Happy Monday dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! We hope that you all enjoyed the beautiful Flower Moon last Friday. Our staff certainly enjoyed crafting under the stars and marveling at this wonderful lunar event.
We have gotten a few questions recently regarding scarf width and length requirements, which we’d like to address here. It is imperative that all donated scarves are 60 inches (152cm) in length and at minimum 6 inches (15cm) in width. Ideally, the width of scarves bound for Stand Downs in colder climates should be 8 inches (20cm) wide. This additional width allows for the veteran or their dependent to cover from the base of their neck up to the bridge of their nose. Anyone who has lived in a colder climate, as some of our staff have, can attest to the importance of having your neck, mouth, and nose covered during those extra cold months. Through the years, we have received lots of helpful feedback from the veterans and their dependents about what they prefer and what they need. The longer scarves allow for the wearer to wrap the garment multiple times, ensuring that they stay warm. A wider scarf allows for more overall coverage, which also ensures additional warmth. We are all here to serve those who so selflessly served our nation and we aim to please!
Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E Association family! We are in need of scarves to meet the large demand for upcoming Stand Downs that we serve! If you have donations to turn in, please make arrangements at your earliest convenience so that we can get them blocked and ready to ship as soon as possible. If you live in the DFW area, please contact our office and one of our dedicated staff will help to arrange for a pick up.
If you’d like to donate a hat, scarf, face mask or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of choking hazards).
If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead. Please remember you can support our cause by shopping on AmazonSmile. See the “Shop for Our Cause” blog post for additional information.
If you need yarn, or other supplies, please contact us through email at thriveassociation@thrivevets.org or by phone at (469) 427-9654. Please be aware that any communications are recorded. If you have donations and cannot make it to one of our in-person knitting groups, we are still continuing our policy of curbside pickup. Please contact us to schedule a pickup if you are in the DFW area. If you reside outside the DFW area and would like to make an in-kind donation, please contact us to make arrangements. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).
Happy Monday, dear T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! As the weather gets warmer and warmer, it’s easy to forget that garments like scarves are still needed to provide to our wonderful veterans and their dependents. With this in mind, we are in need of scarves. If you need inspiration, please feel free to browse our previous blog posts, as there are lots of great patterns to try!
If you’d like to donate a scarf to our cause, please remember to make sure that it is at least 60 inches (152.4 cm) in length so that the wearer can wrap it around themselves comfortably. Also, remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit a scarf in a brighter color, red is always a popular bright color. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of choking hazards).
If you’re not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead. Please remember you can support our cause by shopping on AmazonSmile. See the “Shop for Our Cause” blog post for additional information.
If you need yarn, or other supplies, please contact us through email at thriveassociation@thrivevets.org or by phone at (469) 427-9654. Please be aware that any communications are recorded. If you have donations and cannot make it to one of our in-person knitting groups, we are still continuing our policy of curbside pickup. Please contact us to schedule a pickup if you are in the DFW area. If you reside outside the DFW area and would like to make an in-kind donation, please contact us to make arrangements. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).
Happy Friday, T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! In continuing with our Question and Answer series, we have been asked numerous times about scarf patterns for beginner knitters who want to help our cause. After some thought and deliberation, the answer came to us; The Garter Stitch Scarf! For many knitters, a Garter Stitch scarf is their first project. This is not to downplay the Garter Stitch, though. It can work up very quickly and makes a lovely fluffy garment that everyone will love.
Tips and tricks: 1) Remember to watch your gauge. In our experience, uneven tension does show up, especially when using acrylic yarns.
2) Always cast on 2 extra stitches. These do not count as pattern stitches. They are your edge stitches. These two stitches ensure a nice tidy edge. When you are working your edge stitches, remember to always slip the first stitch on all new rows, knit to the end of the row, knit the last stitch, turn the work, and repeat until the garment reaches the desired length.
If you would like to donate a hat, scarf, face mask or other handcrafted garment to our cause, please remember that the dear veterans and their dependents prefer dark colors, e.g. blue, black, green, grey, and all-time favorite, camouflage. If you would like to knit, crochet, or sew a garment in a brighter color, red or deep purple are always popular bright colors. We cannot emphasize this important point enough: please do not use sparkly or overly decorative yarns and fabrics. While they have their place, they are simply inappropriate for the veterans and their dependents (including children because of choking hazards).
If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead. Please remember you can support our cause by shopping on AmazonSmile. See the “Shop for Our Cause” blog post for additional information.
If you need yarn, or other supplies, please contact us through email at thriveassociation@thrivevets.org or by phone at (469) 427-9654. Please be aware that any communications are recorded. If you have donations and cannot make it to one of our in-person knitting groups, we are still continuing our policy of curbside pickup. Please contact us to schedule a pickup if you are in the DFW area. If you reside outside the DFW area and would like to make an in-kind donation, please contact us to make arrangements. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent(s).
Happy Friday, T.H.R.I.V.E. Association family! We just wanted to swing by and show ya’ll just how magical last week’s showcased pattern, Yarnspirations’ Wavy Ridge Super Scarf, looks in an ombré yarn. This crochet pattern is truly versatile with most yarn colorways– from our veterans’ favorite camouflage to ombré blues and everything in between. As long as they are in appropriate colors and lengths, donating any of these scarves to T.H.R.I.V.E. and to our cause are sure to be a hit with our veterans and their dependents!
Happy Friday, T.H.R.I.V.E. Association Family! This week, we are continuing our focus on crocheted scarves with Yarnspirations’ “Mosaic Stitch Crochet Scarf.” This pattern creates a lovely geometric effect that looks more difficult to craft than it actually is. That being said, this is still a pattern that requires that you pay close attention to every round and stitch that you make. Fortunately, this free pattern also has a corresponding tutorial video that makes this a breeze to learn!
Here are the links to both the pattern and the tutorial video:
In our example, we chose to make our scarf without the fringe and used cream and blue as our color pair. There are countless other wonderful color combinations that would work with this pattern, but please keep in mind that if you intend to craft this as a donation to our cause, the scarf still needs to be in acceptably dignified colors for our veterans and/or their dependents to choose to wear. Darker shades of blues, blacks, grays, greens, and sometimes reds are most acceptable and desired by our dear underprivileged veterans and their dependents.
Happy Friday T.H.R.I.V.E. Association Family! We had our first official in-person knitting group at Highland Park Presbyterian Church! We are so very grateful to the church committee for all of their amazing support for our cause!
Last week, we promised to give our crocheters some love and attention. With that in mind, this week we’d like to share this lovely pattern from Red Heart, the “Scotch on the Rocks Crochet Plaid Scarf.” This awesome moss stitch scarf utilizes intarsia techniques for the lovely color blocking and three surface slip stitches for vertical lines along the length of the garment. While all of that sounds complex, the pattern is actually fairly simple once you get a feel for the repeats used in the pattern.
You can get your free copy of the pattern here: https://www.yarnspirations.com/on/ demandware.static/-/Sites-master-catalog-spinrite/default/dwc73d0f11/PDF/ RHC0425-029771M.pdf
We used colors that resembled Black Watch plaid and chose not to use tassels in our example. Feel free to have some fun and use whichever plaid color combinations inspire you! When crocheting this pattern, make sure to use two balls of each of the Main Color and Contrasting A color. This will make the color changes cleaner and easier to pick up as you go along. The only drawback is that this leads to a lot of ends to weave in, so we suggest that you weave in the tails as you work this garment.
Happy Friday Ladies and Gentlemen! Today we are featuring the Double Stockinette Stitch Camouflage Scarf. We had briefly touched on this stitch in last week’s blog post regarding ideal patterns for scarves using the ever-popular camouflage yarns. Like the Camouflage Brioche Scarf that we featured last week, the Double Stockinette Stitch Camouflage Scarf is double sided. Again, this means that there is no wrong side to the completed garment. It looks great on both sides!
As viewers can see from our video, this unique stitch creates a dense doublethick garment. This is particularly useful for garments that we send to Stand Downs in states that have harsher Winters e.g. Alaska. Like the Brioche Stitch Camouflage Scarf, the Double Stockinette Camouflage Scarf also has the advantage of really showing off the die of the yarn. In other words, if you have a yarn, camouflage in our case, the pattern should allow the yarn to speak for itself. These patterns do just that. And, for those knitters who do not like to purl, there is an added bit of awesomeness about this stitch. There no purling in the Double Stockinette Stitch Camouflage Scarf! Like our Camouflage Brioche Scarf, it is a case of slipping the purl stitches and knitting the knit stitches. Bonus, right?
We would like to reiterate that for those who want in-person crafting groups, we would be willing to have OUTDOOR weekly, or bi-weekly, morning meetings. Crafters would be required to bring their own lawn chairs, have a mask if personal crafting instruction is needed, and observe the “6 foot Rule”. Alternatively, we would be open to hosting virtual meetings which would ensure maximum safety for everyone involved. Please contact us if you would be interested in taking part in either an outdoor or a virtual knitting group.
Although several of the Stand Downs that we support have been postponed or have had to be altered to keep our communities safe in this current pandemic, we are still collecting goods that will be sent to the various V.A.s throughout the year so please, please keep crafting! If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead. Please remember you can support our cause by shopping on AmazonSmile. See the “Shop for Our Cause” blog post for additional information: https://thrivevets.org/index.php/2021/03/19/shop-for-our-cause/ If you need yarn, or other supplies, please contact us through email at thriveassociation@thrivevets.org or by phone at (469) 427-9654. If you have donations, we are still continuing our policy of curbside pickup. Please contact us to schedule a pickup if you are in the DFW area. If you reside outside the DFW area and would like to make an in-kind donation, please contact us to make arrangements. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent.
Stay tuned for part two of our question and answer series. In the second installment of this series we’ll answer one of our most frequently asked questions- “what patterns work best for camouflage scarves?” We’ll also discuss one of our all-time favorite scarf patterns to use with this particular yarn.
Happy Friday T.H.R.I.V.E. Association Family! Scarves are a very popular item among our veterans and their dependents and we never seem to have enough to go around. If you are looking for an item to donate to support our cause, please consider making a scarf. There are lots of free patterns, such as the one in the photo on the Yarnspirations website. Please click the link below to find inspiration for your next project to aid our brave heroes and their dependents as they continue their recoveries from homelessness.
Although several of the Stand Downs that we support have been postponed or have had to be altered to keep our communities safe in this current pandemic, we are still collecting goods that will be sent to the various V.A.s throughout the year so please, please keep crafting! If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, there are still many ways to support our cause! Please consider donating materials and/or making a monetary donation to help us cover the costs of materials, shipping, and overhead. Please remember you can support our cause by shopping on AmazonSmile. See the “Shop for Our Cause” blog post for additional information:
If you need yarn, or other supplies, please contact us through email at thriveassociation@thrivevets.org or by phone at (469) 427-9654. If you have donations, we are still continuing our policy of curbside pickup. Please contact us to schedule a pickup if you are in the DFW area. If you reside outside the DFW area and would like to make an in-kind donation, please contact us to make arrangements. Remember, even one lovingly handcrafted hat or scarf can make a huge difference in the life of an underprivileged veteran or their dependent.
