Any ideas?

I have two skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in 'alpine lilac', and nothing to do with it. I was originally going to make them into a nice cabled hat, but now I'm afraid that the non-stretchy cotton is poorly suited to cables. Sure, it's 20% merino wool, but it just doesn't seem that elastic. So two skeins is a terrible number - I guess I could make a cropped tank top, but ewww. Maybe another hot water bottle cozy? Someone help me! I have 430 yards total, and the suggested gauge is 5 stitches/inch on size 6 needles.