I have spent much of my crochet time of late either working on patterns (the directions for which are still a work in progress) or working on hats for the sister of a friend who is undergoing an assortment of treatments for cancer that have left her in need of hat wear.

The experience has been very gratifying, as she has loved every hat I have made for her, and, despite the fact she is undergoing a series of treatments that only make her feel better by first feeling worse, she has even managed to carve out time to send me a lovely thank you note which gave me that thrill one only gets from a hand-addressed, hand-written note, stamp and all.

One of the hats I wanted to make for her was Michele Maks’ granny square hat design that was featured on the cover of Crochet World’s Glorious Granny Squares, a delightful collection that was published this past spring, and last week I got a start on it using a 4.5mm hook and KnitPicks Worsted Comfy™ yarn.

While I am not convinced that the worsted Comfy™ is actually a worsted weight, I am convinced that it is a spectacularly good choice for summer chemo hat wear. It is 75% pima cotton, and 25% acrylic, with a wide assortment of excellent colors from which to choose.

With some modifications to the pattern I was able to make this three-round granny square hat for my friend’s sister which I managed to finish this weekend:

With the granny square hat completed, I put it on my mental “ta-done” list and turned my attention to a skein of organic yarn from Pacolet Valley Fiber Company that I had picked up at my LYS, Yarn Tree Studio.

The Maunea Kea Cotton I selected is mixture of organic pima cotton, cotton, and nylon. The pima cotton portion of the blended fiber was was grown in the San Joaquin Valley of California which looms large on my personal landscape, carded in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is the place where I now make my home, and was plied into yarn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which also occupies a special place in my memories from childhood.

Using a 6.0 mm hook and Lion Brand Yarns free Spice Solace pattern, I very quickly got the cap done:

The beauty of this design is its simplicity, but I want to add a few flowers to it to brighten it up a bit, so it is in the “almost done” rather than “ta-done” column.

While I did not finish all of the details of the solace hat, that did leave me the time I needed to wind this silk yarn that I purchased the other day into a ball:

After checking the weight of the yarn with my handy dandy Wraps Per Inch tool:

I was able to determine that this yarn should be perfect for one of the remaining hat pattern I want to crochet.

I know that my friend’s sister appreciates each hat I have made for her, but I also appreciate the opportunity to do something tangible that makes life just a little bit easier for both my friend and her sister in the midst of a very difficult time.