[Nfb-krafters-korner] Military Helmet Liners

Tue Jun 1 12:29:46 UTC 2010

Thanks for letting us know to save the labels, just before I might have trasheed one!.

Terry

-----Original Message-----
From: Eileen Scrivani [mailto:etscrivani at verizon.net] 
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 9:35 AM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Military Helmet Liners

Hi Joyce & All:

As Joyce has stated the temperatures in the countries where our military are serving are brutally cold so yes the wool is warmer than acrylic fibers. 
Wool even maintains its warmth when it gets wet.  This can't be said of synthetic yarns.

More importantly or as important as the warmth factor, is using 100% wool is a requirement for safety reasons.  If the servicemen wearing these helmet liners are in fire conditions, the wool burns more cleanly, does not melt 
like acrylic or other synthetic fibers.   People volunteering to knit these 
liners are required to use 100%  wool for not just warmth, but for safety as well.  On one web site that was doing the helmet liner project, I did see that they ask people to send in their yarn labels with the hats so the safety can be confirmed. I believe they will reject hats made out of acrylics or a wool blend (not the same as a 100% wool).  As difficult as it might be for us to believe, there are some not so nice people in the world that might want to do harm to our service people, so the organization that Krafters-Korner is working with is very careful about giving out mailing addresses and wants to be assured of the intentions of the folks doing these volunteer projects for them.

It is not an arbitrary request asking people to make the hats out of 100% wool.  There are very important reasons behind it.  You can get reasonably priced wool yarns with good yardage in different brands in worsted weight.

Eileen

--------------------------------------------------
From: <Blindhands at aol.com>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 7:02 AM
To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Military Helmet Liners

> For the folks here that are new to the list, I would like to tell you 
> what we are doing.  We are doing a service project and making helmet 
> liners to send to our military overseas.
>
> I would like all of you to know why we use wool.  People have asked  
> isn't it warm there?  We use wool so our troops  are warm this winter. 
> In addition, wool wicks away moisture and is  non-flammable. The 
> temperatures they endure are below zero in  Iraq, Afghanistan, S.  
> Korea and Kosovo.
>
> We will have a telephone conference class on how  to make these hats 
> that have a neck band and an opening for the face starting  this 
> Friday.  It will run for 4 weeks.  You will have homework to  continue 
> on each week so you will be  ready for the next step.  You  will have 
> a finished hat at the end of the last class.  I will also discuss  at 
> the last class some variations that can be done.  I will have the  
> pattern in Braille, but I will not have it in time for Friday's  
> class.
>
> This is a knit hat and I do have a crochet  version of the hat, but we 
> do not have a class planned on the crocheted version  as of yet.
>
> Now you think I don't knit and I don't crochet,  well you can still be 
> part of this.  You can help purchase the wool yarn  that we are using 
> or help by donating something toward the postage  cost.
>
> The yarn is Cascade 100% wool worstered weight  yarn which we can use 
> only certain colors as requested by the  military.
>
> So please do plan on taking part in this.   We will be making hats during
> the summer and in the Fall sending them  out.
>
> We have a resource that a few of us have joined  that will give us 
> information on where  our hats are needed
>
> Joyce .
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