Osborn Fiber Studio

There’s really only one reasonable thing to do when you find out a dear friend has cancer.

You immediately start knitting hats.

This one is called Izmir, and it’s a free pattern. I wanted something impossibly soft, so I for the body of the hat I held together four  strands, two each of two very soft yarns. The fuzzy green is “Halo” by The Alpaca Company, Suri alpaca fuzz wrapped around a nylon core. The white is “Sarah” by Kraemer, a 60/40 Suri/Merino blend. (If you didn’t know, there are two kinds of alpacas. Suri is the rarer, softer kind.)

I was (rightly) concerned that I was going to run out of green, so I decided to make the three purled welts in just white. I think it adds a nice touch; I hope it doesn’t make the hat look too much like a 60’s conception of a flying saucer.

Because, really, what can you do? When you get news like that, you just want call a cab company and catapult yourself to the hospital and give your friend an enormous hug that will make it all go away. But that isn’t really an option, and really, one doesn’t want to be the sort of blubbing mess that the poor patient then has to comfort. So you pray. You pray a lot. You do what you can to help. And you knit hats.

There will be other happy knittings going on on this blog during this time. The Olympics are about to start, and Lord of the Rings knitting continues to bring joy and excitement. But there will also be hats.

Get better, M. We love you a lot.