Last Wednesday, I talked to one of the ladies that wrangles wigs and hats for people undergoing chemotherapy at one of our local cancer centers. We have two here in town. This one is an adjunct of the hospital where I got my first medical transcription job, so I’m kind of partial to that center versus the one that’s attached to the university teaching hospital.
Anyway, I asked for the criteria they want in a chemo hat, and they said they want soft, colorful, with washing instructions attached, and in October. They liked that I had mine in sandwich baggies.
When I got home, I thought about it and decided, what the heck. I’ll do up some little labels with washing instructions to put in the baggie with them. I wonder how many people will get the pun? Anyway, I’ve identified various hat patterns by “style.” We’ll see how it flies. I love the little interlocking heart motif.
I’ve got to take the fat(cat)boy to the vet and get his yearly immunizations. As hot as it’s been lately, it’ll have to be right after they open in the morning. Not today, though. Maybe tomorrow. Last night I went to knitting group and then shopped groceries for the month including a significant amount of canned goods and frozen food, schlepped everything from the trunk/boot of the car into the house and put them away. I think I need to rest up before I have to haul a cat carrier full of fat cat out to, into and out of a car and through the airlock doors of the vet’s office — and back.
I had to get some toiletry items and at Walmart, those are on the other side of the store from where the groceries are. As I was en route from the grocery section, I saw they had yarn on sale, as in 40% and 50% off. Instead of buying ice cream and sweets, I bought yarn. And still came out under budget. Sometimes you win one.
Anyway, I’m going to try out my ideas for a ruffled hat and a hat with cables and seed stitch, but I have a deal with myself that I’ve got to finish the two toboggans and the pussyhat I’m working on now before I can start the new hats. The ruffle hat is going to take two 16-inch needles of the same size, US4 (3.5 mm), I think, because I think that’s the size I’ll need for the yarn I want to use, which is DK weight.
Peter Capaldi is leaving Doctor Who, which means the Doctor will regenerate again. (“Regeneration” is the brilliant plot device whereby the actor who has played the role up to a certain point morphs into another actor who will subsequently play the role.) The Doctor is supposed to be able to regenerate 12 times, but in the Christmas special of 2013, the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, revealed he had already used up all his regenerations. Fortunately, at the end of that episode, he was granted another regenerative cycle by the Time Lords, and morphed into the 12 Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Now Capaldi is leaving so he will “regenerate” into the 13th Doctor, and she will be played by Jodi Whittaker. Yes, you got that right. She. There is a certain segment of Whovian geekdom who are now apoplectic and frothing at the mouth because Whittaker will get girl cooties all over Doctor Who. They are the ones who somehow managed to avoid being strangled by the epidemic of knickers knottage which resulted from Michelle Gomez getting girl cooties all over the Master. Of course, a certain other segment of Whovian geekdom is saying, “About damn time!” Imagine that. Girls will now be able to cosplay the Doctor without having to cross-dress to do it. (Of course, some will anyway.)
The Owl Underground Archive II 
I’ve never been a fan of Doctor Who, considering it clunky and naive, a victim, I suppose, of the relatively primitive state of TV technology when it was invented. I assume the plan to make the Doctor female is a last-ditch attempt on the part of the producers to tickle the increasingly jaded palates of the programme’s followers. Once they’ve done that, though, what comes next? There are only two sexes, so the trick cannot be repeated.
Whether Jodi is successful or not depends less on whether women are or are not as capable as men in the fields of science and technology (they are) and almost entirely on how convincingly she gets to grips with the character. In other words, how good an actress (or do we have to say ‘actor’, even for women, these days?) she is. Of course, remembering how Blake’s 7’s Servalan became a cult figure among drooling male viewers, the Jodi Doctor Who could be a roaring success. Time will tell – rather appropriately in the case of Doctor Who.
I bumped into this interesting little entry about the sort of hats that you knit. Not only is the article interesting, there’s a little poll at the end. Vote, and then see how your response fits with others. There have been six hundred responses or so.
I didn’t see Chemo Sabe cap on the list. You ought to let them know they missed one.