Hats

We had a little cold snap here in NYC this week. And when I say cold snap, I mean it was below 80°F. But it started me thinking about my hat project. I haven’t made very much progress this year on it. For those of you who don’t know, last year I collected 139 hats, 10 scarves, 1 pair of gloves and even 1 sweater. I donated these to New York Cares in conjunction with their coat drive. When I dropped them off, and told the woman what I had and they were all hand knit, she said she thought she might cry. She thought it was so special that people would donate hats. And it made it even more special that they were hand knit.

I did receive some lovely hats from Karabouts’ mom who lives in Ohio. CityMinx also gave me a few hats. And I have managed to make a few myself. But I am not quite as far along as I was last year at this time.

Starting today I am going back to only knitting hats during my lunch hour to try and increase my production. It is a great lunch hour project. It’s small so I can keep it in my desk. The hats don’t need to be complicated, so I don’t need to worry about having a pattern, row counters, stitch markers, etc. And they go pretty fast.

I know we are all really busy with life and knitting projects for ourselves and our loved ones, but one hat can make a big difference. I keep thinking about these people who have nothing. No place to sleep at night and not enough clothes to keep them warm. It warms my heart a little to know that I can make a difference in someone’s life by doing something I already love to do.

If you are interested in making hats you can drop them off at Annie and Company Knitting on Madison Ave in NYC. Or email me at smittenwknitting@gmail.com for an address you can send them to.