Chemo Caps and Hats

I recently joined a group on Ravelry called "Hearts of Love". The members of this site crochet or knit chemo caps/hats for Cancer victims who are receiving treatment. It is an awesome thing for people to do for someone else. You can either send your caps/hats to Teresita and she will take them to a Cancer center in Northern California or you can donate them to a Cancer treatment center in your own state. I'm opting for the center in my own state which would be the Arkansas Children's hospital. They take any size hat/cap from infant on up. Each year they collect "Boggins for Noggins". When the project first started they just gave caps to the Cancer patients who were being treated there, but when the other children saw their new found friends receiving a "Boggin for their Noggin" they wanted one also. Consequently the hospital now lets anyone who is leaving the hospital during the Winter months (or any other month if they want one) have a "boggin for their noggin". Anyway the "Hearts of Love" group has a challenge if you will going on for each person in the group to knit or crochet 3 chemo caps/hats by the end of October and send to a Cancer Treatment Center of their choice. Currently my hubby and I have the three hats to donate but we want to do three more before the end of October so that we'll each have three to donate. Don't you think this is a wonderful thing to do for someone else? If you would like to join in just let me know.

"Help someone smile today"
Barbara

My Niece Hannah

I have a very shy thirteen year old niece named Hannah who expressed an interest in Crochet after learning that I had taught myself. I had asked her mother if she knew how to crochet and she said that she didn't. I then asked Hannah if she would like to learn and she said yes. The next time my hubby and I went to visit I took Hannah my DVD " I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting" and the kit from Leisure Arts "I taught myself how to crochet" which includes an instruction book with patterns, hooks, stitch markers etc. and of course I added in several different skeins of yarn. I had only recently taught myself by the same way and wasn't sure about whether or not I could teach someone else. I left all the goodies with Hannah and checked back regularly to see whether or not she was still interested in crochet or whether she had lost interest. Well she certainly didn't lose interest! The next time I went over for a visit she showed me some of the things that she had made, one item of which was a doily! Wow I was really blown away because trying to crochet a doily certainly wasn't on my list of things to crochet first!

Hannah is a 4-H member and entered a purse that she had made and also another doily which she had crocheted into the county fair. She got a blue ribbon I believe for her purse and a beautiful red ribbon for her doily. Needless to say her doily is going to be entered into the state fair next month in her age group. I am so proud of her accomplishments, what a talented young lady. I thought she would have an easier time of learning to crochet than I did since she was so young but she really outdid herself I thought. I'll let everyone know how the state fair turns out for her.

Meeting my #1 crochet designer!!

While on vacation my husband and I made a detour on the way home. We stopped in Wichita, KS and spent the night so that I could meet my favorite crocheter and designer, Tamara Gonzales. Ever since I first started reading her blog: Tamara's Take on the Crochet Soiree website I have enjoyed her work. She is a very talented woman. The photo above was taken at Tamara's favorite yarn shop. Tamara is on the left, me in the middle and Tamara's best friend Rosina is on the right. The name of the yarn shop is "Twist" and it's located in the heart of Wichita. What a fantastic yarn shop! The girls CGOA groups guild "KS My Stitch" holds their meetings there. They have wonderful spots to sit and crochet or knit, rooms to hold your meetings in, knit and crochet patterns, accessories and tons of yarn of every type!!! It's a yarn lover's dream place to be!!! It was like a mini-vacation to get to talk to Tamara and explore all the yarns and stuff they have there and the ambience was just heavenly. Tamara, Rosina and I checked everything out there, and I found a pattern of Tamara's (which I just had to have and got autographed) went to lunch a short way from the shop where we met up with Tamara's sister and then on to a store to look for a purse like the one the Tamara's sis had (crocheted of course). Then it was on to Michaels where I found some more yarn on sale and we just shopped 'til I was ready to drop! I found a super (barely used) sweater that I'm going to repurpose into a pillow at a consignment shop, actually I found several items to repurpose into pillows. I was really wearing down (I'm disabled) and Rosina had a "babysitting" appointment with her grandchildren and so they delivered me back to the hotel where my hubby was waiting on me. I had a fantastic time and a wonderful day with a person that I admire very much. What more could you ask for? Well, I had that too but we'll leave that for a blog of hubby and myself's trip.

Tamara recently attended the CGOA Summer Knit and Crochet Show in Buffalo, NY. This is the CGOA's Annual Chain Link Conference. Tamara attended as a representative of Leisure Arts and the new Crochet Soiree website. Tamara entered an afghan in a contest sponsored by the CGOA and won honorable mention. The name of her afghan was Tamara's Tale Aren't the colors just gorgeous? I have been entranced with this afghan ever since I first saw the picture. What talent and what an artistic creation! I can only aspire to be as talented in the crochet world as Tamara Gonzales. Everyone needs to keep their eyes and ears open for her work because I for one can see her becoming a top of the line designer and I don't want to miss any of her stuff! Keep in touch with her on the Crochet Soiree website and be the first to obtain any new patterns that she might have published!