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Want to be able to post your own donations, charities, warm fuzzy thoughts? Email us at homespunhelpers@gmail.com

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Time's Running Out!

Believe it or not, January is almost done. Im looking at my window at the snow storm and I definitely can't believe January is almost done. But that's beside the point :)

Just a couple more days to post a picture of an item and get entered into our first monthly drawing for a skein of yarn of your choice.

So far we have these lucky contestants:

Robyn
Doclegs
Sandy
Zort
Vanessa
Raymond
Elise
Snoopingmother
kshni (Jaodn)
Soapfairie
Priscilla
Violet

1 item, 1 entry! It could be alllllll youuuuuuu :)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

16

So, if you are into making baby stuff or preemie stuff, you totally need to go to BevsCountryCottage.com and look for her "roundie" hat pattern. It is the greatest thing ever in the world. The hats end up so cute that I actually would laugh to myself while making them :)

The baby hats are going to Bev's drive for the Nevada hospital. The big hat is going to end up with the Bridge Project, but I want to make more stuff before I send it on down.

Photobucket

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Contest beginning February 1st

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to try something very different and revolutionary this year. I'd like to try to take Homespun Helpers to real life.

What I would like to do is have a poster that anyone in our community could print out and with local stores' permission, post. The poster would contain information needed to start weekly or monthly meetings of Homespun Helpers, kind of like Stitch 'n Bitch except all of the work being done would be done for charity.

The contest? We need a poster! So, starting February 1st and lasting until April 1st, I'll accept ideas emailed to HomespunHelpers@gmail.com. The winner will be mailed a $25 gift card to a place of your choice.

Key components of the poster will be:

1. A blank line at the bottom so people can write in the time and place of their desired group meetings

2. The Homespun Helpers logo -- if you want to present an idea for a new logo, feel free to be creative

3. "Lots of places to join the fun online:" URLs for Ravelry, Facebook, Livejournal, Yahoo, and Blogspot

4. Brief description of what Homespun Helpers is (I'll leave the definition up to you)

Once your group is started, feel free to run it however you want. You can start thinking about this now if you're interested in starting something up (or trying to anyway). Some ideas?

1. A theme of the month for your group to work on

2. Contests within the group

3. Starting your own local drive that the group works on

My only wish is that any items that these real-life groups send get sent with the Homespun Helpers tag and maybe the letter as well. If you would like to start a group I could help you gather up these items to get you started.

In an ideal world, we'd have one central website where groups could go to download the information and what-not. I'm still hoping that happens someday, but I don't have the skills and I've been told by too many people that they could build a big website for me only to have them kind of disappear into the ether, so we will just do the best we can. Maybe someone in one of your groups will end up being our webmaster :)


Encourage members to join in on the fun online, but I am not going to be a stickler for you posting your group's items online for our online tally. I think it would be neater for each group to keep a tally of your own.

Any questions? Ideas? Revelations? Share, please, as usual!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Another place to send squares

Hey folks,

If you want to make slightly smaller squares, a young lady named Reiley has asked for our help in making squares that she will sew together for charity as part of her school's "paying it forward project.

She has started a Ravelry Group called "paying it forward" or you can visit her blog at http://thehookiepookie.typepad.com/.

another blanket done!


mags on a blanket
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

maggie is helping to keep the blankets warm before they get donated! it's the second blanket made from all the squares everyone sent to me a few months ago! this one took much less time to make, as i crocheted all the squares together. it didn't take me any less time to get posted, however!

chalk it up to one more for our count, though. i'm taking both blankets down to MCD to donate them tomorrow on my lunch!

WIP It Wednesday

If we ever open a store with Homespun Helpers doo-dads, I think I'm going to make something with WIP it Wednesday on it. A shirt or a cup or something. Anyway...

How are y'all doing? We are at 73 items now, so it's looking like I might have to do more goal readjustment. Le sigh :)

So what are you working on? What do you want to be working on? Yeah, tricky questions.

Post away, post away!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hmm

Well, I had set the goal of making 50 items for January. But um, we've already blown past that and we're at 62 now. So I guess my goal wasn't hard enough, huh?

Well, we're a bit past the halfway point of the month, so let's go a bit past half again as much as we have now...how about 100 by the end of the month? :)

A Baker's Dozen

13 WUA squares for our January drive.
I'm also using up scraps of yarn, and I've been having fun playing with colors.

I'm going to try to make a few more squares, but I am also working on mittens for Sandy's Bridge Project and I need to make some chemo hats for my crochet guild. I kind of got off track last year with my charity crafting, but I'm determined to start this year off right.

I do have one question, though. I know we have 3 people collecting squares, and I wondered if one of you are more in need of squares than the others. I don't mind sending my squares wherever they are needed, but if one of you has already been inundated, then I can certainly send these to someone else. Just let me know. Thanks!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Service and Labels and Stars, Oh My!

So, apparently, 15 years ago MLK Day was made a day of community service. Where was I?

"In 1994 Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of a day off from work or school, Congress asked Americans of all backgrounds and ages to celebrate Dr. King's legacy by turning community concerns into citizen action. The King Day of Service brings together people who might not ordinarily meet, breaks down barriers that have divided us in the past, leads to better understanding and ongoing relationships, and is an opportunity to recruit new volunteers for your ongoing work.

Participation in the King Day of Service has grown steadily over the past decade, with hundreds of thousands of Americans each year engaging in projects such as tutoring and mentoring children, painting schools and senior centers, delivering meals, building homes, and reflecting on Dr. King's life and teachings. Many of the projects started on King Day continue to engage volunteers beyond the holiday and impact the community year-round.

Although the scope of the event grows every year, many people still are not aware of the service component of the holiday. By encouraging the participation of as many organizations as possible, we hope to make next year's King Day of Service the biggest and best ever, engaging more people in service that honors Dr. King's life and teachings."

We can do something special next year now that I know :)

A friendly reminder as we get this year rolling that if you send to an organization outside of the Homespun Helpers Family, please remember to include the letter and tag that I created and posted to the Yahoo page. Or, if you are not on yahoo or can't print those documents, let me know and I'd be happy to print and mail some for you. Id really like to work on getting our name out there this year.

Finally, I'd like to start a new tradition. Right about the middle of each month, I'm going to pick a member of our ever growing membership here, tell you why I think they're spectacular, and then ask you to similarly comment to or on said person if you're of a mind. It's kind of like a student of the month or employee of the month thing, only as of now I've got now plaque to record such things on. Maybe someone skilled in web design could take care of that for us? :D

Anyway, our star of the month this month is Doclegs.

Why Doclegs?

Doclegs is one of about three people who have been part of this group from the very very beginning, back when we got up to 12 items and thought we were the coolest kids in the universe. And we were, but um...we didn't have much to prove it just yet :) Doclegs epitomizes everything I respect in a person. She is always supportive of others, she is a spectacular crafter, an active volunteer for us, and perhaps most admirably, she channeled a difficult time in her life into doing something wonderful and allowing us to support the effort.

Doclegs, you are a superestar, and don't let anyone tell ya otherwise! Congratulations on being our first Star of the Month!!!

More updates to come on Wednesday. Stay warm and cozy, everybody!

Friday, January 16, 2009

new drive for warming omaha!

Winter has kicked in full force here in the Midwest, and while I’m still getting squares sewn together for all the blankets I’m going to be able to send to MCD (thanks everyone!), it’s time to start a new drive.

So from now until March 31, I’m collecting baby/preemie items. Everything from hats to booties to mitts to blankets to sweaters and pants. Knitted, crocheted, sewn, whatever you can send me, I’m taking. Lets say anything sized from preemie to 18 months size.

All items will be donated to Creighton University’s NICU, with the larger items being passed over to the PICU. I’ll keep a running total in the sidebar (at Warming Omaha), and will post pictures as items are received. E-mail me if you’ve got any questions: craftyone77{at}gmail{dot}com.

*** this info is good for the February drive here, which is to send items to me for the NICU. just getting it posted up early so people have a chance to get started!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wednesday Wednesday

Hi everyone,

Well, here where I live it's going to be a balmy high of 8 degrees I think. I just wish it wasn't always so gosh darned nice around here. It REALLY is a burden. Hem haw hum.

Experiencing this weather is interesting, in all seriousness. It's junky when you go out in it but I have a warm apartment and an even warmer bed that I can look forward to. The people that we make things for might not have any of that. I am using that fact to inspire me this week, and I also want to send special applause Sandy's way for supporting the less fortunate of her own hometown through her Bridge Project.

We're about halfway through the month and we're just shy of being halfway to the month's goal of 50. I may or may not be cooking some things up. You just can't tell.

Post here with works in progress, status on your own personal goals, etc.

Happy crafting!

Mittens, FINALLY!


This is the 3rd mitten pattern I've tried, and the only one that I like, that I've finished, and that makes sense. I'm sooooooooo excited. This pair of mens mittens will go to the Bridge Project, was designed by Crochet Princess (Beth), one of the Bridge Team Members. MANY Thanks!!!
Sandy

Sunday, January 11, 2009

an idea

Hi everybody,

I am embarking on a project and I thought some of you might want to do something similar.

The general idea is to set a goal for yourself for the year regarding how many items you will make and donate for charity. If you meet that goal, you ask people to send some amount of money to a charity that is close to your heart but that would benefit more from a monetary donation than from something that can be made. As an example, I have set the probably insane goal of making and donating 1,000 items this year. I am asking people to "sponsor" me, which just means that if I succeed, they would donate $20 to the American Cancer Society.

I think it will be a good motivational force for me and maybe fun for the folks that choose to play along. Just thought I'd pass on the concept to you :)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

It's Wednesday!

Hey, guess what?! It's the first Wednesday of the new year!

I'm going to go back to inviting everyone to post works in progress on Wednesdays and also to remind everyone of the info on current drives. As we have discussed, our drive for January is squares for Warm up America along with Sandy's Bridge Project. James and Crazigriffen (Anne) have volunteered out of the goodness of their hearts to sew squares together. You can contact James via the Yahoo groups page or really anywhere -- he is like Dark Man. Everywhere yet nowhere. Everyone yet no one. He IS...Zort-Man. Ehem, you can contact Crazigriffen via an lj message to get her address. If you want to save on postage, check to see if one of your local craft stores is collecting squares. Pat Catans, a craft store around here, is actually having sewing parties so they are collecting a lot of squares!

We are at 12 items so far...do you think we could hit 50 in our first month? Let's see if we can :)

Happy Hump Day!

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Bridge Project


Finished this scarf up last night. I really love the yarn. A year ago I knitted a scarf using this yarn, fun to see how different it looks this time crocheted. It's going to my Bridge project.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Warm Up America....get ready James


This is the start of my rectangles for James. He'll put them together for Warm Up America. 9 so far, but plan to make more.

Sandy

Thursday, January 1, 2009

blanket for donation


blanket for donation
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

my first FO of 2009, and it's for charity! i finally got the first blanket made out of all the squares everyone's been sending me. apparently i'm not that good at sewing things together! but it's done, it's got a crochet border, and it's ready to donate!

for the record, on the second blanket i'm sewing together out of more squares? i'm crocheting them together. and i got a ton of them put together today alone. the second blanket will take a mere few days, i think!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!!! I have a really good feeling about 2009 for whatever reason. I'm just going to ride with it, at least until I go back to work next week :)

So, you're all probably wondering what our final count was for 2008. That would be 3,433!!!!! Crazigriffen was our final poster :)

You're all also probably wondering what our McDonald's burger count is (otherwise known as how many items total we've now made over just 2 years.

That would be 6,634!! Wooooo!!!!

Just incredible.

If we reach our goal of 4,000 this year, or come really close, we will succeed in making 10,000 items in just 3 years, which is hard to believe!

Starting today, if you make anything and post it, you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a skein of yarn of your choice (within reason). Any item gets you into the drawing, whether it's a square or an afghan, but you only get entered once, no matter how many items you make :)

I've changed the look of both livejournal and blogspot a bit. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Let's go kick some 2009 butt! :)