July Already?

I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by.  When I first wrote about the summer campaign for hats, I had imagined myself knitting hats everywhere I went.  They are such a portable project that I knew they would be flying off my needles!  So far, it hasn't worked out that way.  Even though I have knitted for a long time and completed a lot of projects, I have two ways of thinking that work against me.  I always over estimate the amount of time I will have to knit and grossly under estimate the amount of time it will take to complete a project.  Maybe I'm just an optimist!

So keeping that in mind, I am sure that I will complete at least two hats in the month of July (I have not completed any this summer).  Do you think I can do it?

June Winners


The two winners of the Madeline Tosh skeins are Hila from New York and Sharon from South Carolina.  Congratulations to both of them!

July Prizes


We have two prizes for July.

The first prize is a lovely knitted bag that you can use either as a purse or to carry your knitting projects.  Inside the bag is a pair of little scissors called puppy snips that look like a dog attached to a small chain.  They are great to carry along with any project.

The second prize is a knit light.  I have heard that they are really handy when you want to knit but are in a situation with poor lighting.  Maybe if I had one, I could knit under the blankets late at night?  or on a plane when my overhead light doesn't work?  or during a thunderstorm when we lose power?  You get the idea.  Sorry about the poor quality of the picture.

Our goal is to receive another 210 hats by the end of August!  I hope we make good progress towards that goal this month.  Thank you to everyone who is participating and check back on August 1st to see who the winners are for July and what our August prizes will be.

May Winner

Congratulations to Debbie of New York who is the May winner of the knitting options box!

JUNE PRIZES

Announcing........... our June Prizes!


This month there are two.  They are beautiful skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn.  They are superwash merino wool and worsted weight.  They are beautiful colors and lovely to knit with.

The colorway of the first one is called lichen.

The second is called duchess.

You could win one of these skeins of yarn!  All you need to do is knit a hat for a sailor using 100% washable wool with the color and design of your choosing and send it to me so that I receive it between June 1st and June 30th, 2011.  Each hat you knit and we receive gives you one chance at winning one of the skeins.

Our goal is to receive at least 250 hats by August 31, 2011.  We are off to a slow start, so I think it is going to be an ambitious goal.  So keep knitting the gorgeous hats for sailors, mail them in and encourage your friends to do the same.  There are so many of you out there, I know we can reach our goal!

Any questions or if you need the address to mail them, just email us at hatsforsailors@gmail.com.

I am still trying to reach the winner of our May prize and will let you know who it as as soon as I hear back.

Check back on July 1st to see what our July prizes will be!

Summer, Hats, Prizes and Deadlines

Summer has arrived here in California!  When the weather is warm and I am busy traveling and running to picnics and games, I look for a project that is small and portable.  I think a hat for a Sailor is the perfect project for summer and I am hoping you feel the same way.  With that in mind, we are announcing an exciting summer campaign!

The campaign deadline is August 31, 2011 with prizes to be given away each month until then - starting this month!  Each hand-knit or crocheted hat will enter one chance to win the prize in the month it is received.  The winner will be randomly selected after I receive the mail on the last day of the month.

THE MAY PRIZE

KNIT/CROCHET NOTIONS BOX

I knit with a group of lovely women at our local library every week and after one of our knitters purchased this box at a local store, it became a group favorite and I think the winner of this box will love it as much as I do.

Small enough to be portable and big enough to hold those important items, it is about 2" deep and approximately  4" x 5 1/2".

The top section has 8 little compartments that open separately, perfect for stitch markers.

The bottom section is not divided and ideal for those bigger items.

Included with the box are soft ring stitch markers, locking stitch ring markers, a tape measure, small scissors, post-it notes and a bent tip chibi needle.

MAY DRAWING
I need to RECEIVE your hat by May 31st, to be eligible for this prize.  Everyone who has sent a hat to Sandra since the creation of our Ravelry group in December 2010, will be included in the May drawing.

REMINDERS 
There are a few things that bear repeating.  Hats are currently being mailed to Sandra, so if you don't have my address, please email me at hatsforsailors@gmail.com and I will send it to you.  If you include your email address or Ravelry name with your hat, I will send you a message when I receive it so you know it arrived safely.  If you would like to include a note to the Sailor who receives your hat, please feel free to do so and we will make sure it goes along with the hat.

Hats for Sailors is an ongoing project and will not end in August with this campaign!  So please keep creating hats long after August.

READY, SET, GO!
While we are all working on hats, we, at campaign headquarters, will be working to select the first ship and the number of hats we receive will help guide us.  We will have more to say about the ship before the end of the summer.

So get your needles, crochet hooks and yarn ready to create and let's see how many hats we can finish by August 31st.  I am going to be so excited when my mail arrives every day this summer.  Just think a mailbox full of beautiful hand-knit and crocheted hats!!!

Check back at the beginning of June for the May winner and June prizes.  The June prizes will be awarded for hats received on and between June 1st and June 30th.  Here's a hint...beginning in June, there will be two prizes each month!

Quietly Knitting Along

I receive emails and see postings on Ravelry about the beautiful hats that people are working on, not to mention the lovely ones that have shown up in my mailbox.  I can't tell you how much we appreciate all the hard work that is going on right now.  But that doesn't provide much information to post on this blog, so I thought I would share what hats I've been working on.  Please feel free to comment on your current knitting or email me at hatsforsailors@gmail.com and I can share it in a future post.  I think it would be great to see some of your work and hear what your ideas are.

Of course the most important thing is knitting the hat for a sailor, but I'm also trying to accomplish two other things - knit from my stash and try new techniques.   I like knitting hats and I think they are the perfect size to try something new.

This idea happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Zimmerman's birth.  I must be the last knitter on earth not to know much about her, so I decided to Knit the Almanac.  I really enjoyed reading what she had written and I knitted the January project of an aran hat from a recently aquired addition to my stash (I don't think that counts as knitting from my stash).

I was intrigued by her knitting philosophy and have been reading a few more of her ideas.   I really liked one of them.  She kept two containers of yarn, one in light colors and one in dark colors.  She would knit a hat and randomly grab one yarn from alternating containers, so that the hat would have a dark stripe and then a light stripe.  Once a yarn had been used once, she would not use it again in the same hat.  I've decided that is what I am going to do with the leftover yarn from each hat I knit and when I have enough, I am going to try it.  Has anybody ever done this?

Sandra

We're On Our Way!

Congratulations to Shanti and you can read Shanti's blog to hear about her Change of Command ceremony.  She also mentions that our packages are arriving and will be distributed next week.  How exciting that our first hats are arriving at their destination!

Just as that stage is ending, the next is beginning with the arrival of the first beautiful hat for the next ship!  I have started a Hat Tally on the left side of this page to keep everybody up to date.

What an overwhelming response we have had to the Ravelry group.  I always knew that knitters and crocheters are wonderful people, but this response has been amazing!  How creative, generous and enthusiastic you all are.  Thank you so much and I am really looking forward to seeing all the great hats that are now in progress!

How We Started

It all started with Shanti who writes the blog Adventures in Paradise  and had the idea to provide a hand-knitted hat to every sailor serving on the ship she would be commanding.  Lynne, her mom, made that idea a reality with the help of knitters from all over the world.  The response was overwhelming!  They collected over 550 incredible hats and provided one to everyone serving on two ships!

 

We continue to knit hats for sailors in the US Navy one ship at a time.  It is always cold on the ship and they can wear the hats when they are off duty.  The color and design of the hat are the choice of the knitter, but ALL HATS MUST BE 100% WASHABLE WOOL. Remember that both men and women serve on the ships.  If you have questions about the project or want to know where to send the hats, email us at HatsforSailors@gmail.com and join our Ravelry group “Hats for Sailors”.