Category Archives: giving

December 3, 2008 · 4:08 pm

Gifts

The gifts are flying off the needles right now. Most I can’t post about quite yet, but these two are gifts that were already given away the other week. I made both our midwives as a thank you for all they did in helping our family to have the homebirth of our dreams.

The first is the morning sun scarf from Spin Off Summer 2008:

MAJOR scare before I gave this to her. Both our midwives were here for our final follow-up appointment. Midwife #1 was admiring Spinner’s longies, when Midwife #2 said she wished should could knit them, but she had developed a wool allergy and couldn’t wear or knit with it anymore!! Immediately I thought of her scarf sitting on the table in a gift bag….what do I do??? Yikes!! Then I remembered it was knit with Atacama Araucania… alpaca!!! I chanced it, gave it to her, and she loved it. She reported back later that she wore it all day and not and itch!

This was a quick knit. There is a similar free pattern on Ravelry if you’re interested.

Next up, for my other midwife, is the Crown Mountain superwash merino I had shown you on the wheel a few weeks ago. I plied it up and it ended up being somewhere between a worsted and bulky weight; maybe a size 9 needle? It turned out lovely and pretty even. A few thick or thin sports here or there but mostly the same thickness. And the color was so nice. I wish it had been sunnier when I photographed it.

Both of these women are such generous, amazing people. I couldn’t imagine going through another pregnancy and birth without them!

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Filed under finished objects, giving, scarf, spinning, Uncategorized

Tagged as Auracania, crown mountain, scarf, spinning

November 10, 2008 · 9:18 pm

A gift

I can’t wait to finish this up and give it to a very special recipient:

Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino, “Crocodile Walk.”

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Filed under giving, handspun, spinning, Uncategorized

Tagged as crocodile walk, crown mountain

April 26, 2007 · 4:01 am

Cover your eyes…

…if you are easily made jealous. Insane amount of stash enhancement ahead.

But first, thanks for all the love on the sweater set. I’m still trying to respond to all the comments, but I’m so behind from the Coffee Swap madness (madness in a good way, that is:-) These knitters love their coffee! I actually managed to match up 114 people and and send out their partners in two days. Yes, I know I totally rock. Or I’m just a little too crazy. Not sure which one yet.

Before I get to the pictures, are you ready for my major excitement? I’m off to Toronto in two days for an educators’ conference. Three nights, four days all by myself in a knitting mecca of a city. I’m excited but also upset about leaving my boys. I know they’ll be fine with the Skeptic, he has a very tight bond with both boys, but I’m really having a hard time with the idea of leaving them. How I can be so excited to go yet so not want to go at the same time is beyond me, although I’m sure all you moms understand.

So then, who’s got great suggeestions for places I should hit while I’m there, so I can keep busy and have some fun. Yarn shops? Fabirc shops? Good food? Anything else not to miss? I’m staying right downtown. I don’t have tons of free time but I do have a decent size chunk of it.

On to the pictures:

Yarnover haul (small, ’cause I’m going to Toronto!!!:-)

Shepherd’s Choice sock yarn:

Peace Fleece, meant for swatching for a possible sweater for the Skeptic

Spunky Eclectic sock of the month club:

Now, really cover your eyes if you need to. Remember the contest I won? The sock yarn for FIFTEEN PAIRS of socks? Here is it:

And more:

You can get the whole link-o-rama for the yarns at April’s blog, as well as her motive for such an incredible contest. I am so totally floored at her generosity and thankful for such a beautiful prize! Thanks, April:-) I’m not even sure what to start with!

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Filed under contests, giving, stash

February 20, 2007 · 1:35 am

A rant of sorts

So we were watching Motherland Afghanistan last night, a documentary in which an Agfhani doctor returned to Afghanistan to train doctors in a womans’ hospital in Kabul (named the Laura Bush Maternity Ward). Nearly one in seven Afghani women die in childbirth. That fact alone blew my mind, but this next part was what really made my head spin.

Knittybaby was under the weather, and I had left to help the poor guy get back to sleep for the 80th time that night. When I returned, the doctor was working in a new part of Afghanistan. The Skeptic brought me up to date:

“So he left the hospital. You know the $300,000 in supplies and equipment he was promised by U.S. Health and Human Services? Then never sent it. Nothing. Then, they go and cancel the program for “not meeting goals.” Then they decided to not call it the Laura Bush Maternity Ward anymore. (Gee, wonder why?) Now the doctor’s at another clinic with some independant group.”

WTF????

So I had to make sure I had it straight. Despite a paper signed by Tommy Thompson himself promising supplies, they got nothing, then were canceled because they couldn’t do anything since they had no supplies???!!!!

This is the stuff that just makes me want to repeatedly bang my head against a brick wall. The stuff that makes me feel so incredibly frustrated and absolutely hopeless. The stuff that makes me crazy because doing things like saving women and babies from death during childbirth shouldn’t be that hard. I went to bed very angry.

But this morning Knittybaby was still feeling under the weather, and decided a nap on my lap was the only way to go, which gave me time to catch up on Bloglines. And I came across this lovely contest, which reminded me to not focus on being angry and remember what I can do, which is support the people who can help these women and women all over the world like them. You can’t beat that.

Okay, maybe there’s one other thing that can beat that. How about over 260,000 knitted and crochet caps delivered to our countries leaders, then on to babies to help lower infant mortality rates worldwide. 260,000, people! They were hoping for 50,000. You can always count on knitters to help.

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Filed under giving