Contest!

Here’s my first contest!

I’ve planned a helmet-liner drive for troops in Iraq. This is a topic that is close to my heart. I spent 5 years in the Army, got out in 1996. I still have a lot of friends who are active duty. One is currently stationed in Saudi Arabia (and assures me he’s safe), another is in Iraq (he cannot make the same assurances). I worry about them every day.

When I was in the Army, we never had the right equipment or if we did, never enough of it. That’s just the way the military is. Granted, we weren’t exactly at a time of war back then. Hell, we were the hospital soldiers which, in my experience, wasn’t even like the real army!

I want my friends and there friends to know that we haven’t forgotten about them and that we miss them and wish them warmth and safety.

My goal is to have 200 helmet-liners to send over. My time frame is from June 1 - Sep. 15.
There are PRIZES!! Prizes will go to the people who send the first helmet-liner, the 50th, 100th, 150th, and 200th. There will also be 4 more people picked at random. You will get an entry for each liner you send.

The prizes I have so far are:

3 skeins of beautiful Fearless Fibers sock yarn plus one extra the proprietor donated to the cause (Thank you, again, Deb!)
(That’s 4 prizes, one skein each.)


Sand and Sun


Wisteria



Pink Peppermint



Duck Season

The other 4 prizes are still in the works and I will be providing those as well. I’m completely open to donated prizes! The more prizes I have, the more random picks I will choose.

The best patterns I have found are these from SkeinLane:
Free knit pattern
Free crochet pattern

The yarn you want to use needs to be SOFT, washable yarn. The colors are supposed to be
dark brown, black or tan. I’ve made a few using Cascade 220 Superwash and it seems to do the job quite nicely. You can usually get a whole liner out of one skein knit. With crochet, you’ll need about 1 ½ skeins. Don’t worry about swatching, just use the needles/hook asked for in the pattern. If they come out different sizes, so much the better as people generally have different size heads! Also, please leave longish tails to be woven in. When my old LYS did this drive last year, they got a bunch of liners that had little tiny tails and they were coming unraveled before we even shipped them out. If you hate weaving in ends, leave ‘em long and mail them to me and I’ll weave them in.

I thought it would be nice to include a card or, even better, a postcard from your hometown/state with each liner. That way the soldiers can get a little taste of home. Not necessary, of course, but if you have some time. Scarves are acceptable too! (Same colors as the liners, please.) Although scarves will be included as extras (like the cards.) Again, not necessary, but if you feel like it!

Thank you to the anonymous tip that reminded me I forgot to put my mailing address!! Send the items to:
Ruth Moline P. O. Box 3832 Parker, CO 80134.

Spread the word please! The more the merrier.

Remembering my friends, Ruth!