Our finished work

Friends of mine were being considered to be adoptive parents to a little boy. They got the decision yesterday that the little boy will be placed in another home. Here's the blanket he would have gotten if he's gone to my friends. Now it's going to Project Linus for him!

( giant photos )</div>

A friend at work brought in some yarn for us to make some blankets for the VA hosptial. Her VFW is collecting blankets to give out around Christmas. I thought I had taken a photo of Raquel's but I can't seem to find it.

Here is mine...

x-posted to my journal.

So here's the yarn I spun for cienna2000 to turn into something awesome:

( click for awesome yarn )


So I'm not sure whether or not the yarn counts towards the total, but the important thing is that I had a lot of fun dyeing and spinning it. And that now it will be knit/crocheted into something beautiful. Go us!
~~~~~~~~~~
And while I'm posting, I'll also remind y'all that the prize for this month is 1 skein of yarn handspun and hand-dyed by me. Either you can tell me the colors you want, or alternatively if there's something pretty in my Etsy shop that you like, I can un-list the roving and turn that into yarn for you instead. (Which saves me a bit of effort, though I am happy to do the the custom dyeing. I'll have a good dyeing session some time in the near future and dye everything in the house which is not already full of color.)

Also, if you, the winner, have a wool allergy, that might make things a bit more complex. If it's just the lanolin and non-sheep wool is okay, I also have alpaca yarn (which comes from my friend's alpaca farm). If it's all animal fibers, I might be able to get some silk and spin and dye that instead. But hopefully you won't have a wool allergy, because wool allergies are sad.

Hi Everyone,

It's time to announce our star for November, and the winner is...

sen_ichi_rei, aka the Yello Hobbit, aka Rachel :)

This lady is a great crafter who offered, of her own volition, to contribute the prizes for our November drawing. And what gorgeous give-aways she's offering!!

Thank you, Rachel. I appreciate it very much, and I know we all do too :)

Well, here we are, the middle of November, and it feels like late August. I can't figure out this weather! Anyway, despite what the weather is making me think, we are heading towards the holiday season, and we are heading towards the end of 2009.

I know that 2009 is a year that many of us will not look back on with kindness, but I hope you all realize how special that makes the fact that we still were able to do so much as a group this year. You really are awesome.

Now, I do have a little goal that I'd like to toss out there just for fun. Right now our tally is at 2,429 items. Do you think we can hit 3,000 by the end of the year? It's a tall order, especially if you are doing a lot of crafting for the holidays, but let's see what we can do.

Have a great rest of the weekend! :)

hey everyone! i just wanted to post about a way to help keep people warm!

a girl at our church does a collection for hats, scarves, and mittens now through dec 31st to give to homeless kids and adults. i'd love to put this out there for anyone who might have time to make a hat or scarf or two, or mittens... she does so much for people that i'd love to surprise her with as many as i might be able to do, so i figured i'd put this out to you all as well. i know she'd be thrilled to have as many items as she can to give out.

if you're interested in helping, you could send the items directly to me..
Erin Walker
401 Lake Avenue
Pitman, NJ 08071

she collects them up until december 31st, but if by chance you want to make some after, she also is opening a clothing closet for needy people and i'm sure she could use them there as well, and that will be a year round thing. here is the website for that. http://www.angelsofgod.org/

Hey folks,

A friend of a friend of mine is collecting blankets here in my hometown for refugees -- drive will last till 11/29.

If you're interested, let me know!

Thanks :)

Also, Sandy has volunteered to create a blog that would just be an information source. We'd like to emphasize charities that you (our membership) is involved in. For example, Sandy's Bridge Project, Robyn's 100 hats work, Ninja's Preemie drive, etc. We're thinking email addresses so that folks can contact you for your address. If you want to create an email specifically for your charity so that you aren't publishing your personal email address, that's fine.

The blog that Sandy would create would be linked to all of our communities. This also might inspire some of you to create your own blogs for your drives like our friend Amy over at Warm Up Winchester!

feedback, again, welcome and desired! :)

Although there was not a lot of debate about having a "pet" charity for 2010, the arguments against it were extremely compelling. The best argument for having a single charity to concentrate on is Zort's point -- it gives you time to plan and work on things like outfits, etc.

The arguments against having a pet charity included the fact that a lot of people wouldn't feel able to concentrate so much just on one charity because there are so many great ones out there. Holding on to items to make one big donation might mean missing important deadlines.

I would like to try something new that I think might be the best of all of these opportunities. I'd like someone to create a single place where all of the information about charities we donate to could be found. They'll all be listed. They'll be linked to from all of our communities. I'm thinking maybe a separate blog, a single web page -- something easy but accessible. I thought that our Yahoo Groups page could help with this but I am not sure how many people go there -- and since you need to be a member it's not as accessible as I'd like.

I'm very open to suggestions as to what charities should go on this list and how this database could be made accessible to everyone. I'm also thinking that maybe some of the charities could incorporate their logos or links back to their website -- just thinking out loud here.

Please discuss! :)

First things first. It's hat hat shaky shaky time!

And our winner of the October contest is....Cienna2000!

Let me know what you would like to have sent to you! Congratulations!

In other news, today is the first day you can submit entries for what you would like our pet project to be in 2010. Entries accepted till 11/15. Around that time, I'll post all of the entries as a reminder. Votes will be sent to me in lieu of public polling.

Reminder again -- just because we're going to have a single pet project does not mean you have to donate to that organization at all or a ton. In fact, if someone wants to be in charge of picking causes for each month, that is fine. The single organization will just get all of our donations at once, around the holiday time :)

Speaking of monthly causes, November is all about boys! JezebelSF told me last year that the shelter that she donates our stuff to really needs boy stuff - -apparently crafters make girl stuff a lot more often. So November is the time to get away from those pinks and purples! If you don't have Jezebel's address, please message me.

I think that's everything! Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, etc. :)

I am pleased to announce that beginning November 1st, people can post the charity they would like us to focus on next year.

I know some folks noted that there are a ton of charities they like to give to -- that is perfectly awesome! I'm not going to count numbers differently or anything like that. It'll just be neat (I think) to tally at the end of the year how many items we as a group gave to a specific charity. I like gathering things :)

So! If you know of someone that runs a charity and you think they could benefit from being our pet next year have them post. Entries till November 15th (I'll cross-post so everyone sees everything). Email me your votes till Turkey Day, and the winner will be announced the first week of December!

Thanks, everybody :)

Hi everyone,

I was thinking today about the fact that I haven't knit for charity in quite some time. I realized one of the main reasons is that I got into dyeing and spinning, and like doing those more than I like knitting (and when I am knitting there's this huge list of things I need to make).

So I decided to put my laziness to good use, talked to joriejc2, and came up with the following 2 ideas:

1. For the November contest, the prize will be a skein of hand spun, hand dyed merino wool from me. In the colors of choice of the winner, provided you're not looking for something super specific (like chartreuse variegated yarn that also has mint green and forest green). Here are photos of the kind of stuff I do:

http://picasaweb.google.com/TheYellowHobbit/Roving#

(Most of these are in my Etsy store, but I can dye things similar to these. Or in other colors.)

2. I'm also going to donate either a skein of hand spun/hand dyed yarn or a hand dyed merino roving to someone to make into an item for any charity. It would be really cool to donate the roving and have someone else spin it, but I don't know how many other spinners there are in our group, so it's more likely to be yarn that I'm sending. It will probably be enough to make a hat or gloves or a bunch of baby items. This will be just first come, first served. So whoever responds first to this post gets the wool/yarn.

For the contest I'll probably have the wool mid-December, since I'll need time to dye and spin it. The skein for charity knitting can probably be finished in the next 2 weeks, I think. (As long as I don't get the flu that my housemates currently have. You wouldn't want infected yarn, right?)

And now everyone wins, and I no longer feel like a slacker.

5 hats for Afghans for Afghans



and 2 shawls for Afghans for Afghans

Hi folks,

I'm cross-posting this everywhere so hopefully you see it and feel free to converse!

I have been thinking long and hard about Homespun Helpers and next year, and here is what I have come up with.

1) Instead of having a charity a month, I'd like to choose a single place to focus our work. Now, this does not mean you HAVE to make stuff for that charity, but Zort and other folks have pointed out, for example, that making outfits over just a month is really hard to do. If we're all working on a single goal as a group (in addition to whatever you want to do as individuals) we'll be able to really make a huge impact on that group and there will be more time to make really nifty things.

Let me reiterate - you will NOT have to make things at all or in any volume for the charity we choose. You can still do whatever you want. But for folks who want to participate, those items will all be donated at one time around the holidays next year.

If you suggest a place to donate, make sure you'll have a means to store up several months worth of stuff so it can all be given at the same time! :)

2) In order to choose the 2010 cause, I'd like to open up a contest beginning November 1st and ending November 15th. Submit your cause and explain why you'd like to be able to give that shelter, city, whatever a huge donation at this time next year. People will contact me privately to vote and I'll announce the winner.

3) Once we've announced the winner, I'll set a goal. I'd like to ask people who may not be involved in our organization to pledge to make a donation to the American Cancer Society if we hit our mark.

4) I'm thinking we'll still continue with our monthly drawing, one item, one entry.

5) We'll still have stars of the month.

6) We'll have our Summer contest that will begin around Memorial Day and end around Labor Day.

Any thoughts? Let me know!

And I'd still LOVE to have a volunteer to help me keep various sites updated -- it's just too much for me to do now! Most especially, I'd love help in keeping our Blogspot site updated and active because that is where traffic gets driven from places like Facebook and Twitter.

Lend me your thoughts, fellow countrymen (and non-countrymen!) :)

It sure has gotten quiet around here. Did the Summer contest kill everybody? :)

My life has certainly been tres busy. In my crafting life, I have been working on a scarf for my mom -- in lace weight alpaca. Never again. It's real soft and real pretty but just...no.

What are you working on?? Talk to me, pretty people :)

5 more squares en route to Heather for Afghans for Veterans -- sadly, I have been kind of slacking on the charitable knitting lately, but hope to kick it into higher gear before The Ninja comes after me for playing too much FarmVille.....

( squares here! )


Total:  5

Violet came over and told me (before I told her about how she was this month's star and what Boss had said ^_~) that I was going to be making blankets for her  for the next 6 months and she didn't want to hear any lip from me.  6 months is going to put me behind on the preemie goal but I'm pretty sure V can take me!




This was the last of 8 I finished for her Kurt Warner Foundation Drive.  ((Hey Boss could I get a Tag for that?))  The lady from the foundation was supposed meet Violet at the hosptial yesterday for the first pick up.  Violet said she will be coming in once a month or so for pick ups and she wants me making the blankets.  

 

Well, it's just about that time again -- time to name our star of the month! And our star is.....


VIOLET!

Violet is one of the poor souls that our resident ninja recruited for gruesome crocheting shifts, and Violet has always responded well to Ninja's moral degradations :D In fact, Violet is now running her own charity drive and is making Ninja twitch! It's hard to stay involved in a community when you don't post a lot, but Violet has always been a major producer for us and has been a real stable force in our efforts to reach our goals.

So Violet, cheers to you and best of luck on your drive!

This blanket wasn't made for charity, but for my boyfriend for his birthday. We've talked about sharing our non-charity projects as well, so i wanted to share it.
 

( i'll put it behind a cut since it's kind of off-topic... )

Hey folks,

Violet has been posting this as a comment here but I wanted to make sure everyone sees it:

!!! Attn:ALL Hookers & Knitters !!!
Knitting for Kurt Warner Foundation Drive
All help is needed and appreciated
(2ft. x 2ft. in size) baby blankets aswell as
New born size hats,mittens and botties.
All projects will be sent out to childrens hospitals
located through out Arizona.

Intrested? and need more info get in contact with
Longhorns777 or email me at rultrav@yahoo
Thank You & God Bless!
-Violet

1 more!