BF was traveling this weekend. I was home alone. Nothing scheduled. No responsibilities. Work is really hectic this week. So I think the timing was perfect. It was the calm in the storm. I watched Netflix. I did some focused knitting. I took some extra naps. It was pure heaven!
Secundogeniture is going to school at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He's part of the student leadership (of course) and is going on the Alternative Spring Break to help people in Houston recover from the damage of Hurricane Harvey. To that end, he and his crew are raising funds. You can read more about it on the official UAF Alternative Spring Break page HERE.
I figured that one of the ways I could help was by knitting polar bear hats that I designed. I'm going to knit anyway, so I might as well put my time and talents to use for a good cause. Here's a picture of some of the students participating in the Alternative Spring Break posing with the polar bear hats. UAF's mascot, by the way, is the Nanook, or polar bear.
If you'd like to donate to a good cause, and receive your very own polar bear hat - please leave a comment or email me with size and material (bright white are 100% acrylic and the natural are 100% wool).
And here's a side-by-side photo of the UAF Nanook mascot with Secundogeniture during Winterfest last month.
Go Nanooks!
Every year for nearly ten years, I have looked forward to the spring and the Mad Hatter Tea Party. It's a chance to dress up, wear a fancy hat, be with friends, enjoy a formal tea, and support a good cause. It's the chance to play at Downton Abbey for a day.
Thursday, June 1st
4:00-7:00 p.m.
8 High Point Road
Westport, CT
Tickets and additional information are available at www.ctyankee.org/teaparty
There are door prizes for the best hat, best fascinator, best overall ensemble, and best whimsical hat.
There is shopping, shopping and more shopping for a good cause.
And of course, there is tea.
Please join us and buy your tickets today at www.ctyankee.org/teaparty.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. That's one of the sayings that I learned in Scouting. So I think it's fitting that for my upcoming fundraiser for Scouts, I should create something that incorporates all three. I'm making Upcycled Cashmere Mittens.
I opened the sweat shop last weekend - over the Easter holiday - and worked my fingers to the bone. I cut, sewed 24 pairs of fleece liners; cut and sewed 24 pairs of cashmere outer mittens and tonight I started finishing them with the hand stitching of the cuff and embellishments of buttons. I might even do some needle felting or embroidery. Now I'm going to stage the photo-op for each pair of mittens.
Here's the first pair - Plantation Mint and Lemon Lift. I dug through my button jar and found these two light green buttons to embellish the cuffs.
The fingertips are a yellow cabled wool sweater. The back of the mitten is a cashmere light green. The palms are white cashmere. The cuffs are white wool. The liner is fleece. These are a women's small.
I'll be selling these at the June 1st Mad Hatter Tea Party as a fundraiser for Scouts. 100% of the proceeds from my crafts will go to support my local council. Isn't that perfect? The saying I learned in Scouts will come full circle and I'll be recycling and reusing these sweaters to support Scouts.
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to clean up and de-clutter. In this spirit, my Ravelry group - Finish or Frog It Friday - is continuing this theme with the 2016 Stash Buster Friday paired with a brilliant way to use up all those odds and ends yarn bits - 2016 The Year of the Hat.
I love it. Hats are the perfect way to quickly use up a skein or two of yarn. It's a great way to turn that accidental over-purchase into something useful, pretty and loved. I have tons of Zara, Zarella and similar yarns from various projects I was doing 5-8 years ago. And that yarn is just sitting there taking up space and not causing any happiness.
I started with my signature Owl Hat. It's a crowd pleaser and I always get requests for this hat. I made this one for my friend Carolyn. She loved it!
It was so much fun, I knit up two more owl hats and managed to use up one complete skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. Woohoo! The Stash is slowing but surely dwindling.
I found a few skeins of Zara in my stash and did a search on Ravelry for most popular hats and found The Rikke Hat. I knew a slouch hat would be welcomed by someone young and cool so I knit this one up in a jiffy.
Then I used up some leftover Plymouth Classic Wool Merino for this Turn a Square adaptation. I made four large stripes for this beanie. I wonder how it will be received.
I enjoyed the slouch hat, so I found another pattern thanks to my friends at Finish or Frog It Friday and cast on for a Twist and Slouch hat using more Wool Ease Fisherman's Wool.
While I like the look and design of this pattern, the yarn wasn't the perfect fit. It didn't slouch as I felt it should. Maybe after a good blocking it will relax a bit and slouch.
In just the first ten days of the year, I already made great progress reducing my stash and knitting up hats. Most of these will be for charity. I firmly believe in "Knit Quality, not Quantity" when knitting for others. If you wouldn't wear it yourself, don't expect anyone else to wear it either.
If you follow me on Facebook or on Instagram, you've seen me post about the Child and Adolescent Recovery Hospital and Jackson Recovery Centers in my hometown of Sioux City, Iowa. It's open and I got the chance to visit it this summer. I can't tell you how excited I am that my hometown, and the midwest, has a top notch facility like this. I can only wish every state could have a facility this wonderful.
Kermit took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to give us a private tour. I can't tell you how impressed and pleased I was to see this come to fruition. Here we are posing with the busts of Mom and Dad in the entrance to the new hospital.
But you can take a tour, too. Just click on the video above (or click on THIS LINK to watch the video directly in YouTube
Disclaimer: The video contains actor portrayals of patients to protect the program's anonymity. If you look closely, you might recognize my niece and nephews playing the roles of patients.
I know Mom & Dad are smiling in heaven knowing that Siouxland is a little bit better place today because of all the hard work and efforts of a wonderfully giving community and amazing volunteers who have continued to make this dream a reality. Thank you Kermit for all your leadership.
It's Friday and I've been so busy this past month trying to clear things off my Ravelry queue - that I somehow created more work for myself. I have been making great progress knitting up the individual swatches for the patchwork knit quilts - but I haven't joined any of them yet.
Today I finished knitting the green and gray four patch swatches for my latest Modern Quilt knit blankets. Now I think I'm ready to finally start assembling at least the first of these whimsical knit projects. This might be the first. I'm quite thrilled since I really used up the odds and ends of the worsted weight yarn that was in my stash. I like it when that happens.
My neighbor Claudia has a gift business and she works with a lot of textile swatches. She knows I'm a crafty sort of person, so she asked if I'd be interested in her leftover swatches. I picked them up last weekend and am trying to figure out how to turn them into something new, useful and attractive.
I started by selecting all the blue, green and yellow chenille swatches in varying sizes. For some reason this color combination spoke to me.
I started by serging the swatches together in strips. I didn't have time today to complete a project, but it's a start. I think I'll be able to make some nice repurposed throws together that will be appreciated for TV watching. I'll keep you posted.
Can you believe it's been 11 years? I started blogging on April 9, 2004 and have enjoyed it ever since. Originally, I thought to sell all my patterns (and create hundreds more) through my blog. I have neither designed hundreds of patterns (tens of patterns is more like it), nor have I sold enough to do anything more than buy more yarn. But what I gained instead has been far more precious.
FRIENDS - I've gained a lot of virtual friends who have become real live friends from around the world.
TRAVEL - Some of those friends have come to visit me. I have gone to visit others.
RECORD - I've managed to record, not only my own knitting history, but also capture a part of my life through posts. My family has chosen to remain somewhat anonymous, but they're still there - under the radar - in the memories that each trip evokes.
FIBER - I've turned my travels into FIBER-TOURISM. It started as trying to visit a LYS every time we traveled. While I like that, I have turned it into more of a fiber arts travel destination. Some of the most memorable (even though I have forgotten many names) were: an unusual blend your own yarn store in Portland with Super Eggplant; trips into NYC for fiber arts festivals or yarn crawls; Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival; discovering Liberty of London's tea room and meeting Jane there; and my favorite fiber tourism of all was my trip to Bogota, Colombia and touring the textile museum, artisanal fiber shops and the fine arts college.
WILMA - Wilma on Wednesdays has been a fun feature these past nine years. You all love Wilma and her famous lolling tongue. Now I get to add by having pictures of Otis and Duke. The bulldog fun never ends!
YARN - Of course, having the blog has encouraged me to horde buy new yarns. Therefore, I have amassed a small arsenal of yarn that needs to be knit down to a reasonable size. I'm working on that, but it's so hard. Generally speaking, the exact project I want to knit is something that I have absolutely nothing in my stash that will work. So I buy more. I hope that some of my charity knitting projects will help me work on downsizing my stash. Please keep your fingers crossed.
CHARITY KNITS - The yarn stash leads me to one of my favorite kinds of knitting - charity knitting. You know that I like to knit blankets for the children at the Jackson Recovery Center's Women and Children's Center. In fact I have an ongoing contest/collection for the month of April where I'll send some thank you yarn to the first six people who donate. You can read the details HERE. So in honor of my blogiversary and to enhance the blanket collection project for those children who need it I am going to give away some special yarn.
I have added a drawing. For everyone who donates a blanket or swatches or hats as outlined in the directions listed HERE during the month of April - I will put your name in the drawing. On May 15th (allowing time for everyone's donations to arrive in the mail), I will draw the name of one lucky winner who can choose either of the skeins pictured above:
So thank you for a great 11 years. Here's to the next 11 more!
Yes - WE won an award. I was home in Iowa this past weekend for the 2015 Friends of Recovery Banquet for Jackson Recovery Centers. I was completely surprised by the Women Helping Women award.
This award was for all our hard work donating hand knit blankets for the babies and children who attend treatment with their mothers at our Women and Children's Center. For most of these children, it is often the first time they have medical or dental treatment or live in a healthy environment.
So while I accepted the award - it really goes to all of you. You all helped make blankets and hats for the children. So I'd like to do it again.
Every year or every other year, I host a contest to collect hand made blankets for babies and children (to teenagers) so that every child who goest through the Women and Children's Center can receive one of mother's hugs - a Hug from Marienne.
First of all, thank you to everyone for all your kind comments about my Mom, the blankets and the Jackson Recovery Centers Women and Children's Center. Many of you asked me how you can help. I am overwhelmed with your kindness and generosity.
For any donation of an entire blanket (baby, child or adult size) - or 25 swatches, or 10 hats or more - I'll send you a skein of yarn of your choosing from my stash. Here are the yarns I'll be donating this year to the first six donors. Only one yarn selection per person.
Yarn choices include:
Deadline to be eligible for this great giving opportunity: May 1, 2015
Just think - you could do a good deed, get rid of your acrylic, and get something good in return - all while giving some child a "Hug from Marienne."
I hope you'll join in the fun!
Change is Good
