Thursday, June 25, 2015

Hats and Headbands Galore!

The Leggett Family in Broken Bow, Nebraska continues to amaze me.  This past week, I walked into the post office to check out box and see if we had a package.  When I went to the window with my pick-up slip and the clerk walked back with 3 boxes, I gasped in surprise!
He asked what they were and I told him about our chapter.  He said his mother knits and is always looking for a special project AND his brother works at a cancer center in Kansas City.  I didn't have my bag with me that day, so I need to go back to give him some of our cards so we can enlist his help!

Here are some photos of what the boxes contained.  There were 55 hats of all shapes and sizes, 53 wonderful headbands and a gorgeous infinity scarf.  The family always dresses up a lot of their work with buttons and flowers.  Love it!




It was really hard to get a good photo of all of the hats!

Big thank you to The Leggett Family!!

The photos we posted of their donation reached over 200 people.  Hope it inspires them to make and donate, too!!

If you'd like to donate to our Crochet for Cancer Chapter, just let me know!

A Hat From Howard
PO Box 133
Lawrence, KS  66044
haslerheather@gmail.com
facebook:  A Hat From Howard




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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

New Hats Alert!

These are from Jan in Effingham, KS.  I asked what kind of yarn she uses because the hats were so luxurious.  She told me she uses Caron Simply Soft :)

My friend Jill asked me to make a custom sunhat for her uncle in Iowa who has Stage 4 lymphoma.  He's a big time Hawkeyes fan...hope he likes it!  

I just had to make a KC Royals hat!  Took this one to the Franklin County Cancer Foundation this week so a Royals fan can choose it as they go thru chemo treatments.

This was a new pattern I tried out last week.  I ended up sewing on 2 buttons on the folded up brim.  Made with 100 % cotton yarn for comfort.

My new favorite show to watch while I crochet is The Fosters.

These hats all made me smile a great big smile!  




We SO appreciate all of the donations we receive!  I like to imagine all of your crocheting wherever you are and thinking about how we'll distribute your hats to chemo patients.
I need to get a great big map of the US so I can put a pin in each city that we get a hat from!!

If you're interested in donating a hat/s, 
A Hat from Howard
A KS Chapter of Crochet for Cancer
PO Box 133
Lawrence, KS  66044

haslerheather@gmail.com

If you or you know someone who would benefit from receiving a handmade hat, contact me and I can make sure at least one is sent out right away!!



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Monday, April 13, 2015

New donations!!

We got a great donations from The Legett Family in Broken Bow, NE!  It was a box full of aweseome hats of all shapes, sizes and kinds.  Love it!  Some had the neatest embellishments like this one with a gray flower attached.  I think that's a great idea!  It was the kind of flower attached to a clip so that it can be removed and can be worn in other ways, too.


Another box arrived from Bonnerdale, AR from Roxanne!  Everyone is so incredibly generous.  This box was filled up, too!







Here's some new yarn I picked up last week from a gift card from a family friend:
My fingers are just itching to crochet!  Can't wait to see what this yarn turns into!

If you'd like to send our chapter some hats that you've made or a gift card to go toward yarn for hats, you can mail it to 
A Hat From Howard, A Chapter of Crochet for Cancer
PO Box 133
Lawrence, KS  66044

I'm making plans to get to the Franklin County Cancer Foundation in Ottawa, KS this week to take some summer chemo caps made from 100% cotton.  Their organization is hosting a 5K in June that Chad and I are planing to do.  I think I even have a couple of my fitbit friends who will participate!
Thanks for reading~
Heather


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Monday, March 16, 2015

All the way from New York City!



Maybe I'm old...but I remember the days before the internet.  If you were going to correspond with someone who lived far away, it was on paper.  We had pen pals that were often arranged thru school.  Or maybe you met a new friend at summer camp and you would write letters to each other.

I, for one, am amazed by the internet.  Sure I've used it for pretty much my adult life.  First at work, then for fun.  Now I could probably be classified as an addict.  lol!

It really does amaze me.  Little ol' me posts some words and photos online about hat donations and we suddenly get handmade hats mailed to our PO Box.  

Last Friday, I checked the PO Box and there was a big package with 7 awesome hats sent to us from Tara in New York City!!!  Yes...I know I sound like a Kansas hick...but it just blows my Midwestern mind that someone in New York saw something we posted online and she took time out of her busy life to create these 7 cool hats of all sizes and shapes and wrote the sweetest note and mailed it to A Hat from Howard in Kansas.  

So thank you, Tara in NY!!!  Not only did you make MY day, but you'll enhance the lives of the people who receive your hats.  Amazing :)


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I Love this Cotton Yarn!

I'm sending out hats to cancer centers in Garden City and Manhattan, KS today!
Why Garden City and Manhattan, you ask?
Howard lived in Garden City in the late 70s/early 80s.  And Howard's son, Travis, went to Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS.

The yarn used for these hats was donated by Jill in Lenexa, KS and I made simple beanies on her behalf.  Gotta teach her to crochet!!

Getting it all organized.

This yarn reminds me of a birthday cake!

This is just a simple beanie with some buttons sewn on for flair.

I really like this one.  Just a verigated yarn with a solid trim.  The button is vintage and was given to me by my grandma-in-law, Joann.  She's 90 years old and doesn't crochet, but contributes in her own way.

Made this one yesterday and it works up quickly.  Free pattern!

Hats are tagged and put into baggies.  I like to use a Sharpie to write on the bag so people can see a sizing.  Usually it's Adult Average, Adult Small, Adult Large.

Yay!   Can't wait to get to the post office later today!

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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

An injured finger makes it hard to crochet...

The day after Christmas, I found myself in my kitchen looking at a pan of Cherry Mash.  I had attempted to make my own cherry mash and had failed miserably.  It was really really REALLY hard.  Tasted good, but it was like a rock!

I needed to clean out the pan and thought I could just use a plain old kitchen knife to cut it up and take it out.  What I really needed was a jackhammer.  I couldn't cut the cherry mash, so I then decided to chisel the cherry mash.  With wet fingers.  Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming, crying and hyperventilating at my house that day.  Luckily my patient husband was at home with me and he sat on the bathroom floor calming me down and cleaning my would.

At first, I thought my pinkie was broken.  I couldn't move it at all.  But everyone reassured me that I must have jammed it when I cut it and it would take some time before it would heal.


The cut healed quickly and nicely, but it's been nearly 2 months and I cannot move my finger past a certain point.  This is what it looks like when I make a fist:
That darn little finger won't budge past that point.  I have to tuck it under the other fingers to try and make it stay and it still pops up!  You should see me hold a crochet hook!  LOL!

So now I think I must have cut or nicked a tendon or something.


It's hard to do...well...everything...
Especially typing (my apostrophes start out as semi-colons) and crocheting.
I can't tell you how awful it is to not be able to crochet as quickly and easily as usual.  Just this weekend, I tried to make a simple little washcloth and it took forever!  And my hand hurt so badly afterward.
But I won't give up!!!!


Has anyone seen the hoopla about Dollar Tree yarn online?  I'm in several crochet groups on facebook and my newsfeed has been flooded with photos and information about Dollar Tree yarn for weeks!  At first I thought maybe they were just little tiny skeins and no one wanted to fess up to it.  Then I thought maybe it was flawed yarn.
So I started stalking my own Dollar Tree.  Finally, late last week, they got in their shipment!!!
They had 4 types offered and they were all novelty yarns.  Had I been smart and less excited in the store, I would have taken a photo to show all of them to you.

Here is the Bernat Pipsqueak yarn:

I had enough in one skein to make an small adult size hat and some leftover to make a small child's hat.  It's like crocheting a marshmallow.  So soft and cozy, but kind of a pain to work with.  It fuzzed out a little bit off my hook, but not enough to notice.


This is one skein of Bernat Fleurettes.  
I bought two but now I'm not sure I'll use the second.  It was really hard to work with.  Lots and lots of loops that would get onto my hook accidentally and mess with my actual stitches.
I used a little black cotton yarn to make a band at the bottom.  This one is more of a large child size.  
A pain to work up...but it turned out kinda cute :)

I have another skein to use that is very different, so I'll save that one for next week.

Last year, I found a pattern on Pinterest that I really enjoyed making.  So I made several!


Here is one I finished recently with I Love This Yarn:
I love that you can wear it closed on top as a regular hat or you can put a ponytail thru the opening at the top and cinch it closed with the drawstring.
AND you can open it up all the way and wear it around your neck as a cowl.
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PATTERN!  And it's free!

I always add a few beads to the ends of the drawstring.  It dresses it up a little and makes it more fun.

Let me know what you're working on...I'd love to hear about your projects!
And please consider donating a handmade hat to A Hat From Howard, A Chapter of Crochet for Cancer.
Your donation will be delivered to a person undergoing chemotherapy.
Warm hearts...warm heads, right?!?

Thanks,
Heather
haslerheather@gmail.com
PO Box 133
Lawrence, KS  66044










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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

A Surprise in our PO Box!

I was so happy to open our PO Box and get a note telling me to pick up a package at the front post office window.  Typically, people dread standing in a long line...but I was thrilled!!

Remember when I had posted to reddit asking for hat donations?  That's where this package originated.  Therefore, I don't know the crocheters actual name...just their reddit name:  stargown.
So stargown~  Thank you SO very much!  The hats are truly wonderful and so soft and cozy.

They came from South Carolina all the way to Lawrence, KS and we'll be taking them to Lawrence Memorial Hospital very soon!








If you'd like more information about how to donate or if you know someone who would like to receive a hat...please let me know.  We love the opportunity to help!
~Heather

A Hat from Howard, A Chapter of Crochet for Cancer
PO Box 133
Lawrence, KS  66044

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haslerheather@gmail.com




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