Photo, hood to coast: 5 a.m., exchange #24 by Sarah Gilbert.
If you've been reading here a while, you may remember that last summer I had the extraordinary opportunity to be on an all-moms running team for the Hood to Coast relay. One of my teammates who inspired me to run better and harder, who was always committed and totally gung ho, was Cassie. In the van, we started calling her Cast Iron Cassie because she ran through absolutely anything in the most diligent, even, and hard-assed manner. At the end of each of her legs she collapsed from the effort. It was absolutely clear she'd given her all. In fact, at her first exchange she actually sat down in the exchange shoot, such was her dedication and all-outness. She couldn't even walk another step.
I've been thinking alot about Cassie, because she has had an unbelievable tragedy happen to her and her family. Her husband was out jogging and was killed by a car. Christopher was 37 years old. He and Cassie were training to run in a team together for this summer's relay. The news reports are brief and horrible, and gone already from the stream of Internet time. He was struck by a driver who was not drinking, who had swerved away from an oncoming car. He was jogging on the sidewalk. No one was doing anything wrong. He died later that night at OHSU.
Though it's completely unrelated to knitting, in my life right now I have no other way of dealing with anything. And I was thinking about something I could do for Cassie and her kids. And in researching the book, I've learned that knitting does play a healing role in life's worst situations. So even though it's not at all connected in any sense that most people could detect, I am asking for some support via a knitting pattern.
I even started creating a scarf pattern, and it's almost done, except (see last post) I am drowning in work. And I want that pattern to be perfect before I sick it on you, my readers.
So this is what I can and want to do. I've had a lot of requests for the meathead hat pattern, even though the knitalong has ended and the book is not yet available. So what I'd like to do is make the meathead knitting pattern available to anyone for $4.50, and $3 of every sale will go to the Christopher Donn Memorial Fund for his and Cassie's children. This is the only way this pattern will be made available until the book comes out next spring.
I'm not able to figure out right now today how to do a downloadable product with paypal . So it will be an emailed pdf file from me once your payment is complete. You will need to pay by paypal (button below), and I will email the document to the address from which you pay (or to any one email address you designate). You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the pattern document. I'll send it to one email address per payment, and it's non-shareable so please consider buying it more than once if you want to give it to friends.
It's a totally simple pattern, and it comes in two adult sizes. You could adjust it for children's sizes quite easily by changing yarn & needles. I guess what I'm saying is, it's so simple. Please don't think of it as buying 5 dollars worth of knitting wisdom, so much as making a contribution in a time of need.
In fact, if you've knitted the meathead pattern already, you could buy it anyway and I'll send it to anyone whose email you designate in the "notes" section on paypal.
I know probably 99% of you don't know this family. But I know you're an empathetic, helpful, and caring bunch. Thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy. And hold your loved ones and be thankful.
The pattern sale and fundraiser has ended. Thank you so much for your generous support!
