In the things I never expected to knit category — a liver and two boobs
I was at a meeting a week or so ago and a friend mentioned that they’re doing a fund raising party for cancer and calling it Liver for Boobs. Raising money for breast cancer research is something that I’m committed to since I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago. While mine was found very early and I just had a lumpectomy, my mother and my uncle both had to have mastectomies. So, before I knew what I was doing, my mouth opened and I said, “I can knit you a boob or two and maybe a liver for your event.”
Then I get home and the panic sets in. What was I thinking. A quick search found a pattern for a boob but it couldn’t be sold, only made for personal use — wasn’t sure whether fund raisers counted so gave it a pass (Yes, I know I should have checked but I was under a deadline here). I looked at the photo and decided it couldn’t be that difficult, after all I’ve got two of my own to build a design on. In the past, I’ve done several circular objects: hats, tea cozies, bowls (felted), so the basics should be the same. I ended up making two different ones, each in one piece using the top down sweater increase only knitting one row and decreasing 6 stitches or increasing 6 stitches in the next round depending on whether I was knitting up to the fold or decreasing down to the forward tip. (In the first you can see I tried increasing and decreasing on each row but I didn’t like the swirl that it made so on the second I did the increase and decrease ever other row and then spaced them randomly to get smoother look.
For the liver I found a pattern, which for some reason (probably the migraine I had the day I made it) I totally misread the pattern and did it back and forth instead of in the round. Because of that it was in garter stitch so then I had to keep it that way when I did figure out it should be in the round. But by then it was a lot of short rows so I could cope with keeping the garter stitch with an occasional stockinette row popping up here and there. Figure we’ll explain that the liver is from too much drinking to raise money — moderation in all things, etc., etc., and so forth. It’s not much of a liver, but that’s my fault — but it was for a good cause and if I ever knit another one, I’ll try to time it for a non-migraine/headache day — though duress does make for some interesting and weird results. Someday I figure I might make a liver using the pattern as written to see what it would really look like — this one is only an approximation of a liver — if you squint.
So, I finished my promised boobs and the liver so they could have visuals at the party. Hopefully, they’ll have fun and raise money for a good cause. It was the least I could do since I don’t drink. But I must say, I never expected to knit body parts — but it was fun.