A few months back, a friend of mine, knowing of my love for needlework, asked me if I knew how to make cancer caps (hats for women (or men or children) who’ve lost their hair due to chemotherepy treatments). I told her I did not, but her question got me curious.
I found a lovely hat pattern when I was looking for a project to do for my younger sister, and quickly realised it would make a nice cancer cap. I then contacted this friend of mine (who happens to be our ward’s Enrichment Leader), and asked her if I made caps, would she be able to find out where and how to donate them.
Here are 2 views of one of the hats I’ve done . . .
What started out as a way to use some leftover yarn turned into an all-out project! So much so that said friend asked me to teach a miniclass on these caps at our women’s retreat a few weekends ago. When that class finished, and I’d used up the rest of my yarn, I was sad. I loved working on these little “service bits”, and didn’t want to stop!
And that, my dear readers, is where you come in! 
I have the time and the “talent” to make these hats on a continuous basis. One can easily be worked up in the course of a few hours. If I were to only make 1 per week, at 52 weeks in a year, that’s 52 women whose heads will be warmer (and dare I say cheerier), despite undergoing a horrible ordeal.
However, I’m not made of money (oh that I were!). I was hoping that every now and again, some of you might be willing to contribute some money to help me buy yarn. I can do about 3 hats for every 2 skeins of yarn. At $3 per skein, that’s $2 per hat. So you see, you can cover 2 heads with less than $5!
Over in my sidebar, you’ll see a button. Clicking on it will link you to a page where you can donate directly into my paypal account. If you’d like, you can even specify which colours of yarn you’d like your money to buy! Then of course, as I complete each hat/set of hats in your colour, I’ll post on my blog about it!
I know the generous spirit of my readers, and I hope that together we can make a big difference in the lives of women suffering from cancer!
by Beth, on September 4 2008 @ 6:44 pm
What a great idea! Good job, Kate!
I am gonna think about colors (do you use just one skein even to get the gradient colors in that blue hat?) and come back to this.
by abrowny, on September 4 2008 @ 9:21 pm
Excellent idea. I’ll donate to your great talent. How cool.
by Key~Notes » Progress Report, on November 9 2008 @ 8:30 pm
[...] over 2 months ago, I shared with you a post about how together, our “blogging community” could help out women with cancer. So [...]