Anyone still shipping helmet liners?

vaknitter · 01-26-2009, 07:48 PM

I made several helmet liners last fall to ship to my uncles unit in Iraq. Unfortunately someone in my family gave me the wrong address and they came back to me. I was able to send most of them over to another unit via a co-worker and saved one to resend to my uncle. Before I could get a good address for him he was brought home. My coworkers son is also on his way home.....Does anyone have an address of a unit or someone that is in need of a cascade 220 black helmet liner?

Marria · 01-27-2009, 12:50 AM

If you're interested, you might go to www.adoptaussoldier.org

People there "adopt" soldiers to send letters and care packages to.

globaltraveler · 01-27-2009, 12:56 AM

There's also http://www.citizensam.org/ and if you want to send it to Denver, there's this drive here -- they say that even if you don't send it in time for the drive, they'll send it by the USO.

vaknitter · 01-27-2009, 01:56 AM

Thanks for the quick responses - I was looking at the Denver website and it requests superwash wool....I made my helmet liners out of old fashioned cascade 220, not superwash...should I frog it and make another set with superwash? I thought for the helmet liners we were asked to use straight up wool.

globaltraveler · 01-27-2009, 02:45 AM

I guess it depends on whether they want to be able to machine wash it or not!

I made mine out of plain 220 (superwash wasn't available) as well, and marked them "hand wash only" with the label of the skein.

TrishL1975 · 01-27-2009, 02:48 AM

A-hem.

As military - shortly headed to Iraq (I think) myself - what exactly is a helmet liner FOR?? The "new" (in the last 4 years) helmets are pretty darn comfy, and don't really need any more padding.

If it's to soak up sweat - carry on, carry on, by all means.

vaknitter · 01-27-2009, 03:42 AM

Trish - the helmet liners are like baclavas (I wear them skiing when its really cold or under a motorcycle helmet when it starts getting cold). They cover the neck and face of a person to protect against cold and wind. I am told that the desert can get very cold and very windy at night so there was/is a campaign to ship gators and helmet liners knit from wool (it does not burn/melt like acrylic) overseas to our soldiers. The Citizen Sam website is great and shows pictures of them.

If I can find someplace to ship them (I also asked my father as he is retired Navy) then I will make a couple more and some gators. The only issue I have with the pattern is that it seems to be for a generously sized head....either that or my head is small b/c it is too big on me.

globaltraveler · 01-27-2009, 04:06 AM

Well, I guess that'd be one soldier we wouldn't have to knit a hat for...keep us updated on your deployment situation, Trish.

TrishL1975 · 01-27-2009, 04:08 AM

Oh!

See, I'm not the patrolling type. So I couldn't picture what it was for.

I will say that machine-washable is the way to go - otherwise you're going to end up with a one-use garment. But if you warn them..... Maybe.

TrishL1975 · 01-27-2009, 04:14 AM

Zina, I'm heading out in a couple weeks for a couple-four months.

I'm one of those people who use computers a lot, so I'm usually inside the fence inside the fence. I've never been shot at, unless you count rockets. Year before last, I was one of the few Americans in Basrah, so I worked with a lot of Brits. It was.... interesting. I used to wig them out by remarking (in August) that the weather was nicer there than at home. That'd usually get a raised eyebrow and "Where the hell are you from??" See, even down south, the humidity isn't but 30%-40% and it's only 50C as a high - at home it's 45C and 90% humidity.

I'll be having fun - I'll just drop out of sight for a while. But I'm taking my knitting, darnit! *wonders how much yarn and pointy sticks she can stuff in her luggage* Maybe I'll embarrass my boss by making him ship me yarn.