Komen Caps

The Q Continuum - Denton Komen 2012

This week was, yet again, extremely busy. I haven't had a chance to pick up the caps that I know are ready and waiting. I did finish up a couple of caps for the Komen race we had yesterday. This is a picture of our team "The Q Continuum" wearing our caps before the race. Now I will deliver the caps to the people who donated money to our cause and then it will be back to focusing on caps for Q's Caps specifically. Several caps were donated from this race to the Q's Caps so officially I have added to my completed caps pile. I hope to pick back up on crocheting lessons again soon as well, I know some of you are waiting on those!

New donation

Today I picked up another yarn donation. I was in Colleyville for the funeral and decided to stop by and see my nephews since they're just a few miles away from there.  My sister in law had received a donation from someone that she was holding onto until I could get by or they came over so I got it while I was there. There's some fun fuzzy pink yarn that makes me think of the Komen caps I need to get finished up and a couple skeins of simply soft, which is a great yarn for making the caps and works up so quickly. I need a bit of a break right now so I haven't started any but I do have a photo of the fun new yarn to share with you.

Drew Caps

I mentioned in my last post that I will be making a donation of caps in memory of the CHS student that lost his battle with cancer this past Monday morning. I chose the colors to match a shirt we had made last year in support of his fight. So, tonight I had an appointment to have my car checkup and I brought along the same colors. I changed up the pattern of green and blue for this one but still used the same yarns. I can make several with these color combinations based on the amount of yarn I have of each color. I also received word that someone has a dozen hats ready to donate, so look for a post of those next week sometime!

Two person hat?

Shelley Hillyard and Anna Neale

Maybe it's not what you're thinking but I have a two person hat. No, it's not made for two people to wear. When my family was over on Saturday helping me out around the house, my sister in law picked some of the yarn from the Q stash and got a cap started. She chose one of the multicolor, extra soft kinds we love to work with.Then she left it for me to finish when she went home and ta da, after another day of me working on it, we have a two person hat. Thankfully, we are a closer crochet match than my cousin Melissa and I (right Missy???) so I was able to pick it up and finish the cap using the same general stitches and size hook to keep going.

In Memory of Drew

We lost another great person to cancer today. Drew was a junior at our school and had fought his absolute hardest with the most positive attitude for a year and a half but this morning at 5 am, cancer took him from us, but only in physical presence. He inspired so many of the students and staff and in his memory, I made a cap tonight to match the shirt we had made last year to raise money. The sentiment on the shirt should remain true regardless. We had teams for him at last year's Relay for Life and I'm sure we'll continue to celebrate his life and the great impact he had in his short time here with us. I plan to donate some caps specifically in his name. I thought the first one at least should match the shirt we all wore today in his honor. Please keep the family in your prayers, this is a very rough time and will continue to be for sometime as they deal with this tremendous loss.

Packages

Susan Bradley, California

I don't have much new on the crochet front except, I did receive three packages in the mail today. One of them was an awesome new yarn from a small local shop in Cambria, California. It is 100% merino wool and in my favorite color, purple! Better yet, it's from "Manos de Uruguay" you can check out the site but I warn you, it's in Spanish, couldn't be more appropriate for me of course!  (http://www.manos.com.uy/) 
Special thanks to Susan for the special treat. I really wanted to get started right away but of course there were other things to do, but I am excited to get started with it.

Committed

Merry Christmas

 As I wrote this title, it occurred to me that at this time, for me, it has more than one possible logical definition. After the day I had today, and my first time to be home for an evening in awhile, still being "grounded" from exercise and as I received my Denton Komen Race Packet today I committed to making a cap tonight. That's the line of thinking, no matter what else comes up or I'm supposed to be doing, I can do this. There have been a few interruptions of course but I did it, I made one. Yet again, it's nothing fancy but I just have to get going again. Also, I got started on Christmas today, so how about that for being ahead of the game for one little thing in my life?

2012 North Texas Komen Race

On a side note, for those of you that joined the team or donated to my Denton Komen Race, it's just 2 weeks from Race Day, your pink crochet caps will be delivered starting that day!

More craziness, more accessories

So much for having the slow weekend I hoped for last weekend! Many of you know, but for those that don't the short version is that I had a cat escape into the brush and I had to go chasing her shoeless and in shorts, my weed eater and disposal both stopped working and I had a bike crash. I thought I might get to an event early on Sunday afternoon and get in a bit of crochet but adding a stop at a bike shop took away that extra time. The past 2 days have had me gone from before 7 am until around 8:30 pm, so just taking care of the animals and myself took what was left of my time and energy. Finally, I have had some trouble with motivation and I just took some time off.

However, I did make a couple of stops these past few days that had me finding some accessories. I found some really cute reusable lunch bags that are a great size for putting small crochet projects into, so I can keep the pieces for a cap or two in one bag and the pieces for flowers in another, etc. Even better, they were on clearance along with some pen/pencil boxes that hold crochet hooks perfectly, so they were made all the more appealing by their price. I also found some cute buttons that were on sale that will make nice decorations on caps so I picked up several colors.

Lest you think I haven't done any crochet, I have made the "shells" for several crochet mice for the Texas Siamese Rescue but those take only 10-15 minutes. The stuffing and sewing closed take longer but I can do those all at one time later. I hope to have more actual caps to post soon.

More donations

Kelsey Thomas, Southlake, TX

As I mentioned earlier this week, I have had a string of extra busy/crazy/stressful days. However, over the past couple of days I received some donations I want to share. I have very little scheduled for this weekend, in hopes of catching up on life in general, some of that hopefully includes crochet as it's one of my enjoyable activities that I'm missing out on lately. Back to the donations, when I had to leave early for my PT appointment, a former student came by to visit and to give me something she found at her house that she thought I could use. It's great to see former students but it was even more special that she thought to bring something to me for Q's Caps! I was disappointed that I wasn't there to see her but she visited another of her former teachers that is next door to me and I got the gift today. That same evening I met my mom after my appointment and she brought along some yarn she had bought and was giving to me to add to the cap making as well. Most is for the fake "hat hair" the pink and white of course is to go along with my Komen races coming up on Sept. 29 and October 20.

Jan Hillyard, DeSoto, TX

As far as when my next teaching session will be, I'm still not sure, I am really having some struggles with things right now that are taking pretty much all of my time. I'm working on easing up on some things this weekend and hope that can continue into coming weeks. I hope to have another one in September, so keep an eye on the blog for dates.

Physical (and mental) Therapy

Today was a 16 hour day. One of those crazy days of everything happening at once and in four different cities. I had a physical therapy appointment right after work so I headed straight there and got changed but then I got to talk to one of the ladies there about crochet, left a card for another lady and then got busy on a cap. Once I got through most of one cap, the PT came to get me and then he asked about the project and was interested so we talked some about it as well.  So, despite the completely busy day, I was actually able to complete a cap, and it felt great to get one finished again, although I was hoping to get into some of the more fancy patterns, I used one of the variegated yarns that makes a great pattern all on it's own. I hope to have some more time after this super busy week to make some more.

Happy Labor Day!

Cindy Holovach, Fort Worth, TX

I'm thankful to have Monday off in celebration of our Labor Day Holiday. After the first week of classes, it's really nice to have a 3 day weekend and also have a short work week coming up as the evenings are absolutely packed. I haven't had time to finish anymore caps and this week doesn't look promising. However, yesterday, I got to visit with some friends at a couple of different get togethers and picked up one completed cap to add to the collection. This is from one of my first crochet "students" this summer, she had started it at my house and completed it at home. She's moving on to scarves now as well :)