Pink Chemo Hat

Made from more of the pink yarn I got last year in the OA Pink Ribbon progressive auction, this is a two strand, loom knit, two over one stitch made on the green loom. It is so very soft, I hope the recipient finds it comforting.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Delicious Yarn From a Thrifted Sweater

I picked up this gorgeous alpaca/wool, name brand sweater at Salvation Army for $2.25. The moment I saw it I turned it inside out in order to gauge the possibility of unraveling it and was thrilled to find the right kind of seams. Yay!



The seams came apart like a dream! They'd been joined with a yarn of a slightly different color which meant it was simple to snip them free without concerning myself I would accidentally snip something I shouldn't.

As you can see, the added design element was 'sewn' on. I snipped off the knot shown in the photo above and easily pulled it out.



I thought the rest of the unraveling would go just as smoothly. Boy was I wrong. Not being a knitter I simply had no clue of the intricacies of putting together a patterned sweater. As you see above, the front panel is made up of three parts woven together. So it was frog one side, untwist from center yarn, frog center yarn, untwist from other side of yarn, frog second side, repeat. I won't lie, I thought that was tedious. Then I got to the arms/back, none of which had any design, but that didn't mean the parts were knit in a single panel either.

It took almost an entire morning and afternoon to unravel this sweater.




Here you can see the results. With the sweater being a men's large I sure did get a nice quantity of yarn. I'm hoping to get a double layer hat plus a single layer hat out of it. Just two days before I found this sweater to unravel hubby ruined his nice, heavy, double layer alpaca hat so he definitely needs a new one. I think I'll get started on this project today. Despite the frogging being so much work, the yarn is just gorgeous and I think it was worth all the effort.

Hats Made While Waiting for Word From the Surgical Team

I made these hats while at the hospital with Dad. He is home and doing well.



These thirteen baby hats will be donated to Online Angels. There was another of the pink with little yellow accent tags but I gave that to my sister-in-law to give to her daughter who just found out she is expecting a baby girl.



The two multi colored adult hats will also go to Online Angels. The brown ones are for my bald spouse who works in a cold environment and finds that nothing keeps a bald head warm like alpaca and alpaca/wool blends. There was a third brown hat but it was put into use before I got the chance to take this photo.

The pink & multi-colored yarns were from OA auctions. The rainbow is a little ball I had left of a favorite yarn of mine. The brown alpaca was purchased for this specific purpose as baby it is cold outside. ;) The black chenille is more salvage yarn from the hat I made for Mom that had a thread snap and I could not repair it. The red sparkly is a little ball I had left from making myself Valentine's Day leg and wrist warmers in 2007. The little yellow tags on a thin string was bought out of the Target dollar bins on impulse and has sat around for years because I had no clue what to do with it. Glad I finally found a use and it is not sitting here mocking me any more.

Two Hats for Thursday

As always, for Online Angels.

These hats are in honor of my Angel friend Tracy and her beautiful Mom, who passed this week.

Betty worked long after most folks have retired, was a strong and loving lady. She certainly raised a wonderful woman, Tracy, who herself is a strong and loving mom.

The black yarn is soft, like a mom's loving touch, and is recycled from a hat I made my own mom. The body of the hat is very thick and warm, protecting a little one's head from being cold or bumped, just like Betty - strong and present.

The variegated is a favorite yarn of mine. It makes me smile when I see it, just as Tracy brings joy and light to those around her.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Torn Loom Knitted Hat

I made this hat from some yarn I despise working with because my Mom asked me to. It was a battle to loom and Mom only got a few wears out of it before my lack of coordination with the yarn while constructing it caught up with her, snapping a stitch which obviously caused a big tear in the hat. I love Mom but there's no way I can battle this yarn sufficiently to make it a hat again.
As you can see I've frogged the hat, wound the bits into balls and have some left over that will go in my 'stuffing bag' which itself is a post for another day.

I plan to use the recycled yarn for the brim of a new hat for Mom, the bulk of which will be made with much friendlier to work with wool, as opposed to this synthetic chenille.