It's good to give

The wonderful step-mother of a dear friend of mine recently found out that she has cancer. No one likes to hear this news. No one. To help her step-mom through this rough time, my friend asked me to make a couple of caps for her.

And here they are...

The is the Brattleboro Hat from New England Knits, an absolutely beautiful book with many tempting patterns. Since this hat is for a cancer patient, I was advised only to knit with cotton or cotton-blend yarns. So the Brattleboro Hat was made with Knit Picks' Comfy Worsted yarn, a surprisingly soft and smooth fiber blend consisting of 75% pima cotton and 25% acrylic.

The second hat was a free pattern I found on Ravelry, entitled 2009 Race for Life Chemo Cap. The delicate little lace detail at the edge caught my eye when searching for patterns. This little cap was knit with Knit Picks' Cotlin, which was not at all enjoyable while knitting. It felt scratchy on my fingers and regularly released bits of straw, but blocked beautifully and turned out much MUCH nicer and softer than I expected. (Thank heavens!) Cotlin is made of 70% Tanguis cotton and 30% linen.

Both projects took only one skein! Great stash buster projects. But I admit that the best part of this experience was putting the package in the mail, knowing that my friend's mom will feel more comfortable while wearing them.