Needle Exchange Goodies!

This is what I found in my mailbox about a week ago, from my wonderful Needle Exchange Pal! Jenn is Catherine's good friend from California, and she could not have been kinder. She made the lovely lavender bag from what has to be the softest yarn I've ever petted (that in itself was a real treat!). The dpns are made of rosewood; this would be my first set of rosewood needles, and I already love them. I have a pair of Lantern Moon straight needles, which are lovely, but these beautiful sticks have none of that polish on them-- very warm and natural-feeling! There is a skein of pink-yellow-orange sock yarn in the background there, which I'd already gotten into. That will soon become a pair of socks for my youngest girl-baby! She also sent some candy stitch markers (DD#2 and I have already discussed who owns those!) When I received this, I was in a big rush to finish getting party stuff together for DD#1's 8th birthday; it was a wonderful excuse to slow down and feel special. (How is it that knitters especially know how to do that? I think I'm in with a good crowd!)

Yarn and love

I'm hoping that I can remember how to post. I keep thinking I'll post when I get a project finished, but the one project I DID finish, I gave away before I snapped its picture. (a lovely pair of lavender socks for my sister, Jane-- from Jane Ellison's Queensland Collection, Book One, in Kathmandu Aran). The "black hole" of a sweater that I've been working on since August is still not finished (ripping the whole back sort of stalled me out, I think)-- it's in Cotolina on size 8 circulars, which may be part of my pain.

I'll put up a picture of my next project-- it's a chemo cap for my brother's dear friend Wendy. John (featured as the hero in my July post) had a group of really good friends in Denton, Texas, who all graduated from UNT about the same time. Stephen was one of his roommates; they all moved to Portland around the same time; I'm not sure when Stephen and Wendy began dating, but he's been a constant support to her over the last couple of years.

Wendy had leukemia when she was younger, and a little over a year ago had a relapse. After some pretty aggressive chemotherapy, they thought they had it beat-- but a recent test showed the cancer has returned. She'll have to keep up the chemo until a match for a stem cell transplant is found-- her best hope for remission. My brother has done quite a bit to help them out, including setting up Wendy's mom in Dallas with a videoconferencing system (donated by his company, Insors) and making trips to Portland to offer his support in person (among other things which prove to me that I am so very blessed to be related to such a compassionate person!)

I wanted to do something, and put out a call to my knitting group for help finding yarns that are especially soft in order to make chemo caps. And, once again, I am truly blessed to know such wonderful people. Not only did I get some great suggestions and support, Brynne actually took time out and made a cap for Wendy, from one of the yarns she had recommended (You MUST see it, if you haven't yet!). Somehow, even in this world of seemingly thoughtless people, love manages to come around again. And I can't thank Brynne enough for putting time and effort into making a stranger's life a little more comfortable.

(If you need a pattern for someone, try Head Huggers or Chemo Caps Both sites have been great resources in my search for patterns that will be comfortable-- and hopefully comforting.)