Community Service Update

Guild members are enthusiastically participating in our Community Service projects. Last week, Whit sent off the most recent set of Helmet Liners. This brings us to a total of 500 liners knitted for US troops.

We continue to have a good response on preemie hats and other items. Elizabeth Halberstadt showed a selection of hats at the October meeting. We have updated the Community Service page with links to four other sites offering patterns; Bev's Country Cottage, P2Designs, Carewear, and Lorraine Majors

In December we will be presenting this year's group of Trauma Bears to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. Jean Guneysu showed her new design for a bear dress at the October meeting. That pattern and other designs are also available on the Community Service page.

The folks from Georgia Mountain Fiber were so impressed with our Community Service projects at the September meeting that they donated 20 skeins of their 100% alpaca yarn to the Guild. We thought it would be great for hats for the ladies at the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women. If you would like to knit a hat with this luscious yarn, sign out a skein at the November meeting and turn in the finished project at the December or January meeting.

The Helmet Liners require wool yarn in specific colors, but the Preemie Hats and Trauma Bear garments are great projects for using up stash and trying new techniques on a small scale. If you have spare knitting time, consider knitting for one of these projects.

Head Hugs?

Our friends at Cascade Yarns -- one of the sponsors of STITCHES South -- have graciously donated 52 skeins of Cascade 220 Wool, Cascade 220 Heathers, and Cascade 220 Superwash to our helmet liner initiative. This is in addition to the many, many skeins they have donated previously. In turn, AKG has donated more than 400 helmet liners to our armed services. Thank you Cascade Yarns for your generosity to us and to our armed forces!

If you are making helmet liners, some reminders:

• They must be 100% wool.
• They must be in military-approved colors.
• You can find the pattern here or in the community service portion of our website.
• Do be aware that an earlier version of the pattern had a too-short neck. The 2x2 ribbing for the neck should be at least 6-inches long, so that it can pass from the nose, over the mouth, down the chin, and to the neck.

I've made a fair few of these over the years. If you are a newish knitter looking to practice knitting in the round, please consider trying one of these. You can work on a 12-inch or 16-inch needle for most of it, or you can work other methods such as double-pointed needles, two circulars, or magic loop. This is also a fairly portable project for travel knitting, and much of it is mindless enough for television, knit-night socializing, or even reading! And as it requires only one skein of Cascade 220, it really doesn't take all that long to complete.

Whatever your political persuasion, it is proper to remember this Memorial Day weekend that the women and men of our armed services often give great sacrifices for the security and freedom of the rest of us. Even those fortunate enough to avoid harm's way spend precious time away from family in places that can be inhospitable to downright scary. A little time knitting to keep someone far from home warm and well is a compassionate gesture.