SAN DIEGO -- On the last Sunday of each month, 89-year-old Pat Anderson of Escondido, California, gets together with the six other local senior women who make up her highly specialized knitting circle. But don't let these ladies' shared passion for knitting fool you into thinking they're leisurely hobbyists.
Anderson is the founder of the Sisterhood of the Boobless Wonders, a group of breast cancer survivors who over the past five years have knitted and given away nearly 2,500 pairs of Busters, which are breast-shaped pillowlike bra inserts for women who have lost breasts to mastectomy surgery.
Anderson started the Busters project in 2017 as what she calls her last and largest knitting project in her 50-year career as a dedicated fiber designer. The widowed Minnesota native lost her breasts to cancer at the age of 74. During her recovery, she received a pair of silicone prosthetic forms to wear inside her bra but — like many women — she found the silicone forms were too heavy and they didn't fit properly.
