Charity Drive Update - Those Darn Happy Hookers!

They're gaining on us!

I checked the totals today and the Happy Hookers from Texas are at 264 points. So we still have a lead on them but we're not in the clear yet.

I'm at the fringe part of the blanket I was making which for some reason is the one part I always slack on. So as a break I started doing squares again. I'm at 5 squares for 40 points. If life doesn't keep getting in the way I'll start working on some more and mail them out after Thanksgiving. Hopefully we can still maintain our lead. :)

Charity Drive Update

They've received all of our squares and posted the totals on the SmoothFox site. Annnnndddd......

October Team with the most points: Three Strands Together - 330 points

We're the top team so far!

I've started work on another blanket and taken a break on doing the squares. I figured I'd start spending a week or two during the beginning of each month doing squares for the charity. Then I'll spend the rest of it working on blankets.

Only two and a half months left for the charity drive, though. So we still need to get cranking on them. :)

Hit The Wall

I think I'm at the point where I need to find a new pattern. Anyone else get that where they've worked on a certain pattern for a while, you start to get a bit bored with it so you're not really that motivated to finish it? I have that so often with my afghans which is why I have a box full of almost finished blankets. :P

I've made about 16 12 x 12 inch squares and one 6 x 6 inch (I ran out of yarn halfway through). I think that's good enough for that pattern. I'm sure they could make two or three blankets out of it. So now I think I need to find another pattern....that goes well with the yarn I still have. :)

Charity Square Drive

I was looking around for a new baby blanket pattern to make for a friend of mine and I found this other blog. It's titled SmoothFox and she has a lot of different types of patterns out there. What I found most interesting is she hosts a competition on her blog for a charity drive. You turn in crocheted or knitted squares to a group called Online Angel's who put the squares together into blankets to give out to needy/sick families.

The interesting part is that it looks as though each square you put in gives you a chance to win a the grand prize of $100.00. You can compete as individuals or as a team. If you win and you happen to be part of a group then SmoothFox will post about your group....or possibly blog or shop. :)

Here's the link. What do you guys think about maybe entering?

Crocheting for Charity

Kelly posted a nice article some time ago on handcrafts for charity - I stumbled across this list so I thought I'd share - http://www.dailycrocheter.com/charity.php

I'm usually the one lagging in this department. Both Donna and Kelly made a nice donation to the Fossil Ridge collection last year. I've actually done a few things for this year's contribution, so mark me ahead of my usual game. There's lots of good ideas and links here - I'm liking the red scarf project in particular, but many to choose from.

Fun Knits for Charity

by Kelly

Last year I was going to contribute to a handmade blanket drive, only to discover that they only accepted donations until September. So I thought I'd post a few charities now, while there is still plenty of time to make and mail projects.

The Big Knit asks that you knit tiny woolly hats, which will be placed on smoothie bottles in UK stores. For each hat knitted, money will be donated to help older people keep warm. Check out ageUK for details. PDF patterns are available on the innocent drinks blog, in the right sidebar.
Donation dates to be announced - in 2010 the deadline was October 29th.

Closer to home, Bernat is joining with Project Linus to provide new, handmade blankets to Canadian and American children who are in need. Check out the BernatCares site here.
 Accepting donations until August 1st, or send your project directly to Project LInus.

 

 

The Red Scarf Project provides encouragement to orphans who have aged out of the foster care system. On Valentine's Day the charity sends handmade red scarves to FCS students who are attending college or trade schools. Find patterns and the mailing address here
Accepting donations September 1st through December 15th



And finally, here's something that can be done year round - Chemo caps. When my mom lost her hair to radiation and chemo, she tried scarves, scarves with hats, and hats of all varieties, but she just wasn't happy with any of them. Mostly, she said that everything was just too hot.

At the time, I couldn't knit or crochet, and now, thankfully, she has recovered and no longer needs one. But there are lots of charities who are distributing chemo caps, so I thing I'm going to try my hand at this one. Something in a nice cool DK cotton, I think. There are lots of patterns here and a link to the main site (called HeadHuggers) here. They have branches in many states and countries. The Chicago branch is called Windy City HeadHuggers.

I'm especially fond of this pattern, for some reason - it looks like something out of the 1920's

I don't know if I would have made this for my mom, though - she always kind of laughed at my taste in hats.