Sunday, May 13, 2007

Secret Revealed

Remember my friend Rebecca? The one with breast cancer? She's having a mastectomy tomorrow and a bunch of us thought it would be really cool if she could have something handmade to show her how much we care and that she's not alone. We are all Knitters (Rebecca is too), so we knit. It's hard to know what to do when someone you care about is faced with cancer, but Knitters knit.

So the call went out and we knit. And with each stitch that we knit, we thought of Rebecca. Some prayed for Rebecca. Some focused on positive thoughts. Some just knit.

When all of our knitting was complete, it was stitched up together into a blanket for Rebecca. With each seaming stitch that brought one square together with a different square, the power strengthened. By the time this blanket was complete, the power and love was emanating from it like you wouldn't believe. It was almost visible.

Here's what we made:
[A Field Guide to Rebecca's Blanket can be found here]
[We ran out of time to steam block the blanket, so that's become a summer project!]

There are 40 eight-inch squares in this blanket knit by 26 Knitters from 4 countries (including 9 U.S. states). We were so lucky to have the Yarn Harlot participate too...she's bringing in the stats from Canada and knit the Rune of Happiness in the very center. (And the Yarn Harlot "groupies" - Knittymama, Mama Grouch, Purple Purl Girl and me - are all surrounding her square!)

Rebecca absolutely loved the blanket and was so pumped up by the show of support at the Race for the Cure this morning (7:30 a.m. at the Mall of America with 54,000 runners total, 55 of those on Rebecca's Lucky Rock Stars team which raised over $5K for breast cancer research...wow!) and at the after-party at my house where we presented the blanket.

I don't know if anyone can ever truly be ready for a surgery like this, but after all of this morning's love and support, she's pretty darned near ready now. Please keep Rebecca in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow. With a skilled surgical staff and a little bit of luck, her cancer will be completely gone by this time tomorrow. And she'll have a blanket of love to wrap herself up in for the road to recovery.

http://rebeccasblanket.blogspot.com

10 comments:

Kim Campbell said...

How awesome is that!

Gin said...

Kate, it looks amazing! I will definately be thinking of her. Please keep me posted on how everything goes:)

Anonymous said...

C~Your secret project had me weepy! I go to a surgeon tomorrow, I need to have a lump removed...so scary.
How beautiful is that patchwork of love?

K

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! Wow. What a great idea, what a beuatiful and touching gift, what an incredible story. Rebecca can't help but know she is surrounded by love and hope thanks to all of you! I only wish I had been able to participate, but I had wee bitty blankie of my own to finish...

LaVerna said...

It turned out so gorgeous!You did an awesome job Catherine.Rebecca is so blessed to have such a good friend.Many helaing thoughts and prayers going up for Rebecca.
Thanks for letting me be a part if it.

LaVerna said...

That is HEALING thoughts and prayers.Fingers move faster than my brain sometimes!

Chris said...

What an amazing gift of healing energy for Rebecca!

Debra said...

Very cool. First, best wishes to your friend Rebecca-- I hope her surgery and follow-up proceed well.

The blanket-- what a wonderful gift from all of you! Thanks to all who contributed!!!

Anonymous said...

The blanket looks lovely. Here's hoping that all goes well with Rebecca's surgery.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderul and heartfelt gift! You truly are a kind and good friend. I hope that Rebecca's surgery was successful. Hugs to you and your little man. Hagitha Twittlesnap!