Hats Off to St. Baldericks

One of our Knittervention attendees organizes an annual charity event.  St. Baldericks is a charity geared towards childhood cancer.  The event is Rock the Bald, encouraging people to shave their heads in support of children with cancer.

Of course, newly shaved heads become cold, and that is where the knitters come in.  She mentioned a month ago that they had a goal to give each shavee a handknit hat.  Several of us had already donated a few knit items for raffle prizes, but she also made this specific request.  The request did not fall on deaf ears.  At Knittervention last night, five out of six of us were dutifully knitting hats to donate to St. Baldericks.  (The sixth person was a newbie who did not know about the hat need, so she could easily be forgiven.)  There was also a small stack of finished hats.  (I admit it, I forgot to bring mine.  Next time!)

Drawing on the same spirit of woman in decades pasts to answered the call when there was a need, I felt proud to be a knitter.  From Depression Era Americans to British women during the Battle of Briton (and more, those come to mind because of my recent reading material) knitters answer the call when there is a need to create warmth.

Like I said, makes me proud to be a knitter.  Now, if you will excuse me, there is a half finished hat that needs my attention.

Today, it is all about the pride.  

Looming deadlines

I am starting to feel like the knitting deadlines are starting to close in on me.  It is self-inflicted, but I still am starting to feel the pressure of deadlines.

First, there is charity knitting.  A kind knitting friend brought a huge pile of yarn to Knittervention.  Nice yarn, and lots of it.  I walked out with a large bag, overflowing with skeins of silk and balls of wool.  So, to pay it back/forward, I am using some of that yarn to knit for her charity.  Every year, she puts together a cancer charity event. People volunteer to shave their heads for charity (shudder), and there is a raffle, and more.  Freshly shaved heads need hand knit coverings, of course.  I have already knit one hat, and two ear warmers; and donated a shawl for the raffle.  I have another hat in progress, and realistically think that I can have it done in time.

Then, there is Christmas.  And the annual fingerless teacher mitts.  Except my oldest has started middle school and has two main teachers: one for STEM and the other for Humanities.  I don't know which to knit for, so I will do both.  Three sets of mitts, two mitts each set, that is at least six weeks worth of knitting.  Add in two weeks as a margin of error, and I need to start knitting . . . . .next week.
At the same time I am knitting hats for newly shaved heads.

At the risk of sounding a little selfish, when do I get to knit for me?  There are at least three shawls in progress that I am looking forward to wearing.  At this rate, I will wear out the coordinating dress before I finish the shawl.  Sigh

Today, it is all about the sacrifice.