Showing posts with label hats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hats. Show all posts

Monday, June 23, 2014

Do You Knit or Crochet?

There is a collection of baby hats and socks going on... and it needs our help! They were expecting to be inundated, but so far the numbers are low. Can you quickly make a few baby hats and socks (see guidelines below)? Babies in Afghanistan need our help. Forwarded e-mail is below this photograph:


Dear Knitters and Crocheters for Afghanistan,

We're having a bit of a drought here in California ...

Our Baby Shower for Afghan Babies is on the dry side so far ...

As of last Friday, the count was about 100 wool pairs of baby socks
and 40 baby hats (in sizes newborn to 1 year). All gorgeous, top-
quality garments that any mother would be honored to receive for her
new baby.
kn
We know that more baby socks and hats are on the needles or in the
mail -- THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We're fretting, though -- this seems like a bit of a drought so far
based on our experience.

The Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul delivers about 85 babies each
day -- we want to send a few thousand hats and socks so that the
hospital is supplied for a full year. These garments were specifically
requested by the medical personnel as needed items.

A wool hat is one of the most cost-effective techniques for ensuring
survival at the beginning of life. Hat-makers ... this is your time!

We have not had a campaign for babies in a few years -- which excites
everyone -- but we need to reach more volunteers to increase participation. We're
not reaching enough people via our email list or website.

Can you please spread the word to your fiber friends, online and off?

Please feel free to forward this whole email message intact. Please
post the campaign link on your personal blogs and social media.

The Baby Shower campaign details, including where to send, are here --

http://www.afghansforafghans.org/currentcampaign.html

A baby hat or pair of socks can be whipped up in an evening (use up
some oddballs) -- one item can easily be placed in an envelope to our
AFSC Collection Center in San Francisco. Even just one hat or pair of
socks makes a difference -- invaluable to the new baby. We just need
to reach more knitters and crocheters.

We have a deadline in early July, but we're going to get an extension
-- we will email you as soon as we know and also update the website.
Part of the issue is that we have a hard time if we are flooded at the
last minute - we need to have enough time for the local *volunteer*
crew to open packages, inspect, and sort, and then we have to arrange
trucking to the staging area before our cartons are aggregated with a
larger load of humanitarian supplies that are inventoried and then put
in line for transit overseas. Lots of steps along the way!

Thank you for giving this some thought and for sharing this message
with interested fiber friends. It does take a village.

Much appreciation,
Ann and colleagues XOXOXOOXOX


I actually made a hat for this campaign, but there is a big mistake in it, and I'm not even sure it is big enough for a baby, so I hope to start again and make a couple more that are done correctly. Can you join me?

Note: they plan to extend the deadline, so there is still time.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Hats! Books! Joy!

I continue to knit hats. They're so quick, and it's fun to have a project done in a short time. Here are my latest:



I kinda dig the way the tops turn out.

not crazy about the little red blob at the top; live and learn

this one is pink, in case the color confuses you

for scale, to see how tiny that preemie hat is

I am going to give some away, and I want to create a stockpile of hats for future gifts/give-aways. Such fun!

Tonight book group met (whee). We used to meet weekly, but now we switched to monthly. It is better! We had more participants tonight, and it's fun (joyful) with more people in the discussion. The book we read for tonight was The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I admit that I didn't get into it much at first, so I set it aside. Then on Sunday and Monday I had to speed-read in order to be ready for tonight's discussion. Speed-reading (as I define it) is not the best way to truly experience a book. So I can't give an authentic report on this one. A few people in the group loved it and called it fabulous. I didn't, but... who knows what I would have thought with a more careful reading.

For my own joyful reading I picked up Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat. It is engrossing, and I have had my nose in it whenever I could through most of today. I should finish it tomorrow if I don't have to work.

So stay tuned to see more hats, hopefully some mittens, and more book reports! I know. Hard to contain the excitement. I think you can do it if you try.

Monday, November 22, 2010

God's Money, God's Work

A couple weeks ago at church we were all given an envelope which contained $5. We were told it was "God's money." Our assignment was to pray about it, think about how to multiply or add to it, and to use it in some way that would help do some good in whatever way we felt directed.

After pondering for a while, I was drawn to a program I heard about. It's called Hats for the Homeless and is a program in Minneapolis. They collect knitted and crocheted hats and distribute the hats to homeless people in the Twin Cities area. I decided I had just enough time to make a couple of hats in time for their 2010 due date.

At about that same time a former co-worker asked me if I could make a couple of pillows for her. I envisioned a quick, easy task sewing a few seams for a couple square pillows: zip zip zip... done! Sure, I told her. I asked if she would pay me $5 per pillow, and she agreed. I decided I would add that $10 sewing fee to the $5 God's money I already had, and would buy some yarn to make hats for homeless people.

It gets COLD in Minnesota, and I felt it was a worthwhile undertaking, to help keep someone's ears and head warm in our frigid winters. Appropriate for God's money, I felt.

After a couple of days I opened the bag containing the pillow-making materials, and I gasped. One pillow form was round (I'd never made a round pillow before), and both pillows had ropey-braid stuff to add (another thing I'd never done). I was instantly nervous and worried about how these pillows were going to turn out.

I was kicking myself for taking on the project. But.... I had planned ahead and already purchased the yarn and started knitting hats. So I knew I had to attempt these pillows no matter what.



This is a picture of the finished pillows. They're not perfect, but they turned out better than I anticipated. I won't tell you how many h.o.u.r.s. I spent on these pillows. Way more than $5 worth on each, but that was what I quoted, and I was the one who failed to ask any questions. So it goes.

I figure the pillows were part of my service to humanity, along with the hats that I'm in the process of making.

No one said that doing God's work or spending God's money was supposed to be easy. These pillows were not easy. And truthfully, neither are the hats (although they are much more enjoyable to me than fussing with these pillows). I think it's appropriate that I'm getting a brain and hand and patience work-out while working on God's projects. It gives me time to think more carefully about who will use these items and what thoughts I am pouring into them.

May these items keep ears and heads warm, heads and bodies rested, and bring a modicum of warmth and peace to the recipients.