charity knitting
These are some of the hats I have stored since the end of last winter. They came too late to distribute.
This is hard for me to write. Somebody brought two large boxes of crocheted hats, scarves and baby blankets to my office this week. They are beautiful, She official canada goose outlet even made sets of hats and scarves, rolling up the scarves and stuffing them into hats, which is a good way to keep them together.
using up yarn, she said. you tell? problem: everything smelled like tobacco smoke. Ugh. I really appreciate all the work she did, but I can give all this stuff out if it smells like that. Nonsmokers, including me, are very sensitive about tobacco smelling items. And who wants to give a blanket laden with tobacco smoke to a baby?
I brought the eight baby blankets home, and I washed them in the washing machine with laundry detergent. And I using a trick I learned when I was refurbishing American Girl dolls: I threw half a cup of white vinegar into the wash. On the dolls, the vinegar does a good job of removing the tobacco smell, so I hoped that since these blankets are all acrylic, which is essentially plastic, the vinegar would take the smell off them as well. It did a pretty good job. On one or Canada Goose online two blankets, detected a very faint smell at first, akin to the smell of a hotel room where someone had smoked, but that faded away and now I can tell which blankets had that smell. Most of the blankets had no smoky smell at all after washing and drying. And there no vinegar smell. So the next night, I brought hats and scarves home and gave them a similar treatment, which was very successful.
If you have to smoke when you knit or crochet, do me a favor Just before you bring or send me your items, wash them in detergent and white vinegar. In addition to cleaning up the smell, the vinegar also softens the fibers a bit, like a fabric softener.
Here are more hats left over from last year. The orange and black hats remind me of Halloween.
Now, the good news is that this smoky contribution puts us even closer to our goal https://www.nationaalzweminstituuteindhoven.nl of having at least 50, scarves, mittens and hats for Elijah Promise on Nov. 11 and at least 150 hats, mittens, scarves and cowls for the Old Bridge Food Bank by Nov. 15. Other knitters and crocheters have brought me hats as well. Not counting the smokey stuff yet, I actually have almost 90 adult hats and 45 children hats that are leftover from last year or that have come in this year.
We not getting many scarves or mittens canada goose outlet online yet, though, so if you want to make something that is especially needed, make those. My mom took a couple of small shopping bags full of yarn from my stash to our cousin, Jane Burton, this week, so that she can make scarves for us. But we need a lot more, especially if the weather gets as cold as the Farmer Almanac predicted for later this winter. I see that the Weather Channel is backpedaling on that now, saying the Northeast will probably get a milder winter. No matter, there still will be cold days when even a simple garter stitch scarf will be cherished because of bitter cold, believe me.
Thanks again for your good work!
A steady trickle of hats and scarves are coming into my office for our holiday knitting project Canada Goose Coats On Sale this year. Donations are coming from individuals and I think one knittng group. I have two hats on the needles, and I just finished a cowl. Yesterday, I delivered about 10 children hats that are machine made to the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, donated by someone who comes to the Warren Library knitting group.
I canada goose factory outlet have nearly finished the headband on the 1898 hat. Finished the second ear flap last night, and I have just a few inches to go.
I am still working on the 1898 Hat from the Seamen Church Institute website. Last night, I finished the second ear flap. I making canada goose outlet new york city the headband longer than the pattern calls for, and I estimate I have another four canada goose outlet parka inches to go. I don know why I not enjoying it as much as I expected to. Maybe it the yarn (Red Heart Simply Saver, which is stiffer than most yarns I use). It canada goose coats on sale a nice deep turquois, and I thought that would motivate me. For some reason, though, I miss canada goose outlet sale knitting in the round and I am discouraged that it taking so long.
I still have to sew in some hanging threads on the cowl. It has canada goose outlet uk the same Canada Goose Online tan yarn in it as the first Aran hat of the season.
Of course, one reason it dragging on and on is that I keep choosing and even starting other projects. I made a striped cowl last canada goose outlet toronto factory week, using some of yarn I bought at canadian goose jacket the VNA Rummage Sale in Far Hills back in October. It looks a little like the cowl that canada goose outlet in usa we have on our website, republished with permission from Girl 2. And now I working on an Aran hat, knitted in the round. It a modification of the Aran hat I finished a couple of weeks ago.
The second Aran hat I am making is very similar to the first one, but the diamonds and cables are different.
After this, cheap Canada Goose I have to get busy on Christmas presents. I need to make a cowl for Susan, and I decided not to make the pattern I originally settled canada goose uk shop on because I don know if I have enough yarn for it. Instead, I probably make up my own pattern. I also need to at least start Mom Noro sweater.
I think we keep making hats until a few days before the census of the homeless in January. And then I think we all need a break so that we can knit projects for canada goose outlet canada goose outlet ourselves.
A couple of Canada Goose Parka weeks ago, I put out a call to knitting groups, asking if they accept donated yarn. I now have a list of four or five groups that will accept yarn for. Generally, what I do is try to match the donor to the group nearest them. This makes it easier for everybody. I know for myself, when people deliver yarn to me to be donated for, I tend to get it to a group I can reach easily without having to mail it. I figure most of you have the same tendency.
Another thing people contact me about is finding a knitting group. Somebody sent me a letter a couple of weeks ago asking me to list all the knitting groups so she could find one. It doesn work like that. There are too many knitting groups around, and frankly, they form and disband too much for me to keep a running list. But if you tell me what town you in, I will try to help you find a group. That the best I can do. I recommend joining, not only to find knitting groups near you but also for the amazing database of knitting patterns, many of which are free. There are thousands of them, with more being added all the time.
Kathy Johnson snapped this photo of canada goose outlet online uk me with100 hats for Steeplechase Cancer Center.
You are probably wondering what happened to all the chemo caps. I delivered 100 of them to Steeplechase Cancer Center last week, and since then,25 more have come for me todeliver there. Yesterday, a reader contactedme, saying she has 50 more hats, so I am waiting for those to come in before I go back to Steeplechase.
These hats all will go to JFK Medical Center on Monday.
In the meantime, I been trying to reach Patricia Strittmatter, the radiation oncology nurse at JFK Medical Center whom I first contacted about the chemo caps last spring. She was away in July when Barbara and I delivered the first 100 hats, and she was on vacation in August when I tried to deliver 200 more hats. Patty and I finally connected yesterday. I could have delivered the hats sooner, but since I never actually met Patty in person, I really wanted to deliver these hats when she was canada goose outlet shop there.
I know some of you are still making chemo caps. If you want to send them to me, I will take them to Steeplechase because they right down the street from my office and I pass them every day on the way home. Or, if you prefer, I encourage you to take them to your local hospital if they treat cancer there. I know a lot of you are making these hats as a way to fight back against cancer. And many of you use the time you make these chemo caps as a way to pray for healing, as I do. Keep up the good work, and don be bashful about contacting the oncology department at the hospital near you to see if they can use your hats.
