Thursday, January 28, 2010

Crocheted Helmet Liner

My girlfriend Michelle has been knitting helmet liners for her son who is in the army. When he recieved his first one and used it, he was so excited and asked her to make 40 more for the rest of his unit. A good mother as she is, said yes (I hope my son will be that lucky in time of need). Of course, this was not an easy task, and asked for assistance through our LYS. She had an overwhelming response, however, there were a few crocheters who were left out in the cold, so to speak, without a crocheted verson. Michelle asked if I would come up with one and I happily did so. I really didn't think it would take as long as it did. I was able to crochet it alright and store it in the filing cabinet in my head but to put it on paper was a whole different matter. I soon realized that writing a pattern is definitely a community project. Thank you Judy and Rita for helping with the fine tuning. These liners are intended to keep the soldiers warm in the subzero weather of Afghanistan and other areas that they will be protecting our fine country.

If you are interested in making liners for Michelle's son or if you have sons of your own that you would like to keep warm, please make sure you keep to the guidelines of the fiber. For example, the pattern calls for Cascade 220(found at your local yarn store) or Patons Classic Wool (found at Joann's), however, if you cannot find either of these (can also be found online), and would like to use a different brand, please feel free to do so, but please make sure you give it a burn test. The strict requirement is for safety reasons only. If it has any other fiber in it besides wool or it could be an inferior fiber, it could melt in extreme circumstances and we don't want that, neither will the soldier.

Burn test:
Using a lighter, burn the end of the yarn and if it ashes, then it is a good wool to use. If the yarn melts, then you'll know that they put another fiber in the content and it is not 100% wool, or the sheep got lucky with an inflatable, not so lucky, sheep.

10 comments:

Mupo said...

is an awesome idea! I have a friend who is in Iraq right now, and I not sure if it's as cold there as in Afganistan, tho it is probably close by.
Also, thanks about the reasons behind the wool, because I wouldn't have known otherwise! also, awesome pattern! I have not made one yet, but I will comment again after I make one. Thanks so much for sharing!!

Megan said...

Where can I get the pattern? I would really like to make some for my best friend in the whole wide world that is in afghanistan. I know he could definitely use it. Thanks.

Lee Ann said...

Megan, up at the top of my blog under hooker patterns, you'll find the pattern. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

There's no pattern for this at all. The link at the top leads us back to the same page we posted on.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous. I want the pattern, but I can't get it either.

Lee Ann said...

I don't know why the pattern doesn't come out when you click on Hooker patterns but I just found it at the end of the article I wrote. It's a scribe website. Or you can go to Ravelry.com, you will be able to download the pattern on there. Look for Feistyhooker or go to patterns and look up crochet helmet liner. You can also find the pattern on crochetpatterncentral.com

tinkpink623 said...

I have tried everything you said to get this pattern to print. All it does is print it huge letters on top of each other. Can you post another link that really works please

Anonymous said...

Where can I get the knitted version?

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Anonymous said...

Is this pattern still available?