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.