GOAL!

It is sort of anti-climatic to be posting about one's personal donation goal after it is finished but it is better than not posting at all, I hope! Margie the Ladybug introduced me to this group after I had set my goal and it struck me as a great outlet for my the goal of one donated item per month for 2008. Of course, I could cheat and do them all at once or do more than 12, but that was the minimum.

So, I have hit my goal+ and it is only July. I don't anticipate I will be much more donating this year, first of all because I am on a yarn buying freeze (going into its third year:) and don't have much yarn that would be suitable. Secondly, I am going to be dying some wool next weekend to start an afghan for Afghans project http://www.afghansforafghans.org/. This is a much larger item than I typically make so I am thinking I'll be working on it over the next few months.

So, on to the items:

There are two hats missing, they are pictured in Margie's large donation picture in honor of her uncle. I must have deleted a pic, hope you all believe me:) Thank you for this great blog and for letting me be a part of it.

A Call For Squares!

Inspired both by The Nest (which I've been making cowls for), and my burgeoning involvement with local organization Mosaic Community Development, I've started collecting squares under the moniker "Warming Omaha". My goal is to collect as many 7 x 7 acrylic yarn squares as I can between now and October 1, and then that first weekend in October a group of us are getting together to sew the squares together into blankets that will be distributed around Omaha to some of the people MCD works with.

This means that, for those of us that need to bump up our personal goal numbers, or for those of us that want to bust through a ton of scrap yarn during the Olympics, this is perfect! Hopefully there's a bunch of you out there in this group that are looking for some quick knitting and crocheting to occupy your time during these warm months and are willing to help me out.

Head on over to the Warming Omaha blog for all the sordid details and to get my PO Box for sending the squares, and hopefully you'll send them out as you get them done. I'll be photographing each square to put up on flickr and keep in a running banner in the sidebar of the site, so if you send me squares look for them to show up there.

Oh, and to start it off, I've made up these eleven pictured above, which also count towards my personal goal!

(I'm going to cross-post this to livejournal as well)

Olympics!

Hey everybody,

The Olympics are coming up and while I don't want to create another official contest (we have enough of those going on!) I was wondering if, just for fun, anyone would want to keep track of how many items this community can make from the opening night to the closing ceremonies.

Interested?

two cowls for The Nest

one of two identical cowls. that will count as two, because do we really need to see the same picture twice? yes? okay.


that's my gangsta lean. which only happens when i'm wearing a cowl that's too big, that i've knit for charity. just so you know.

(both are going to The Nest)

Light at the end of the tunnel

Hi Everybody,

Well, we are just past the middle of July, and as of today, we are also just past 1,800 items (1802)!! Yippeee!!!

Also, I am very excited to tell you all that we now have made 36 items as a group for Afghans for Angels. It has been really wonderful seeing the baby blankets everyone has come up with.

Great job, everybody!

Up for air

I've been sadly negligent on this blog for a while now, so I thought I should definitely check in. The main reason for the neglect is that I haven't been doing a lot of charity knitting lately (that and I'm getting married in October). My original plan was to make 2008 the year of charity knitting, but I wanted to finish my WIPs first. Well, suffice it to say that hasn't happened. I finally finished cataloguing all my yarn on Ravelry and discovered that I have over 375 balls of yarn! This was enough to make me decide to forgive myself for not finishing all the WIPs and go ahead on some charity projects. Hopefully this will be just the break I need from the WIP guilt and I'll be motivated to get some of them done in the fall.

For now I'm working on a child's sweater for Warming Hands. It will be sent to Innu children in norther Labrador (I'm from Nova Scotia, so I have a definite soft spot for any charity in the Maritimes). They also collect for Dulaan, so if you live in Ottawa or Toronto (currently the only cities with drop-off locations) or anywhere else in Canada and don't want to mail your Dulaan donation to the States, I highly recommend this group. Come on, Canucks! We need to get more Canadian Charity groups on the sidebar! :) I'll post a picture of the sweater in a few days; the only picture I have on file is from weeks ago and it seems silly to post that now and then post a finished picture in a day or two.

I also wanted to let everyone know about this. Melanie Falick is offering her pattern for the Alternating Current mittens for free, with a request that anyone who uses it makes at least one pair for someone in need. So check it out, it looks like a great quick mitten pattern for charity projects.

3,000 for 30

Hey everybody,

I have a little goal, and I'd like to set it out and see what happens.

On September 5, yours truly (i.e. me) will be turning the big 3-0. So I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool if we could make it to 3,000 by then? Then we'd have a whole three months to get the last bit towards our goal, and really, well, the 3 thing just is kind of neat :)

Let's see if we can do it!! It's not the most aggressive goal this group has reached!

vacation knits and crochets

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Originally uploaded by craftyone77

so, this is what i did while on vacation last week. it's ten squares, one washcloth, and two hats, all going to charity. i've still got to update all the stuff i've been making and haven't posted, but it's a start at least!

I can kind of make socks now!

This pair, although I really want to keep it for myself, will be going to "Warm Up Winchester," my charity for Virginia which was started by a member of Homespun Helpers. More will accompany these socks, but since I won the yarn that made these socks in the WuWinc blog community, I figure it's only fair :)

Here is my updated state list. If you have any recommendations please let me know! I just got a suggestion for Massachusetts today!

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona: Ninjasezzy preemie drive
Arkansas
California: Twizittles local oncology ward drive
Colorado: Warm Hearts Warm Babies
Connecticut: Salvation Army w/Priscilla's Guild
Delaware
Florida
Georgia: www.emmazinggracefoundation.org
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois: Greater Chicago Ferret Association
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland:
Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital
Caroline Langrall,
Child Life Specialist
1708 W Rogers Ave
Baltimore, MD 21209
Massachusetts: www.afghanproject.org
Michigan: South Oakland Shelter
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska: Robyn's preemie hat drive
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey:http://www.hats4thehomeless.org/about.html
New Mexico
New York:Lincoln Medical Center Room 2D5, 234 E 149 St, Bronx, NY 10451 Attn: maria Edwards.
North Carolina: Newborns in Need
North Dakota
Ohio: Items made and donated for a local homeless women's shelter
Oklahoma: Crosh-aid
Oregon: Baby Love Blanket Drive
Pennsylvania: Bonnie's Ronald McDonald House (Danville, PA 17821)
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota: Pretty Bird Woman House
Tennessee
Texas: Prayer shawls for Crazigriffen's mom's church
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming: Homeless Coalition

Regional Summer Contest Update # 2

Wow! Some serious crafting has gone on in the last month! I am on vacation, so I am not being as detailed as the previous update. Here are the team totals:

Team Ohio: 75 

Team  Godzilla: 16

Team New England: 40

Team Dust Devils: 95

Way to go, y'all! I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July :)

Hi Everybody!

Just wanted to say,happy July 4th to those for whom it means something. June was a great month and I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with for July!!!

Be safe!