Starting an e-newsletter

Hey everyone,

I was thinking of starting an e-newsletter, not just for Homespun Helpers but hopefully, eventually, for charitable crafters in general.

Interested?

I have a button for signing up on the LJ community profile page (community.livejournal.com/homespunhelpers) and I'll post it right here...and in other places. It'll ask you to subscribe and if I get enough response, I'lll try to have the first enewsletter out by the end of November.

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One for one Contest Update

As of today there are SEVEN entries! Entries should be posted by the close of day tomorrow (your own time zone is applicable.) One winner will be drawn randomly this Saturday from all entrants and will receive a gift certificate from JoAnn.com!

Entrants are:

Sandy
whereismysam
eowyn_ulysses
knittingforever
bunnybutt
eliseamelie
doclegs

Now if I can post this before someone else posts an entry while I'm typing. ;-)

3,000!!

Hey!

Guess what?!?

You all rule!!

As of today, we have made 3,011 items this year!!! That is just...incredible, considering again that we didn't reach this point until around the holidays last year.

Way to go, everybody!

preemie hats - 4

preemie hats - 4
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

here's four more preemie hats i've made to donate to the hospital! they'll be heading there tonight so the babes can wear them in honor of Halloween!

Hey Everybody!

It's Wednesday! And it's almost the end of October...I am sitting here at home with a sinus infection and I'm watching it flurry outside. Doesn't look quite right to see snowflakes falling over leaves on the trees. Whatever, Mother Nature. Whatever.

Anyway, that being said, we are getting into an exciting time of the year, when holiday crafting battles with the desire to keep hands, necks, and heads warm and cozy. I can't wait to see what you all make for both causes as the year continues on.

Post here with any drives, contests, or works in progress you care to share...and remember...Zort's one for one contest is about to expire and right now we don't have many entrants. One item, no matter what it is, counts for the contest. Get in there! :)

If I don't hear from you in the meantime, Happy Halloween, everybody. Eat lotsa candy sans regret!

Brain Freeze

2 scarfs (blue one is knitted, and 2 tone green one is crocheted), and the triangle head scarf packaged with the 2 granny sqaure hats from previous post on their way for The Brain Freeze Project. Triangle head scarf is knitted.

(total for this post 3)

Fun News

So, last night at my stitch 'n bitch, a college student showed up with her film crew to tape us. Apparently she is working on a documentary about this resurgence in knitting and other crafty things.

I doubt it will be included, but there was an opportunity to talk about special projects and I mentioned y'all here (as well as Operation Bag of Home). If it does get included in her movie, we'll be famous! ;) Heehee :)

I'll keep you posted.

ETA: News on the "Brain Freeze" drive...if you want to send items for that cause, you can send stuff to me...just give me a way to e-mail you and I will send you my address. Remember, I can only do US Mail...deliveries are a pain in the butt cuz I live in an apartment building!

Wednesday, Wednesday, so good to me

It is indeed Wednesday, which means it's time to post drives, contests, and WIPs!

I would like to send out a gentle reminder that with only a week.5 left in October, Zort's One for One contest is rapidly coming to a close, and we have gotten very few entries so far! Remember, all you have to do is post a picture of one item for charity (anything) and you get entered into the drawing! Everybody only gets entered once, so it's a free-for-all!

I would also like to say that amazingly, we are very very close to hitting 3,000 items ALREADY! You recall that we didn't get there till just around Christmas last year, so we are kicking last year's butt. Way to go, everybody!!!

I also haven't posted for awhile and haven't posted much while all of this economic turmoil has been going on, but I want to reiterate that (hopefully) we are not just a place to post charitable items, but we are also a crafty community. Even if you aren't doing much charitable crafting now, please feel free to post with interesting patterns you've seen, interesting ideas, or holiday works in progress. Or, if any of you are squirreling away things in case the economy really gets out of control, show pictures of clothing you are making for your own use!

We want to keep ya, even if you don't have much going on in the crafty department right now.

Happy Hump Day!

Finishing some WIP's yippee...always love that feeling

Hats 2, for the school project (in box and ready to be mailed NEED ADDRESS)

Scarfs 2 sent Homeless Veterans

Slippers 2, Pine Ridge Reservation

Booties for Feather Rivers Hopspital through Crafters in the Attic

(7 items in this post)

It's Wednesday

Works in Progress?

Contests?

Drives?

Post 'em here :)

Call for warm items for school age kids!

I was posting to my knitting group about needing help with a winter item drive and Margie the Ladybug reminded me to reach out to you great people. Thank goodness one of us has a brain!

I recently found out that the elementary school in my neighborhood has an above average number of students that live in local shelters. Already we have seen these kids walking to school without sweaters, hats, etc.

The nice thing is we don't need a ton of items to really make a difference. And I am reaching out to a few different groups so we should be able to gather the full range of items. Also, we don't want anything too fancy as the kids are at the age where they'll lose a few items over the course of the winter.

So, the standard gloves, hats, scarves are needed, for boys and girls of elementary school age. The school colors are blue and white if that helps narrow down choices. We probably need the most help with hats and gloves/mittens as we already have a plan in the works to do some easy fleece scarves. This would be great for the sewers among us!

Never having done this I hope I am following the rules. If you have something for us, please tag the item "Prevent Brain Freeze". And then email off line to get mailing information, I guess?

Super appreciate any help you can give!

Back from the post office

Had the boxes here, but never sealed them when I made my last post. Decided I could slip a few more things in if I squeezed the air out a bit.

So, added another poncho and a vest to the Lil Troopers box.

Added 8 more rectangles to that box (2 brown, 2 teal, 2 green, 2 dark red-burgundy-though they look rose in the picture. Not sure why.

Finished the lapghan for Sissie nursing home project as well.

(11 items in this post)

It's Wednesday!

Hi Everybody,

Well, it's hump day. We all made it this far! Can we make it the rest of the week!?

I was thinking it might be fun to make Wednesday a "Works in Progress" day as well as a contest and drive day. Your picture doesn't have to be something you're working on for charity...I think we all get so cued up into our tally and our numbers that we lose track of how fun it is to craft, and maybe more importantly still, how skilled you all are!!

So, either commenting here or making your own post, please feel free to share information on contests, drives, collections, knit-alongs, or anything else, and share "in progress" photos of projects you're working on now!

Please remember to check livejournal if you're a blogspotter, and check blogspot if you're a livejournaler...these posts are happening in both places :)

seven more hats for preemies!

seven more hats for preemies!
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

here's seven more hats i've made for the preemies at NICU! I'm going to bring them over in time for the babes to wear them for Halloween!

Turning WIP to FO's...always a thrill

9 rectangles for HAP (6 x 9). Used sc, dc, dc back loop only, v-stitch. The Red,White & Blue, though good in terms of patriotic colors, don't show the various stitches very well.

4 Newborn poncho's, all crocheted for Lil_Troopers

3 pair baby booties also for Lil_Troopers (love the red, white, and blue for this)

1 multi-colored mans scarf (crocheted), for Homeless Veterans through Knitters for Obama group on Rav.

(17 items in this post)

Personal Achievement Update 10/6

Here is the tally as of today. This numbers are tightening! Happy knitting :)

asceline - 130

Robyn - 114

doclegs - 97

Sandy - 81

zortified - 80

soapfaerie - 79

risk2much - 45

megaminkonton - 43

knittingforever - 31

Priscilla - 17

typo_13 - 12

spitgirl - 7

sen_ici_rei - 5

I only counted posts that were tagged. If you made some items and did not tag the post, please go back and change. I will count those items in the next update.

Warming Omaha Square Drive Winner!

Hey all, I've announced a winner to the Warming Omaha square drive over at the blog. It's Soapfaerie!!! Can you shoot me an e-mail to robynDOTcharlesATgmailDOTcom so i can get you your gift card?!?!

I've also got pictures up of all the squares that have been donated, so head on over to the blog to check those out.

I'm not done collecting items, though! I'll be posting here every so often with lists of things I'm collecting to help keep Omaha warm this season! Thanks for all you're doing to help!

This week's contest and drive report

Alright folks,

I'm going to try this this week and see what happens...in order to keep track of everyone's drives (whether you're running them or you just want to promote something), please post here! I'll make this post every week with tags so that we can track everything.

Comment away!

It's October First!

Don't forget, today is the super duper launch of zort's contest -- make one item, any item, and be entered into a drawing!!! Wuwu!

Also, another idea regarding organization of drives and what-not...what if we made one day of the week the day that everyone posts about their current drives and contests? That way everyone can make sure to check the group at least that day and see what's going on.

Let me know what you think.

Special Olympics...Mailed

Crocheted 5 scarfs for the Special Olympics. All are the required Red Heart White and Delft Blue. All are crocheted. Mailed out 2 days ago. This will probably due it for me on the project, as I used all but a tiny bit of the blue delft I was able to find (5 skiens for this project, 2 white and 3 blue).

More details on my blog regarding size, stitches etc. here, and my most recent post.

The one on the left is the last one I made, next the first, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Working on rectangles for Hap, slippers for Marine Corp Kids, squares for Warm up Omaha, etc. etc.

Happy Stitching all