I’ve had two of the Annie’s Caring Crochet Kits waiting for me to post about them, then my latest one showed up last week. So I’m mashing them all into one post.

Handmade Brigade

Here is another charitable group doing their best to show our troops how much we support them. The entire point of the charity is to make winter hats and scarfs for our military members who are spread all over the globe.

The yarn was really nice to work with, but again Annie’s doesn’t tell you what brand it is. My guess is that it’s a Red Heart yarn because one of the caveats for this particular charity is that you HAVE to use Made in the USA materials. If you’ve looked at any yarn labels lately you’ll notice that a LOT of them are not made in the USA. My favorites (Premier and Ice Yarns) are both made in Turkey. I don’t really have a lot of yarn in my stash that I could use for these items.

As soon as I saw the pattern I knew I wasn’t going to make it. It was all I could do to get through the first scarf I crocheted for Annie’s Caring Crochet Kits. Instead, I made some hats.

I still have one full skein plus a partial leftover, so I can probably make two more hats. I just used a very simple beanie pattern that I got from Bag O Day Crochet.

Operation Shower

The next charity is another military charity. This one is to show support for the moms-to-be, whether they are married to a member of the military or are in the military themselves. It’s one way to help alleviate some of the stress of being separated at such a special time in their lives.

Operation Shower accepts donations of handmade baby items for the 30-40 showers that they throw every year. I had never made baby booties or mittens so I decided to use the pattern that came with the kit.

I think they turned out okay. I was not a fan of the yarn, though.

It is soft and smooth, but it kept splitting on me when I was crocheting. It was also difficult to rip out when you made mistakes (because of how much it kept splitting on me). I’m used to crocheting with a tightly-wound yarn, so this almost-roving style was a bit frustrating.

I’ve got a ton of baby patterns that I’ve never used so I might dive into those in order to use up the rest of the yarn.

Hope’s Door New Beginning Center

This charity is located in Texas. They offer intervention and prevention services for people who are being affected by domestic violence. They have shelters that are always in need of product, but it looks like they want the majority of their donations dropped off at one of their retail stores.

When I opened this kit I had to laugh. Why? Do you remember what I made last month?

In fact, the patterns that came with the kit were in one of the Crochet World magazines last year. It’s my set of go-to washcloth patterns. I’m not sure that I’m going to make any of these washcloths soon. What I might do is make a wash cloth here and there, then when I have a big pile I’ll box them up and mail them to the retail store. Annie’s Kits always come with information on where to send your items, so I will do it that way.

I really like this kit club. It gives me a chance to try some different yarns, plus I get to learn about new charities that I didn’t even know existed. I hope you are enjoying this series of posts, too.