Charity Hat-Along, Take Two!

Back at the beginning of July, Heather and I wrapped up the Charity Hat-Along. Or, we thought we wrapped it up.

During May and June, you guys stepped up pretty huge, sending 500 hats my way for Completely Kids. As the PO Box filled up over and over again with boxes full of hats, I felt more grateful than I have in quite some time.

YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!

However there are still approximately 1500 kids that Completely Kids works with, kids who live below the poverty line and won't have much in the way of winter gear to help keep them warm in just a few months.

So Heather and I are bringing back the Charity Hat-Along for round two!

Remember, we need hats sized to fit elementary and middle school kids. This means your hats should measure 19" around unstretched, and at least 8" long. Many of the elementary and middle school aged kids I personally know love hats made from darker colors, and hats that have a fair bit of slouch to them, although you can make your hats however you'd like.

New to the Charity Hat-Along? You can find all sorts of information located here, and feel free to ask any and all questions!

Charity Hat-Along, Take Two!

Sep 8, 2014

Charity HAL || The Final Total And The Giveaway Winners!

With the end of July came an end to the Charity HAL, and the amazing partnership I've been loving with Ewe Ewe Yarns. Over the past two months, Heather at Ewe Ewe has been dedicating much of her time to helping spread the word, share the yarn love, and work up hats alongside many dozens of you fellow knitters and crocheters, as we worked our way towards 2,000 hats donated for Completely Kids.

The drive is officially over, and I'm super proud to say we collected a total of 500 hats!!

While we didn't reach our goal of 2,000 hats collected, I'm so excited and proud of our knitting community for joining together and donating an astonishing number of hats in such a short time. Last fall, when I first partnered with Completely Kids, I was able to donate just over 100 hats to one of the many schools they work with. And while it was amazing, and the kids loved the hats they received, I was also very aware that there was still so much need going unmet.

This year, thanks to package after package winging its way to me here in Omaha, we will be able to get hats to every kid in at least four local schools this fall!

I plan to keep right on collecting hats through the summer for this amazing organization, so if you'd like to make more hats, or yours didn't make it in time for the giveaways, I'll definitely still make sure they make it to kids who need them!

And now for the giveaways! Above you will see what five lucky folks won (yarn colors and stitch markers may vary)! I let Zach draw the names so I wouldn't have any chance at bias, which I think he enjoyed far more than he'd ever admit. And the winners are ...


Linda B.
Sandy W.
Nancy H.
Judy H.
Eileen G.

If you see your name, you should have already received an e-mail from me, letting you know you've won! If you see your name, but don't have an e-mail from me, check your spam filters; if you still don't see an e-mail from me, shoot me a message at shemakeshats@gmail.com to confirm that it's you that won.

Congrats to the winners, and thanks again to everyone who sent in a hat!

Charity HAL || The Final Total And The Giveaway Winners!

Jul 7, 2014

One More Week For The Charity HAL!

Can you believe there's just one more week left in the Charity Hat-Along?! We've had over 200 hats come in so far, but we're still a long way off from our goal of 2,000 hats - if you've got hats waiting to be sent over, now is the time to send them! I'll be heading to the post office as often as I can this week, hopefully greeted with a full PO Box each time I'm there! Don't forget, tag your hats for a chance to win one of FIVE great giveaway prizes! Here's all the details for those who have forgotten a bit of it:

THE CHARITY:

We’ll be sending 2,000 hats to Completely Kids, a non-profit local to Omaha that serves 2,000+ kids between preschool and middle school that live at or below the poverty line through Out-of-School Time and Family Strengthening programs in communities where they live. These kids live in my neighborhood, walking to school in the winter without hats and coats because their families can’t afford to buy them. The fact that this many kids in my city live in poverty breaks my heart, and while I can’t raise every family’s income level, I can help provide warm hats.

THE PATTERNS:

The Shanti Hat is a crochet hat pattern featuring sizes for preemie through adult, and is perfect for crocheters of any skill level. The Cottage Cap is a knitting pattern featuring a broken rib design, and is great for first-time hat makers!

SUGGESTED YARN:

While you can certainly make your Charity HAL hats from any yarn you have on-hand, Heather is partnering up with Noble Knits to bring a great discount on Ewe Ewe Washable Worsted for those who want to use that yarn for their hats! Simply load your Noble Knits cart up with Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted and enter the code CHARITYHAL (not case sensitive) at check-out to receive a 25% discount!

SEND YOUR HATS TO:

When you finish your hats, simply send them along to me at:

Robyn Devine
Charity Hat-Along
PO Box 6093
Omaha, NE 68106

 I’ll share regular updates that include photos of the hats I’ve received!

THE GIVEAWAY:

When you send your hats to me, be sure to tag each hat with your full name and e-mail address to be entered into the giveaway. Heather created these Charity HAL hat tags for you to use to make it super easy! Simply click on the link and print as many sheets as you need! For each tagged hat, you are entered to win one of five prizes! Each prize includes: A copy of my new book, She Makes Hats Two skeins of Wooly Worsted from Ewe Ewe Yarns A stitch marker set from Wine Maker’s Sister plus a few extras!

One More Week For The Charity HAL!

Jun 23, 2014

Charity HAL: Hat Count Update

We're just a few weeks away from the Charity HAL being done, and hats are starting to show up in the PO Box more frequently. It's so much fun to open that little door and see keys for the lockers, knowing it means there's hats waiting for me!

These hats were all in the last run I made, which was on Friday. Thanks to them, the hat total is now at 159 hats collected! This is so amazing, and I know it means so many kids will be warmer this coming winter, with less sickness for sure, thanks to these hats!

It also means, however, that we're still a long way from our goal of 2,000 hats collected by the end of June for the Charity HAL drive. If you've got hats waiting to send, remember you've only got a few more weeks to get them to me for them to count towards the giveaway (although I'll take them at any time after that as well if you don't get them sent in time).

And for those that aren't sure what I'm talking about, here's all the info:

THE CHARITY:

We'll be sending 2,000 hats to Completely Kids, a non-profit local to Omaha that serves 2,000+ kids between preschool and middle school that live at or below the poverty line through Out-of-School Time and Family Strengthening programs in communities where they live. These kids live in my neighborhood, walking to school in the winter without hats and coats because their families can't afford to buy them. The fact that this many kids in my city live in poverty breaks my heart, and while I can't raise every family's income level, I can help provide warm hats.

THE PATTERNS:

The Shanti Hat (pictured above left) is a crochet hat pattern featuring sizes for preemie through adult, and is perfect for crocheters of any skill level. The Cottage Cap (pictured above right) is a knitting pattern featuring a broken rib design, and is great for first-time hat makers!

SUGGESTED YARN:

While you can certainly make your Charity HAL hats from any yarn you have on-hand, Heather is partnering up with Noble Knits to bring a great discount on Ewe Ewe Washable Worsted for those who want to use that yarn for their hats! Simply load your Noble Knits cart up with Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted and enter the code CHARITYHAL (not case sensitive) at check-out to receive a 25% discount!

SEND YOUR HATS TO:

When you finish your hats, simply send them along to me at:

Robyn Devine
Charity Hat-Along
PO Box 6093
Omaha, NE
68106

I'll share regular updates that include photos of the hats I've received!

THE GIVEAWAY:

When you send your hats to me, be sure to tag each hat with your full name and e-mail address to be entered into the giveaway. Heather created these Charity HAL hat tags for you to use to make it super easy! Simply click on the link and print as many sheets as you need! For each tagged hat, you are entered to win one of five prizes! Each prize includes: A copy of my new book, She Makes Hats Two skeins of Wooly Worsted from Ewe Ewe Yarns A stitch marker set from Wine Maker's Sister plus a few extras!

SHARE YOUR HATS:

As you whip hats off your hooks and needles, be sure to snap a photo and use the hashtag #CharityHAL on Instagram so we know you're participating! I'll be re-gramming finished hats often to the She Makes Hats instagram feed as well!

Follow along with me on Instagram || @shemakeshats
Follow along with Heather on Instagram || @eweeweyarns

Charity HAL: Hat Count Update

Jun 9, 2014

Charity HAL: Working With The Cottage Cap

After spending most of last month working with the Shanti Hat for the Charity HAL, I'm focusing this month on the Cottage Cap. It's such a fun knit, works up quickly and is an easy pattern to memorize. I've already worked these three hats off the needles in less than a week, and can't wait to see how many I can manage to finish in the next 25 days!

These three hats were made using the last of the Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted I had on-hand. I didn't realize I'd used so much of it on my Shanti Hats, and only had enough left to make several striped hats. Thankfully, this pattern looks ridiculously cute with stripes - simply change colors every two rows like I did with the orange and blue striped hats, or change in blocks of color as I did with the hat on the right.

In all cases, I worked the hat over 84 stitches. This isn't the largest size in the pattern, but I found that with my gauge and tension, this number of stitches gave me a hat that fits both mine and my husband's heads perfectly.

Don't forget, for this drive we need hats to fit older kids most of all, and older kids and teenagers have adult-sized heads. This means if the hat fits you (or almost fits you) it's just the right size! I'm going to keep working the Cottage Cap with other worsted weight yarns, so I'll report back soon on any changes I've had to make based on thicker or thinner yarns.

Don't forget, the Charity HAL runs through the end of this month. This means you just have 26 days to send in your hats and be included in the giveaway. We've collected a few hundred already, but the goal is to collect 2,000 hats for Completely Kids, so please consider joining in!

For more info on the Charity HAL, read the official drive page.

Send your finished hats to:
Robyn Devine
Charity HAL
PO BOX 6093
Omaha, NE 68106

Download the Shanti Hat and Cottage Cap. And don't forget to tag your hats! Just use the Charity HAL hat tags on each hat to be entered into the giveaway.

Charity HAL: Working With The Cottage Cap

Jun 4, 2014