This Weekend's Crochet Class

In my last post, I talked about the preparation's for Sunday's crochet class. Close to 30 people showed up for the class. I was a bit overwhelmed with the positive response. When I initially had the idea for doing the class, I thought that I would have about 5 people, 10 at the most. God kept impressing my heart to prepare for 30 and so I'm glad I listened!

The four hours for the class was definitely not too much time. It was just right. There were some students who were actually able to complete a hat (which was my original goal) and some students who were still trying to perfect their hold of the hook and yarn. A couple of students became completely frustrated and left.

For the next class. I need to give a little more time and have a few more suggestions on how to hold the yarn. I also had two lefties, so I need to review some video of how to crochet left handed. My Mom is left handed, but she only writes and eats with her left hand. It's almost weird to say she's left handed since she bowls, irons, cooks, plays tennis, etc... with her right hand.

At any rate, at this point, I'm trying to decide what to do for the next class. The class is supposed to be once a month. I had a few people ask me if I would be willing to hold another class this week to help them one on one. So I will probably be back next week holding a tutorial class.

I am looking forward to the fellowship and excitement of the next class.

Preparation For This Weekend's Crochet Class

I am just about finished with all my preparations for this weekend's crochet class. We will be making this newborn hat. The pattern can be found here.

This particular hat pattern uses a size G hook, so I drove all over town finding hooks for everyone in the class. I ordered 20 online for the next crochet class so I don't have to run all over town trying to find them next time! @-) Here's all the supplies we will be using:I made folders for each person in the class. The folder includes a cover page which has the title, purpose and scripture on it (Knitting Hearts-Binding hearts together, one stitch at a time;

A reference page for all the stitches we will be learning
A copy of the pattern we will be making

plus another pattern that they can make later.


And a reference sheet that includes all the abbreviations for crocheting

I started making yarn balls for each person in the class. The skeins of baby yarn that I purchased were 6 oz. Each and the hats we are making only take about a 1/2 oz of yarn each. I figured 3 oz. of yarn for each person would be more than plenty to make a couple of hats and pom poms to match. Great idea right? Until I started making them. Whew!
#:-S Who knew they were so much work?? So needless to say, I ordered a yarn baller for the next batch!

For the class, we will learn:

How to tie a slip knot to attach the yarn to the hook

How to make a chain

Single Crochet

Double Crochet

Half Double Crochet

How to read a pattern

How to make a newborn hat

And then we will use the remainder of the class to actually make the hat. I've got 20 people signed up so, we'll see how many actually show up. I've got a little nervous excitement going on!

My goal is to have them finish most of the hat in the class. People are more likely to continue on with a craft once they can see the fruit of their labor.

Journal of Knitting Hearts ♥

On Saturday July 12, 2008, my Pastor preached a sermon about financial blessings. As he was ending his sermon, the Holy Spirit impressed me to go up for his appeal. I had no idea what his appeal would be and so I slightly ignored the impression. When he made his appeal, he asked 3 people to come to the front of the church. The Holy Spirit had already told me to get up and go, but because I am not always obedient to His promptings, I stayed seated. Two people got up and went to the front. Of course, it was not 3 because I was the 3rd person. Realizing that God was really serious about me getting up, I made my way to the front.

The Pastor issued a Financial Blessing Challenge giving us each $100 to invest into our surrounding church community. I begin immediately to pray that God would show me what He wanted me to do with the money, not realizing that He had already been preparing me for this very day.

So let's go back in time about 5 months. I participate in Sew Crafty Friday, hosted by Shereen . Each Friday, crafters link up to share what they have been working on through out the week. In February, there was a participant, Denise, who was making hats for the hospital in memory of her daughter. I was moved beyond explanation by the concept of donating hats to the hospital. It was not something that I was even aware of. This concept of ministry was heavy on my heart and so I immediately contacted her to get the pattern for the hats. She did not have a pattern and so my journey began to find a pattern to make hats for babies.

As I searched for patterns, I came across and organization called Stitches From the Heart. After reading how this ministry got started, I was further compelled to be a part of something like this.

My first hat pattern that I fell in love with was a knitted hat. The only problem is that I didn't know how to knit. I had never even held knitting needles in my hand before. A lady at my church teaching a quiliting class and is very crafty so I bought some needles and asked her and another lady to teach me. They both have different methods and so I went home frustrated and discouraged. I still couldn't get knitting off of my mind, so I did some searching on the internet and found http://www.knittinghelp.com/ What a wonderful site. They have videos that teach you how to knit and after watching all the video's I made this hat. The pattern can be found here.

In the second service at church, my Pastor explained the challenge and then asked more people to come up and join. My daughter accepted and immediately I thought that maybe God had given me this idea for her. She was not interested at all and decided to invest her money into the animal shelter nearby. After praying for another 30 days, I finally accepted the call that God was laying upon my heart. This ministry was for me and He would equip me to do it. He had in fact already been preparing me for it months in advance.

On Sunday, September 7th, I will begin the first class to teach others how to crochet this hat. Thanks to Bev for providing such wonderful hat patterns.

The name of the ministry is "Knitting Hearts"-Binding hearts together, one stitch at a time. I am still looking for a scripture to go with it.

A Different World

Since I accepted the financial challenge and decided to teach crocheting and knitting classes, I have just been overwhelmed with the crochet/knit world. Who knew?

Growing up I never knew anyone who knitted or crocheted so I had no idea how huge it was. I have been watching you tube videos on how to make hats and other neat projects and I have found the most darling patterns on-line.

I have this urge to make several of them. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but every time I ignore my urge I wind up regretting it later, so this time I'm going to make them and figure out what to do with them later.

Check out this apple hat. Is that cute or what?? I'm definitely going to have to make this one.

Visit With the Charge Nurse at the NICU

Okay, so it's day 44 of the Financial Blessing Challenge and we are just 1 day shy of the half way mark.

On Saturday, I visited the charge nurse at the NICU unit to see what size hats they need most. She gave me the number of the Child Life Specialist and so I called her this morning to touch base. We talked about colors for the hats and other items they may need. I will pay her a visit sometime this week to see which size hats will work best for what she needs. That will help me to determine what pattern to use for my class. She mentioned that the nurses prefer pink or blue hats or any lively color and that most of the time the yellow hats get left in the drawer. I also read on-line somewhere that the yellow hats tend to make the sick babies look sicker.

I will be teaching a 4 hour crocheting/knitting class on the 1st Sunday of every month. I will alternate each month (crochet one month, knit the next) and teach basic skills including stitches and how to read a pattern. We will then make a hat. I am hoping that we will have enough time to complete one hat since they are small and only take about an hour or so to complete.

Knitting/Crochet Meet Up Group

Last night I met with the Knitting/Crochet Meet Up group. My reason for going was to connect with other knitters and crocheters in the area and to get some help making this:

Look like this hat.
Well wouldn't you know that I left it at home! I packed my bag all nice and neat the night before so I would be ready and not forget a thing. Well I have two bags with crochet stuff in them and I took the wrong one! So needless to say, I still have not figured out how to put this hat together. I got pretty close last night, but it still wasn't right. I'm beginning to wonder if I did the pattern right. I'm going to try the pattern again and see what I get.

Pictures of Hats

I started making this super cute hat.

The only problem is that when you follow the directions, you get this:

And then you are supposed to sew it up and get the final product. I was trying to fold it over to make it look like the picture, but this is the closest I got. I'll take it to my Meetup group meeting tonight and see if I can get some help!

Financial Blessing Challenge Update

This past Sabbath at church, the Pastor gave me an opportunity to address the congregation and explain what I am doing for my finanical challenge. I explained that I would be knitting and crocheting hats to donate to the Children's hospital located close by. I then asked for 10 people to join me in committing to one hat per week. That would be 52 hats a year for each person for a total of 520 hats in a year's time. Not too shabby, right? I told them that the average American watches over 20 hours of television a week and if they just worked on the hats while they were watching television, they could easily meet their goal.

I had 10 people come up to me BEFORE I even left church. Wow. I was not expecting that. Some of them already know how to crochet and/or knit and some of them have no clue. So I am going to hold classes once a month at the church to teach others how to knit and crochet. Now you would think that I am a pro for even agreeing to do this. I assure you I am not. But I am learning that God does not call the equipped, He equips the called! And He has called me to start this ministry and so I am believing that He will show me how to do it.

I joined a knit/crochet group on Meet UP and I am anxious to attend my first meeting this Thursday. I know that it is no coincidence that the topic for this week is knitting/crocheting for charity. I am a visual learner so I am hoping that someone there will be able to show me some of the answers to my questions.

Here are a couple of the hats that I have crocheted so far. Here is the pattern I used for these. One is the preemie and one is the newborn.

This is another hat that I started. You can find the pattern here. It is so cute! I've only gotten a little bit done
I am hoping to find lots more easy patterns for my students to choose from. Please let me know if you know of any.

Starting on Blanket for Financial Challenge

Yesterday I went to Walmart and bought some yarn and crocheting needles to get started on my first project for the Financial Blessing Challenge. I used to have a whole collection of needles and have no idea what happened to them. Maybe they are in the garage somewhere (sigh). Of course that is another post for another day!

At any rate, I was going to take a picture of the blanket I'm working on, but my daughter, who seems to be a bit more excited about the crocheting than I am, has misplaced my book. No worries for now since rows 2-30 are the same thing. I'm on row 5 and here's what it looks like so far. I curved it around so it would all fit in the picture frame. Of course it will be straight when it's done.

Financial Blessing Update-I've Decided What I'm going To Work On

Today is day 23 of the 90 day Financial Blessing Challenge. I have decided that I am going to crochet some baby clothes (probably mainly hats) and donate them to the children's hospital.

What's interesting is that this idea came to me some a while back and I just never got started on it. When my Pastor gave the challenge, the first thing that came to my mind was the Children's Hospital. I wasn't sure that this was what God was telling me to do and so I waited. I had another idea come to my mind of starting a community garden, but I don't believe it's related to this challenge. Who knows, maybe I'm supposed to do both? We'll see, but for right now I will be looking for some patterns for baby hats and booties and all kinds of cute stuff!!

If you happen to know of any patterns that work up relatively quickly, please share!

Financial Blessing Challenge

My Pastor is doing a series of sermons on Finances (Stewardship, Faithfulness, etc.) Yesterday at the 8:30 am service, he talked about how God's is the owner of all our money and we are just the managers; how God owns 100%, but only ask that we return 10% to Him to prove that we understand that it ALL belongs to him anyway.

At any rate, the purpose of this journal entry is not to discuss the sermon, but rather to provide some background.

At the end of his sermon, he asked 3 people to come forward. He did not say what they were coming forward for. Before he even asked for the people to come up, he went into what I call his "appeal mode". You how you can just tell that the Pastor is about to wrap his sermon up even though he hasn't that? Immediately I was impressed to go up for the appeal. The strange thing about that is that I had no idea was his "appeal" was going to be. So he called for the 3 people and immediately 2 people stood up.

For those who don't know me so well, I am not always so obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and so in keeping with my disobedient reluctant tendencies, I lingered for a few seconds. After seeing that know one else stood up immediately, I got up and went and stood with the other 2.

The Pastor presented us with this challenge: He gave each of us $100 and then said we have 90 days to spend it. The rules are

We may not spend it on ourselves, We may not spend it on family members or any member of the church. We must give it to or invest it in someone in the church community.

He preached the same sermon at the 11am service, except this time he explained everything first and then asked 10 people to come forward to accept the challenge. My daughter stood up in that service and so know we each have accepted the challenge of investing $100 in the community.

So my first step is to pray and ask God what he would have me to do with this money and then be obedient (immediately) to His instructions. I know that God has the power to take this $100 and turn it into $100,000 or far greater. Let's see what He does! :-)