Lucy's Valentine's at Daycare

Every once in a while I get in this streak where I just need to get rid of some of my scrap yarn and I make it my mission to get rid of scrap yarn. When I get in these moods every project I do MUST include scrap yarn (unless I have a super important project come up - then I give myself some grace and buy what I need) and I only buy yarn I need that will allow me to use up yarn, traditionally this means I buy a lot of neutral colors in order to balance out the crazy colors I have stored up.

Back in the beginning of November, I decided I was at the point that I need to use up my scrap yarn pile and started looking at my bins (ugg yes, bins) of scrap yarn and the strange amounts I had left and was puzzled at what I could make with the yarn, because it really was great yarn just small amounts of great yarn, and I kept thinking that I could make a ton of hats if I had somewhere to take/give a ton of hats. I looked into the NICU where Lucy stayed for a  while, however they cannot take handcrafted items due to fear of germs coming in (which I suppose makes sense) and was thinking about where else are there lots of kids and my mind went to Lucy's daycare. {I did end up doing a NICU preemie hat challenge in the month of December and took them down to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis}

Then the idea was born - I would make some type of valentine card that said "Hats off to you Valentine" and attach it to a handmade hat for each kid. The idea was brilliant, I had 3 plus months to make roughly 16 hats. My goal: try lots of new patterns that I have been storing up in my ravelry library AND use up a ton of scrap yarn. BRILLIANT. My yarn stash is now MASSIVELY under control (Thankfully).

The Hats:
Ladybug by Repeat Crafter Me
Penguin by Repeat Crafter Me
Happy Hat 2 by Mamachee
Zebra by Repeat Crafter Me
Shark by Repeat Crafter Me
Snowman by Repeat Crafter Me
Brainwaves by Playin Hooky
Aviator by Repeat Crafter Me
Snow Queen by Repeat Crafter Me
Pop of Color by Mamachee
Mohawk Beanie by Boomer Beanies
Galilee Hat by Mamachee
Tiger by Repeat Crafter Me
Basic Stripes by Colie's Crochet
Emersyn Newsboy Hat by Frayed Knot

All of the hats are adapted from the above patterns, I didn't follow any of them exactly. The only hat I repeated was the Mohawk beanie, I made two of those for a set of brothers. I am actually fairly impressed I managed to get these done.

I know it won't be possible to make hats every year for the kids at daycare for Valentine's day, but it was super fun to come up with a project that allowed me to try a whole bunch of new projects without the stress of them being perfect. As you can tell by the list above I REALLY got into the Repeat Crafter Me patterns, they were fun and easy to follow, I liked how they turned out as a whole and I know I will tweak them a little next time I make them.

I also was thrilled to not be giving out candy for Valentine's day - while I am not anti-candy, it was nice to do something other than candy. I may make it my goal to do noncandy for Valentine's day for a few years, just as a different option.

Note to self: next time you decide to make 16 of anything - give yourself more than two months, particularly if Christmas and the New Year falls in that window as well as a work trip and a vacation.

In the end I LOVED this project.
Are you doing anything fun for Valentine's Day?