A LeeLee Hats Knitting Day!

This past Saturday, I joined my friend Tracy at a library the next town over for a charity knitting day. The event was called The Great Amusing Race, and it fit the name perfectly. There were 9 teams of 4 members each who went around the county to perform various tasks to earn points. There was a scavenger hunt, belly dancing, a car wash and of course, hat knitting. Before the event itself, the teams also collected canned goods for the local food bank. I think overall, the event helped 3 different causes.
I taught the participants on my larger loom, as it was easier to see from where they were sitting, and it meant I had more stitches that I could show them before I had to start wrapping a new row. It worked out well, and I finished the project I had on that loom.

Our activity was definitely something entirely unexpected by many of the participants. We were set up in a small room at the library with our thirty knitting looms, 8 high school volunteers, and a bunch of yarn. When the teams started coming in, we showed them how to do the basic stitch, and sent them off to the races. Some of them got less than one hat done, most got about one and a half, and the winner of our event made FOUR hats. IN ONE HOUR! I can't even make that many baby hats in an hour! Everyone was super impressed. She is the one in this photo crouched down in the middle. This team made NINE hats. The next closest team did just under 7. Not bad for people who've never knit before!

These are the two hats I started and finished at the event. I also finished knitting about a dozen other hats that the participants started, which worked out to seven total hats that I completed that day.

There was a banquet after the activities to hand out the medals and other prizes. All the teams received some drink tickets, which made everyone happy, and the team with the highest number of points accumulated from all the events won a trip for four to Las Vegas! That alone makes me want to participate next year!
Overall, it was a very successful day. The food bank got a HUGE donation, the minor hockey league that this was for also got a ton of money. I can't wait to see what else these organizers come up with.

An Update on Charity Knitting

LeeLee Hats has a goal of putting a hat on every baby that is born at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. With the number of volunteers that have joined this group, I can see that happening within a year.
I've been knitting with LeeLee Hats for a while, and donated quite a bit. I am up to 47 hats for the babies in the NICU. I have also donated loads of yarn, which has helped other members knit and crochet so many more. I am nowhere near as many hats donated as some of the other volunteers. They often bring in 30 hats at a time, to every meeting. There are meetings every two weeks. Some of those ladies, and their husbands, are machines, I swear!
I've posted a photo of my first batch of hats already, and it's time to post the rest.
There were a couple more that I've made, but they were grouped with some other hats knit by other members. Just pretend you see two more hats than are pictured here! I also still have about 4 or 5 hats to sew up and donate.
I am pretty sure we are over 2000 hats given so far. As soon as I talk to Tracy, I will find an exact number.
We have quite a few events coming up in the next few months that will help us get even more hats made and donated.
LeeLee Hats is at the forefront of a international day of knitting. On Friday, September 30, everyone is encouraged to knit as part of Knit-A-Thon North America. There are some really neat events being organized in different parts of the world that day. I don't know of all the details, but I do know that Ireland has something to do with it.
I will certainly be posting more information as I get it.

Craft Show This Weekend!

This Sunday, Made In Windsor is having another craft show. I will be working that day, as I usually do on Sundays, but my stuff will be available for purchase, as my friend is going to sell it for me. I will have baby booties, earrings, bracelets, dishcloths, hair bows and gadget cozies available.
I'm still working on more bracelets. In my post about them, Joy asked:

Ah, fun! Are they i-cord? I love i-cord for its potential uses, but I haaaate making it. I once made a tank top with braided i-cord straps (so, three strands per strap), and I basically swore never to make i-cord again :P

They are in fact icord! I actually don't mind making it. The bracelets are fairly short, so it's just icord in really short bursts! I can do a bracelet in about 20 minutes, sew the ends together, and be done with it if I am too annoyed. This hasn't happened yet, so I think I am doing ok.

Don't forget, tonight is the craft in, hosted by Scootchidoo Too! I plan on making loads of bracelets, and doing some final craft show prep.

Saturday, I will be teaching some people how to make baby hats on knitting looms with LeeLee Hats! I am super excited for that, as well.

This weekend is going to be great!

Self portrait Monday: March 21, 2011

Happy Monday, everyone! I've been up for a few hours now, and my day is going incredibly well. I made an awesome breakfast wrap, and took Winston for a short walk.
I've been working on dishcloths the past few days. There is a chance I will have a table at an upcoming craft show, just before Mother's Day, and I need some seasonally appropriate things to sell. The sale is going to be on a weekend, and since I work weekends, I am going to try to have Rick or someone else sell my things for me. I want to have a couple dozen dishcloths, and hopefully have my earrings ready to go as well. I want to figure out some sort of interesting packaging for the earrings. So far, all I have is a little plastic zipper bag.
Rick and I have been watching Better Off Ted on Netflix lately. We're about half way through the first season, and I am really enjoying it. I am still working my way through season 6 of House. I'm about halfway finished. I'll probably go back to a season of Big Bang Theory after House, and then find a new show. Nexflix and downloading older episodes of television shows has been great at boosting my knitting output. It's way more mindless than reading knitting blogs. I have been saving those for when I need to find inspiration for new knitted items.

Friday the 18th, I went out for lunch with the woman that organizes LeeLee Hats so I could give her my donation. I ended up with exactly 30 hats. I am going to continue making hats for the group over the next few months. I am also working at getting yarn and other crafting supplies donated to the group. My mom knows quite a few people, and she is talking to a lot of them, as well. I have a personal goal of donating 100 hats, and enough material to donate to fill at least two large garbage bags. As it's looking now, the second part of that goal will be met very soon.

Self portrait Monday: March 14, 2011

Today, I kind of feel like garbage. I spent the night at my parents house last night, and slept in a fairly cold bedroom in the basement, so I am thinking that has something to do with it. Sinus pressure, stomach ache, and an awful headache that hasn't been alleviated with medication. I'm just going to have to deal with it, I guess.

I went to a charity hockey game last night and that was so much fun. I saw so many of my old coworkers, and caught up with a lot of them. One of the girls that I worked with drove me to my parents, where I pretty much crashed right away. I read a few blog posts and such in my RSS reader, and then went right to bed. I got to sleep in a bit, which was nice.

I went to see some of my relatives with my mom after we picked up a few groceries and some things for Winston. We were going to stop at a yarn store that moved to a new location, but they are closed on Monday's. I'll have to try to get there sometime during the week soon. I've been to their old location a few times, and they have really nice stuff, and usually really good prices.

I am going to keep working on the baby hats and try to get 50 done this month. I am getting pretty close, and I still have a lot of yarn to use up. I really hope to get to Zellers or Michael's to buy some inexpensive baby yarn to make more hats. I really wish I hadn't gotten rid of all the yarn before I moved. It would be perfect for these hats. On the bright side, one of the women I gave yarn to knits for this group, so I know some of the yarn is going to be used for this cause.

Self portrait Monday: March 7, 2011

Today is Monday, so here we go with a self portrait post. I am going to continue in this schedule even if I am updating daily in another way. I feel like Monday's are "catch-up" type days where I can tell all of you what I've been up to lately.
I finished a burgundy cabled cowl this morning. I've been working on it off and on for the past couple weeks. I just had a few rows to go, one with the cables crossing, and about 2 more before casting off. It's a nice, thick cowl and the cables really stand out.

I also started and finished a baby hat on my Knifty Knitter. I am going to donate some hats, and some yarn, to a local group that makes hats for a NICU not far from Windsor. I've been looking for somewhere to donate more yarn, and this seems like the place to go. The hat in the photo only took about 45 minutes to make. Super simple!!! The only downside to using the Knifty Knitter is that you have to pay attention while you are knitting. It's not really something you can look up from, which is somewhat inconvenient for me, because I like to knit and read or watch TV at the same time. I'll just have to start listening to podcasts more and making the hats.
Not much else going on over here. Though, I do have a new model for my knitted stuff. Maybe I'll post a photo of her tomorrow. She can be kind of shy at times, but she is beautiful.

Culling My Stash

I have been knitting for about 9 years, which, I guess, is a long time seeing as I'm only 20. In this time, I have managed to acquire what I consider to be a substantial stash. And, if you take into consideration that most of this was given to me, it seems even larger.
I am moving out of my parents house for the first time this weekend. I have been storing my yarn somewhat sloppily in large tote bins belonging to my mother. I have tried to reorganise my stash a few times, and have succeeded, but I have always wanted clear containers to store them in.
And here comes Canadian Tire to the rescue!For those of you that don't know what Canadian Tire is, please visit the website.
I found some awesome storage containers here. Five drawers, clear, sturdy, and they have wheels! I figured I would need about 3 to house my yarn. So that's what I got. I expected to need one of those zippered Bed-In-A-Bag bags to put the small leftovers in.
Needless to say, I underestimated. By a lot. I have about half my stash in, and I didn't want to get rid of anything, because it is all precious to me, but nothing else fit!
I've buckled down and started a "give away" pile. It started out small, mostly filled with what I thought were ugly colours, or odd textures. Then it grew. And grew. And grew.
I am giving a nearly full garage bag to my local Blankets for Canada group. I have blogged about them before, and it is a charity that is easy to help. A pattern is given, but when I make my squares, I generally free hand them.
It's a great way to get rid of leftovers, and it doesn't matter how ugly the yarn is, it always looks great when it's joined into a blanket!


Just a note, since I am moving, I don't know when I will have full internet back, and I might not be updating for a few days!

A new square!

No surprise here, it's Sunday and I started something new! I finished an other square yesterday, so I had my B4C needles empty and waiting for something new. I dug through my stash and found 2 small balls of eye lash yarn in blue/green colourways. I didn't think either one would be enough to make one square, so I am striping the two. I am holding them both with the same skein of white worsted weight the whole way through. So far, I haven't had any huge issues with tangles, and I am hoping to avoid them.
I will soon post pictures of all the squares I have done so far. I am trying to make each one different, and I have enough yarn to do this for at least 50 squares! The next meeting is tomorrow night, I'm going to bring all the squares I have in and they will help make a blanket to keep a Canadian warm!

Blankets for Canada

A few days ago, Samantha, Dan and I went to a Blankets for Canada meeting. This is the second time I had attended one of these nights, and their first. I brought a few squares I had made over the past few months, as well as one that I had on the needles.

This is the square I had on the needles when I got there. I have NO IDEA what sort of yarn it is, because I acquired it through someone else when they were cutting down their stash. After finishing this one, I used a skein of dusty pink, fairly thin yarn paired with an off white to make my second square. I finished it a day or two after the meeting, and I will bring it in next time we go. The squares are quick to knit, and very little thought is required while knitting them. I follow the Grandma's Favourite pattern, until I get 8 inches on one side, and then start decreasing. It's my nearly fail-proof way of getting a perfect square.

This is Dan and his square. Which is much improved over his knit "thing" when he first started knitting. I'm not sure of his progress on the square, but I'm sure Sam will keep me updated!
(As nearly always, the pictures are courtesy of the loverly Samantha)

Charity knitting is something I have done in the past, and it's something anyone can do. I'm hoping to continue making squares with my leftover bits for as long as I am knitting!

Knitters are a Nice Bunch

I think it's a requirement for knitters to be nice people. Really. You always hear stories about a group of grandmothers knitting their little fingers off so that anyone who is cold can be warm. It may have something to do with knitting "for the boys" back in war time.
I have donated items to different places before, the maternity floor at the local hospital, the local St Vincent de Paul, Keep Canada Warm!, and others.

There are countless other charities out there looking for just about anything that one can knit!
Keep Canada Warm!/Blankets For Canada as well as Warm Up America! are looking for squares to be sewn into blankets.
Mother Bear Project is looking for knit bears to be sent to children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS.
I follow a blog here on blogger called Crafty Angels. The women in Chicago knit and crochet for local groups as well as groups over seas.
I am a member of Homespun Helpers on Livejournal. They have set a goal of 4000 handmade items donated to charity in 2008.
After all of your gift knitting this year, please consider knitting some items for a charity deal to your heart. If you can't, for whatever reason, consider donating any leftover yarn in your stash to a group that can use it.
Happy holidays.

Suggestions!

I have piles of worsted weight acrylic and other synthetics floating around my stash. Not really floating, more like reproducing.
I gave a HUGE skein of what I think is Red Heart to my friend Chris today so he could learn to knit. It was a neat jungle camouflage sort of colour, and I had no idea what I would ever make with it.

I'm not the biggest fan of that yarn, but it's cheap... I think we, my Mom and I, got it a few years back when we knit for the Downtown Mission. Basically, we would get huge amounts of inexpensive yarn and knit scarves for local charities and gave them around Halloween to distribute to those who need it. This is before either of us knew that acrylic isn't very warm... At all, really. The scarves were beautiful, though. All kinds of awesome colours, different sizes. We made them with the intention that children would receive something handmade to show someone cares.

This year seems like it's going to be a particularly hard Winter. Many local people are out of work because it seems like everyone is out of a job. Which is almost true. I live in Windsor, Ontario. We make cars. Most of the plants we have here are too outdated to produce high-demand cars, and they're just sending the work elsewhere.

Both my parents are directly affected. My Dad works at a feeder plant. He makes a part that is included in most cars and some airplanes, the lumbar system. He started working there a week before Labour day, 2001. Then 9/11 happened, and they lost the contract for airplanes. Since then, he was off for just over a year because of a severe car accident that almost killed him, (The only time I've ever been as happy that my parents insisted on owning a Chevy Avalanche; it saved his life.) was laid off for a week at a time every 6 months or so, until demand would require them to go back to work. Just recently, he was informed he was "indefinitely laid off". The letter included something that said if he didn't hear back by June 2011, to consider the plant closed. Pretty tough.

My mother works for the Big Three. She will be out of a job within two years. Pretty terrible. She will be about 2 weeks shy of her 50th birthday (which is strange to think; I remember when my Dad planned an entire surprise 40th for her, and didn't let me know until about 12 hours before) so this means shes not eligible for most pension benefits.

My best friend's dad is laid off from an other one of the Big Three. My uncle had to move out of town to continue to work for the same auto company. The list goes on.

I read in the local newspaper about extra strain on the local food banks and social benefits and shelters and everything else. They're asking us to dig deep into our already shallow pockets to help out others. I would love to help, but I have to take care of my own, first.

All this to say I need suggestions. Suggestions of what to do with all this acrylic. I would LOVE to knit piles of stuff for the local people that need it, but that's hard for me to do. Since I count on some income from my knitting, it's hard to force myself to knit for charity. Also, I don't do hats or mitts. If any of you could suggest some super easy scarf patterns, or anything else I could make, that would be awesome!

the blankets, ohhhh, the blankets

Finally getting around to updating!

As always, life is dramatic. Colin's dad had a heart attack last Saturday. He's doing much better now, still very weak, but alive. A week or so before that, a friend of the family passed away. Cancer...

Been working my usual shifts. Got a lot of the information on the buyout. That's happening September 26th. I'm hoping by that point, I will have started selling on Etsy, and I will have an other job.

As for the blankets... When I have several things on the needles at once, I tend to bounce around between projects. This way, I knit a lot, but I don't see a whole lot of progress... The exception to this, is the Ruffles blanket. I can see each repeat very easily in that pattern. It's a very simple pattern, but oh so cute. Its about 3 feet wide, foot or so long... That sounds backwards, but it makes sense to me! I think it will come out to stroller blanket size.
Sorry for the low quality picture... My camera didn't want to photograph the awesomeness of this blanket. You can sort of see the ruffles.

I still have the pink and white striped one on the needles. That one is making slow progress, noticeable, but slow. Finally, the Bernat Baby Blanket yarn. Super soft, super fuzzy. All the fuzz has been causing some headaches. There are a few small holes that resulted from either a YO, a missed stitch, or something. About 3 of them.

Pardon the mess that is my bed. It's been super hot lately, and I sleep with no covers on. That's the polka-dot mess at the end of the bed.

Other than all this, I went to a Stitch and Chat for Blankets for Canada. I knit one 8 inch square so far, but I'm going to start on an other one as soon as i finish one of these blankets. I'm determined to make at least 50 items for charity by labour day.

Charity Knitting

Over at Homespun Helpers, there is a Personal Achievement contest going on from now until Labour Day Weekend.
I'm going to be making a ton of these cute hats on my Knifty Knitters from now till then. I have a load of scrap yarns that will be perfect for these!
The red and orange-y one here was made on the second smallest loom (I think the red one) and the rest were made on the blue one.
These have all been made since... Thursday, except the first three.
Red and orange-y made of an unknown bulky weight, blue made from Bernat Baby Clouds, green made from Lion Homespun.


The pastel rainbow is one of my favourite yarns. I have about 3/4 of the skein left. I wish I kept the label. White and rainbow is made of Red Heart sport weight something or other (the colorway is called "crayon", I think) and white. The bottom one is actually a very pale blue at the brim, to a very pale purple at the top.These are awesome. No idea what brand, but it's all the same.
The left is a very pale pink, and the right is purple. Both double stranded with white, and they both have a slight sparkle to them.
Some fuzzy rainbow variegated with white.
The left is mostly white with pink, purple and blue flecks. The right is double stranded blue and green.

Once again, a ton of ends to weave in. I'm going to wait till just before I donate them, and do them all at once.

A few issues

I just changed the layout again.
I think I like this one beter. The colours are a little more fun.
There is something crazy going on with said layout. It could just be my computer... When I get home from school/co-op/work I will check again, hopefully it will have fixed itself.
In Knitting News, the Creamsickle blanket is just over half way done. I have about 3 inches knit since I joind the second skein. Also, the pink and white blanket is getting there... I'm not sure if I'm going to make that one a square, or continue till I'm out of yarn. I'll post a picture here when I get to that point, for sure.
I have 2 Grandma's Favourite cloths on the needles. They're my TV knitting... I don't have to pay attention when I knit those.
I'm looking for soap moulds online, in the shape of Awareness Ribbons. I think I'm going to make some up, and sell them with the ribbon cloths.
Thoughts?

An interesting livejournal group

I recently joined Homespun Helpers. This is a Live Journal community that set it self a goal of 4000 handmade items donated to charity in 2008. In 2007, they had set and attained a goal of 3000.
All you have to do to participate is knit, sew, crochet or just MAKE anything, take a picture, donate it to charity and post something there. An other way to help out is to sell something hand made, and have the proceeds go to charity.
This is something I'm going to support as much as I can this year. I have already made a few hats on my Knifty Knitters, and as soon as I find a place to donate them, I will be!

oh. my. god. SO CUTE!

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/nest.html

I just found this link somewhere on livejournal, and I had to share.

It links back to This Blog.

Please check it out.