#92

I am making fast progress partially because I am using larger needles with thicker yarn.  I ordered this Ella Rae Chunky Superwash when it was on sale recently.  I only have enough for one more hat and I'm now wishing I had ordered more!

#91

I am not allowing myself to knit anything except Hats for Sailors until I reach 100.  My goal is getting so close.  I am definitely motivated now!

#90!!!

After my last post, I decided that I really had to focus entirely on hats and producing them as quickly as possible or I had no hope of reaching 100 by the end of the year.  I also figured they had to be concentrated up front.  Things will pick up soon around here with the deadline for hats approaching.  I LOVE this whole process but it is time consuming.  Packages need to be opened, hats counted and sorted, repacked and sent to the ships.  And it all takes much longer than it should because I can't help but look at all the hats.  I do it every step along the way.  It all reaches a pinnacle when Lynne comes over to pack them up.  We both spend so much time admiring your work and it takes longer than it should.  But that is what makes it so much fun!

Since October 24th, I have finished 10 hats.  I haven't knit anything else and my Christmas knitting is quickly backing up but I really want to finish 100.  I am confident that I will.  I will begin counting each hat on the blog until I get to 100, so check back to see my progress.

Momentum in My Library?

I have lost my momentum again.  I had an incredibly fun, but busy summer and fall.  It changed my habits and I don't reach for my knitting needles as often.  I have finished hat #80.  To reach my goal of 100 hats by the end of the year, I need to change my momentum.

I mentioned months ago about organizing my queue, which has helped.  Although I still love those patterns, I needed something new to get me back on track.  This time I turned to my Ravelry library.  Did you know you can search your own library?

Included in my library is every pattern I have purchased or downloaded along with every book I own.  Keeping it up-to-date has helped a lot when I am trying to figure out where I have seen the pattern before and if I have it somewhere.  But now it is bringing me new ideas for hat patterns.

If you go to your library page and scroll down a little bit, you see "search patterns in library" in the lefthand column.  I clicked on accessories, which brings up more patterns than I want.  To narrow it down to hats, I click on the check for all accessories to make it disappear and then click on the "hats" box to check it.

Now I can look at every hat pattern that I already have.  I can narrow my search further by many options - age or gender - yarn weight - yarn yardage - hat characteristics like cables or color work.  It is a great place to look for inspiration or to find something specific in patterns you already have.

Stay tuned.  Do you think I will make it to 100 by December 31st?  I'm not so sure.

Finding Inspiration

You can tell I am hitting a creative block when it comes to my 100 different hat patterns.  Somehow, I am having problems coming up with new inspiration.  Thank goodness for the monthly Hats for Sailors KAL on Ravelry or I would have nothing!  I need a kickstart.  One of the ways I am hoping to get that is Hats for Sailors and the Summer Giveaway.

Hats for Sailors on Ravelry

Usually we giveaway something every month to someone who has posted a picture of a finished hat on our Ravelry Hats for Sailors group.  This summer we are going to combine all 3 months into something a little different.  Here are the rules:

1.  You must have mailed in at least one hat to Hats for Sailors since the beginning through August 31, 2014.

2.  You must post at least one picture of a hat you have knitted between June 1st and August 31st and will be sending to Hats for Sailors for the November deadline.

3.  You must post one pattern to one of 3 discussion threads in the Ravelry Hats for Sailors group.  These groups are:
      Great Travel Knitting Hat Patterns meaning easy and/or fast
      Favorite Patterns
     Wacky Hat Patterns

Anyone who fulfills those requirements will have one chance to win one of the prizes.

All About Me

Looking to the Hats for Sailors group for inspiration will take a little time and I need something to get me started in the mean time.  Lately I have noticed that I find patterns I like and they are already in my queue.  Obviously I need to look through there for inspiration.  My queue is 17 pages long!!!  I have a short attention span and that gets too long for me to look through and I get bored before I get inspired.

Did you know you can organize your queue like you can organize your patterns?  I did take the time to sort through them and put all the hat patterns into a group with a tab.  I discovered that I have almost 90 patterns!  I was shocked and I should be able to find some inspiration there.  Now that they are all grouped together in one tab, it is only 3 pages and much easier to peruse.

I hope you will join us on Ravelry this summer and be inspired!

   

Have You Heard About Us?

We have been receiving some great publicity lately so I thought I would have a post summarizing who we are.

Back in 2010
We started with this post on Shanti's blog by her mom Lynne.  It was an ambitious hat drive with a short time schedule to provide a hand knitted or crocheted hat to every sailor on the USS Decatur.  Shanti (who is a knitter and quilter) would be commanding the ship and was hoping to have the hats when that happened.  The response from knitters and crocheters all over was amazing and hundreds of hats poured into Lynne's home.  Not only did they supply the USS Decatur with hats, they supplied many others with hats too.  It was such a great idea, it just couldn't stop there.

Fast Forward to 2014
I was one of the knitters who joined the hat drive for the USS Decatur.  When I emailed Lynne for her address, I discovered that I live only a few miles away.  I was very excited to join these two amazing women in their project.  Many others have joined them too.  We now have almost 500 members in our Ravelry group and hundreds of hats arrive every year at my home to be packed and sent to the ships that Lynne and Shanti have arranged.

Interested in Joining Us
We have several places where you can read about us.  We have a web site at  www.hatsforsailors.com .  We have a Facebook page and a Ravelry group.  You can read about us in any of those places and join us in our current hat drive or the one for November.  Have a question or two or just don't like social media, then please email us at hatsforsailors@gmail.com.  If you aren't a knitter but want to help, please tell your knitting and crocheting friends about us.  If you just want to keep up with what is going on, you are welcome to join us on Ravelry, like us on Facebook or just check into our website or blog periodically to see what is going on.

Welcome to Hats for Sailors we hope you will join this amazing group of generous men and women!

Sandra

KALs

I have been slowly chipping away at my 100 hats in 100 patterns.  I am now on #66 so I am almost 2/3rds of the way to my goal.  Yay!  I am getting a little tired of being restricted to new hat patterns especially since we are having monthly KALs over on Ravelry.

If you haven't checked it out then take a look at our Ravelry group and the KALs we have done so far. Each month has added a new technique that we have not tried before.  We are learning together and having fun while doing it.  I had already knitted some of the patterns so know the technique but I am learning a lot from the other knitters and modifying my own approach to make it better.  We have a new KAL starting on the 1st of each month, so click on the link on this page to our Ravelry group and think about it joining us.