Knitting Other People's Stuff

A friend of mine told me her cousin has cancer and her hair has fallen out from the chemotherapy.

I sympathized and said that my Mom was knitting chemo caps. What, she asked, were chemo caps. I told her and sent her this URL: http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/patterns.htm

She decided she needed to knit her cousin a cap and asked me where to get the yarn. I suggested The Wool Cabin, and off she went. They sold her four skeins of Berrocco Chinchilla yarn in dark red and white, an Addi Turbo circular needle, double pointed needles and point protectors. It came to almost $60.

Then I got the call. "How do I cast on?"

So I went over to her house, cast on the appropriate number of stitches and knit the first round. I loaned her my copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting & Crocheting, gave her a ring to mark the beginning of the round and a plastic crochet hook in case of trouble.

Three weeks later she called again. She was having a little bit of a problem, could I look at it for her.

I ended up frogging the whole inch she had knitted and reknitting it, plus four more inches. I left an inch of the straight knitting for her to do (my fingers are crossed that it survives.) Once she's done that, she's going to bring it and the dpn's back so I can finish it up for her. This way I'm just helping her with the cap that she's knitting for her cousin.

I think the cousin is very lucky to have my friend whose heart and enthusiasm are as big as all outdoors. She's a good person, my friend.
Feels really weird to be someone's knitting guru when I've been at it myself for all of two months.