The Basics

I guess a recurring theme is how different the same or similar patterns can look if you change the yarn.  This week I have pulled out examples of a basic beanie pattern.

Some of these hats are exactly the same, knit in the same color and yarn by the same knitter.  All of the hats are very similar.  The colors are similar, mostly in blues and greens with just a few outside that range.  There are only minor differences in design.  Some have a brim, most do not.  One of them is in reverse stockinette.  If you have never knitted a hat before, this is a good place to start.  I will be traveling later this summer and this is the type of hat I will be knitting.  It will not require as much of my focus leaving me free to look at the scenery or talk to friends and relatives.  I have mentioned it before but it is probably worth repeating.  When it comes to a basic beanie, turn-a-square by Jared Flood is the most popular.

These are also basic beanie patterns, but the knitters added stripes.  They are dominated by blues but there is still a lot of variation, both in the colors of the stripes and the pattern of those stripes.  For knitters who want a basic beanie, but want to change it up a little bit, this is a great way to add some interest without adding complexity.

I hope you are having a great summer.  Hats are a great summer project, light and portable and with a simple pattern, easy enough to fit into your busy summer plans.

Knit and Purl

It surprises me the beautiful hats that can be made with simple stitches.  I looked through some of the hats we have received and pulled some out that used knits and purls.

It is a little hard to see the stitch definition in the darker hats in the photos, but they stand out in person.

The following pictures include a few hats with traveling stitches.  A little more complicated than knit and purl, but they are really beautiful.

It is amazing how much variety there is in hats in the above pictures.  Even hats that use the same pattern look different in various colors and stripes.  It's one reason I love to knit hats.  You can experiment with color and design without investing too much time in a project.  You can also memorize one pattern and knit it repeatedly, but change the color and it looks different every time.

And The Winner Is....

Marti from Colorado!  Congratulations to Marti!!!

A big thank you to everyone who contributed hats for the May deadline, including

AMBER                    
GINA
GWEN
HILA
JESS
JUDY
KAREN
KASSIE & BILL
KATHY
LE ANN
LINDA
MAGGIE
MARTI
MEAGHAN
MELANIE
NINA
ORLI
PEGGY
ROBYN
SANDRA
STEVE

We had a total of 184 hats!!!  Thank you to everyone!

Liberty Yarn

This week starts our Liberty Wool giveaways!  Tomorrow we will be giving away two skeins of one color of Liberty Wool to someone who sent hats in for our May deadline.  These are the two skeins that will be given away tomorrow.

I will be opening a thread on Ravelry where you can post pictures of your finished hats between June 11th and July 10th.  On July 11th, we will be giving away two skeins of a different color of Liberty Wool to one of those members who posted a picture in that thread.   This will continue every month with two skeins being given away on the 11th until the last giveaway on November 11th.


With this in mind I looked through the hats I have received and took a picture of hats in similar colors made with Liberty or other variegated yarns.  They are so great because whether you are using a simple or more difficult pattern, they look beautiful!  More similar pictures to come in future posts.

As always, you can look on our pages on Ravelry and see some beautiful hats by better photographers.  It was one of these postings that inspired many of us to try Liberty wool and it has quickly become a Hats for Sailors favorite.

Our goal is always to have as many hats as possible for our sailors and publicity certainly helps!  I thought I would highlight three blogs by people who donate to Hats for Sailors.  Not only do they knit hats for our cause, but they have linked to us on their blogs and have generated significant traffic!  Thank you to all of them and to all of you!  

They are:
52 Quilts
She Makes Hats
Z Knits and Sews

I happened to have stumbled across these, but if you knits Hats for Sailors and have a blog, add yours to our comments section.

November Deadline Monthly Prizes

Liberty Wool is a popular choice among Hats for Sailors knitters and crocheters.  They make a simple pattern beautiful!  Check out the group in Ravelry for some lovely examples.

I have a box full of Liberty Wool kindly donated by a friend who doesn't knit but loves what we do and wanted to help.  So we are going to give away the Liberty Wool as prizes between now and the November deadline but we are going to do it a little bit differently than we have before and we are very excited!

We will give away one prize each month on the 11th with the final prize being November 11, 2013.  The prize will be two skeins of one color.  We will open a new thread on Ravelry for each month.  Every person who posts a picture of a completed hat or hats in that thread will have one chance per hat to win the Liberty Wool.  If you are technically challenged (like many of us are) post in the thread anyway and we will either help you figure it out or come up with some other way to include you without having to post a picture.

Since we don't want to forget all the people who sent hats in for our May deadline, the first prize will be given to someone who sent a hat in for that deadline.  We will announce the winner on June 11th.  All the hats that have been mailed should have arrived by that time.  If you have mailed in hats and you have not received an email from me by June 8th, then send me a message and we will straighten it out.

So get your needles, hooks and cameras ready.

This is only the beginning of our exciting November deadline news!!!  We are currently finalizing some prizes for November.  Every person who donates a hat for a 2013 deadline will have a chance to win.