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Tag: W4W

Happy Memorial Day

CindyLeave a comment

As we celebrate Memorial Day, let’s not forgot the reason. Remember and honoring our Veterans and those who gave all.

On this Memorial Day 2019, thanks to all our Veterans here and gone. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

If you are looking to craft for a cause, may I suggest Warmth for Warriors. It is an organization who honors our troops and Veterans through crafting hats and mini stockings for Christmas. If you are looking for a crafting group such as this, please join us over at the Warmth for Warriors group on Ravelry.

Stay Strong Wool Beanie

Cindy1 Comment

I tried a new crochet hat pattern this week. It is the Stay Strong Beanie pattern from Elk Studio. I crocheted this hat in Knit Picks wool yarns with an I (5.25 mm) hook for the 2019 Warmth for Warriors hat drive.

I used wool yarn from my stash to match the color scheme as close to the written pattern as possible.

I did find that working even on 60 stitches did create a small head dimension. My finished hat circumference is 20.5 inches. The hat fits me so it should be okay for a smaller adult head size. I also had to add several additional rows of single crochet (SC) stitches to get a length of 8 inches long which is needed for the hats for the Warmth for Warriors. After 7 rows of SC, I finished off my hat with the reverse SC or crab stitch.

When I work the hat pattern again, I think I will work even on about 65 stitches to make my hat larger next time.

Final thoughts:

Warmth For Warriors 2018

CindyLeave a comment

Happy New Year Everyone!

2018 was a great year for our crafting for Warmth for Warriors. As you may know, I head up the Warmth for Warriors group on Ravelry. Each year we knit and crochet warm, wool hats for our soldiers serving overseas and for soldiers and veterans here at home. We also make and collect small handmade Christmas stockings. The little stockings are stuffed by the Warmth for Warriors organization with small soaps, toiletries, and candies and shipped overseas to our troops as a little Christmas gifts.

We just received the final counts for last year on our hat and mini Christmas stocking drives. Warmth for Warriors received 3,295 wool hats and 877 acrylic hats in 2018 for a grand total of 4,172 hats. 3,746 hats were received in 2017.

As for the mini Christmas stocking drive the total number of stockings received in 2018 was 3,648! We blew out our achievement for 2017 which was 2,819 stockings.

Thank you all for your support of Warmth for Warriors for our troops.

We are just kicking off the 2019 charity crafting drives for Warmth for Warriors (W4W) this month.

Grannies Square Blankets

CindyLeave a comment

Another Ravelry member of our Warmth for Warriors group introduced me to this Grannies Square blanket pattern. The pattern from Doug Speeckaert features a repeating 2-row granny square pattern which looks great and lays flat. The free crochet pattern link to the pattern can be found here.

In this next photo of the center, you can see how you do a traditional granny square type stitching and then the next row is a fill-in row of double crochet stitches. I think this really helps to allow the blanket to lay flat and not ruffle.

The pattern works nicely for using scrap yarns for each row and then I crocheted a few rows in the same color of yarn to create my blanket. I also used two skeins of Red Heart Stripes in latte stripe for the first blanket. I crocheted both of my blankets to a lapghan size for use by Veteran’s in wheelchairs. Both blankets are 32 inches wide.

Here is one more blanket crocheted using this blanket pattern. I call this lapghan blanket Blues Grannie Square.

Houndstooth Wool Hats

Cindy1 Comment

I won this Houndstooth hat pattern through a raffle on Ravlery. I wanted to crochet the pattern in wool yarns for the Warmth for Warriors hat drive. Here are the two wool hats I have crocheted so far with the pattern from Liz McQueen.

It is not a free pattern but I was fortunate enough to win it as otherwise it is $4.50. I do think the pattern is well written and includes many step-by-step photos to help a person crochet the hat. The pattern calls for a I (5.5 mm) crochet hook. I used a smaller H crochet hook so I found the hat a bit short so I added more rows to achieve an 8 inch long hat.

As a bonus, the hat is reversible. Here is the other hat I crocheted in green and tan wool yarns. Below are two photos showing the two different looks of the same hat. Isn’t it cool how different it looks reversed?