OK I Had to Do It

I actually woke up this morning thinking about what a preemie hat made out of the yarn I just bought would look like, so I made one using my Bumpy Preemie Hat pattern. Wow, I love the way it came out. I'm going to have to get more of this yarn next time I'm in St Charles. Thats about 45 minutes from me but it's on the way to see College Kid #2 so I might be down there in a couple weeks. I want to try it on the knitting loom next, matching it with a starnd of white baby yarn.

Yarn Petting part 2

I went to another LYS again today and although this is all I bought, I had a great time checking out all the different yarns. I took College Kid #2 with me and he was even checking out and petting all the yarn. I just fell in love with the colors in this yarn and kept thinking how great it would look as preemie hats. I've been making them for St. Louis Children's Hospital. I kind of took a break from working on them to concentrate on my Kosovo kids, but I'll get back to it soon and this will be the first yarn I use! College Kid #2 (who will be Only College Kid in three weeks because his brother graduates) tried to talk me into buying some really awesome yarn they had there because I had said I would love a scarf made out of it but I just couldn't do it. It would have taken away from my time to work on my charity projects! Oh well, maybe someday, I just made myself a scarf last year and why would I need two?

Thank You Eva!!

Eva from PA sent these wonderful hats for the kids in Kosovo! Thank you so much Eva!

Six Inch Squares Anyone?

I almost forgot I had these squares. They were sent to me last year when I was making blankets for Project Linus. I made several blankets but there just were some squares that refused to play nicely with others. Some one in my All Crafts 4 Charity group was using squares the group had sent her to make scarves for Pine Ridge Reservation. So I decided to steal her idea and use the squares I had to make scarves for the kids in Kosovo. Six or seven 6" squares is perfect for a kids scarf. The one above is made out of eight squares so will probably go to one of the older kids. So I am now asking for 6" squares as well as hats, scarves and mittens if you could spare a little time in this busy season.

Happy Thanksgiving

My daughter is having Thanksgiving at her house this year and I really feel at loose ends without a turkey in the oven. I did have to go over there to make the stuffing, it just wouldn't be right without "Mom"s stuffing". So I decided to celebrate my holiday by working on some of my projects. I am so thankful for my family and my life I need to show it by making items for others. I just finished this scarf for the kids in Kosovo. It matches some loom knit hats I made earlier so I wanted to make a set. Unfortunately, I only had enough yarn for one scarf.

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I know this is a really bad time of year to ask, everyone is probably maxed out on charity and gift projects, but if you could make just one more hat or scarf or pair of mittens for the kids in Kosovo, I know that they would really be appreciated.

Novelty Yarn Scrunchies Free Crochet Pattern

These are so simple I can hardly call them a pattern, but I'll tell you how they are made any way. These are all made with different novelty yarns. The first two are fun fur, the second two are made from two different yarns I bought in a bag of yarn at a thrift store, not even sure what to call them. The bottom ones are made with a varigated boucle yarn.

The pattern is quite simple, you can experiment with hook sizes and the number of chains you use to get the effect you want.

Small amount of novelty yarn

Elastic hair band

Attach yarn to hair band, *sc, chain between 1 and 6, repeat from * until hair band is completely covered. I did all of mine with the same amount of chains through out but you can experiment with various combinations.

Thumbs Up Scarf

Boy, the color on that came out bad, it's supposed to be redder but I tried several times and that's the best I could get. My son gave me his old digital camera and I have to figure it out some day instead of using my cell phone.

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Anyway, I finally managed to finish a larger project!! I did it a couple rows at a time, picking it up, doing some until it became uncomfortable, and putting it down, several times a day.

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Why do I call it a Thumbs Up Scarf? Because when I work on my projects I always picture the child who might receive it. It doesn't really matter that the child doesn't look anything like the one I pictured or even if I pictured a girl and a boy was the final recipient. The images in my mind help keep me motivated and that's what counts. Anyway, back to the scarf, for a change I actually have a picture of some of the children who might be getting this scarf and the other things I and some of my readers are making. While I was working on this scarf I kept picturing the little boy in the second picture below who is giving the thumbs up sign to someone off camera. I will be making a matching hat for it as soon as I finish the one I have on the loom for the little boy in the front with the yellow coat.

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Please, if you have a little bit of extra yarn and time can you help me make hats, scarves and mittens for these children? Just email me at debsstuff55 (at) Yahoo (dot) com if you can help.

More on Kosovo School Kids

These are some of the children we will be crafting for, their school is located in Cerkez Sadovina, Kosovo. It has 3 classrooms and educates 125 kids, grades first through fifth. The school has no running water and is heated by very old wood burning stoves. These children have very little and as well as the hats, scarves and mittens (I forgot to mention mittens?? well mittens too!!) they need school supplies and other warm clothing.

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The first picture is of Brad, Dave's friend, in front of the school with the children. The second one is my friend Dave, on the day they painted the school, with some of the children. Dave and Brad with other service members have been trying to help these children and the school and think it's great that we are trying to help.

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If you would like to help email me at debsstuff1955 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Just Rambling 11/15/08

I just sent out three packages this morning, one with hair pretties, a bag of yo-yos to the lady who makes awesome afghans out of them and some slippers and loomed hats that are on their way to Pine Ridge. I sent out my Granny's Daughters earlier this week.
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Doing all those small projects has really helped. I don't know if it really got easier or I just got used to it! My "purse project" right now is 7" wool squares for the joiners in the All_Crafts_4_Charity group. They are joining them together for blankets for Pine Ridge Reservation right now. The need for Pine Ridge is tremendous. They have already experienced a major blizzard this year and many were trapped with no heat and little food.
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I'm getting a good response for my Kosovo project already. I'm hoping to have more information Monday for you all. I want to thank those who have already volunteered to help and hope more of you will be able to.
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I received a hundred dollar check from the advertising on my blogs. Now to decide what to do with it. I promised that all money earned from the advertising here would go to the charity projects. I have been using a little bit of it for postage and will probably use more to send the hats and scarves to Kosovo. I really don't need fabric or yarn, my craft room is overflowing as it is.
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I'm going to have the grandbabies later on today (OK they're 11 and 8 and I have to stop calling them babies) so I'm going to take a short nap before they get here. I'm putting them to work, they just don't know it yet.

Kosovo

I will know more information soon and will hopefully have a few pictures to share with you. A friend of mine is currently stationed in Kosovo and he and other service men there have been helping out a school in the area he's stationed. They bought the supplies for and built a woodshed for the school because people were stealing the school children's wood.

These children have very little and I thought it would be great if I could make and collect enough hats and scarfs to send over there for these children. This is not an established charity or a big project, just someone who wants to make a difference in this one small corner of the world. I hope to have some idea tomorrow how many children there are and have some pictures of them. I could really use some help and if you would like to participate please email me at debsstuff55 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Baby Pompadour Scrunchie Free Crochet Pattern

In an effort to use up the last bits of the Bernat Sweet Stripes yarn I thought I'd make some hair pretties. I searched for a pattern but didn't find anything suitable I liked. I sort of had an idea of how I wanted them to come out so I started to experiment and this is what I came up with. It can be made with worsted weight but of course it wouldn't be as light and lacy which was the effect I was trying for.

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Hair Scrunchies

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1 ouchless elastic hair band

Small amount of Pompadour sport weight yarn

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Round 1: Join yarn to hair band with a slip stitch,* sc, ch 3 repeat from* around the band, cover the band completely without forcing it, join to first sc with a sl st.The amount of ruffling there is depends on how many stitches you use. If you want more ruffles try to get more stitches on the band.

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Round 2: sl st into 1st chain 3 space ch 5 (counts as first dc and ch 2) dc into same ch 3 space, *dc into next ch 3 space, ch 2, dc into same space, repeat from * until the end sl st to join

The Problem with Stash Busting

The idea of stash busting is to use up the whole skein of a particular yarn. I don't usually do that, especially making smaller things like hats. I'll make one or two and then make more in other colors. So anyway, I pulled out two skeins of Bernat Sweet Stripes in green and blue and decided to use them up. I'm still not done and this is what I have so far. It's a sport weight baby yarn and it's almost like a magic yarn that just keeps going and going and going. These aren't the only skeins I'm working on, I have to have some variety or I would go nuts, but I am really tired of looking at these colors. LOL

Yarn Petting

I don't have a local yarn shop near me, the closest one is thirty miles away. In fact, in this small town in Missouri my only option for buying new yarn is Wal-Mart. So when I do get a chance to go to a shop I really like to check out every thing. I got a chance yesterday and let me tell you there are some really awesome yarns out there. I got to pet wool, alpaca and bamboo, some really soft silk blends and much more. I would have loved to have bought so much of it. I want everything I make for "my kids" (that's any child that receives anything I made) something really special and some of these yarns would have been. Especially the ones that were selling for fifteen dollars or more for a 50 gram skein. Oh well, I can dream can't I?