Some of you may have already heard about our hat drive in our latest newsletter, but I thought I would cover all of the basis and post about it on the blog too. Plus we have some really fun photos to share. :)

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be here before we know it - and we are getting a head start on keeping our athletes warm (pun intended!). What are we up to this time, you ask? Well, we've set a goal of gifting every single Sochi-bound athlete (and their families) with a cozy and patriotic handmade hat, compliments of the yarn industry (after all, what goes better with winter sports than hand-knitted hats?). As you can see from the photo, we've finished one... just a few hundred to go! Want to join us in our hat drive? Here's the skinny:

The Sugar Bowl Hat

Some of you may have heard that I am one of 18 semi-finalists in Schachenmayr's My Mountain Hat Design Contest. My design, the Sugar Bowl Hat knit in Schachenmayr original's new Lova yarn, also doubles as a cowl for extra versatility in all of your activities. 

I love items that have multiple uses, which was why I thought this design would be a great entry for the contest. I've already sent the sample (shown here in gray and teal on Amanda) to Schachenmayr since they are going to publish the design on their website, but I decided I needed one for myself too! Last night I cast on to make my own in a different color of Schachenmayr original Lova! It's already turning out really cute and I can't wait to wear it! 

Version #2 WIP

Being a semi-finalist is honor enough, but if by some small chance I happened to be the finalist with the most votes, my hat pattern would be published as a paid download to support the charitable organization of my choice! For me, there is no question over which one to choose...

The Stitch Red campaign in support of The Heart Truth would be my pick! so I am hoping all of you could help me out and go vote! I would love to have a pattern out there that is contributing to heart disease research and prevention for women. 

You can also wear it as a cowl!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Stitch Red, it's a campaign that JBW started almost 3 years ago to get the whole needle arts industry involved in spreading the word about heart disease and how it affect women. Knit Red and Sew Red are the two books we've created as our Stitch Red product along with tons of other industry vendors who have created Stitch Red products as well. Each has pledged 5% or more of the gross profits to go to The Heart Truth. On a side note we are excited to announce that Crochet Red will be released in February of 2014 and we are currently working on acquiring celebrity chefs to participate in Cook Red which will be out in 2015. 

Heart disease is something that is personal to many of us. It runs in my family, and is something I know that I need to be aware of and watch out for in my own life. My father has had two heart surgeries and my family constantly lives with the reminder that every day with him is a gift. My grandfather (my father's father) died of a heart attack at a very young age, before I was born. It is my hope that my father is around to meet and enjoy his grandchildren, as his father never was.

I really hope you'll take a moment to go and vote for my design! It would really mean a lot to me, and all of us here at Jimmy Beans Wool that have worked so hard on the Stitch Red Campaign over the years. We appreciate your help!

There are two ways to vote. Use this link if you are on a computer:

https://www.facebook.com/mymountain.us/app_451684954848385

And this shorter link if you are on any mobile device:

http://woobox.com/jt3ju3

You can vote once per day, per ip address. Thank you so, so much for helping me support Stitch Red and literally stick it to heart disease! (Get it? You knit with sticks? Hee hee!)

Happy knitting!
Kristen

Have you heard of the My Mountain Campaign from Schachenmayr yarns yet?!?! It's so much fun, we couldn't wait to tell you about it!

Richard and John from Westminster Fibers created the My Mountain campaign. We couldn't help but snag this photo of them modeling the reflective Lumio yarn when they visited us last month!

Not to be confused with our own Stitch Mountain campaign, which we created to support the US Freeskiing and US Snowboarding teams, My Mountain has a slightly different purpose. Geared towards active knitters and crocheters, the My Mountain campaign seeks to get you excited about creating gear for your active pursuits whatever they may be. Schachenmayr is hoping to do just that with My Mountain by combining awesome yarn with fabulous design to inspire active people everywhere!

Side Note: In case you were wondering, Stitch Mountain is also the name of our upcoming book of gorgeous designs inspired by our favorite winter sports athletes. We can't wait until we can share all of these designs with you in November, but we can tell you that they are awesome! More on this later, but if you are interested, you can pre-order Stitch Mountain and we'll ship it as soon as it arrives to our shop.

To get people excited about the My Mountain Campaign, Schachenmayr is hosting a hat design contest and asked each entrant to share what their mountain is whether it be a metaphor for something personal, or an actual mountain. I (Kristen) was one of the lucky 18 designers to be selected as a semi-finalist! I am so honored to have had my design selected along with designers like Susan B. Anderson, Alasdair Post-Quinn, Kersti Landra (from Koigu yarns), and Rohn Strong. All 18 of these designs will be featured soon on the My Mountain website as free patterns so stay tuned for that!

My design for the contest is called the Sugar Bowl hat (modeled here by the lovely Amanda who is one of our purchasers here at JBW.) It's actually a hat that opens up at the top and can be worn as a cowl too! How's that for multi-tasking?!?! I love items that serve dual purpose so I tried to think back on my days as a snowboarder at what kind of an item I would have liked to have with me on the slopes. This definitely fits all of those needs for me. Even though I would always wear a helmet when I rode, a neck gaiter was a must for me but when it was time to hit the lodge, a hat was definitely a must which is why the Sugar Bowl Hat/Cowl is the perfect blend of accessories for me!

I chose the SMC Lova yarn because of it's fun blend of neutrals with pops of bright color, easy care blend of wool and acrylic, and light and lofty chainette construction. It was a really nice yarn to work with, and I'm already planning a second version of the Sugar Bowl Hat/Cowl for myself to wear this coming winter!

Sugar Bowl is inspired by one of our local ski resorts here in the Reno/Tahoe area and it's one of my all-time favorite mountains! The resort itself has tons of great back-country and a laid-back attitude is what made it one of my favorite places to ride each winter. I don't ride much anymore due to a knee injury, but I still love getting out my snowshoes each winter and enjoying the mountains in a different way.

Now that the semi-finalists have been announced, the winning designs are up to you! Between now and September 23rd, you can vote for your favorites on Facebook, once per day. The system is actually set up so that you can vote for multiple designs too, which is nice because you don't have to choose just one. Although I would love if you voted for my Sugar Bowl Hat/Cowl design, I encourage you to go look at all of them and vote for your favorites. There are some truly awesome ones to choose from. :)

If you are on a computer, use this link: https://www.facebook.com/mymountain.us/app_45168495484838

However, if you are on a mobile device (phone, Kindle, iPad, etc), you'll need to use this link to vote: http://woobox.com/jt3ju3
In order to vote, you will need to "like" the My Mountain page, but that just takes a quick second! You can also vote once per day so be sure to vote often for your favorites!

Also, if you'd like to check out the yarns featured in the My Mountain campaign, you can see them all on our website. Here are the links to each of them.

Boston: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/Boston.asp
Boston Style: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/BostonStyle.asp
Lova: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/Lova.asp
Lumio: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/Lumio.asp
Bravo Big: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/BravoBig.asp
Bravo Big Color: http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/SMC/BravoBigColor.asp

I will say, these yarns are awesome! We really love the Lumio with it's reflective thread which is great for nighttime activities. Also, the Boston comes in fabulous colors, including lots of neon brights! I think the best part of all of these yarns is that they are super easy to care for, all of them are machine washable, which makes them really great for the active people in your life or for gift giving season.

We hope you'll get as excited about My Mountain as we have!

Happy knitting and crocheting!
Kristen