Home again, but not all safe and sound

Hi All, hope everyone had a lovely Easter and some well-deserved time off!

Las Vegas was great - full of bizarre people, free drinks & incredible sights - I've posted a few holiday snaps on my Flickr, but I won't bore you with them here...except for this one, because everything about it makes me happy:

***yes, it is made of jelly beans!***

While the days are getting longer and I'm spending more time outdoors, I've really fallen behind on my knitting and started doing, well, outdoorsy things! Walking the dog, hanging up washing on the line, cleaning my car - all things I dread/wouldn't dream of doing in the cold!

However today my to-do list was put into perspective...today a close friend at work was diagnosed with stage 4 Melanoma, which has completely bowled us all over. Our office is a pretty chatty one, with lots of cakes, magazines and laughter, but today we fell silent. She's 35, newly-wed and just the cheeriest person I know...

So in an effort to bring everyone together with some focus, out came the knitting! We've agreed to each knit an 8x8 square (there's around 7 of us who can knit) and see how we go from there, probably doing another 2 or 3 each. Our initial thought was a hat for her 18 weeks of Chemotherapy starting from May, but as Chemo patients can get quite cold during treatment, we're working together to make a blanket first.

So if any of you have any nice square patterns you'd like to suggest, they'd be greatly appreciated! We vary in proficiency from basic garter stitch to intermediate - I've had a trawl on Ravelry, but if anyone has any favourites I'd love some help!

Thanks in advance...

A Xxx