Knit-A-Square - The Connecticut Connection!

This time of year has all of us traveling around.  I was at our Association Annual Meeting this past Monday.  While I was speaking with one of my neighbors, she was telling me about the knitting group they have at her church.  Of course you might imagine that I brought up KasCare. 

She thought it was great idea.  She mentioned to me that the woman sitting in the back row was the former owner of the yarn shop in town and that she would call her to see if the Yarn Shop owner and I could get together.

Once we get through the holidays, she said that she would get me the introduction to the church group!  Yippie, this is great.

One Square at a Time, One Child at a Time.

Knit-A-Square - The Connecticut Connection!

See the children sing and thank you for your squares! Look how beautiful the children are with the most beautiful blankets.

Special Olympics Connecticut

"LET ME WIN. BUT IF I CANNOT WIN, LET ME BE BRAVE IN THE ATTEMPT." (Athlete Oath)


It's Special Olympics time again and yes they are asking for scarfs once again.  Two years ago they were overwhelmed with the generosity of those that contributed scarfs for the opening ceremony.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS CONNECTICUT as part of the 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project!


Special Olympics Connecticut athletes compete in the following winter sports: •Alpine Skiing •Snowboarding •Floor Hockey •Figure Skating •Speed Skating •Cross-Country Skiing •Snowshoeing


Special Olympics Connecticut’s goal is to collect approximately 1,950 scarves to provide our athletes, coaches, volunteers and supporters a symbol of handmade unity.

Please ship your scarves no later than February 19, 2011.
Deadline to receive scarves is February 26, 2011.

Please ship to:
Special Olympics Connecticut
Attn: Scarf Project
2666 State Street, Suite 1
Hamden, CT 06517

They ask that you follow the following guidelines to help maintain consistency and uniformity.

Colors:
Red Heart® Yarns Super Saver 886-Blue
Red Heart® Yarns Super Saver 512-Turqua

*Please incorporate both the Blue and Turqua into your scarf design.

Size:
Length: 54 to 60 inches long
Width: 6 inches wide

To read more about it, follow the links below!

http://www.redheart.com/blog/2011-special-olympics-usa-scarf-project?utm_source=PPenewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AllFreeCrochet

http://www.scarvesforspecialolympics.org/

Krochet Kids International

I'd like to introduce you to this great group of guys that crochet. They put together this non-profit organization that is empowering people in Uganda to make a living with one of my favorite pasttimes. If you are looking for a crocheted hat, consider buying one from them. As they say, "buy a hat, change a life".

Thanksgiving Wish

Many of us are rushing around with the last of the preparation of festivities of this great holiday. 

For me it's not only the cooking, cleaning, it's the frenzy that will happen the day after as we rush to the next holiday.  Each year I wonder, is it the deadline, is it the change of the weather or what is it?  You fill in the blank.

I wish everyone to take a moment, spend some time with your lace, your fiber, your craft.  Not the item you are making for the gift to Aunt Tilly; spend time on your gift to you - your craft. 

Take time to k2p2 another row, find the special yarn, CTCTT a few bobbins, ds with the tatting shuttle, even just browse a book of ideas for some inspirations for projects to come.

However you spend your holiday - may you have Health, Joy and Peace.

Photo courtsey of Mystik Productions @flicker

Squares, Squares and more Squares

Hi All,

The squares are coming in!  This picture is from S.A. at a volunteer's home on October 13th!

I wrote to the organization cheering them on.  This is such a great effort.   See their letter below.  I'm so inspired that I will be continuing to collect squares past the November date that I first thought.  

 This past weekend I made two squares with left-over Lion Brand Homespun.  It worked up beautiful and really quickly.

Keep up the good work - call me for any questions

Thank again!


Hi Patty

Thank you so much for your email, I love your email address!


What a wonderful job you are doing of spreading the word. 250 squares and 100 people getting involved will help innumerably.

You are welcome to the photos Patty. Thank you again for all your hard work.

Warm regards
Kalai McDonald - Administrator

To support us please consider a small recurring fee of US$3.oo per month, please go to http://allfororphans.com/
Click here to view:
Every day is Nelson Mandela day with knit-a-square
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/07/19/2958318.htm
Please join our forum for help with anything you need and to be a part of a wonderful commmunity http://forum.knit-a-square.com/
Here are links to the facebook and twitter pages:
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=51404036679&ref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/knitasquare

Kascare.org - Squares for Children

I received this email today and I am still so excited!  Can you imagine! 

Hello Patty: Wow, one of my friends has thirty made, and still going. She is using up every bit of yarn she has left over from her projects, awesome - another has at least 10, I have 6, waiting to hear from the other two. When I get the 30+, I will check in with you and find out when you will be at the Library and get these down to you. Again, everyone is doing simple stitches, not being too creative, just wanting to help the cause.

See ya, Dori

The lady with thirty made - wow - I'd love to use up lots of my scraps too!  I better get upstairs and continue my square!

KasCare - Colors of South Africa

I received a great question, what are the colors of the South African Flag?

So here it is, the red, white and blue date back before Nelson Mandella became president in 1994.  The black gold and green are representative of the South African people.

Wikipedia has a nice write up regarding the history of the flags of this country.  It also contains the proper flag etiquette. 

If you'd like to use these colors, please be respectful on their presentation.

Squares for Kids

Just a quick note on the squares.  My emails have been paying off.  My list of volunteers are growing, lots of squares, several are postage contributors, and one is a monthly contributor to KasCare.  You can see our numbers grow on KasCare Org - Pledges.

My square is almost finished.  I'll be entering it into the JoAnn's Craft for a Cause and make my vote for KasCare - Knit a Square.

Let's get started on those squares!

As we begin this challenge, I learn so much about how these blankets will help the children.  Then of course, I learn about the individuals that make the squares.

Here's some squares that have been completed by those before us.


Find more photos like this on Square Circle Forum

KASCare - Knit & Crochet Challenge

Today, I launched my committment to KasCare to get the word out about this most important work that is being done by them for the children orphaned by poverty and HIV/AIDS in South Africa.  Thanks for Sandy McDonald and her Aunt Ronda who have brought this mostly hidden tragedy to light.  They started only two years ago and already have had squares delivered to SA from 35 countries.

You can join in and help the children by knitting or crocheting a square.  See  my page on KasCare.org - Squares for Children for more information.

If you get here via my recent email, welcome!  Leave a note for me, email me at  KasCareNow-CT@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your Support!  You can make this difference.

JoAnn's Craft for a Cause

Just heard about this contest through my KasCare/ Knit-a-Square group.  It begins today, August 15th and runs through October 30th.

Simply you enter the contest on-line - see link above, and five individuals are selected as winners - you recieve a $1500 gift card.

Then the real actions begins. 

Several Charities will be selected and everyone will be asked to vote.  The site says three charities will be chosen and JoAnn's will donate $$big bucks to them.  Though I don't find the "math" working (lol).

This is a chance for yourself, but a great chance for your charity to really win some money.  In these times, when raising money for charities is always a challenge, this is a great opportunity

So, are you working on a project?  See the rules and regulations - simple stuff, one thing you must do -  scan and submit a copy of the receipt from JoAnn's showing the materials used to make your project and three pictures of your project.

Let's get organized and Let's get crafting!

Warm up orphaned children

Yesterday I watched a film named "Yesterday".  It is about a woman, of the same name, living in a remote village in South Africa's Zululand.  It is a tremendously powerful movie and I highly recommend watching it.  It's a foreign film, plenty of English subtitles.  It was a best nominee for a foreign film in 2004.

So what has this to do with being creative?  Lots - in the film I noticed that there was lots of brightly colored crocheted pieces of clothing.  In no time I did a search to find out if there was anything about it.  There is lots!  Most importantly, is KasCare.  This is an organization that is about Aid for AIDS orphans in South Africa.  Founded in Australia, this family, has made it their mission in life to bring awareness to the 1.4million orphaned children in South Africa.

What you can do? It is really simple - make a 8" x 8" knitted or crochet square - send it to them or send it to me and I'll forward it on to them.  That's it.  Dig into your stash bag, grab a hook or needles and in less than an hour you'll have a square.

Check back later, I'll have more news.

Shelby's Blanket

Here it is !  This is the progression of how the square motifs have grown from only the small pink center (at the bottom left), up that row, 4th round, and across to the right to the 5th round.

Glad to report that I've completed all 154 through the 5th round.  Round 6, the one with the black is a easy/breezy round!  Those should go quickly.


The last one is a bit more time consuming - though it really shows how the color are working together.  Didn't I just say that?

This was getting exciting, so I continued to put on the 8th round.



Here they are.  The two in the center is a sample of how the 8th round, black in color, and a joining round will enable all the squares to be pulled together.

It's amazing how all the colors work and really pop.

So I'll continue on.  Hopefully over this holiday weekend I'll have a chance to work on them and possible finish up 25 of them or so! 

By the way, this pattern has been okay.  I'm still putsing around with the 8th round as I'm not confident about how the squares are to be joined.  Knowing that this blanket will be used, gets me thinking of how to upgrade the joining to make a strong blanket for my niece.

Hope you are watching Shelby!

Blanket

Yes it is, Round 4 of Shelby's blanket is complete.  I've been carrying it around the last couple of weeks along with two other projects as I move to continue to complete all those 'unfinished' projects'.  As each of them become complete, there is an amazing sense of accomplishment yet there is something more, a chance to be more creative.

Last night was no different.  While I was awaiting the begining of the performance of Pilobolus at the Riverfront under the stars, I was able to complete the last of the round 4.  It's been some time since I've been working on it.  Like all of us, many events pop up, tasks that should be a quick few hours turn into weeks of effort.

So on to round Five - a raspberry color is going to be added.  I was so exceited last evening, upon return home, exhilarated from watching Pilobolus, I began the raspberry round.  After this round, there are two more before the final round that will join all the squares together. 

Hmmm I wonder if I'll be able to begin the last round before the middle of next month?

The Studio & some lace

Last weekend was just great.  My neighbor's son, Aaron, came home from college and was available to assist me on moving some of the furniture in the studio.

Previously I had gone through much of the credenza, at right, and emptied it of projects and unrelated items.  Some of the projects are on the top as you can see.  The three baskets underneath - bonus.  It's a bonus as I found the perfectly sized scraps of wood in the garage that would lift up the credenza just enough so the baskets could be slid under it.  Of course Arron did quite a bit of the lifting.

This past weekend I worked on sorting through the patterns and books about crochet in the other book case.  Nice to get the books somewhat catagoriezed.  It does make it easier to get inspiration.  I even had some time to go through and clean up my stash of finished project sheets and notes.  Now it is on to the other corner of the room.  Next weekend may have more accomplishments and successes.

By the way, I've completed 6 of the crochet projects of the 21 since April 25th.  There will be pictures soon!

 I did begin a new lace project last week.  Since I am making progress with the crochet and studio room , I would like to make this project as a gift.  Jill has been having Tuesday night get-together to lace at her home for two hours.  So what a perfect time!  I took an old pillow with me, took off and abandoned an previous project that just wasn't cutting it, made the pricking, wound the bobbinsand began.  Wow - I'm smiling.

My Creative Plans for 2010

About a week or so ago, I began to write my plan for 2010.  My year begins after my busy season to hence it begins the end of April.

One of my items in my plan - get some of those crochet projects completed!  So this past weekend I sent myself to my studio to get a handle on the number of projects I have going.

I began to gather up and set out my unfinished projects. Anyone that enjoys the creative process generally has more than one project on hand. LOL!!! I'll admit to that! I found and agreed to some 21 crochet projects that are in the midst of almost done! I get started because I like the design, or it poses a different stitch I'd like to learn, or it is just different. Often times these projects get put aside as an event will come up and I choose to make an item for that event.
By organizing these projects, I feel somewhat accomplished. I'll be leaving for retreat in a few days and I'm packing some of my projects to work on, several should be completed when I return.

By organizing, I found a few more hooks, found some patterns I'd like to make (new projects!), found some knitting patterns I'd like to translate and we haven't yet spoke about my bobbin lace projects.


I plan to complete all these projects throughout the year.  It's a tall order though I know that with a plan, I'll have a chance to get them done.  Some projects, like Shelby's blanket, I'll be working on each week.  Others like KC's blanket took only a day to finish up. 

During our weekend demonstration of lace making at the Sheep and Wool festival, I took one of my crochet projects and just about completed it. Later on in the weekend, I added the balance of the edging and the tassels. KC wasn't really excited about it (she doesn't like change) though by this morning, she was enjoying her little blanket!

Next to organize - the yarn and thread stash! 

Round 4

Yes, round 4 has begun!  One batch of 25 is completed and it is off to the next batch. 

My home has been a flurry of activity, with mechanics installing all new mechanicals, enjoying my new gas fireplace logs, and getting lots of paperwork in order for the "season".

I'm off to retire in a few minutes as my furry assistant has made it clear that I should retire NOW MEOW.

Pictures to come!

Round 3 Completed

Last week and this past Saturday proved to be a great period of time and I was able to complete the last of round 3 of Shelby's blanket.  It felt pretty good to get this far.  I may be able to get on track with my schedule.

So it is now on to round 4.  This round seems to be less complicated and when completed it should be considererd a little less than one-half done.   I've done about four of them to get the feeling of the pattern.  By completing one round at a time, it is much easier to remember the pattern and keep my tension to the same for the entire group of them.

OnWard I go!

Great Yarns

This past weekend I found myself in the craft store - either for the supplies for the seminar I was giving or for the charity event I was co-hosting or for supplies for my weekend house guest.

It is a great place for some inspiration, and also to take a walk inside and put some steps on my pedometer.

I like to pick up those 'freebee' flyers with crochet patterns on them.  You never know when you will need one of those patterns for a quicky project.  Next to the tear-off pattern pad was these great skeins of Homespun yarn in Christmas colors  and with a little effort and at least 8 skeins and an extra large hook, I may have a homemade Christmas present for a special relative.

Check back before the holiday - I'll have a picture of it and maybe with it's intended!


PS - I have only 25 round threes to go on Shelby's blanket!