Knitting Wombs

MikeFred: whatcha doin' over there?
Me: ummm.... 2 things.
Me: 1- conference call
Me: 2- knitting...
Me: ...
Me: a
Me: ...
Me: uterus
MikeFred: you're knitting an uterus
Me: yup. see: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTwomb.html
Me: at the moment -- I'm working on a fallopian tube
MikeFred: snort. Are you keeping your hands busy? Eventually knitting a porn doll?

I think that was my favorite IM conversation last week. I had a huge cheesy smile on my face for a while after that (kinda like I do now).

So... the story is this: Last year at the Climb4Life event in Salt Lake, Colleen's roomate Kelly knit a womb. Sam and Colleen had all the pro-climbers pose with it for photos (guys and gals alike). I ABSOLUTELY loved the idea. It's a fun, funky way of bringing the subject of Ovarian Cancer right out in the open. Its cute, its poofy, its fuzzy, and people talk about it. So, all week long I've been knitting wombs. I've got a dozen so far. I'm sure I can finish a few more before the Roller Derby.

I had SUCH a fun night with Val. First we went to the Philly Roller Girls practice to take photos for the upcoming East Coast Extravaganza (I must say, its great having a friend who is a professional photographer), and then we went climbing at they gym. I brought my bag-full-of-uteruses (uteri?) with me, and the girls had fun posing with them. I can't wait to see how the photos turn out.

Lucky for me, Val had extra film left over after the Roller Derby, so I had my own personal photographer at the climbing gym. Yay, climbing pictures!

• the materials:
  • One set of size 8 double pointed needles
  • One ball of chunky yarn. I used Wool-Ease Chunky, Lion Suede and a bunch of different scrap yarns I had in my collection.
  • Stich marker
  • Polyfill stuffing
  • 2 pipe cleaners
• the pattern:
  • The full womb pattern is available on Knitty.com.
  • I made a few modifications:
    • As listed on MK Carroll's website, row 23 should be: knit all stitches.
    • When decreasing instead of: "k, k2tog, k X, k2tog, k", do this instead: "k, ssk, kX, k2tog, k". This gives a nice ridge for the corners.
    • After a few wombs, I got a little bored, so I started using novelty yarns, adding some fair-isle speckles and even did some stripes. I've got me some funky wombs.
    • Don't skimp on the pipe cleaner. Basically, don't cut one pipe cleaner in half and use it for each fallopian tube. The pipe cleaner won't go deep enough into the stuffing of the uterus to keep the fallopian tubes all perky, so use two full pipe cleaners and trim them as needed.
  Tags : rollerderby burythedragon climb4life womb currentproject thirtyinthirty
  Responses[2]

  Posted by Jessica on March 14, 2007 11:56:35 PM EDT #