Hats for Sailors!

Shanti's mom, Lynne, organized this project last year.  Since I'm almost a Navy mom, I'm a little partial to them ;)  I knit 2 hats and hoping to knit more this year. (1 done, one OTN so far)  Here's a letter from Lynne asking for help again this year. If you have some superwash wool with no project in mind, consider knitting a hat or two or more :)  They get to wear these hats on their off time on the ship, where it can get a little cold. 


It's that time of year again. Last year at about this time I launched a project to provide a hat for each of the sailor's on my daughter's ship, the USS Decatur. It was an amazing success in that we provided not only a hat for each of the Decatur's sailors, but also for three Coast Guard Cutters guarding Iraq's only remaining oil terminal, and the international troops that staffed that terminal ... British, Australian AND Iraqi military personnel. Talk about extending a friendly hand. Last year's hat project brought hats from all over the country, and from England and Singapore.



This year one of our knitters, Sandra Berglund, took on the project and created a Ravelry group called Hats for Sailors. We were hoping to collect enough hats over the year to cover the heads of at least one more ship. So far we've collected only 64 hats and will need a lot more to meet our goal. Soooooo, I'm coming back to the tried and true knitters from last year ... asking you once again to warm up your knitting needles and start making hats for sailors once again.



The requirements are the same. All hats must be 100% washable wool ... no synthetics due to the fire danger. You can use any pattern you want, any color you want ... we encourage you to be creative. You can go to the Ravelry's Hats for Sailors group for free patterns. If you haven't registered, do so ... it's free and easy. When you are ready to send your hats, contact Sandra for mailing information. Please remember to attach a little note of encouragement to each of the hats you send.

I am hoping that those of you who have blogs of your own will forward this on to your readers and encourage them to participate in this year's efforts to bring love and warmth to our wonderful sailors.

Thank you all, in advance, for your efforts for this year ... we even have a few fun prizes for some of our knitters.

They need them sent by November 7th!  Thanks!