Wednesday, July 25, 2012

3 Little Boys have found a new family. Now they need to come home!

Can you spare a mere $10 to help the Archer family bring home their three newly adopted sons?
They only need less than $5,000 to be fully funded, to pay all the expenses to bring these three little boys (2 x age 7 and one age 9) from Eastern Europe to their new home at the Archer house in Minnesota.

Read about the Archer family and their journey here: http://theroaddownhome.blogspot.com/2012/07/please-welcome.html

If you help the Archers with money or spreading the word, you can be entered into a drawing for a new iPad 3 give-away. You can see all the details at the link below.

A tax-deductible donation of $10 or more enters you into the drawing. See: http://www.babynumber10.blogspot.com/2012/07/three-for-three-giveaway.html

Two other ways to get into the drawing are

  1. spread the word via Facebook
  2. spread the word via your blog
I realize that this has nothing to do with the 310 Hats project. But through E3 I've become aware of the Archer's journey and infinitely loving hearts. E3 has done everything she can to help the Archers including knitting amazing pairs of cashmere socks to be sold on eBay, and donating some of her precious beautiful yarn stash and dyeing kits for sale on eBay. 

Friday, July 6, 2012

An amazing collection of free hat patterns

I confess: I've become a GarnStudioDrops Design and DropsYarn junkie. It's all E3's fault. She pointed me to a mitten pattern. I fell in love*. Consequently, I've been hanging out in the Drops pattern collection and archive ever since.

Here, friends, is enough hat inspiration to keep you, your needles, and your hooks busy for a year. Just click.  The link is set for the American and English versions of the patterns, but feel free to switch to a different language and different version of instructions. Nearly every pattern they offer is offered in many different languages. The link is also sorted by yarn gauge. Feel free to sort on a different attribute.

*I still haven't mastered the tension on multi-yarn knitting. I haven't finished that first pair of mittens. But I've made many other of their patterns!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The 2012 310 Hats Project is "ON"!


Dear Friends of the 310 Hats Project:

The project continues, even if E2 is The World's Worst Blogger (bar none). I've lost count of how many blogs I've started and abandoned. It's a pity that the 310 Hats project is one of them. But that's a story for another day.

Suffice to say, the 2012 310 Hats Project is still on.
E1 has already created about 60 hats.
E1's friend has pledged 50.
D in California has made a few score.
E2, the dud, has only made a handful. (I have an excuse! Really I do!)

If you are interested in participating in the 310 Hats project for this year, please feel free to join us! Please let me know your interest, and I will send you the destination postal address. Let me know how many hats you'll be sending so that I can help keep a tally of how close we are to the September 2012 goal of 310 Hats.

What are the hat criteria? This project is flexible. Wool is fine. Acrylic is fine. Sewn poly fleece is fine. Anything that will keep a child's head warm is fine. All that we ask is that it fit the head of a Kindergarten-aged child. Any elementary aged child will do as a test model if you don't happen to have a K-aged child nearby. Really, an adult small is suitable for a K-child's head. Kindergarten-aged kids have nearly fully grown heads.

Thank you for any help you can offer!

Now, if I can remember how to post photos after neglecting this blog for longer than a year, I'll put up two wonderful pictures from the 2011 hat distribution.



As the letter E1 received said, so I say to you who help: Yakoke!

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.

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