Whatever happened to your __________?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.
I guess this isn't so much about the projects as it is what happened after I knit them. Back in 2008 a church friend's granddaughter was diagnosed with a brain mass that was causing her to have seizures and be in a lot of pain. At the time Lilly was only 2 and of course scared of all the poking and prodding that was going on plus she hurt. Her great-grandmother (actually step-GGM) was still alive at the time and she loved to dress up and wear hats and so when Lilly was going to have to have brain surgery and most of her hair would be removed GGM told her she'd get to wear pretty hats until her hair grew back. I wanted to make sure she had one that was pretty and soft for her head so I knit her one from a design by Leigh Radford. I used Plymouth Wildflowers DK in a soft blue color since she is so fair skinned. Here's a picture of Lilly sporting her hat after her hair had grown back some.
To me the most important thing is that 3 years later Lilly is a happy and very healthy little 5 year old girl.
The other is also related to sickness. In 2009 we found out that my cousin Dennis had aplastic anemia and due to his age the usual treatments weren't advisable. So instead he had to have chemo to kill all the stem cells and then take medicine to grow back his own with the hope it would grow back without the illness. It was a difficult treatment which meant he had to leave his home outside of Charlotte and move to Baltimore during the procedure. He and his wife stayed there for months and of course it was in the fall and winter. Poor dear lost all his beautiful dark hair so I thought he needed a dashing cap to sport when he went for treatments. I made him Claudia with Misti Alpaca Silk & Cotton yarn. It was soft enough it wouldn't bother his newly bald head, but would also keep it's shape. No pictures of him in it, but I did manage to get a picture of it on my mom before I shipped it off. I know he was surprised and since I made it in Ohio State Buckeye Scarlet, or at least as close to it as I could, he was happy.
Pretty simple pattern and looked great too.
So it's a theme of hats for people who are sick and lost hair, but the great news is that even though the procedure that Dennis originally went through didn't produce the results we had hoped for, he was able to have a different procedure last year that did the trick and he's doing quite well.
It's fun to make things for yourself, but I also enjoy making something for a friend or family member, especially if it lets them know that I'm thinking of them during a time of difficulty.
No comments:
Post a Comment