YAY HATS.

Molita & Sarah with the hats we made.

     Yesterday Molita and I were able to give these 24 hats to a woman at our church to donate to a local hospital. It has been a fun project for the two of us to work on and think about all the newborn babies who will get to wear the hats. And just to be completely honest it has been a wonderful project to work on during the last semester of our senior year. There was instant gratification of seeing a complete project, while we have so many unknowns and things that are left unfinished (trying to figure out what next year will hold).
     The woman at our church was surprised to see how many hats we had made, we had told her that we had made a bunch of hats and she told us that she thought there would be six or eight and then we dumped a pile on her. It was fabulous. I am proud to be active and worshiping at St. John's in St. Donatus. For a smaller church they sure do care about the community and world around them. I am thankful for the ways that the people of St. John's have taken in so many of us seminarians.
     What are you or the congregation that you are active in doing to help serve the community in which you live? I love hearing ways in which people are serving their community and God is moving in and through people to care for the world around them.

Infant Hats

Amy, Julie, me, Molita

The two hats that I made. (Sorry about the poor picture quality, I took it with my phone.)

Yesterday at St. John's Lutheran in St. Donatus, Iowa the women of the church had a "project day." A few folks brought their own projects and a few folks made cards but the majority of the group learned how to loom baby hats. There were a couple women and girls who knew how to do it and taught the rest of us how. It was humbling to have girls probably 8 and 6 teaching me how to loom hats, but they were amazing teachers for sure. I was a skeptic at first that I would be able to figure it out. But I ended up making a hat and a half during the morning and finished my second hat last night. They were very easy to make once we got started, Molita was even able to do it with her arm casted, she only needed help with one part.
      Today I decided to see if I could jazz them up a little bit and add a flower and a button to each of them. I had never tried to crochet flowers before, but with the help of the internet and someone else's blog I learned how to make little flowers and then inserted the button for the center. I am excited to think about all of our little hats going to a local hospital to keep new little babies heads warm. I am particularly excited that my hats are not pink but with the addition of the little flower and button I was able to make them a little girly. I also am particularly fond of Molita's orange hat. Amy got a little fancy and made some type of a rimming on hers. I am excited to try and make a couple on my own and either give them to friends or donate them to the hospital. I love being a part of God's mission in the world and being able to give a gift to people I don't even know.
  I am thankful for people who teach me new skills, share new patterns with me, are patient with me while I learn how to do something, and teach me how to do particular things in order to create something new. I pray I am able to pass on some of these skills to others as well.