Last day of June

And a great month it's been.

Remember, today is the last day to get entered into the June drawing -- make and post one item and you're in!

The announcement of the winner will happen tomorrow along with an update on our sizzling hot Regional Summer contest!

For July, our charity focus will be Ninja's preemie drive. As some of you may know, Ninja joined our group in honor of her son, who had been a preemie, turning 10. She has been an invaluable member of our group ever since, so I can't think of anything more fun than drowning her and her favorite charity in cute hats, sweaters, booties, and mittens :)

Ninja, please email me your address so I can post it to the "files" section of the yahoo group and so people can e-mail you or me with the address -- or if you want to post it yourself, that's cool too :)

As always, you do not have to do work on this, but it's just our focus for July :)

See you tomorrow!

8 More for WUA

Over the last few days, I made some more green WUA pieces.
Happy weekend to all.

In absentia

Hey folksies,

I'm going to be away from the computer for most of the weekend. I'll tally when I get home but if I miss your post, please poke me to let me know :)

WUA Pieces and 1 Lonely Hat

Over the past few days, I've been busy using the Spring Greens I bought from Robyn's (Rockin') Yarn Bank over on Etsy.

Here are the 14 WUA Pieces and 1 hat that I made. It might take a little more time before I tire of the 7" x 9" dimensions, so I plan to produce more. These are crocheted; maybe I'll try knitting.

Anyway, I wanted to get these counted for Team Godzilla, since it seems that there's a close race.
Go team!

Wednesday Update -- on Tuesday

I know, why do I even try to set patterns? My middle of the month person can get announced anywhere from the 1st to the 30th. My Wednesday updates can come between Tuesday and Thursday. Oh well :)

So, first, as I mentioned before, we have hit the 1,000 mark. We are now at 1070 items, in fact! This is very very cool. Do you think we can get close to 2000 in the next week? That would be a lot of posting, but you all have made me pee myself in shock before (yes, it was gross).

Oh, yeah, the regional contest. So, here is where we are so far:

Team Godzilla: 97

Team Arizona: 93

Team Ohio: 56

Team New England: 0

I am so glad I announced that I would be crafting for Team New England. As you all can see, I didn't enter myself into the contest because I am so valuable for teams...*snort...chortle* No really, I will play. But I have had a need come up for two "big people" afghans -- one for friends who just got married and one for friends celebrating a special anniversary. I am desperate to get them done, not only because of the timing of these events but also because working on giant afghans in the Summer STINKS!

Just a reminder, please make sure to try to visit one of our sites that you don't often visit -- Ravelry, Livejournal, Facebook, Yahoo Groups...everyone is doing amazing work. Show your support!

And finally, don't forget to worship at our shrine for Robyn, our star of the month, who brought into our midst 2 trailers worth of yarn for charity work :)

Love and hugs to you all!!!

Blankets for Buddies

I heard back from Jennifer at Blankets for Buddies. She says:

There are no size requirements for the blankets...although, I would recommend smaller blankets which would most likely be used for the cats and smaller dogs. The larger dogs might destroy them and larger blankets take up more room in the washer/dryer. The shelters and certainly the animals are not picky about materials, however, I would just suggest making the blankets as durable as possible...they are going to get dirty and will have to stand up to some major wear and tear.

I'm going to start making small blankets as per her request. I'm guessing that acrylic would be the best bet here due to durability and ease of use. Anybody have other suggestions as far as material goes?

Praise for Yarnbank

I got my Spring Greens in the mail today. I'm pretty sure that Robyn's awesome because I made that purchase online a mere 72 hours ago. I'm so excited to make my WUA squares with the colors.
I'll likely also make some blankets for Blankets for Buddies with the washable, acrylic, user-friendly yarns.
Yay for yarns!
Yay for Yarnbank!

HELP ME UNLOAD SOME CHARITY YARN!!!

so this is going to seem like a form letter, because it sort of is. i just didn't know the best way to get this info to as many people as possible, as fast as possible.

I’m in contact with a woman who has two semi-trailers full of yarn she wants to get to charity knitters.

Two. Trailers.

She wants to get it to the fine knitters of the world so they can make some great charity projects, and I’m hoping you all can help me.

Here’s the details:

For $20 (to cover shipping) she’ll send a FedEx box to anywhere in the United States, packed to the gills with acrylic yarn. It’ll be Red Heart, Lion Brand, etc, and is all discontinued colors. You can request worsted, sport, or baby weight, but I can’t take color requests.

If you’re outside of the US, contact me first so I can get a price estimate.

If you’re interested, send me the money to the following paypal address: rmcdevine@gmail.com

Include your shipping address, what yarn weight you’d like, and any additional information you feel we’d need to know.

Also, feel free to pass this on to any other knitters/crocheters you know who are making things for charity and could benefit from a super cheap pile of acrylic yarn. Remember, acrylic is great for hospital and nursing home donations, baby items, and Warm Up America squares!

We've broken 1,000!

1,063 everybody!! Great job!!!!!!

Off to Flagstaff, kbai

I'm shipping these seven hats and a few other things that I made and were tallied a few months back to The Dulaan Project.

Not much else to say. I've a few other things going and will post them when they're done.

Go Godzilla, Go!

It's Wednesday!

Awwww yeah.

So regional contest first...Team Godzilla is at 83 items, and Team Ohio is at 56. If you are on Ravelry, please check out the work that GeekGirl and RebelFanJenny are posting over there for Team Godzilla. It's really amazing!

I'm sure Team New England is just thrilled that Ive become such a major contributor to the team. Don't worry...it's coming :)

And the Army of the Ninja is just threatening us with their presence. *threaten threaten*

Don't forget that our cause for this month is The Dulaan Project -- warm fuzzies of any material for anyone. I think they are collecting things July 9th? Something like that.

As for me, I am doing the unthinkable and am trying to work on 2 projects at once. I am working on an afghan, which is a wedding present. I haven't made an afghan for about 8 months...i've been making hats and mittens and socks and LITTLE things. All of a sudden, it's quite hard to get excited about an afghan. So, after doing 5 rows of the afghan, I work on something for charity, and right now, I'm trying to make a hat on a new set of circular needles.

Card from Lucy at Scott & White

Today, I received a very sweet card from Lucy Matkin, the Program Coordinator at Scott & White in Temple, TX. She said the "patients undergoing treatment really appreciate the hats and...love getting homemade goodies." Yay!

Blankets for Buddies

Happy Monday to us all.
Really.
So, yesterday, running errands, I came across a new (to me), local (San Dimas- 60 miles away) organization for which we can make stuff. It's called Blankets for Buddies (http://www.blankets4buddies.org/index.htm) and they distribute blankets (used or new) and towels to keep chilly shelter animals warm during the wet and chilly months. I think there's a national organization similar to this and maybe it's already on the radical resource lists that are already floating around among our crafters, but this is local and I can facilitate drop-offs/donations, if you are interested.
In addition to blankets, they also collect towels. A friend of mine collects old and worn-out towels from hospital facilities and donates the would-have-ended-up-in-the-landfill towels to shelters. It's not crafty, per-se, but it's part of the B4B program.
Is anybody interested in making blankets for these little fuzzies? I would be more than happy to facilitate drop-offs, if you want to mail things to me, here, in Cali.
I'm planning to participate. Are you?

Our star of the month!

It's a day early, but I guess I kind of gave up on doing these announcements *exactly* on the 15th a long time ago :)

So, our star of the month is Robyn, aka craftyone. What can I say about Robyn? Well, sit back and get comfy. This could go on for awhile.

Robyn has always been a major force wherever Homespun Helpers has gone -- LJ, Blogger, Facebook, Ravelry -- she's always there.

Robyn continues to do wonderful things for our group even though she often encounters obstacles or frustrations -- she started the TypePad site for us, she started the Ravelry group (great idea!), and she took over and ran with the Yarn Bank idea (as evident in her last post).

Robyn and her mom have made and collected probably countless scarves at this point for women going through chemo.

And perhaps most impressive to me, Robyn kept working on charity stuff, including the Yarn Bank, while she was preparing for her wedding!

Robyn, you are an all star for sure. I worship at your feet :)

yarn bank on etsy

so, i've been contemplating this for a few months, and i'm just going ahead and doing it. while some of you have been AMAZINGLY generous with donations for shipping, not everyone has. and i get that not everyone can always do it. but i need more regular help with shipping costs as i was spendng tons of my own money to send stuff to people.

so the Yarn Bank is now an etsy shop, with costs minimal to cover shipping only. i'm getting a bunch of batches of acrylic yarns listed today, that were generously donated by a friend of a friend. i'll get the bulk of the rest of the yarn bank up over the next week or so, but for now this is what we've got.

Tell me if you mind

But since Team Chowdaheads only has 2 members right now, I thought I would join them to help out in the contest. If we win, of course, the other 2 folks would win the prizes :)

Let me know if anyone objects -- I can still objectively tally...I PROMISE.

Wednesday Update

So far, everybody, it's Team Godzilla with 81 items and Team Ohio with 32!! This contest has a Loooooooong way to go, so anything can happen :)

The make an item to get entered into the monthly drawing...thing...is still going too, so get those hooks and needles a'crackin! :)

The scores

Team Ohio: 20

Team Godzilla: 68

Team New England and Team Arizona yet to get on the board :)

June mission and other tidbits!

So, it's June 3rd and we have made and donated 908 items for charity! We still have a bit of a way to go to reach 2,000 by July 1st, but I think we've totally got it nailed :)

Our charity of focus for this month is on the Dulaan Project, which apparently is still alive and well despite rumors it was going the way of the dodo bird. They accept pretty much any warm garment, and their deadline for this year is July 1. You can get all the info here:

http://www.fireprojects.org/dulaan.htm

I'll post the contest results tonight -- Team Godzilla is going to be a formidable force this year, it seems!

YO!

no, I'm not just saying "yo."

I found a story today on MSNBC about a project in Elkhart that is teaching people how to knit as a way to help ease their massive tensions. I thought to myself, "Knitting...help...Homespun Helpers to the rescue!"

I have a couple of ideas in mind -- could Homespun Helpers use our yarn bank concept to help them out so the folks wouldn't have to worry about materials? Or, could we donate harder things to make, like hats, mittens, socks, to go with the scarves that a lot of the folks are working on?

I think this is a really neat opportunity for us to step up and help.

Would someone like to take a leadership role in contacting YO! about these ideas and any others you may have?

Here's the story:

http://elkhartproject.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/31/2883069-a-novel-prescription-for-knitted-brows

and the winner is..............

Okay, I shook the magical hat when I woke up this morning, and I pulled out a name...

And that name was...

SNOOPINGMOTHER!!!

Congratulations, Captain Underpants! Let me know what you would like your prize to be :)