Tuesday, June 8, 2010

shipment update, Kalamazoo updates, Thank You note update

Dear Reader, There is so much to tell you and words seem inadequate.

 Good thing I have PICTURES (!!!) because each picture is worth 1000 words (so they say).

Where did I leave off in the story? Oh yes, Valency's shipment of fleece hats sewn joyfully by children at her Church.

Receiving Valency's hats meant I was having "hat-valanche" again, so I  prepared another shipment. A second shipment of 100 hats filled an 18"x18"x16" box from Home Depot. I sent it out at the end of May. It included my hats #60 (or 61?) to 65 (or 66?).

Meanwhile, I heard from TLC in Kalamazoo, MI that there have been many busy hands in that area, making (knit, crochet, sewn) hats in honor of Elizabeth D in Charlotte, NC and her mom (MS in Kalamazoo).

I received today (6/8) photographs of many wonderful hats made in Kalamazoo. They are being shipped directly to Oklahoma. Please come see the photographs!

To my delight I received a second Thank You note from the Choctaw Nation Head Start today. Please read it. I assure you that you'll immediately want to get your knitting needles, crochet hook, or sewing machine and start stitching!

I figure that soon --- when the Choctaw Nation Head Start receives the hats from Kalamazoo --- the 310 Hats goal will EASILY have been met.

When I got home from my morning errands, I had a bag of hats from Linda T and her friend Emma (Holliston, MA) on my doorstep. They are the first few of the next group of hats!

It has been an honor and a pleasure to be part of such an endeavor.

Blessings and gratitude to each and every person who has participated!


[I have resumed my regular knitting for Saint Francis Knitters. I may post those pictures, just in case any one is interested.] I still owe you pictures of the latest hats from Linda T and Emma, plus pictures of the hats E1 has made and shipped.

- humbly and gratefully, E2

2 comments:

  1. So will they be holding some for next year's Kindergarten class too, or is there another organization that would benefit from these hats? Because it seems like you are well over the 310 mark with more still coming!

    (Excellent work organizing the project!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haven't figured out precisely what to do about hats in excess of 310 yet. For the first hats in excess of 310 that arrive at the Head Start, they can just hold onto those as spares/replacements if they wish.

    I'm going to let my sister figure out what to do with MANY hats beyond 310. Does the Head Start need another 310 next year? (Or is it a multi-year program and so they only get about 100 new students/year?) If they (in OK) don't need another 310 for next year, and have ample for their students + spares, then the extras can stay local here (RI) or at my sister's (Berkshire area, MA). I know that the Poverello Center soup kitchen for whom I regularly knit will ALWAYS GLADLY take hats and mittens and whatever else is warmth-providing. So, no matter how great the number of hats, they will get used! My sister's area, too, can easily and gratefully use however many hats are not needed in OK.

    But if OK needs 310 every year, then we might as well start on the next 310. :-)
    But I can't keep having hat-valanches in my house! I'll have to solve the safe-storage-while-getting-to-310 problem. A hundred is about all I can handle in my bedroom at any one time. That's a LOT of hats!

    ReplyDelete

Crochet Basic Roll-Brimmed Hat

From 310 Hats


Worsted weight yarn
I hook (5 mm)
Marker


  • Chain 2
  • 6 sc in 2nd chain from hook. Place marker in last stitch.
  • 2 sc in each sc (12). Move marker.
  • (1 sc in first stitch, 2 sc in next stitch), repeat around (18 sc). Move marker.
  • (2 sc in each of first 2 sts, 2 sc in next stitch), repeat around (24 sc). Move marker.
  • (3 sc in ea of first 3 sts, 2 sc in next stitch), repeat around (30 sc). Move marker.
  • Continue in this manner for 13 or 14 rounds (increasing the number of scs before the increase by 1 each round) until your radius is about 3", diameter about 6", and circumference about 18". (78 scs or 84 scs). This should make a nice flat disc, which is the hat top.
  • Work even without increasing. It will start making a bowl shape. Continue even until the depth is about 6". It needs to be long enough and and big enough around to cover a Kindergarten-age child's head and ears.
  • To create a rolled brim, increase the stitches by 50%: (1 sc, 2 sc in next stitch) repeat around.
  • Work a few rounds even.
  • Slip stitch around to give a nice tight, neat edge.
  • Cut yarn. Work in ends.
  • If the hat is too "airy", you can weave colored yarns through the stitch spaces. Colored yarns will be very decorative.

  •