[Nfb-krafters-korner] Military Helmet Liners

[Eileen Scrivani]

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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