Snoooooooooood!

My esteemed correspondent Bonnie is a right transfemoral amputee, too, but unlike me is also a skilled knitter.  Check out this post on her idea of knitting stump cozies.  (Great idea!  They get wicked cold!)

Another word for a "cozy" is a snood.  I like the word "snood" better, in fact, for something to cover a stump; it just works better for me.  Go figure.  I think it has something to do with my mother making jokes about nose snoods when I was a child.  A nose sticks out, like a stump.  Cozies seem more applicable to round, squat shapes, like teapots and tissue boxes.   I don't even know if a nose snood is a real garment, though, or if it was just a reference to some joke from her own childhood, off a radio sitcom from the '30s or '40s or something, but the cutest little stump snood/cozy I've ever seen is Bonnie's kitty-eared hat pictured in the above-referenced post.  Sure, sure, it wasn't made for this purpose.  But I've always wanted a kitty-eared hat, and now that I've seen one doing double duty as a stump snood, I want one even more.  I just love multi-purpose items!

I can't knit, though.  Two needles are too much for me.  Big, absent-minded klutz here -- hence the one-leggedness, actually.  So...does anybody know if there's a good crochet pattern for a kitty hat out there? 

Thanks. 

Comments

[Melissa]

You said "Becky's kitty..."

heh.

That said, do the stumps get cold because of a vascular issue or is it a matter of clothing/prosthetics not taking cold (or heat) into consideration?

[Sara]

Actually, I said "Bonnie's kitty-eared hat," which she has applied quite hilariously to her stump out of desperation for coziness. You can see the picture of this at the entry to which I linked. :)

As Bonnie explains, during winter our stumps get cold when we're sitting around the house in shorts or a nighty, you know, just like feet do. But feet have socks. There's nothing for stumps. Sure, you can wear pants all the time and pin up one leg, and that can be cozy enough if they're sweatpants, but sometimes you just want to lounge in something, well, less. And there's where the chill sets in.

Bonnie writes of the difficulty of creating something warming that will stay on the stump as one moves about the house without cutting off one's circulation. There are knitted pressure stockings that recent amputees are issued called "shrinkers" because they are designed, through pressure, to help post-surgical swelling go down quickly so the wound can heal and the amputee can be fit with a replacement limb. These are not comfortable garments, though. They rarely fit. I've never met anyone who would wear one a single day longer than s/he had to. They do stay up, though, sometimes anyway, and they are warm, being made of nasty, unbreathing nylon.

Just because you asked, vascularization is less of a problem for above-knee (transfemoral) amputees than for below-knee (transtibial) amputees because there are more veins, esp. big veins, in the thigh than in the calf. Also, wearing a socket is a lot like wearing Tupperware, and you can imagine how light and breezy that is. So actually getting too hot and sweaty is a bigger problem while wearing a prosthesis than getting cold.

No, this is nothing medical, simply a problem of a lack of appropriate around-the-house leisure wear. And I'd kill -- well, not really kill, you understand -- for a crochet pattern that could help me adapt a kitty-eared hat into a solution similar to Bonnie's. So funny. I wonder if it would freak out my cat. I'm pretty sure it would freak out my boyfriend, especially if I embroidered a face and whiskers on it.

Heh, indeed. ;)

[bonnie]

I could say plenty, but I'm going to TRY to keep it short.
First, do click here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/PATTnosewarmer.html
hahaha

I'll email you some thoughts I have about making that Krochet Kitty Kozy, but girl...you know you dont even have to ask. Just send me some measurements. It would be an honor to knit you something ;-)

Another amputee knitter posted to my blog about knitting some kind of enclosed shorts, and now I'm brewing this crazy idea about handknit hotpants LOL.

SOooo glad to see you posting again!

[Sara]

OMG -- it's a nose snood!

A HA HA HA HA

I love the little fringey things. They look like psychedelic star-nosed moles -- or at least, how I imagine psychedelic star-nosed moles would look.

Thanks for the offer to knit me a hat/stump snood, kiddo, but maybe I'll wait 'til you finish some of your other projects! :) Meanwhile, someday I will finish the afghan I started two years ago and had to put away when we moved last year. Then I'll be wanting something else to occupy my hands, like another crochet project, like a crocheted kitty hat. So if anybody finds a pattern for one, seriously, I'm interested. :)

Cheers!

[Molly]

Hi Sara,
I am myself a knitter. However, I support any endeavor of cute hats/snoods with cat ears! I found this free pattern for a crocheted version. Good luck!
Kitty Cat Hat by Bethany James

If this URL doesn't work- you can e-mail me.

[Sara]

Thank you Molly, both for your open-mindedness about needlework differences (we have more in common than different, you know!) and for the pattern.

Somebody (Bonnie, I think) sent this one to me already, and while it's very cute, I think I'm going to try a different idea that Bonnie also suggested for more truly kitty-ish ears. She suggested just crocheting a big rectangle, folding it over in half, and seaming up the sides. When popped on top of the head (or on the end of a stump), the corners will poink into ear-ish shapes.

I will try this after I finish the afghan I've been working on and then not working on and then working on again for the past three years. Maybe I'll have some yarn left. If I do, the yarn will be green, maybe not the best color with which to imply kittiness. We'll see what happens.

Cheers!

[Amorette]

I can't knit either. Can't crochet worth anything, so you're one ahead of me there.

Have you tried a knitting spool? It's great when you want something to do with your hands, but don't want to put too much thought into it. (I did it in waiting rooms until too many people started asking questions). When you've got a long cord, you just thread a big needle with matching yarn and make it into whatever you want.