Knitted Knockers, Knaturally!

I just finished the most amazing knitting project. It started with a tentative request from my friend from chorus, Anne, who has had a mastectomy and wears a prosthesis. Her husband had seen an article about knitted prostheses that many women were finding much more comfortable than the silicone breast forms (knitted boobs! Who knew?) and she wanted to try one. She was being so careful to not be pushy, and give me the opportunity to say no if I didn't want to knit for her. Little did she know, those "odd" requests and out-of-the-box patterns are the really fun projects. Pretty soon we were cracking all sorts of jokes as we carpooled to rehearsal, and she passed along the article with a link to a website with the pattern and more information.

After rehearsal that night I looked up the website (www.knittedknockers.info) and printed out the pattern. I then pulled out my yarn stash to look for appropriate yarns that might work. Next day I called Anne to discuss fiber sensitivity, color preference, and size. We decided to wing it with some of my leftovers. I had some really bright, variegated "Socks That Rock" medium weight yarn (yellows, pinks, purples, blues, greens) that was the right weight yarn, and was a nice soft washable merino wool. The pattern and website recommended cotton, but since she would be putting it inside the pocket in her bra, it wouldn't actually be touching her skin. It's such a small piece of knitting that I could rip out and reknit or try again with different yarn if it didn't work out the first time.

The pattern was so easy and fast to knit. It only took me a couple of days. I stuffed it with polyester fiberfill - I had a huge bag in my sewing room that I used for all sorts of craft projects. I stuffed and molded and tried to make it look "breast-like." I was pleasantly surprised by how well it took on a fairly natural shape. I packaged it up in a nice, opaque, plastic bag, along with some extra stuffing so that she could add or subtract as necessary, and brought it to the next week's rehearsal.

the beginning, kind of looks like a hat

the finished "boob"

the backside

The back of it, in case you were wondering, is designed to be somewhat concave so it breathes better and doesn't have as much contact with the skin to avoid irritation.

The verdict: Anne came to rehearsal a week later, wearing the new knitted knocker, and I couldn't tell which side was her own and which side was "mine." She said it was so much more comfortable and lightweight than her silicon prosthesis. Yay! She's going to pick up some cotton yarn and I'm going to knit her another one. I showed off the project at knitting group and may get a few other knitters interested in making some of these if there's a local oncologist who's interested in distributing them.

Shelley in CT