One year anniversary

One year ago today was the day that Eriq lost his battle with cancer and that means that it's been a while year without him here with me. Knowing today, the anniversary, was coming has been a challenge mentally. However, I made a plan and that helped me get through it. I went to the cemetery and placed a new flower arrangement I made this week and then I put on one movie after another and crocheted nearly the whole time. I tried to find a balance between fairly easy patterns to be able to finish as many as possible without taxing my brain but also a little bit of something different and interesting for each one. I wanted to make sure it was interesting to me while I was crocheting all day and also in making each one of the finished products unique. That being said, I stuck with some yarn types I've used often, rather than some of my fun newer yarn, simply for speed and to keep the focus on my part at a lower level. I knew if I had to think too much about it, I could get easily frustrated today and so I did come up with 7 different caps but there are only slight variations to each one from the others.

From top to bottom, left to right: Green cap is done in front/back post double crochet (Red Heart super saver), Multicolor with purple stripe is done in all double crochet (Caron Simply Soft), Multicolor with ribbon is all double crochet except for ribbon row (Joann Sensations), Blue/Yellow variegated is double crochet with single crochet edge (Red Heart Classic), Purple/multicolor is double crochet followed by half double crochet (Caron Simply Soft), Yellow is all double crochet except for chain ribbons (Red Heart super saver), and the Multicolor with green is double crochet and half double crochet on the brim (Red Heart - new multicolor)

Yarn package

Gary Cunningham, Finland

As promised in yesterday's post, I finished up the cap I was working on and have a picture of it here. It is a basic cap pattern and then I alternated front post double crochet with back post double crochet to give the appearance of rows. One of my favorite (easy) things to do to fancy something up a bit. But, better yet, I just went out to get the mail and I had a package from Finland, and it has yarn. That in itself is exciting, but better yet, it's an awesome variegated dyed yarn. It's called "Sweet William" and if you want to see more of their yarns, you can check out the website (http://www.easyknits.co.uk). Special thanks for this beautiful yarn Gary! I'm invigorated to get going again and I had hit a lull in my creativity, making the shown cap here to try and get myself rolling agin. Now I have some additional motivation :)

New donation

The last month has been very busy with several events, including the the end of school, which is an extremely overwhelming time every year. From time to time this month I have been able to do some crochet but I've been working on some personal projects. It seems to be the season for birthdays and baby showers, so those have been my main focus of late. However, about a week ago, I received a donation in the mail from a recipient of one of the caps and as I finished up school a couple of days ago, I was able to go pick up some things. I found a great deal on some yarn and a knit and weave loom kit that will give me some more options on making a variety of caps. I haven't pulled out the patterns for the kit yet but I hope to get to do that at some point this week. I have started another cap with some of my pink and purple variegated Sensations yarn that I will post when it's finished.

Scraps

Often when I finish a cap, there's just enough yarn left for something...but what? Not another cap, but maybe the finishing edge, perhaps a bow or flower or other decoration, there are options. When I have a bit leftover, I roll it into a small ball and add it to a box of leftovers. I sometimes look through and make a few decorative items or see if one of them match some yarn I have to use as a single row. They give me a little motivation to start something. What I hadn't ever done is use them together and that seemed like a fun idea, so I started with one of the scrap colors and just tied on a new one as each one ended and came up with this scrap cap. It's a fun, festive cap I hope someone will fall in love with.
On a side notes, my cats always enjoy helping me make caps. Sometimes they will bat at the yarn, sometimes they bring yarn downstairs for me to use and sometimes...

Cat help

This past week was extremely busy, getting ready for Relay for Life on May 3-4 and then I was trying to catch up on sleep afterwards! However, I have made a few caps I just haven't gotten anything posted. The fun "Blacklight" yarn I picked up and mentioned in my last post had a pattern on the label that I tried out using that yarn. Then, I used the idea from the pattern and edited it to make another similar cap.

Most recently, I used the yarn my cats brought downstairs to make a fuzzy cap. My cats, quite regularly feel the need to pick my yarn for me by going through the stash upstairs and dragging one downstairs and leaving it at my door. I can't always keep up with them but I thought it was a good idea to use one they brought me, so they got their wish today.

I just can't help it...

I took a much needed night off this week. I must always remember to do that for myself, especially when the weeks are as they have been. Of course, for me, a night off means I wanted to work on crochet. I pulled out some more of my "matching" yarns and started to work on a new cap. I started with a base in a variegated yarn and then picked some of the solid colors to end the cap. It was good to take the down time and also get some crochet done. Also, I did a little bit of sorting of the yarn, so I know exactly how much I have, which is still plenty.

Despite that, when I was out running errands today, I picked up some yarn! I made it through all the yarn aisles without any but then I found a really fun variegated yarn that I hadn't seen before. It will whip up into a fun vibrant cap, so I had to get it, because I just can't help myself sometimes. At least I only bought one skein, that's good, right?

In memory of Abby

Today, another young life was lost to cancer. After a 28 month fight with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Abby passed away this afternoon. She was a softball player at TWU, in the prime of her life when she was diagnosed and started her treatment immediately. She lost her hair due to chemo and she was one of the people that wore a lot of caps in place of her hair. Seeing pictures of her in a variety of caps, reminds me of why I make caps. I don't really see them in use that often or hear from the recipients but I know from experience that they are something that can be useful and gives people a chance to show their style despite having lost their hair. I haven't been making many lately, but I have a renewed desire to get some made in remembrance of Abby.

With my last donation, I picked several complimentary colors to put together and I did make one cap with those a couple weeks ago that I never posted, it is in a variety of  hues of my favorite color, purple!

To wrap up, I want to share information about my upcoming Relay for Life, in support of the American Cancer Society. If you are interested in joining my team, donating or just knowing more about what I'm doing, feel free to check out my personal page here:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=32821795&pg=personal&fr_id=52645