Some hats from Denise in Iowa

Denise in Iowa sends pictures of four delightful hats she has knit for the project!

From 310 Hats

From 310 Hats

THANK YOU, Denise!!!!

Birthday hat

 Behold "The Birthday Hat"!

From 310 Hats

Yesterday was E3's birthday. I am pretty sure she turned 21. :-)

While the hat isn't for her (it's for 310 Hats), I prayed for her intentions as I crocheted it. Prayer is a very powerful birthday gift and she was grateful. :-)

The knitting ladies of the "Toastmasters in Motion" club may join me in the Hats project. We'll see! Hey, ladies, if you are reading this, the bottom of this blog screen gives you an easy crochet pattern. An easy knitting pattern is available from the Knit A Cap organization.

This poor neglected blog...

Is any one still here?
I've knit about 25 hats (including finishing) and knit-without-finishing about 25 more. I have photographed zero.
I am pulled in so many directions!
I haven't forgotten the blog. Just haven't had time to update it.
In short - I'm still here, still knitting towards 310 hats for Fall 2011. I know E1 is still knitting hats.
I'm grateful if you're still here.
Let me know if you're here and if you're knitting along, too.

Sincerely, and gratefully,
E2

What was in the giant boxes, data, and ....

E1 and I met at our dad's for Thanksgiving dinner. E1 brought the Thank Yous she received from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Head Start program. Oh my, I was flabbergasted!

The blanket was amazing all by itself. It has to be 5 feet on each side, WOVEN, super-soft, and absolutely stunning in its color and intricacy! In the picture, E1 is holding it up; her hands are over her head. A full-size adult is behind that blanket so you can see how large it is. Gosh, it's amazingly beautiful. I told her I think it's the kind of blanket they give to Heads of State who visit. See the blanket.

E1 gave me the big packet of all the written Thank You notes. It will take me a while to photograph all of them and share them with you. They literally show gorgeous little angels wearing the hats, with notes from the children. Every hat is shown. It's fun to pick up one of the pictures and look at each little cherubic face and say "I made this one, that one, that one..." I have photographed one of the cards as best I could. It merely gives you the tiniest glimpse of the magnificent beautiful Thank You card. You can see from the hand, a full-size adult hand, how large the card is! Then the inside, with signatures from precious 3-, 4-, and 5-year old children. A keepsake.

I will photograph and share the other Thank You cards as time permits. It'll be a tricky process, as they are very large. One of them, I think it's from Antlers Head Start, has a little paper doll to represent each child... boy paper dolls and girl paper dolls... and each paper doll is wearing a yarn hat! I hope to do it justice by photographing it. Or I may resort to video clips so I can read to you what the cards say and narrate what you'd be seeing if you were close to the card in person. We'll see. I won't get to it today but I will get to it as soon as I can.

Also included in the packet where newspaper stories about Hat Day at Head Start. One newspaper had the story of the hats on the front page. It took up a huge amount of space! It is an astonishing amount of press space. I think in Boston there would only be that kind of press real estate (1/4 of a front page) for criminals, disasters, or amazing rescues in life-or-death situations.

Now for some important news. E1 got her answer about how many hats the Choctaw Nation needs on a yearly basis. The answer: 310.

So, who's game for "Three Hundred Ten Hats: Year Two"???  I'm in. Are you?

E1 received some BIG Boxes!

Wednesday after work, 10/20/10, E1 found two registered mail slips in her home mailbox. Hmmmm.... Couldn't go to the PO on Wednesday night. Thursday at lunch time she went to the PO to get her registered mail. What did she have? Two "GINORMOUS" boxes from the Choctaw Nation. She said they were so big that she could barely carry either of them. Carrying both in one trip was out of the question. One was giant and flat, at least a yard in each direction. The other was the size of a big boot box. Neither was very heavy, but the contents were quite mysterious! She couldn't open them at work on Thursday, so I had to wait until Friday to find out what was in them!

E1 writes:

Oh, they're so nice...
The boot-sized box was in fact a boot box, and it contained a letter from Rebecca, some newspaper articles about our hats, some thank-yous from the kids and teachers, and a blanket with the Choctaw Nation seal on it.

The other, big, flat parcel had pictures and thank-you posters from each of the schools, with pictures of the kids. I think she said every hat was shown, but I didn't count. I only recognized a couple hats, but then again, I didn't even recognize most of my own when I took them out to photograph! Each is addressed to you and me and our friends.

I will probably see E1 at Thanksgiving time. I hope to get photos to share with you at that time, unless E1 makes a photo CD at the pharmacy or Wal*Mart again. (News flash: I now have a CD reader for my computer so I won't have to take a picture CD to Staples to have the pictures moved from CD to thumb drive!)  In any event, as soon as I have photos of this very moving Thank You gift from the Choctaws, I will share them with you!

Meanwhile, I think the blanket may look like the one you can see at the Choctaw web site.

E1 will also get an answer to a very important question soon:

When I write to thank her, I guess I have to ask if they can get by with less than 300 next year, maybe a 100-hat replacement rotation.

For my own part, I've been wondering if the kids need mittens, too. 

Any one up for a year of 310 Hats plus 620 mittens????  Or, as Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitting Guru, wrote: "Always make mittens in threes, so there's a pair even when one gets lost or ruined." So, I guess that would be 930 mittens. Fleece mittens are a relatively quick sew.... Nudge, nudge.....

{If you'd like an easy mitten pattern, check out MINDLESS MITTENS ON MAGIC LOOP (or DPN). Here is a mitten formula, for any size mitten with any yarn knit at any gauge. If you like the custom fit aspect of TOP DOWN mittens, and you have a Kindergarten-sized person who can be your test model, you should click the link for the TOP DOWN MITTENS pattern.}

You are in for a TREAT!

TA DA!

Finally, after far too long a time, I can finally share the photos of E1's hats with you!

Press F11 to go to full screen.

Then press THIS LINK to go see a slide show of E1's hats.

Lovely article - Straight from the Press Room of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma!

Dear Reader,

I hadn't forgotten this blog.

I simply didn't have anything to add ... especially since ONLY A FEW OF YOU HAVE SENT ME PICTURES OF YOURSELVES!  (*nudge nudge hint hint*)

Now I do have something to add. Google has a feature that allows you to scan the globe for things you might care about... such as the name of your own blog or an arcane news topic like "Holy Communion and celiac disease"..  The feature is called Google Alerts. I have a Google Alert set for the name of this blog.

Today Google Alerts brought me news about an article in the Press Room of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Please go read this delightful article.

I can recognize a few of the hats in the picture. How many can you recognize?

If you made one or more hats, PLEASE send me your photo! If you don't want your photo in the "Hat Maker's Online Collage", just let me know. But I really truly want to send some photos of hat makers to Durant, per the request of Ms. Hawkins, and I only have a tiny percentage of hat makers' photos. Please send me your picture.

But first, go read the great article from the Press Room of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma!

By the way, I know I still owe a bunch of photos of E1's hats. Techno-Daughter has to move the photos from CD to flash drive for me. (This computer doesn't have a CD reader.)