Thanks to snappy peeps, the “Beanies for Bravery” project has sent over 2500 beanies as of Dec 31, 2013. The majority of these have been sent to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. As many of you know, my oldest son deployed in Oct. Because of many of you, we were able to send 100 beanies to him and his unit. He got 4 packages stuffed full of beanies right before Christmas and handed the majority of them out. The rest were given to the chaplain to go to soldiers as needed. Each package we ship is important and greatly appreciated. If you are interested in helping with this project, please see the guidelines. We will continue to ship until April 15, 2014.
Since our son was gone during the holidays, I wanted to make something for our family in honor of him and his service. When he left he told us he was going to Hogwarts (BIG Harry Potter fans). He flew on a giant plane (aka “the Hogwarts Express). I made Harry Potter-ish scarves in military shades, tan and olive green. They are not as wide as HP scarves, but they are the standard 7” long. I made beanies for the men in our family because I thought they would prefer those instead of scarves. Since the HP scarves have patches, we needed patches on ours too. My husband found the patch our son wears and we checked to make sure it was ok to use them. I was VERY excited to give them out.
Isn’t my family cute?! They are very good sports. I hope they will enjoy their hats and scarves and I know they will keep our soldier in their thoughts and prayers. I have gained a HUGE respect for our military and their families. If you ever get the opportunity, please thank a soldier for their service.
Would you like to make a soldier scarf? They are super easy. Each scarf took about 3 hours from start to finish.
Materials: I hook, worsted weight yarn in 2 colors of choice (I used Loops & Threads Impeccable in Soft Taupe and Deep Forest).
1. With hook and green yarn, ch 23, sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across. Note: for wider scarves, start with a longer chain.
2. Ch 2, hdc in each st to end of row. (22sts)3-10. Repeat previous row.
11. Change to tan yarn. Ch 2, hdc in each st to end of row.
12-19. Repeat previous row.
Repeat rows 2-19 until scarf is approximately 7ft long, or desired length. Note: each stripe is 9 rows.
Finish off and weave in all ends. Add tassels across each short end of scarf, alternating colors.
Adding patches: After checking with some super knowledgeable peeps (thank you Rita from Schmibble & Co), we decided to attach the patches with glue. I used E600. I placed a piece of wax paper under the scarves and inside the beanies (you can see this in first photo above). Glue did not soak through. It worked great!
