Blogger Day of Silence

Join in a sort of "day of rest" from blogging tomorrow. Rather than post on your blog or read the blogs of others, take time to do something for the people of Japan. We suggest donating to Shelter Box USA.

Japan

On Thursday night the NET team came in. They all had dinner with me & then the girls spent the night while the guys went around the corner to stay at the home of one of my church friends. The guys came back for breakfast in the morning.

I was in a daze Friday because I literally stayed up the entire night watching the tsunami coverage on my laptop. I'm horrified at the loss of life and the incredible damage to that beautiful country.

It seems crafting- particularly crocheting & knitting- is joined tightly at the hip with charity. I don't know any crochet/knitters who haven't lifted a hook or needles to make a premie hat or afghan square or scarf for the homeless at some point. So it's no surprise that there have been tons of posts on Ravelry lately asking how we can help & where to send blankets/sweaters/hats...

The truth is, I don't know that any of that is going to help at the moment. In fact, while I've earmarked money for donation, I haven't actually donated yet because so few aid organizations are actually able to get into Japan at the moment. This article explains some of the reasons to wait a little while.

There are some ways to donate that are immediately helpful. The Huffington Post lists a bunch of organizations taking action and in need of our support.

But for those of you itching to stitch up something special right away for Japan, I've found one way to do it so far. If you knit socks, this guy is accepting sock donations. I'm sure he intends for people to buy socks and mail them, but who wouldn't love a pair of handknit socks at a time like this? Wool would be great because it stays warm when wet, too.

If, like me, you can't knit socks, I'd suggest making something for auction/raffle and donating the money.

Have you found any other creative ways to help Japan? Please share!

Lent

Sometime just before Advent last year I came across this great project on Ravelry. This lovely lady made a premie hat every day of Lent & donated them to a local hospital.

I've thought about it often since and was very happy to start up on Ash Wednesday! I'm a fast crocheter, though, so I've modified it a little.

I'm still making a hat a day, but some are premie hats (going to the NICU at my friend's hospital) and some are full term which I'm contributing to Bundles of Joy on Rav. They make all kinds of knitwear for the OB Ward at the Pine Ridge Hospital. There's a lot of poverty on the reservation and most people don't have anything to take their newborns home in, so I'm excited to be making full-term baby hats for them as well.

Even the full term hats only take about 15 minutes so when I feel like crocheting more I'm also making some little jackets, mittens and maybe booties. All of those will probably go to Bundle of Joy.

In the next few weeks I'll be sharing some other charitable knit/crochet projects I'm planning to work with! If you know of any worthy causes, let me know! I think I'd like to continue a commitment to charitable crochet/knitting throughout the year.

Soldier Squares

I was invited to join a group on Ravelry called the We Care Stitchers. Kae, the moderator, is collecting knit and crochet squares to make into afghans for soldiers recovering at Fort Carson. Carson just happens to me MY soldier's base, so of course I agreed to help out.

My soldier deployed a couple weeks ago and I spent the day making one dozen 5 by 5 inch squares using some of my HUGE stash of Vanna's Choice. I did a simple double crochet all the way through.. but stitched them in the back loop only, so that created a little bit of a ribbing effect.



I was able to bang them out in about 20 minutes each, so I'm sure I'll be making more soon. Just need to finish up some of those WIPs over there. :)