RAOK - Chemo Caps

This swap is in honor of my cousin Jennifer, who began chemo treatments on Monday 8/13. Jennifer is 30 years old with a husband and 3 sons ages 7 - 11, and she is battling breast cancer.

The goal of this swap is to make chemo caps using whatever method you prefer - knit, crochet or sewing. They should be soft soft soft and of natural materials. Many chemo patients report that manmade materials can feel like they are wearing a plastic bag on their heads, no matter how soft and luscious it feels against their hands or face.

There is no specific number of caps you need to make - you can make as many caps as you have time/materials/enthusiasm for. I only beg that you take pride in your work! For many people, especially women, their hair is a big part of their identity. When they are already feeling ill and out of sorts from their treatments, they don't want to struggle with a poorly-crafted hat. We are going for quality rather than quantity here.

You may donate the hats locally - to someone you know - or perhaps your local hospital collects them. If you don't have a place you want to donate to locally, the University of Iowa Hospitals will be happy to accept our caps and I will give you my address to send to.

Get some pattern ideas here: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/

What you will send to your partner is a letter to share your experience - not the cap itself. You can talk about the materials, pattern, people who inspired you, photos of the project, where you donated your cap, anything you feel is relevant. Since the main focus here is making and distributing the caps, you can either email or snail mail your partner.

I am not setting any limits on who can join because this is a RAOK swap. It seems unlikely that anyone would sign up for this and not do it, unless under the most dire of circumstances.

This is a very fuzzy idea right now, so some of these dates and details might change a bit. If you have feedback about how to make this swap more awesome, I'm open to it.