2019 Annual Crochet Challenge For Warm Up America Details | Podcast Episode #141

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This challenge has concluded but you’ll still learn some interesting stuff about Warm Up America in this episode.

Sarah, from Warm Up America, talks about the Made With Love campaign they hold annually and it’s mash-up with the Crochet Challenge for Warm Up America. Items made and sent in for the challenge were hung in low-income areas, primarily in the Dallas TX area, so anyone walking by who needed them, could keep them for warmth.

The 2019 challenge kicked off in November 2019 and has since concluded. But tune in, learn about how amazing The Warm Up America Foundation is (and why they’re the official charity for B.Hooked), and look forward to our next Annual Crochet Challenge for Warm Up America.

Episode Transcript

Brittany: You’re listening to The BeHooked Podcast, episode 141, with Brittany. Hey there, welcome to episode 141 of the B.Hooked podcast. And today is a very, very special episode because the second crochet challenge for Warm Up America is kicking off in just a couple of days. So today’s episode is completely devoted to telling you everything you need to know to participate in the challenge and help answer any questions that you might possibly have.

Now, if the Crochet Challenge for Warm Up America is completely new to you, I’ll give you the CliffsNotes version here. Basically, this is a crochet challenge that I do here at B.Hooked every single year where we do the same project together and you ship it out to Warm Up America to complete the challenge. Now I have some really great sponsors who help to incentivize things and provide some really great giveaways. But the main reason we do this is to provide a gift for somebody in need.

So joining me today is Sarah from Warm Up America to share some information about where your donations will go to after completing this challenge. All right, so here’s what you can expect from today’s episode. We’ll first talk about Made With Love with Sarah from Warm Up America. She’s going to talk about what that is, why it’s such a wonderful thing to get involved with, and why we’ve chosen to sort of pair up our usual Crochet Challenge for Warm Up America and Made With Love.

So Sarah will talk about Made With Love. We’ll talk about the skills that are required to complete the challenge, how to complete the challenge, the yarn requirements for the project, the projects that you’re asked to complete in order to finish the challenge. We’ll talk a little bit about those and the skills that are required, and of course, how to send your items into Warm Up America, what you’ll need to include in those packages, and of course, the giveaways that you could potentially win for completing the challenge. I know there’s a lot of information here, so let’s just get to it. Sarah, welcome back to the BeHooked podcast. Thank you for joining me today.

Sarah: No problem. Thank you so much for having me, Brittany.

Brittany: It is an absolute pleasure. I love this time of year when we’re organizing for a new challenge. And this year is a little bit special because it’s the first year we’ve ever done two in the same year.

Sarah: Yes, it is.

Brittany: So this one is ever so slightly different from the usual challenge, being that it corresponds with a really great event that you at Warm Up America always do every single year. Basically, we’re helping to provide some gifts that you can use for Made With Love. So I wanted to bring you on the show today to talk a little bit about what Made With Love is, and of course, to run through all of the challenge details so there’s no questions. We’ll lay it all out here. And to get everyone excited about this because it’s such a wonderful opportunity.

Sarah: Yeah, so Made With Love, this is something that Warm Up America does every single year in January here in the Dallas area, which is where our office is. And we actually got this idea from another charity in Easton, Pennsylvania. There’s a charity called Chase the Chill. And I don’t know exactly when, but they started an annual yarn bombing event where they distributed, you know, hand knitted and crocheted scarves and hats in public places so that anyone, regardless of income or things like that, could take items for free and keep themselves warm.

And so about six years ago, we started our own event here in Dallas and we’ve been going strong ever since then. Most years we’ve done it just in Dallas, but actually this year in 2019 and I guess last winter in 2018, we actually started expanding the event as well. So we do our event here in Dallas and we have local volunteers help us out. We’ve also had some of our really awesome Warm Up America volunteers from around the country start their own events in other cities.

This year, we’re having it here in Dallas. We’re going to have an event in Des Moines, Iowa, actually within the next couple weeks. And then one of our Craft Yarn Council members, Love Crafts, is going to do an event in New York within the next couple months as well. And so it’s really cool to see that we’re doing it here and now other people are starting to do Made with Love events in their own cities.

Brittany: That’s really interesting. So the donations, the gifts that will be provided as a result of this challenge, they will go specifically to you there in the Dallas area. Is that correct?

Sarah: Yes. So we collect all of the items. Actually, we have collected about 4,500 items so far this year. And our goal is 7,500. So we collect all the items here in our office in Dallas. And then we work with our volunteers and send them a select amount of whatever they ask us for. We send the items to people who are doing this event in other cities. And then we typically keep more items here in Dallas and send smaller amounts to other cities because we have been doing it longer. So yeah, it’s really awesome. And 7,500 is the highest goal we’ve ever had. And so we hope that each year we’re able to increase that goal and send items to even more cities.

Brittany: So when you hang that many items around a city, it probably just looks amazing.

Sarah: Yes, there is a really awesome visual impact. I mean, people walk by and they just see people hanging items and they come up. It’s kind of like if you’re knitting or crocheting in public. You know, they’re curious and they want to ask you, like, what are you doing? So it’s kind of the same when we’re hanging the items. People just kind of walk by and sometimes they’ll just kind of look at us like, what are they doing? But a lot of people do come up and ask us what we’re doing. And we’re able to tell them what it’s all about, that these items are completely free. They were handmade by people all over the United States and that we just want to spread a little warmth and love to people who might need it.

Brittany: I’m super excited about this. Now, typically, you accept all types of donations, correct? So this could be like hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, that sort of thing?

Sarah: Yes. So most years that we’ve done this event, we just did hats and scarves. But within the last couple of years, we have actually gotten feedback from people that we’ve given these items to because typically we’ll yarn bomb them. So we’ll hang them on trees and fences and things like that. But a lot of times we’ll also just directly hand them to people too. Sometimes we’ve done this event near homeless shelters. So there’s a lot of people around. So we’ll directly hand the items to them. And a lot of them have started asking within the last few years, like, do you have gloves? Do you have mittens? And we thought, we don’t right now, but that’s something we’re going to start incorporating. And so that is why we are adding gloves and mittens so that we can give people something to keep their head warm, their neck warm, and their hands because it’s really important to keep your hands warm.

Brittany: It is. And you know what? Crochet gloves are… are a fun challenge. They were certainly a challenge for me to create as a designer, but I think it’s a fun challenge for somebody to take on who’s looking to improve their skills. And that’s really all we’re about here at BeHooked. My mission is to help somebody get better at their craft, be that crochet or knitting. And the gloves that will be included in this challenge are easy enough that an experienced beginner, we’ll say, could do that as long as you know some basic stitches. And we’ll talk a little bit more about each of the patterns. But I just wanted to highlight it here. When you think of gloves, you think, oh, that’s got to be so incredibly difficult. And the pattern for this challenge, they are not incredibly difficult. So I’m really excited about those.

Sarah: Yes, and we are so excited as well, obviously, and so thankful to you, Brittany, because people have started sending us more gloves, but we’re really excited to have a challenge specifically including gloves so that we can start giving more gloves to people because, like you said, that is something that not only they want gloves, but it’s also something they need. So, yeah, we’re so excited, and we cannot wait to see all the awesome gloves that we get.

So something I didn’t mention earlier, but usually when we do our Made with Love event, we go to areas within the Dallas Metroplex that are specifically where there are populations of homeless or low income people. So those are the kinds of people that are specifically going to be getting these items. So they’re going to be, you know, obviously everyone who’s participating in the challenge is going to make the items and they’re going to go to people in need absolutely 100% free. So that’s something that’s really cool and something that really catches people’s attention when they walk by, especially when they pick one up and see how the yarn feels and the beautiful colors. And they say, wait, I can just take this. This is free. And we’re like, yeah, someone made this just for you. And that really brightens their day.

Brittany: Yes. And you have little tags that you include with every gift as well. And you’ll be doing that for the items that are received as a result of this challenge as well. And it says, take me, I’m yours. Is that right? I love that.

Sarah: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. That, you know, take me, I’m yours immediately. Like, oh, I can just take this and like, this is mine. So yeah, once we receive all these items, we’ll have some local, some awesome local volunteers come and help us tag every single item so that they each have those nice tags on them.

Brittany: Okay. So participants of the challenge or potential participants here, here’s the most important thing you need to know. You will participate in this challenge. We’ll lay out the details in just a moment. And the gifts that you make will be sent to Texas and they will be distributed as a part of Made With Love. And each of your gifts will be offered for free to anybody who needs it. And that’s pretty much the gist of it. It’s very simple. It’s a very easy way to get involved, to do something great, and just be a part of something even bigger than what we do here with our usual challenges.

All right, so let’s talk a little bit about the skills required to complete the challenge. What I recommend is you have basic crochet skills and that’s really all you need. Both of our projects will use the double crochet stitch primarily, and some post stitches. So front post, back post double crochets are common stitches that you would use in ribbing. So you’ll see that in both the hat and the gloves. And then there’s also some minor shaping. So basic increases, basic decreases that you would use in both of those projects. So familiarity with these stitches are really helpful, but they’re absolutely not required. And there will be a tutorial in right and left hand versions that will walk you through both of the projects.

Now, another question that people typically have, there are so many people out there who make items for donations year round. So they might have a stash of hats or a stash of scarves or anything like that, that they want to donate to you for the Made With Love campaign. Is this something that they can ship to you with their challenge donations?

Sarah: Absolutely. We start collecting items for Made With Love really kind of in July and August and more so through the fall. So, you know, while we’re going to definitely be taking all the items from this challenge, if you do have hats or gloves laying around or even scarves or mittens, definitely feel free to send those to us. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, our goal is 7,500 items and we are at 4,500 right now. So we will gladly take any hats, scarves, gloves or mittens that you have and they will definitely be used for you.

Brittany: Wonderful. Okay, so that’s always a question that comes up. I’m really glad that you’re going to accept those as well. Do you have a deadline?

Sarah: So yeah, so the deadline for Made With Love items is December 7th. You know, it’s okay if they come in like a few days after that. That December 7th deadline mostly is so that we can get all of those items tagged. And then of course, you know, we get into the holidays. And so we don’t have as many volunteers that are able to come in as much during that time. And then basically, after Christmas and New Year’s, we have like about a week before the event in the middle of January. So yeah, that December 7th deadline just gives us plenty of time to make sure that we can get every single item tagged and that we are ready to go for our event.

Brittany: Perfect. Okay, so the deadline to ship your items in, if they are outside the challenge and for the challenge. So the deadline is the same. December 7th is when you have to have your items postmarked to complete the challenge, but also if you’re including some additional items that you have already made or if you want to make more items. The deadline is December 7th. And like you said, it gives you a chance to tag over 7,000 items. That takes a big team and quite a bit of time.

Sarah: Yeah. And of course, I mean, like you said, for the challenge, the items at least need to be postmarked by December 7th. That’s the same if you have extra items. If they’re not in our office on December 7th, of course, we will still take them and we will still use them.

Brittany: Wonderful. Okay. That is good to know as well. All right. So we’ve talked a lot about the challenge details. So let’s talk about how you complete the challenge, especially if it’s new to somebody listening. They’ve never heard of this challenge. They’ve never participated before. There’s really only two steps involved. You complete both projects, the gloves and the hat, following the pattern that will be provided for the challenge. And you mail them in to Warm Up America there in Texas on or before the deadline. And that’s really all there is to it.

Now, there’s a lot of moving parts, of course. There are lots of details and lots of questions that circle about those two steps. So I want to get into those. The first thing is the yarn requirement. Now, both patterns were written and tested with Paintbox Simply Aran and Lion Brand Heartland yarn. So for the most reliable results… I recommend that you use one of those two options. And by most reliable results, I mean the sizing, because we’ve talked a lot about gauge on this show before. So you know that subtle differences can be the difference between something that fits and something that doesn’t. So if you do decide to make a yarn substitution, I would ask that you stay within the worsted weight category and that you try to keep it as close to either Paintbox, Simply Aran, or Heartland as possible.

So there are potentially several skeins in our stash that could work for these projects, but I know there are certain things that you look for just to help it be more useful to the recipient. So if somebody would like to use a different yarn, are there any requirements that you have that you would request?

Sarah: Yeah. So we don’t typically say that we have like hard requirements because we do like to, you know, take any item that someone donates to us. We don’t ever not use an item, but it is helpful. Sometimes if people are like, what kind of yarn specifically, we just suggest that you maybe use an acrylic yarn or something that could be washed. Because sometimes, you know, if we notice pet hairs or some kind of maybe if it’s like a smoke smell or something like that, we have local volunteers that will wash the items. So that is a general recommendation that we have. It just makes it a little easier for us to make sure that the items are going to people and they don’t… You know, if they have like some kind of smell or something like that, we can give them to people and they don’t have that.

We also do ask, you know, sometimes people do like to wash the items themselves before they send them to us just because it makes them feel better. If you do want to do that, whether it’s the hat or gloves for the challenge, or if you have any other items that you want to send to us, we do just ask that once you’re done washing the items, just let them completely dry before you actually ship them to us. Because sometimes if they’re still a little damp, in the process of shipping, they can kind of get like a weird smell just because they were still kind of damp. So yeah, if you wash, just make sure they’re completely dry. That just kind of helps us on our end. If it’s acrylic, that really helps, but we don’t really have many stipulations, you know, other than those things.

Brittany: Okay, okay. So acrylic is helpful. Washable is helpful. You can wash your items, but if you do, just make sure they’re completely dry before you package them up.

Sarah: Yeah, I guess I can even add to that. If you do wash the items, even going so far as like an unscented detergent is helpful too. We’ve just found that that helps so that there’s not any chance for allergies or something with a scented detergent.

Brittany: So even unscented. Perfect. Makes sense.

Okay, so those are the simple steps. Those are the yarn requirements, my recommendation, your recommendations. Now let’s talk a little bit about the projects. So as you’re listening to this episode, the day it comes out, the first of two patterns will be released on Saturday. So in two days, Saturday, November 9th at noon Eastern Standard Time. The first of those two is the gloves. They take a little bit longer to crochet just because you mainly have to crochet two items versus one. So you’ll get a little bit of extra time to do this.

Now, I already mentioned before the types of stitches that are used. So having some basic knowledge of those stitches, as well as being able to hold the tension on your yarn and that sort of thing, you’ll be good to go to give them a try. If you’re not too keen on reading patterns, like actually reading the instructions, if you’re more of a visual person, there will be a step-by-step video tutorial in right and left-handed versions.

Now, the super cool thing about this pattern is there’s no complicated instructions, no additional instructions for the right and the left hand. They look exactly the same on both sides. So you complete one, you know, you get it all figured out, the second one will fly off your hook because you’ve already done it before. Now it took me about eight hours to complete one pair of gloves. So about four hours per glove. So that’s what you can plan for, you know, plus or minus a couple hours, depending on your crochet speed. I tend to crochet pretty slow. Plus I was really being thorough in my instructions as I was working through this. So I was crocheting a little slower than normal. And your prior skills, if you are completely comfortable with the techniques that we use, then you’ll have no problems at all. It might take you a little bit longer if you’re following along with the tutorial step by step. So about eight hours.

Again, it uses double crochet, front post and back post double crochet. And it also incorporates a little bit of shaping. So simple increases, which is really just putting two double crochets in the same stitch, and decreases. We’ll use the double crochet two and three together, sort of to shape up the fingers. Now the additional supply that you will need aside from your yarn for the gloves are some stitch markers. And these are very highly recommended. When you do the shaping for the hand, you’ll have a thumb gusset, which is where you’ll put some increases. And then you’ll do some increasing on the opposite side. So kind of like where your pinky is on your hand. And I found it really helpful to use stitch markers of different colors. That way, as I’m working around and around the hand of the glove, I know, okay, these are green stitch markers. So this is my thumb gusset. These are orange stitch markers. So this is like the pinky side of the hand.

Now there’s not a ton of increases, so it’s not super complicated. I don’t want to scare you away, but I do recommend that you have at least four stitch markers in two different colors, preferably. That’ll make your life a little bit easier. Now, you said before that the gloves were a special request, and I want to mention that that is part of why it’s required that you complete both. Obviously, it’s a need that you have seen in the community. And that’s why we really want to encourage you to maybe, you know, step outside your comfort zone a little bit if you’ve never made gloves before and give this a try. You’ll be a better crocheter as a result of it. And you’ll give something to somebody who has asked for it, who genuinely needs it.

So the other little bit of detail there is that the written instructions will be available on the challenge page, and that’ll be behooked.com slash WUA2019. There will also be a printable PDF, and the video tutorials will be available on that page as well as on my YouTube channel. So you’ll have easy access to them on the date, which once again is November 9th at noon Eastern Standard Time.

Now, the second project is also something that you requested, right? We always need hats.

Sarah: Always, yes.

Brittany: And I know that there’s some wonderful hats that I saw in some of the pictures of past events. And I’m excited about this one. It’s a super basic hat because I wanted it to be easy and quick for anybody. So it is a top-down hat. So you’ll start at the crown, do some increases, work down to the band, which will have a little bit of ribbing. You’ll use double crochet stitches. There’s no decreases here. There’s front post and back post double crochets. So that’s something that you can expect. And this project took me about four hours to complete.

Now, again, plus or minus a couple hours, depending on your speed and your skills. Again, this is a super basic pattern and it’s really easy. The pattern and the tutorials will be available on the challenge page as well as on my YouTube channel on November 16th at noon Eastern Standard Time. So you’ll get your glove pattern first, you’ll get to work through those, and then the following week you’ll have the hat pattern. And you’re encouraged to make as many items as you possibly can or that you want to make. Because again, you have that goal of 7,500. And Sarah, you said you’re at 4,500 right now?

Sarah: Yes, we are.

Brittany: That’s 3,000. We need to fill up 3,000 items.

Sarah: Yep.

Brittany: Now something else you and I have sort of discussed behind the scenes as we’re preparing for this is you want there to be lots of color, right? Lots of variety in the items that come.

Sarah: Yes. You know, like we talked about before, when we’re hanging up these items and even handing them out, it’s a really great visual. You know, we want people walking by to stop in their tracks and look at everything we’re doing and, you know, come up to us and talk to us about it and take an item. So definitely we always get items in all different colors and we definitely encourage you to make your items in all different colors. And even like we talked about, if you have items you’ve already made that are, you know, different colors. It doesn’t have to be specific colors. We definitely encourage that.

Brittany: Okay. Now, because we’re encouraging you to be creative with color, there is no, you need one skein or two skeins, no instructions for that. What I will provide you is the total number of yards that you’ll need for the gloves and for the hat. So to make one pair of gloves, you’ll need 215 total yards. And to make one hat, you’ll need 130 total yards.

Now my gloves and hat set, I use two colors. I use sort of a light gray and like a really nice sagey green kind of color. So I had to get a couple different skeins in the gray and a full skein in the green. Even though I just had a stripe, I didn’t have to use all of that. So to sort of get away from any potential confusion, I don’t want you buying more yarn than what you need to buy. So just keep these totals in mind. Let’s say you want to work with four different colors. You’ll need to buy or have four different colors on hand. But let’s say you have a partial skein, you’ve got something in your stash, and you know you have 50 yards. Well, that’s not going to get you a full project, so you’ll have to use it with another color.

I think the big point that I want to hit home here is to be creative with color. Use stripes, use color blocks. You can do solids if you want. And both of the yarns that we’ve selected for the challenge paint box, Simply Aran, I don’t have the number off the top of my head, but there’s dozens of colors that are available. And Heartland, there’s several different colors that are available. Heartland also adds in another element of just texture. It’s almost like a tonal sort of yarn where it’s all the same color for the most part, but it’s almost like speckly. And I think that would be really nice. It’s a really soft yarn as well.

Now the tools that you’ll need, a six and a half millimeter hook is the hook that I used to obtain the gauge. We talk about gauge a lot. I want to reiterate a little bit of what that means. The bottom line is to use whatever hook will provide you with the measurements that match the gauge. The gauge will be listed in the pattern, so you’ll find that on the dates that we talked about previously. The goal is to use whatever crochet hook will give you that measurement, so that way the hats and the gloves actually fit somebody when they’re finished.

So once you have your hook size figured out, you’ll also need four stitch markers, like I said, for the gloves, primarily to help you with those increasing points. And then we also use the stitch markers to block off the finger holes. It’s best if you can use two different colors, so two stitch markers in one color, two stitch markers in another color, and darning needle and some scissors. And that’s really all you need. Yeah. And these are probably things that you already have. So the only thing that you’ll potentially need to go buy is your yarn and have fun with the color choices. I think that’s always the best part of these challenges is to see how every single person takes the same pattern and makes it completely different.

Sarah: Yes. And speaking of yarn, I was actually curious. So I looked up the Paintbox yarn that you mentioned and the Lion brand. So that Paintbox yarn comes in 53 different shades. And then the Heartland yarn comes in 28 different shades. So that is about 81 different color choices that you can choose from.

Brittany: Yes. You can get super creative. And in the tutorial, I will show you how to make a basic color change. So you can put it anywhere within your project. You can make it look exactly like mine if you’d like, or you could do something completely different. So you’ll have that basic skill of knowing how to change and you get to decide when to change.

Sarah: That’s really fun. I’m going to be trying these patterns too.

Brittany: Oh, that would be awesome. I would love to see yours.

Sarah: I’ve actually never made gloves, probably like a lot of the people or some of the people trying this challenge. So we’ll see how it goes.

Brittany: Yes, I know. I don’t want anyone to be scared of that because you just don’t see a lot of crochet gloves out of there. And I can’t help but wonder that there might be a reason for that. And I think the reason is they’re a challenge from a design standpoint. They really, really are. I worked many, many, many hours on these gloves, getting them right, getting the sizing right, and also making it easy enough for anybody to try. So just give it a try. I mean, you probably already have yarn in your stash. You won’t really have anything to lose. It’s a learning opportunity, so you’re not wasting time if you decide that you just can’t do it.

But I also want to say that this community and the community that participates in these challenges every single year, they are the most generous people that are on the planet. In the Facebook group, you can post a question. You can post a picture and say, what did I do wrong here? And you’ll get like several different people helping you. So if I’m not able to go in and answer your question directly, somebody in the community likely knows the answer to that question and they can help you through it.

Sarah: That’s awesome.

Brittany: Yes. So we’ll get to the Facebook group information here in just a little bit. I want to jump now into the actual completion of the challenge, which is sending your finished projects in to you to complete the challenge. So we mentioned before that the deadline is December 7th, which means you have to have your items in a box and at the post office on December 7th before the end of the business day. The address to send it to. It’s in Carrollton, Texas. So just so you have an idea of where it’s going, the specific address will be on your challenge page.

And I want to say, please, please do not send them to my address in my newsletter. Several boxes came to me. I’m in a completely different state. So it was a little bit costly to send those items to Texas to sort of forward them from where I’m at here. And so I just ask that you please make sure the address that’s on your package is the address that matches the challenge page in Carrollton, Texas.

Now the things to have included in your package, there are a couple of details there. So we mentioned before that you all put tags on the items before you hang them out. You will provide those, correct? So challenge participants, you don’t need to worry about that.

Sarah: Yes, correct.

Brittany: There are a couple different things that we would like for you to include in the package though. And this is per package. So let’s say you have tons of stuff to send and it maybe fills up two boxes. Every single box needs to have these two items within it. One of them we’ll call it the note. And that’s just a section that talks a little bit about you. If you’ve participated in the challenge before, you’re familiar with this. It gives you a chance to say, who you are and you’ve worked with yarn for this long and you’ve dedicated this many hours to crocheting this gift and basically why you love to craft with yarn. That will be included in the box and the volunteers at Warm Up America who are opening your packages will be able to read that and maybe potentially share that if there’s a situation where they’re unboxing live, which I know you sometimes do on your social pages.

Sarah: Yes, we go live unboxing actually every single Tuesday at noon Central Time on the Warm Up America Facebook page. So include a note in each box because we open several boxes each time. And if there are notes, we love reading them out loud. And our community who watches loves hearing your story.

Brittany: Alrighty. And then the second thing to have included in your box is the entry form. And the entry form is so you have a chance at winning one of the great giveaways that our sponsors have provided. We did this earlier this year where each item earned you one entry. And I think that ran over really well. So we’re going to do that again this year. One set, so a pair of gloves and a hat, each set that you have included in your box, will earn you an entry into the giveaway.

So let’s say you’re putting three sets into one box. You’ll have three entries into the giveaway and there will be three entry forms that will need to be filled out. And the reason you have to do that is because these entry forms will be randomly selected on Warm Up America’s Facebook page live on December 17th. So if you want an entry into the giveaway, you have to have one per set. It’s not per item. It’s per set. So a pair of gloves and a hat should have one entry form.

Sarah: So the more sets you make, the more chances you have at winning our awesome prizes.

Brittany: Exactly. And the more chances you have of reaching your goal, which I think is really what I would like to see happen as a result of this.

Sarah: Yeah.

Brittany: So let’s talk about the prizes. This time around, we have four prizes that will be awarded completely at random. Like I said, it’s just a drawing. So they’re going to pull these entry forms out of a hat. Not really a hat, but you get the idea. And they will be drawing for each of the four prizes.

One prize donated by our sponsor at Clover is… And Clover is providing an entire set of Clover Amore crochet hooks to the winner of this particular drawing, which is pretty awesome. This is one of the greatest crochet hook sets that are out there.

All right. The second prize that’s up for grabs was provided by Lion Brand. And the prize is 10 skeins of Heartland yarn. So the yarn that we use for the challenge, it’s delicious yarn. It’s super, super soft. And it’ll be in an assortment of colors. So the winner of this drawing will get 10 skeins of Heartland in an assortment of colors. And you said there are 28. So you never know what you might get.

The third prize is donated by Love Crafts. So Love Crochet, Love Knitting. And they are shipping 10 skeins of Paintbox Simply Aran. And that will be an assortment of colors as well.

And last but certainly not least, because this is an excellent prize, is donated by the Craft Yarn Council. And they are providing the Certified Instructors Program 1 and 2. So this is the full program in crochet or knitting, one or the other, completely for free. And it’s a really great program because it gives you the chance to solidify the skills that you already have to make them better. And I really like that you’re paired up with somebody who is a master, like a master crocheter. And they’re the ones who are sort of grading your work. They’re also there to help you through the process. So you make a really great connection in the process. And that, to me, is totally worth it.

Brittany: Yeah. Okay, so with every giveaway comes the rules for entry. There are just a few, and I want to highlight them here so there’s no question. First of all, to be eligible, you must participate in and finish the challenge. So that means you must make at least one glove and hat set, and you must send it to Warm Up America in Texas by December 7th. So that’s the first requirement.

The second one is that every set that you send in your box, it has to have an entry form because we can’t draw your name if we don’t know what it is. So if you send in a box, make sure that every set that’s in that box has an entry form filled out. Nobody will see that aside from you, the volunteers at Warm Up America. Because, you know, we have to have some information to reach you. We need to know where to ship the items. We need to know how to get a hold of you. And it’s usually email. So those two pieces of information will be required. But just know that they’re only seen by myself because I’m the one coordinating with our sponsors to get you the thing. And to Warm Up America, of course, because they are the ones who are drawing them.

And the winner must also be a U.S. or Canada resident. And that is so our sponsors are able to ship to you. That’s pretty much it. I think that is all the requirements. Super simple. Pretty straightforward.

Now, the giveaway I sort of breezed over before. I want to mention it again. The drawings will be held on Facebook Live on Warm Up America’s Facebook page. I’ll have a link to that in the challenge page. But all you have to do is search Warm Up America and Facebook and you’ll find it. That will occur on December 17, 2019. Do you have a set time that you typically go live?

Sarah: Yes. So we go live every Tuesday and it’s at noon central time. So sometimes people, we have a lot of people who watch pretty much every week, but sometimes, especially newer viewers, sometimes get confused, especially, you know, if you’re in a different time zone. So it’s always noon central time. So on that Tuesday, December 17th, it’ll also be at noon central time. So just if you’re in a different time zone, just look up that difference. It might be one for you or 11 or something like that.

Brittany: Okay. And also, I know this is a question that I would certainly wonder myself, is do you have to be on that live to get your prize if you are drawn? And the answer to that is no. That is certainly a fun way to go. And the anticipation there was really fun this past year or earlier this year when we did it. But each of those winners, because you are giving us your contact information, I will email you and let you know that you were the winner of that prize. So it’ll be very helpful if you make sure you receive emails from me, make sure that doesn’t drop in your spam folder, but that’s how each of the winners will be contacted. That will also happen on December 17th. It’ll be after that live, so you can expect it sometime that day. If you do not receive an email from me, you were not selected, you were not drawn for one of those prizes.

But honestly, this is really just icing on the cake, the giveaways. I think so many of the participants every year feel so much joy out of being able to do something for somebody else.

Now, speaking of Facebook, I mentioned a couple times that there is a Facebook group for the challenge. I want to keep the Facebook group completely dedicated to participants of the challenge. Because of that, you have to request access. You have to request entry into that Facebook group. And I will go in and approve it. Now, again, that’s really not because we’re excluding anybody. We want everyone to participate. But just so I make sure that the people in the group are there for the challenge, that’ll make the group the best resource for the participants as possible. Like I said, so many people use that group to share pictures to talk about the challenge to ask questions about the patterns if maybe they’re struggling with something and that way you’ll know everyone in that group is sort of doing what you’re doing.

Sarah: I’ll join the group and see all your awesome posts and yeah I think I mean Warm Up America we have a Facebook group as well and so I think Facebook groups are just a really great resource, like Brittany said, to ask questions or even just talk about or post pictures. In our experience, people who make items for charity are very giving and generous and also kind. So I think that group is just an amazing, again, not only resource if you’re having trouble or need help, but also just to encourage people and build people up, which is what this challenge and what Warm Up America is all about. So definitely join the group, post pictures of what you’re making.

Brittany: And I also want to mention too, something else came to mind. You don’t have to join the group. If you’re not on Facebook or if you don’t want to join the Facebook group, you absolutely do not have to. It is not a requirement for the challenge. Just know that it’s there as an extra resource for you if you have questions.

Brittany: All right. The last thing I want to mention is there is one central hub that you can go to to find all of this information, everything that we talked about today, as well as all of the links, the patterns, like pretty much everything. It is your place to go for everything challenge related. And that’s behooked.com slash WUA2019. Sarah, is there anything else that you would like to mention as we sort of wrap up?

Sarah: Thank you so much. Certainly appreciate it. We know that the people who receive the items, even though they’re never going to meet you, just know that they appreciate the time and effort and energy that goes into making these items. And they will use them probably for years to come and cherish because I’m sure you know this, Brittany, and a lot of people listening, but there’s just something really special and really cool about an item that is handmade versus, you know, something that you could just buy at a store. You can see and tell that just energy went into that and love went into that. And we’re trying to spread that love. It’s the Made With Love campaign. And so we just want to spread love and warmth to other people. And so we appreciate everyone who will be participating.

Brittany: Well, I echo that as well. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who participates as well. I know this time of year, time is short. We have a lot of things going on. We’re busy. We have the holidays coming up. But I think that’s what makes this challenge so special, is that people are taking time out of their busy schedules to make something for somebody else. And I think that’s great. That’s why I continue to do these every single year. They will absolutely continue in the future because I have a ton of fun with it. I know, like I said, the participants have a ton of fun with it. So we’re going to keep going.

Brittany: Now, the last thing I want to mention, if you plan to participate or even if you don’t plan to participate, it’s a good idea to follow Warm Up America on social. And that’s so you can see some of these unboxings. I know a lot of participants will send them in pretty quickly. And you might potentially have some of that. You’ll probably have information on the Made With Love campaign that’ll happen in January. And your social pages are probably the best place to go to be in the know when it comes to all of this.

Sarah: So we actually don’t have an Instagram for Warm Up America right now. That is something that’s in the works. People definitely post things that they’re making for Warm Up America. So you can search hashtag Warm Up America. I believe there’s over a thousand posts of just people who make things for us. So you can just kind of get an idea of the types of items that people make and send to us. Hopefully sometime next year we will actually have a Warm Up America Instagram account where we kind of catalog all the things we’re doing including these challenges but the main place that you can find us on social media is Facebook so like Brittany mentioned earlier if you just search Warm Up America on Facebook you’ll find our Facebook page we put all of our updates in there we even have a post pinned at the top of that page, which has all of our current campaigns, including Made With Love, if you want to make any other items for us.

Sarah: The last thing is that on Facebook as well, we have a group called Warm Up America Makers. This group is really similar to the challenge group that will be for this challenge specifically that Brittany makes. Our Warm Up America Makers group was started almost a year ago, exactly, in November last year. And this is pretty similar. It’s a place where all of our volunteers and people who make items for us can post things they’re making, can ask questions. People will join that group and make a post and say, you know, hey, I’m from this city in this state. Are there any other makers in my area? And they can get connected to people. This is just a place that we want people to feel encouraged to get information about all of our campaigns and to talk to each other. So if you are interested in making items for Warm Up America, we honestly we accept any knit or crochet items year round. And while we do have specific campaigns like this challenge and like Made With Love, where we have specific asks, we do really just accept anything year round. We’re a yearly ongoing charity. So that makers group is a great resource. It’s a great place to ask questions, connect with other people making items for Warm Up America, and honestly, just to be encouraged and see the work that other people are making.

Brittany: Wonderful. Well, I will have all of Warm Up America’s information, everything you just mentioned, included in the show notes for this episode. So as we wrap up here, I’ll have two important URLs for you to check out after hearing today’s episode. But I want to say thank you, Sarah, so much. Thank you for sharing all of the details with us here today, for answering some of those questions that we may have that’s on our mind. And I can’t wait to see the results of this challenge and hopefully we’ll meet your 7,500 goal.

Sarah: Yes. And thank you again, Brittany, so much for having me. We’re so excited at Warm Up America to see all the awesome items that everyone makes.

Brittany: All right. That was Sarah from Warm Up America. Thank you so much, Sarah, for helping me shed some light on some of these questions that you might have as a listener who is potentially thinking about joining this challenge.

So let’s summarize all of the information you just heard. The Crochet Challenge for Warm Up America’s projects, the donations that are created as a result of this, will go to Warm Up America and will be a part of their Made With Love campaign that happens in January of 2020. So your gift will be given to somebody who really truly needs it completely for free in January of next year.

To complete the challenge, you’ll need to finish at least one full set of gloves and hat and mail it in to Warm Up America before December 7th, 2019. That’s the deadline. Within that package, you’ll need to include your entry forms, one entry form per set. If you want to have more entries for the giveaway, of course. If you want to opt out of the giveaways, you don’t have to include an entry form as well. It’s also really helpful if you fill out the second form, the note, just so Warm Up America and its volunteers can read a little bit about you and what you put into creating that gift for somebody. These forms will be available to print on the challenge page.

Although we do have some recommendations for the yarn and what the patterns have been tested for, you can use whatever yarn that you have in your stash and you’re encouraged to be creative with color. Make stripes or color blocks or anything that you would like.

So all of the information that you heard today will be available on the challenge page. And that URL, very, very important here, behooked.com slash WUA2019. Type that into your browser. It’ll take you to the page where it has all of the information you need to participate in and complete this challenge.

Sarah mentioned several ways that you can get involved with Warm Up America outside of this challenge, and I will have that information in the show notes page for today’s episode, which is behooked.com slash 141. You’ll find a link to that Facebook group she talked about, their website where you can see some of the things that they’re in need of. Basically, it’s a wonderful organization to get involved with. So I’ll have that information on the show notes page. And don’t forget the challenge page, behooked.com slash WUA2019.

Now the important dates to remember for this challenge is the pattern published date for the gloves, which will be November 9th at noon Eastern Standard Time on the challenge page and on my YouTube channel. November 16th is also a date to mark in your calendar. That’s when the hat pattern will be available on the challenge page and on my YouTube channel. The other really important date to mark in your calendar if you want to participate is December 7th, 2019. You’ll need to have your items postmarked on that date in order to complete the challenge.

All right, that wraps up this week’s episode of the Be Hooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so, so much for considering to participate in this challenge. Sarah said that 7,500 is more items than they have ever received. They’re at 4,500 right now. We need 3,000 items between now and December 7th. And I know this community is the one who can pull it off. All right, I will see you next week, my friend.