemed appropriate for cheering on a team member:

This is what went into the box that I sent; note that I added a bar of the same soap into the organizer's gift bag:

I dropped it into the mail on the way home from a movie tonight. Since it is Sunday, it wouldn't get picked up until Monday anyway, but this way it's in the 6:00am pickup and hopefully will reach Pennsylvania, which is its next stop, on Tuesday. I memorized the pattern, it's that easy, and may use it in the future for gift items. I was tempted to find a flower or frog applique and sew it to the dish rag since it looks a bit like a lily pad to me, but that might make it less useful, so the soap will have to do.

Now back to my regularly scheduled knitting, already in progress:  a chemo cap (nearly done) and the edging on a baby blanket I was commissioned to make.  Story and photos when that one is done, too.

Why is it already half-way past August?

Yesterday afternoon, a friend told me that she couldn't believe how I have been surviving this summer.  In May, I was asked to take over managing the contract work for a different customer.  I've been doing it for our account with United Technologies; now they wanted me to do the same for Estee Lauder.  This came right after we finished signing a MAJOR extension of the contract with UTC, and there was a lot of work to be done on transition.  At the same time, the ELC account had signed a MAJOR extension, and there was a lot of work to be done there.  The person who had been in my role at the ELC account suddenly announced that for medical reasons she was retiring - and she went out on medical leave for the last two weeks!  Knowledge transfer?  Not so much.  Given that my predecessor at the UTC account had been gone for a year before I stepped into the role, I think they are starting a pattern of me going to accounts that are in a mess.
The ELC account is located in New York.  While the HQ is in Manhattan (and I've commuted there before, on a daily basis, for eight months, so no problem) the IT offices are on Long Island.  There is no convenient way to commute, even by ferry.  So it has involved driving there, although thankfully not on a daily basis!  I go, I stay, I come home.

However, at first they were going to have me MOVE there.  Yes, on top of all the work chaos, I was told to immediately sell my condo and move.  I pointed out that in this market, that was impossible without taking a huge loss - and what about the massive increase in living costs on Long Island?  I was told they didn't realize I wasn't just a renter.  Luckily, the person to whom I'd be reporting (UTC is Aerospace & Defense, ELC is Consumer & Manufacturing) backed me.  So did the person above him, the leadership of the account - and it turned out the person to whom I face-off at ELC not only lives in Florida, but was told that he would not be allowed to commute weekly to LI as he had done for the previous two years.  So there was no need for me to be on LI most of the time anyway.

However, there were a couple-three months of high stress while this all started to settle.  I still support both accounts, although last week they interviewed a couple people that they think can replace me on the old account.  I've given them a hard date of October 1st to do so, after which I hope to have an office either at home or some other location in the area.  I'll go to LI twice a month at most, on the weeks my counterpart is there.  And it's becoming an open secret that he and his team have been given their deadlines to wrap up things.  He already shares the role with someone in the UK, with whom I have done more of the work lately.  So I might not be interacting with anybody in LI at all, which makes going there even less of a requirement.  Many of the leadership of the account work remotely; the previous executive lives near Austin, TX, and the new one lives near Pittsburgh.  They commute into Long Island, but not every week, and on the weeks anybody comes in it's just Tuesday-Thursday.

So.

The downside to all this is that between the extra work and the commuting, I've had less time to knit.  I also have missed a number of the boxes from my CSA and my foodwriting column is woefully behind.  My social life is much reduced, I do try to get to one or two things on weekends.  And my eating has been far too catch-as-can, I've missed going to my usual Farmer's Market on the weekend and my jamming and canning is way behind for the summer.

However, in the last few weeks things have started to turn around.  Apparently the fact that I have been successful in getting the account's contracting role into shape no matter where I'm located has been a factor.  With the adjustment to twice-a-month travel, I can plan to do things on my weeks in town.  It un-crunches my weekend because I don't have to get everything done in two days.  Yesterday I helped a friend paint her livingroom in advance of the tea party we are co-hostessing next Sunday.  I get to make some of the goodies - because I am in town!  I finally turned the last corner on the baby blanket I had just started last month, and I might work on it diligently for a while today while watching Cary Grant on TCM.  I have work to do - but there will be time for that later today.  And I need to get back to exercising so I am in shape for our trip to New Zealand at the end of October.  I joined something called Dish Rag Tag because it sounds like fun, I can use some quick-gratification portable knitting, and I hope we're done by then.

Knits for Babies!

I've been meaning to post, and I've been busy, so it hasn't happened. I run the newsletter AND website AND Facebook page for the CSA to which I belong, which means a LOT of posting and writing weekly. Work is having me move to support a different customer, which means wrapping up things I have done for the current/past customer, waaaay more commuting to Long Island ('scuse me, "Lon GAISland") than I planned, and an ongoing disagreement about whether I would be moving to LI or just occasionally roost in a hotel there.

Meanwhile, I have gotten some knitting and crocheting done. The plans to keep knitting for me, or finish FOs, have gone kinda sideways because I suddenly needed to make a bunch of baby things. I did knit a shawl for myself while on the family trip out west (oh, yeah, I should blog about that, shouldn't I? GREAT photos) out of Bernat's Handicrafter Cotton in a "Summer of Love" shade that isn't on their website. It has white, orange, and purple in it, and I just made a simple shawl until the yarn ran out. Love it! I'll get a picture one of these days.

Most of what I have done is for babies. There seems to be a rash of them and I'm having fun with various patterns. First done was this one, for a young man named Nathan Josiah:

I used the pattern for Evelyn's No-Sew Blankie but in Joann's Sensations Rainbow Classic yarn instead of handspun. Because big sister Judith was getting a baby boy doll at the same time, I used some of the remaining yarn to make a similar appropriately-sized blankie for her doll:

Then I went back to finishing a crocheted blanket my mother asked me to make for a friend of hers who was going to be a grandmother again. I'd made blankets when her twin grandsons were born, and the boys LOVE the blankets. After hearing all the stories, I have no problem with making a blanket for the new baby. I had to put it aside when I found out that Nathan was due at the end of June, not the end of July as I'd mis-remembered. This blanket used two baby-coloured yarns (they aren't sure of the gender) and part of the Circles to Squares Afghan pattern:While on a trip back to Dallas to see friends, and a friend's play (which was TERRIFIC!), I whipped up a quick Father's Day gift for a friend of mine who was surprised to learn that he is committing parenthood again. I'd been wishing that someone would have a girl baby because I found two really cute patterns, one for booties made of a sparkly yarn to look like ruby slippers, and the other for a hat. Since Kari will be born in Kansas, ruby slippers seem the perfect gift!And here's the current project, using the vendor's pattern and the correct yarn, and it's coming along. Not as quickly as I would like, as I haven't as much knitting time as I would like, but it's growing steadily. My grandmother (who is one of the people who taught me to knit and now is having issues with fine needlework) asked if I would help make something special for the coming grandbaby of some dear friends of hers back in Hawai'i. I think this will do, don't you?

I have been baking my own bread, from starter that I've gently nursed. Today's loaf contains a splash of (real, of course) maple syrup as the sugar part of the recipe and while it doesn't add a noticeable taste, my starter seems to love it. The warm kitchen probably helped. I have a few veggies from the last CSA delivery that I was able to collect (my share partners get to divide mine into theirs on the weeks I am on LI) and roasted the root ones while the bread was in the oven, to avoid heating the kitchen any more than necessary.

Dessert tonight is vanilla gelato with fresh blueberries, and fresh cherries that I picked up at a local Farmer's Market last Sunday and left in the 'fridge while I was gone. I shop there because my CSA doesn't deliver fruit, and I love the peaches, cherries, and so on. Last weekend they had four types of cherries on sale - I bought three of them! Along with pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, apricots, and some yummy Italian ice that was perfect to savor while listening to the band that performed. Every week there's some new performer, and the Italian ice stand brings different flavours. See you there?

Ending Pantry for the SNAP Challenge

My week was over last weekend, but I've been busy and didn't have time to post. Here is what I was left with in the pantry:
If I were a bigger person, or bigger eater (which might make me a bigger person!), there would probably be less left. I meant to put the nine cents I had left at the end of the week in the pantry photo, but forgot. I'll post the chart of what I spent as soon as I remember to convert it to a JPEG. I was VERY lucky with sales last week, this week I could not have gotten most of the items at the price I paid, although I found a loaf of bread for 93 cents. It was "10/$10", according to a sticker on the loaf, but it was on the old-baked-goods rack at one grocery.

The pink item in front is my last egg, one of the hard-boiled ones. You can't see, the peanut butter jar is about half empty. I put the macaroni into a measuring cup so that you can see how much is left, because it didn't show in the box. I was surprised that I didn't eat all the greens, but not completely surprised I didn't eat the chickpeas. I love them, but mostly in soups (and I had a bean soup already that week) or curried, and I had no way to make a curry. Too many ingredients were not in my SNAP pantry.

In addition to my starting pantry, I was able to buy some cabbage for a St. Patrick's Day meal, and also two oranges that I found on the hurt produce rack. Such a treat! I really, really wanted some fruit by midweek. I carefully parceled those out, one each on two different days.

Here is what I made for St. Patrick's Day:

Stuffed cabbage. I chopped potatoes and the other half of my onion, and all the cabbage I wasn't using to roll, sauteed them in a bit of oil, then added half a box of kale. I also shredded in a bunch of cheddar cheese. Then I blanched the big outer leaves to soften them, and put a bit of filling on each, and rolled them. I ended up with five rolls. I pureed a can of tomatoes and that's the sauce. Not exactly traditional Irish, but with the cabbage and potatoes and lots of green, it would do.

When I went to get the cabbage (on sale, of course), none of the heads were small enough to fit into my remaining budget. Then I noticed that the bin had a lot of loose leaves. So I grabbed as much of those as I thought I would need, and weighed them. A bit under a pound. This gave me enough leftover money to buy the oranges.

The other half of the kale, and some un-chopped tomatoes, helped to make a red-green-white dish for St. Joseph's Day later that week:

Pasta, and a bit of white cheddar shredded on top.

Some of the other things I ate included the mac-n-cheese I mentioned in an earlier post, made with milk and cheese and macaroni and not much else, because that's what was in the pantry:

I forgot to take a picture before I ate some. I like it when there are crusty edges, and because this was on the thin side there was a lot of crust, not too much soft middle.

On the weekend, I treated myself to french toast. The end of the bread was getting dry, and it's a good thing to do with dry bread. I still had some of the milk, and a couple of fresh eggs, which made the dipping batter. I added a bit of cinnamon because I didn't have sugar or anything sweetening, and of course no jam or honey for on top or in the batter:
It was pretty good. I mixed the remaining milk-egg mixture with the last bits of milk and some water and a handful of rice, and turned it into rice pudding. It would have been nicer with raisins (IMHO!) but was OK.

If I were going ahead with a second week, I wouldn't need to buy a few things, which helps. But with the basic item's I'd bought now at a higher price, the pantry might have remained as scanty as it was the first week. And Congress is talking about reducing SNAP even further........

Things I have knit recently

I've been doing some charity knitting, but being reasonable with myself about it.

These two scarves plus hat (the hat is one of my portable projects that I worked on at DFW Fiber Fest) went to Mittens for Akkol:
OK, I had the green scarf "in stock" having knit it for a charity that then decided they wanted washable yarns. It's knit from Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. The brown one is leftover plotulopi from the sweater I entered in last year's Berlin Fair, and the hat is a ball of Gedifra "Ombretta" (hence the blue-and-green shading). I just doodled the patterns on the brown scarf and the hat, which has a tidy and stretchy overall cable design.

Speaking of DFW Fiber Fest, I took these to donate to their charity collection:

The darker hat (a really soft boucle in maroon with flecks of other colours) was made for someone undergoing chemo, who then didn't need it. And the others were from some fun yarn I found and wanted to make into something for a child.

If you missed it, here is the picture of my knitted and crocheted items from the Berlin Fair:Yes, everything took a ribbon, seconds and thirds. The two extra ribbons on the sweater are for my baked items. Obviously, those didn't get returned after the fair!

I made a number of scarves for Scarves from the Heart, for a special event they did at the end of April:

Various yarns, including some old ones from the stash (the springtime one at the bottom and the two on the left), Paton's Lace in "Sachet" (which I keep thinking of as "Pansies"), and two new ones in the Joann's house line "Sensations". A lot of people loved the citrus-stripes one, and I enjoyed working with it.

And if scarves look tedious (although the different yarns and patterns helped me stay interested), think about a blanket:

I used a lot of sock yarn held triple, mostly to get rid of a surprising quantity of sock yarn I found while sorting the stash. Border includes an oddball of solid wool and was crocheted because I was tired of knitting. The blanket and these vests went off to Afghans for Afghans, for their latest campaign:

The bottom one is actually orange, not pink. Two solids in Paton's Wool, doubled for the ribbing, and then single with a strand of Knitpicks' "Essentials" - again an ancient and discontinued yarn from the stash. The brown one with red accents was part of an abandoned sweater that I frogged and reworked.

And for those who think I need to be knitting for myself: Technically, it's crocheting. A small shawl for me to wear around my office. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill's ARIEL in a colourway called "Misty Moor." The yarn is discontinued and who knows how long it's been in the stash? I do like the result. Started it at DFW Fiber Fest, finished last weekend at my grandmother's.