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Monday, August 10, 2009

8 Little Hats

Hello all! Here are 8 hats I crocheted over the last few days. Most are for preemie heads and some for small children. I'm sending them to a HH crafter who does work with kids.

I've been on a bit of a crafting break: I was in Ohio for a friends' wedding two weeks ago and prior to that I'd been on a reading kick.

Back to it, though, since I just placed an order with the Yarnbank.

Stay cool, all, depending on where you are. It's toasty down here in SoCal.

Yarn Bank Liquidation


new to the yarn bank today
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

It’s with a very sad heart that I write this all. I’m closing the Yarn Bank as of October 1.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had such a great time collecting yarn from people’s stashes and turning it around to people to use for charity purposes. It’s been such a treat to hear about all the great charity projects that have been made, all the lives that have been touched by this venture.

And then, two months ago, I was contacted about helping someone unload several trailers full of yarn meant for charity knitters and crocheters. Thinking it would be an amazing opportunity, I signed on, not realizing the trouble I would be causing for myself.

In these two months I have talked to countless individuals who wanted nothing more than to knit and crochet for charity, and have been stymied repeatedly in getting yarn to them. I have stuck through it, knowing that eventually this yarn would end up in the hands of charity crafters who wanted to make items for those in need.

All the while, I continued to try to keep up with the yarn bank. The two were kept separate, although I was contacted about helping out with this large yarn liquidation due to the yarn bank’s modest success. I hadn’t thought any of this would be an issue whatsoever, until the last few days.

In the last few days, everything has fallen apart. I have been accused of stealing business from local yarn stores, stealing potential charity crafters from this larger yarn liquidation, discovered people have not received yarn who should have, and in general lost my stomach more than once at the demanding, selfish, and greedy nature of a large number of people.

And so I’m closing up the yarn bank. Any yarn that is sent to me between now and September 15th I’ll go ahead and list, but as of October 1 I’m shutting down shop for the foreseeable future. Any yarn left in the yarn bank will be sent to reputable charities for use by their members.

I have always been someone who believed in the good of humanity, and this two month experience has left me sad, disheartened, and closed off to the thought of doing something like this again. I will never say never, and hold onto the yarn bank account indefinitely, so that if I have a change of heart I can start things up again.

From now on, I will continue to focus on my personal charity knitting, on loving on and supporting the charity crafting community as much as possible from a distance, and participating in Homespun Helpers joyfully. If there’s anyone in the group who wants to take the reins with this project, please contact me via e-mail (rmcdevine@gmail.com) so we can discuss it.

There is still a lot of good yarn in the yarn bank, and there will be some needles, hooks and even some great vintage fabric listed between now and September 15th, so please take a look and grab what’s left – it won’t be there long!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Spirit Jump...help me brighten the day of those who are seriously ill...

Hey folks, Kelli here. I usually post to HH on LiveJournal, but our fearless leader suggested that I post everywhere else as well. This is an opportunity for all, whether you know how to hand make stuff or not. :)

I personally cannot sew or knit, so I look for other ways to give. I am a starving artist and love to make cards for charities like Operation Gratitude and A Million Thanks. I've also recently made cards for Pink Heart Funds, and now I have taken on a few gift projects for a wonderful organization called Spirit Jump. SJ members send gifts to people who are seriously ill in an effort to lift their spirits. As someone who is chronically ill myself, I know what a blessing it is to receive a happy little something in the mail. It can be the simplest thing...a postcard...a bookmark...anything can make a difference in someone's day.

So I'm asking for your help! I am hand making cards, gift tags, and bookmarks for Spirit Jump recipients and would love to be able to include a little gift in their package. It can be a book, a piece of jewelry, a humorous plaque...the sky is the limit here guys. Please note that most of the recipients are terminally ill, some given weeks or months to live. Others are still in the midst of their battle. Women, men, and children. The gift does not have to be hand made (unless you want to...and it would be counted on HH whereas bought stuff wouldn't), and it doesn't have to cost much. The only rule is that it be something that will bring a smile in the midst of someone's suffering.

If you have something to contribute, please email me and I will give you my snail mail address.

ugottafriend4life@gmail.com

Thanks so much everyone!

Kelli
ugottafriend.com

Thursday, August 6, 2009

1,496

We're 4 items away from the big 1-5-0-0!!

Who wants to take us there?!? :)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Contest update and some new charities to think about

So I'll keep you in suspense and talk about some new charities first. Cuz I'm evil like that :) A good friend of mine from waaaaay back is working as a missionary in Ghana and she passed these ideas on to me.

First: www.stringofpearlsonline.com

It seems like a similar concept to Afghans for Angels

Also, my friend has done some exploring of a children's home near where she lives. It's called The Anfaani Children's Home, and they apparently need anything and everything. Shipping would obviously be something we'd want to talk about -- maybe see if we could pool things together and ship in international flat rate boxes or something like that. But something to think about.

NOW, the contest update:

Team Godzilla: 213

Team Ohio: 192

Team Arizona: 98

Team New England: 67

Just a mere few weeks left. It could be anybody's ball game. Er...ball of yarn. Er...well. There it is.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

august charity!

Doclegs reminded me that I neglected to post our charity for August. Well, you can't win 'em all. Remember, if you are a member of the yahoo group, you can go to calendar and I have blurbs about each month's charity on the far right there :)

So, August.

Our charity focus for August (if you want) is the Red Scarf Project. I know it seems early to start working on something for Valentines Day, but they have been so inundated they wanted to set an earlier deadline so that they don't have to literally stop people from sending. A good problem to have!

Here is the site for more info:

http://orphan.org/index.php?id=9

ETA: SoapFairie said that the link I used takes you to the money donation page. Here is a better link she found:

http://orphan.org/index.php?id=40

Saturday, August 1, 2009

A new month begins!

And you thought I'd forget...heh heh heh

Okay, so it's hat shaky shaky time.

And the winner is...Snoopingmother?!? Again?!?

Clearly *someone* has put a spell on my hat, but snoopingmother, since you won so recently, I'm going to pick another name. I hope that's okay!

Shaky shaky shaky and...

Craftingforcats is the winner!

Let me know what you would like for your prize!

I am really really happy about this July contest, folks. We had the most names in the hat this time around!

Keep it up! Remember, just a little over a month left till our Summer contest ends...the monthly contest will keep going though :)