How many people can we dress?

So, we are getting ready to embark into August. July was just a fantastic month. In fact, this whole Summer...this whole YEAR, has been just incredible. Thank you all so much!!

I'd like to propose something a little different for August. There won't be a numerical goal to shoot for for August. I know, *gasp* :) Also, there won't be any contests. What there will be is a single question. How many people can we dress?

This idea mostly stems from funfairiegirl's comment about how many blankets all of those squares would make, and the fact that each of those blankets would warm up a person. While the goals and the contests have been really fun, I worry that we have kind of lost touch a little bit as a group (not as individuals) with what this is really all about.

So here is the idea...over the next month, we are going to make whatever parts of warm outfits we feel like, be those socks, hats, scarves, ponchos, blankets (not really part of an outfit, but whatever), mittens, etc. All of these items are going to go to jezebelsf who has MOST GENEROUSLY volunteered to receive and sort these items. The goal would be to have sets that would include a hat, a scarf, mittens, etc. These items will be distributed to a few different places.
• Wool items will be dropped off at Afghans for Afghans
• Moderately warm items will go either to a shelter in San Fran or a shelter in Atlanta
• Acrylics that are warm will go to chicago, warm up winchester, or Boston.

We need shelter names and addresses for Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston

So, what jezebelsf will do is keep us posted on what missing pieces of outfits she needs. Then she'll put out a call. "We need more hats" or "we need more gloves." She'll gather items into outfits and send them to whichever place.

The only rule? Make sure you indicate what your materials are made of so that jezebelsf knows where to send them. At the end, her reporting, together with our tally here, will reveal how many people we can dress.

The items will likely be shipped in September.

The hope is that this will give people a chance to work on different kinds of things. Maybe you want to make vests or cardigans or whatever -- this is a great chance to do just that! And no, the different parts of a set don't have to match, but if you want to send a whole set's worth of stuff yourself, i'm sure that'll be okay :)

Once we have names and addreses for good shelters, we will post the address for jezebelsf so you can send stuff her way. That is, of course, if everyone is okay with this kind of new approach.

Let me know what you think!

We have another winner!!

I bet everyone thought I forgot about the vote! I didn't. I have just been crazy. The winner of the vote for favorite squares is...

treehugger06!!!

Congrats. I will be sending you some yarn as well as your gift card as soon as my new bank card arrives (which I hope it tomorrow since it wasn't today).

I will be sending out all of the prizes at the same time and I will let you know when they go out!thanks everyone for making this contest so much fun AND so successful!!!

A Round of Applause, Please?

Can we all voice our gratitude and appreciation for one sen_ichi_rei, aka knitter of shiny things? July has been one of our most successful months ever. We started with a goal of 1,650, and now we are sitting at 1,918. That is just...head-explodey. And I have no doubt that our mod for the month played a great role in this success as she spurred everyone on to new goals, new ideas, and new heights.

We will definitely revisit the mod for a month idea again, but we perhaps might wait until next year as the rest of this year will likely be crazy :)

I will be posting either tonight or tomorrow about some thoughts for August.

Thank you to everyone, and again, let's all say thanks to our lovely hobbit girl :)

My July FOs

After the squares contest, I decided that I needed a wee break from making squares. So I decided to finish up some WIPs that I had lying around. Here's what I accomplished:
3 more preemie blankets and 1 preemie hat that will be donated to the Danbury Hospital in September. (There are pictures of each blanket on my blog, if you are interested.)

2 hats, a pair of mittens and a scarf that will be donated to Warm Up Winchester. I have one more pair of mittens on the needle that I will finish up later in August, and then I will send everything off.

So that makes 8 FOs since about July 16th. I'll get back to making afghan squares in August, once I get back from vacation.

here are the 12 hats for the Head Huggers

Hi JorieJC2,

Here are the hats that I made- 12 of them are going to Head Huggers.

Well yah-freakin'-hoo!

So...I am currently away on a business trip. I haven't been able to check in really till late last night, and woah, what a shock!

I have tallied 117 items this morning, and there are actually two posts that I did not add to that tally yet (frenchnewwave and Robyn, I left my questions for you).

Apparently I should let you guys run wild and free more often because holy smokes!

To those of you who came out of lurkdom to post or to those of you who just joined, welcome welcome a million times welcome and hello! Don't go back into hiding, and thank you so very very much for posting and joining.

You are all very very awesome.

And by the way...way to cremate that whole 1800 thang :)

You Guessed It ... More Hats

I finished a couple more hats for Warm Up Winchester. Both fit me, so I'll go with large child, small adult size. Both are Cascade 220 wool, black and burgundy.


I plan on knitting a little bit while I'm camping, so I'll probably make a couple more hats this weekend.