Hi friends! I’m delighted to bring you both my second pattern release of this month and my design for this year’s Crochet Cancer Challenge. This is my 6th year participating, and it is always so near to my heart.
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The Crochet Cancer Challenge is an annual event in October hosted by my friend Christine at Sweet Potato 3. Each day in October, a designer will offer a new hat pattern for free when you pledge to make and donate at least one hat to a cancer patient.
I lost both of my parents to cancer when they were 52 and 53 years old. My 20s were marked by cancer diagnoses, treatment appointments, hope, and crushing disappointment. My mother was diagnosed first with Ovarian cancer just a few weeks before I turned 20. They staged it at 3-c, and she miraculously made it through surgery and treatment and was declared to be in remission about a year later.
Then, it came back. She underwent a surgery and treatment again, and the week after her final chemo dose, my father was diagnosed with an aggressive Glioblastoma. He passed away 11 months later when I was 23 years old.
My mom continued to fight with her cancer on top of being widowed at 47 years of age. It came back and remissed multiple times until an unsuccessful surgery took her life a few weeks after I turned 30.
My dad’s birthday was in October, and my mom despised the color of her cancer ribbon. She felt it was very unfair that the breast cancer ladies got a pretty pink ribbon and she had to have the “ugly ass teal” ribbon. Because of that, most years I design a grey hat for brain cancer and my dad’s birthday, even though my designs are lady-sized. I figure this way I make a lady hat that my mom wouldn’t have completely hated and I do it in my dad’s cancer color. Everyone wins. You know, aside from the girl who was orphaned by cancer!
I am a very honest person, and sometimes it is to my detriment. But I just really despise dishonesty, so I’m going to be quite truthful with you today. I really don’t enjoy designing hats. I commit to doing one each year, because cancer has touched my family in so many ways, and seems to keep on poking at us over time.
That doesn’t stop me from dreading this challenge every year. (See, you thought the challenge was just for crocheters to make and donate hats, but it is also a challenge for the designers to come up with new patterns for you every year!) I had actually sat down to start my hat the day before my husband suddenly passed away. I had a deadline looming to have my design completed, and so 3 weeks after he left me I frogged the original idea and came up with something else.
I decided to honor my late husband with this year’s design, even though he did not have cancer. His favorite color was blue, so I incorporated a blue accent in my grey hat.
Because I dread my annual hat design, and this year I sobbed through the entire process, I had an exceptionally difficult time naming this design. The draft version in my notebook is called “Stupid Cancer Hat”. I posted a photo of the hat on my personal Facebook page asking for help. I love alliteration, so I asked if “Double Dead Dad Hat” was too honest of a name. Bear sends me little messages from Heaven, sometimes by way of a cloud shaped like a heart. One of my friends suggested “Cloud Beanie” in honor of how my husband sends me heart clouds. But the suggestion I ultimately chose was the first suggestion made in the thread. My friend Amber from Bliss This said, “The name of the design is Psalm 34:18 Hat!”
I immediately went to look up the verse:
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” ~Psalm 34:18, NIV
Yep, that’s the name of the hat. No need to debate it any further. You can grab a free copy of the Psalm 34:18 hat pattern on October 27 with the code you will find on the main Crochet Cancer Challenge post.
Visit the main Crochet Cancer Challenge post for more amazing hat patterns!
My design speed has slowed down immensely this year, but I do have a couple of projects on my hook and a pattern release coming soon, so be sure to subscribe to the Straight Awesome newsletter to be among the first to know of pattern releases and special events. Plus, get some exclusive freebies along the way!
Until next time,
Happy Hooking!
~Malena
