Thank you everybody!

I have really had a lot of fun and I hope that I can keep in touch with you all. I am going to keep on motoring with trying to spread the word about crafting for charity. Come join me here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Making-Crafts-for-Charity/286326832292

A round of hugs on me, and feel free to continue posting here. Like I said, I'm not going to close any of our accounts!

In need of your input

Dear All,

I have been contemplating for the last month or so whether or not I should dismantle Homespun Helpers. There are a lot of reasons for this, the uppermost being that I feel like I can't designate the time that this cause really needs. This has been an amazing experience, but all wonderful things must come to an end. I have seen the use of livejournal slip in my own life and overall, it's difficult for me to find the time to grow the organization on blogspot, and Ravelry seems to be more active in groups that are not about crafting but are about things crafters have in common.

Because this is a community, I wanted to let you all know I was thinking this way to get your input. I have created a page on Facebook called "Making crafts for charity" that I would like to use to spread the word that there are millions of charities that depend on us crafters, and I'll be focusing some efforts there regardless.

Let me know what you think when you have a chance. And thank you!!

How would you feel about a captains contest?

Hi there everybody,

As I sit buried in my house under a pile of snow, I am thinking about our Regional Summer Contest. Coincidence? :)

Anyway, I was thinking it might be fun to have a contest before the contest. It would be kind of like the individual contest we did a couple of years ago, but this time, the top 4 winners would get to be captains for the Regional Summer Contest. This would give you the power to a) Choose your region b) Name your team and c) Recruit! The contest would run from March 1st to April 1st.

I know that some may feel that 2 contests in a row would be tough, so if you don't this this is a good idea, just let me know. Just wanted to toss it out there :)

Afghans for Afghans Needs Our Help!

Hey everybody,

I got an email from Afghans for Afghans. Their donations are way low so far, and Jan/Feb is usually their best time. They are trying to collect vests, sweaters, mittens, and socks for kids. They don't get to make shipments very often anymore, so this is super duper important.

Items should be made of at least 80% wool. No light colors. You can visit afghansforafghans.org to learn more. This is a truly remarkable organization. Let's see if we can help them out when they really need it!

Our first winner of 2010!

After some hat shaky shaky, it turns out that our first 2010 drawing winner is...


Becky_h!

Congratulations, Becky. Let me know what you would like as a prize, message me your addy, and it shall be done.

We are at a nice round 35 items already! Let's keep up the great work!!! :)

Thought you'd want to know :)

For those of you keeping track, we are already at 33 items. That's a pretty good way to start the year!! Way to go everybody! :)

Lots Of Hats This Week!

First, I wanted to say how honored I am that I was named the crafter of the month! I've been having so much fun with the One Hundred Hats project, I forget that others are watching sometimes!

Speaking of, here's the hats I've gotten posted up this week:



I'm also happy to report I've written another hat pattern, and this time all the proceeds will be going to helping out the Haitian relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders! You can read more about the pattern here, and here's a photo of the finished product:


Also, I love the idea of knitting up items to sell (on an Etsy account, perhaps?) to raise money for charity! I've got several hat patterns I've written recently I'd be glad to share toward that sort of undertaking, and would also LOVE LOVE LOVE to write a pattern or two that would be Homespun Helpers signature patterns for people to use. What do we think of that?