On cold winter evenings, I enjoy knitting beside the woodstove with the soft glow of an oil lamp. For the last few weeks, between knitting hexagons for a bedspread for my son, I’ve been knitting hats for Israeli soldiers. I found this blog of a mom in Israel. Her son is in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and told her that he was cold while on patrol. She knit him up a stocking cap that, unlike the hats issued to the soldiers, is warm, comfortable and can be worn under his helmet. Along with gals from her knitting group, “Chicks With Sticks”, she knit more and more hats, and now there are folks around the world knitting and crocheting hats for Israeli soldiers. This year her goal is to help 5000 more Israeli soldiers stay warm with handmade hats.
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| An Israeli soldier wearing one of these handmade hats. It actually gets cold and sometimes snows in Israel. |
The soldiers appreciate these hats!
She’s been doing this for several years and has had articles written about her in major Israeli newspapers. If you knit or crochet and would like to whip up a few hats, please visit her blog by clicking here. The patterns are on her site, and hats can be crochet, or knit with straight needles, circular needles, and/or double-pointed needles. Circulars are easier and look nicer, but I only have dpn’s in the correct size at the moment. The pattern is simple. Even a new knitter can do this. She asks that the hats be mailed to her in an envelope rather than a box, and that the declared value be less than $50. Otherwise, she has to pay an enormous fee at the post office when she picks them up.
Here is a hat I'm working on, along with one I just completed. I'll mail them out as soon as we get another plane out this way.
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| Here's a hat I'm working on, as well as one I just finished. |
