Knitting group aids cancer patients Hearts, Hands and Hats provides chemo caps

The wheels were spinning, the knitting needles were flashing and the fingers were flying as four spinners and more than 16 knitters – ages thirtysomething to eightysomething – fashioned caps, and the fiber from which to make them, last week at a gathering at Cityside Yarn Co. in Bangor.

It was the third convening of Hearts, Hands and Hats, a loosely knit – pun intended – gathering of women who came to socialize and knit caps for men, women and children undergoing chemotherapy, which can result in loss of hair.

Other knitters, many of whom can’t get out much for age or health reasons, also knit chemo caps for Hearts, Hands and Hats.

“Almost every week,” said Liza Burgoyne, owner of Cityside, “we get caps in the mail, or people bring them in. We even get caps from people living out of state.” Thus does the number of caps, piled high on a table, and the network that knits them, grow. Cityside provided space for the gathering, and the previous two. The shop, and many other businesses statewide, also donates yarn for the project. No sales are conducted in the shop during the knitting session.

The caps, said organizer M. Joan Davis, 69, of Northport, a knitter for 60 years, are knit of fine fibers such as cashmere, merino, alpaca, silk or cotton which sit kindly on sensitive skin. Hearts, Hands and Hats provides free – and fabulous – patterns and yarn to knitters. Some of the patterns are from “Annabelle’s Caps,” a book containing the hat patterns of 26 designers. Dawson, a Canadian, was a victim of breast cancer. Twelve of the designers have given Hearts, Hands and Hats permission to use their designs and have released copyrights so that anyone can copy the directions.

Since November when the first Hearts, Hands and Hats gathering was held, more than 500 caps have been knit. Each cap bears a tag with the name of the designer and the knitter, and the spinner if the cap is made of handspun yarn. The caps are distributed to 21 oncology clinics throughout Maine.

Lynn Wardwell, 45, of La- Grange, a cancer survivor, was knitting a cap of yarn the color of orange sherbet.

“I was sickly as a child,” she said. “I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch tucked under my mother’s arm while she knit. When I was 3 I told her, ‘I want to do that.’ So she found some big yarn and big needles I could handle and she showed me what to do. I haven’t stopped since.”

Other women, grouped around tables or sitting on the wicker sofa, fashioned caps of yellow, fuschia, blue, purple or green, in furry yarn, bumpy yarn, and smooth yarn – all of it soft, all of it donated – in lacy, cable and plain patterns. Some worked on two needles, some on four needles and some on circular ones. Most had learned to knit as young girls and were taught by mothers, grandmothers, aunts and great-aunts. They prize that fact as much as they delight in getting together to knit for a good cause.

To knit, Davis said, all you need to know is four basic things, all easily learned – how to cast on, bind off, to knit and to purl.

“How you knit,” she said, “is how you knit. The rest belongs to you.”

Martha Robinson of Hampden, spinning alpaca yarn, said she was new to the area and had been spinning only six months.

“One thing leads to another,” she said, “when you raise sheep.” She had recently dyed wool roving, produced by her Romney sheep, with Kool-Aid, which yielded spun yarn in a subtle ombre of blue, pink and orange.

What Hearts, Hands and Hats needs most urgently, Davis said, is donations to cover the cost of mailing patterns and yarn to knitters who are unable to attend chemo cap knitting sessions.

The next session is planned from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Hawthorn Inn in Camden.

Those interested in learning more about Hearts, Hands and Hats may call Davis at 338-2432 or e-mail knit2p2@localnet.com.

To learn more about “Annabelle’s Hats,” visit the Web at www.rosecom.ca/caps.

To obtain information about Cityside Yarn Co., call 990-1455, (800) 330-3247, or go to www.citysideyarn.com.

Snippets

A reader from Brewer e-mailed that she had “a lot of ‘dead’ candles laying around her house – those leftover shards of wickless wax.” She would like to know if anyone has any tricks for rejuvenating those old candle ends and if any local vendors sell candle-making supplies.

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Spin and knit with Deborah Bergman 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, at Purple Fleece, School Street, Stockton Springs. Rug hookers are also urged to attend. Information is available at 323-1871 or www.purplefleece.com.