Countdown to Goals and Pledges 2008

At the beginning of this year I wrote in a post what my goals were for this year and this month, I am making an ongoing post rather than making new ones to update every week. I will simply copy and paste when it falls off the front page so you can see my progress.

Total Items for 2008 - 1000
Made so far 93
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Blankets for 2008 - 100
Made so far 0
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Hats for 2008 (not baby hats) 100
Made so far 9
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Baby items for 2008 200
Made so far 56
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Baby items for January for Baby Pack Project 50 (some already completed before Jan. 1)
Made so far 50 Done!!
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Chemo Caps for Kaps-4-Karing Yahoo Group 12 (some already completed as of Jan. 1)
Made so far 12!!!! DONE!!!
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Squares for the challenge for Bevs-Charity-Challange as many as I can make with the wool yarn I have.
Made so far 14 Done!
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Warm scarves for Pine Ridge Reservation 12 by end of Feb.
Made so far 6

Just Rambling 1/11/08

I received a package of yarn from Jill L. in NY and have looked all over for her email address on my computer and can't find it. I really hopes she sees this. Thank you so much Jill!!
I just got back from an eight day live-in and I am exhausted. I only have today off and I have so much to do.
I just received a Thank You note from the Cangleska, which is the women's shelter on Pine Ridge Reservation, thanking me for my last donation.
I've been able to do a few sweater sets for The Baby Pack Project and chemo caps for my pledges this month. I'll be posting pics later today. I'll have to count but I think I've got all twelve chemo caps done.
I have to go thrift shop cruising later today and need to go to WalMart for some red thread to finish some things I'm working on.
I was talking to a hospice nurse about donations of lap robes and afghans and am going to have to look into it further. Her hospice company gets enough donations but others may not. She did tell me that she preferred quilts to knitted or crocheted items for the nursing home patients because you could put their name on it and it was less likely to get lost.

A Good Start to the Year

This is what I have already started for my goals for January.
In the first picture the large hats are all chemo caps done in Baby Clouds and/or Light and Lofty yarn. The pattern can be found here. The two smaller caps were done with Baby Homespun with a variation of the same pattern. The sweater set needs ribbons but was done with self striping baby yarn. It was a onsie pattern that I stopped crocheting when I got to the decreases (I didn't have a sweater pattern with me that would work) The booties used basically the same pattern as these without the color changes and the hat is just a roundie hat and something similar can be found here.
The second picture has a onesie that still needs a button band and buttons. The hats are sewn using McCall's 6818 view G. I found this pattern in a thrift shop and have no idea if it is still available. The smallest size (the white one) was a little too big so I folded the pattern a little and made the red one which was just right.

Donation squares

Just because I've finished my 25 blankets in a month challenge doesn't mean I can't still use crocheted squares. There are several charities I make blankets for on a continuous basis. They are Project Linus and Pine Ridge Reservation. Right now I am also making things for The Baby Pack Project. I also work on other projects as I become aware of the needs. I can not tell you which project your squares will go to but be assured they will go to charity.

Just Rambling 1/1/2008

Happy New Year!!

Thank you so much Carol O. from Hawaii, I recieved your squares today. Beautiful bright colors!

I can't believe I finished the 25 blankets last month. I've recieved a lot of emails all congratulating me except for one. I want to thank everyone for all their encouragement and support. Just a word to the negative email, no they weren't preemie blankets , several were too big to be called baby blankets at all, and if you had read more thoroughly you would have seen that only 3 were made out of donated squares. Ok, now that I have that off my chest on to more positive things.

I think I will pledge 50 handmade items (I'm not calling this a challenge, I drove myself nuts last month) to The Baby Pack Project, some of these are already finished (I have to count how many) and a dozen chemo caps that are being collected by my Yahoo Group Kaps_4_Karing. Again some are done already.

I am making my goal at Bevs-Charity-Challenge 1000 items for the year. This isn't as bad as it sounds since I can count each square I make as an item and then count the blanket. This was just how this group counts the items

I also set my goals for specific item as such:
100 Blankets
100 Hats
25 Hat and scarf sets
and as many baby items as I can get done.

I am still collected favorite on-line free patterns for my list of Crafter's Favorites. Any link to a free pattern that can be used for charity crafting is welcome. I just ask that it is one that you have tried and liked.

23 - 24 - 25 and DONE!!

I did it!!! I don't believe it. The first one here is done from squares I showed you whan I first started this challenge, I don't know why it took me so long to use them. Then another never-ending-blanket, and finally another sewn blanket for the Baby Pack Project.
For those of you that are coming in late I challenged myself to make 25 baby blankets for charity in the month of December. These are the last three. For those that want to count or see the other blankets here are the posts the others are pictured on:

First seven

Another four

Six more

Four more

A quilt

And these three make 25!!!

Now I can make HATS!!

1st Baby Quilt is Finished

And that makes only 3 more blankets to go.

Hexagon Granny

This is the hexagon version of my never-ending-blanket square. You can make it with as few or as many rounds needed and join them together.

Chain 6 and join to form loop

RD 1: ch 3 (counts as dc) 1 dc, *ch 2, 2 dc* 5 times, ch2 and join should have 6 groups of 2 dc

RD 2: ch 3, dc in each dc, in each ch 2 sp *2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc* join

RD 3 : ch3, dc in each dc, in each ch 2 sp *1 dc, ch2, 1dc*

You can add rows by repeating Rd 3

And another 4 done 4 to go

Not much to say about these, another one made from my never-ending-blanket square and Baby Cloud yarn. Three sewn from fabric I bought at a thrift shop the other day. There are two of the pale blue ones on the right. The sewn blankets as well as some others are going to the Baby Pack Project.

Quickie Chemo Cap Free Crochet Pattern

On one of my Yahoo groups Bev's-Charity-Challange we were asked to make just one hat on Christmas day. Since I was over at my son's apartment I didn't have a lot of yarn with me except what I was using for a couple blankets, this is what I came up with. It's a really simple chemo hat, very soft and, at least I think it is, very pretty. I made it in less than an hour and I'm going to give you the almost-a-pattern pattern. It's just too simple to call a pattern. I used a varigated yarn and somehow it just striped perfectly. I tried to do it again, same yarn, same hook, same pattern and it wouldn't do it.

Quickie Chemo Cap

You need to use a super bulky yarn such as Red Heart Baby Clouds or Light and Lofty. I used a size N hook. I do crochet rather loosely so you may need to make adjustments, also I have two N hooks that are totally different in size so yours may not give the same size hat. The one I made will fit an adult woman.

Ch 4 and join to form loop

Round 1: ch 3 (counts as dc) 15 dc in loop and join (16 st)

Rd 2: Ch 3 dc in same st 2 dc in each st till end and join (32 st)

Rds 3 - 8: Ch3 dc in each dc and join

Rd 9: Ch 1 sc in each dc

See how easy? If you want to make chemo hats and have some suitable yarn it doesn't get any easier or quicker than this.