Hats and Scarves Warm Homeless in Need

Thank you Karen S for this donation of warm loomed hats and two tone crocheted scarves.  Added thanks Karen for your cute size tags on the hats.  Putting the size on hats, mittens and or slippers really helps the volunteers at the shelter.

Notice the light and dark tones of the scarves, the two tones?  This method of crocheting gives that affect of light and dark sides.  This method is known by several names: Cro-hooking, Crochetnit, Double Ended Crochet and Reversible Tunisian Crochet.  If you're new to this blog, you might not have seen this before so I'll post a link here with a video of how to do this stitch.  

CLICK HERE

Many thanks Karen for your thoughtful donation and on going support of Bridge and Beyond.  Please know your donations have warmed many in need.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Knitting, Crocheting, and Looming Help Homeless

Thank you Karen S for this thoughtful donation.  Karen has been busy looming hats, and crocheting scarves.  As always, kudos for taking time to make your cute size tags for your hats.  Please click to enlarge picture folks so you can see what I mean.  She's used a nice variety of colors and sizes, something for everyone.  

While it is Spring, and weather is getting better around the country, I want to let you all know; we're still having nights below freezing.  In fact 2 of the last 3 nights have gotten down into the 20's here.  Yesterday morning it was only 24 at 8:30 am, so the need is most definitely still there for warm items for our homeless friends.

It's been awhile since I've shared the video on how to make these two colored scarves.  If you've not seen it, wanted to give you the chance to watch.  This stitch has many names, two sided crochet is just one.  Click HERE for the video. 

Many thanks Karen for you continued support of Bridge and Beyond.

Hope you all are watching our numbers climb in our goal graphs, it's exciting to me each time I add more and figure our percentage.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Crocheted Hats and Scarves Help the Homeless

Thank you Karen S for this awesome donation of crocheted hats and scarves.  

Karen often uses this different style of crocheting with her scarves that gives you a light and dark side of a scarf.  It's been awhile since I've talked about this method, but thought I would again; for those who may be here to Bridge and Beyond for the first time, or simply not seen it before.

It has many names, and here's the video showing you how to do.  If you try it, let us know.


Karen always adds cute little size tags to her hats.  These hats are knitted on a loom.  This style hat is made with double yarn making it especially warm.  And while many of us around the country are nice and warm now that it's summer, we will be in need of warm hats and scarves before you know it.

Many thanks Karen for your thoughtful donation, please know what an important difference you make.  AND please keep up the good work.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Brickyard Afghan is Completed, Being Blocked.

Here's Brickyard fresh out of the wash machine after being laundered.  As you can see the squares/rectangles really vary in size; but it did come together.  It's here now being blocked, drying and then will be ready to donate to Homeless Families Project.  (scroll back to see it's before look), or click HERE

Haven't selected the next project yet.  Need to look at all my project bags and see what calls out to me.

Hope you're all stay healthy and continuing to stay at home.  I hope with this weekend being Easter, families didn't elect to gather together.  I fear if they do, we'll have a resurgence of more cases in the next 5-14 days.

I just watched 2 video's this am, looking for new possible patterns.  One was knitted and one crocheted.....don't know if I'll do something with that, or nab an already designed project bag.  Very in-divisive  at the moment.

What are you all working on?  Do you find you're doing more knitting and or crocheting during our Covid Period?  Are you knitting or crocheting for Bridge and Beyond, or another worthy charity?  

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Fellow Ohioan Helps Warm Homeless

Thank you Tara B for your thoughtful donation of crocheted scarves to help Ohio's Homeless.  Tara is our newest pair of helping hands.  Welcome Tara, we're thrilled to have you join us here on Bridge and Beyond.  Tara is also a fellow Buckeye!

These scarves are nice and warm.  The gray scarf is well suited for a man and the blue and orange for a lady.  

As a fellow Buckeye, Tara knows how cold and damp our weather is......and how many days we go without seeing sunshine.  Thank you Tara for using your skills to help those less fortunate.

Hope to see you here often on Bridge and Beyond.  Please keep up the good work.

**Edited to add the stitch used is a Feather Stitch, thank you Cynthia Biggs for finding the name and video of how to do it."  And to Sandie P for finding the code to add the video here for you.  It's an interesting stitch and since several ask me about it, thought I'd share what it is and how to do it...in case you're interested.



 **The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Loomed Hats Warm Homeless

Thank you Karen S for this awesome donation of knitted hats and scarf.  Karen has loomed the hats which are always great.  The method of knitting hats with a loom provides a double thickness for the brim area (which covers the ears), and is always nice.  She's added cute size tags.  Please click to see the details of tags which are heart shaped and say handmade specially for you.  They include the size and are tied onto the hats.  Perfect!

She's always included one of her signature scarves made with the cro-knit method.  I've posted the video on how to do this interesting stitch several times here on Bridge and Beyond.  If you're interested, use the search box in the right hand sidebar and it will come up for you.  You get a two tone effect, lots of texture and added warm, as this stitch is a bit thicker by nature.

Many thanks Karen for your on going support of Bridge and Beyond and Ohio's Homeless.  Please keep up the good work.  You do make a difference.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Thank you Karen S, Crocheted Scarves Help the Homeless

Thank you Karen S!  I bet by now most of you who frequent my blog, Bridge and Beyond are able to recognize Karen's donations before I give her name!  Her signature stitch, is very recognizable.  I've posted video's a few times of how to do this stitch of many names.

Seriously this stitch is known by lots of different names:
Cro-hooking
Crochenit
Reversable Tunisian Crochet
Double Ended Crochet.........are just some of them.  Click here for the video if  you've not watched before or want to see how it's done.

Karen has also included a toothbrush and paste.  Which brings me to something about personal care items I thought I would pass along to you all.  I've often mentioned collecting those little samples as you travel for leisure or business.......I've done it myself often when traveling; but........apparently some hotel chains are starting to do away with that for environmental reasons.  In an effort to reduce the plastic, they are going for larger, refillable containers with soap, shampoo and conditioner.  I know Marriott has announced that it's phasing it in and I've seen in thus far in a few hotels in my travels.  I'm not familiar with others; but thought I would mention it here, so you can at least be aware.  Due to being members, we always stay at Marriott's.  I would imagine other chains are doing the same thing?

Many thanks Karen for your donation, and your on going support of Bridge and Beyond and Ohio's homeless.  Please know we truly appreciate you, and your skillful hands.  Please keep as the good work and know you do make a difference in the lives of many.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Mittens, Hats Scarves and Sets, Oh My!

 Thank you Sandra R from sunny Florida.  Look at this wonderful donation.  She truly amazes me with the quantity of work she does.  I've said it before, I swear she knits without stopping to eat or sleep.  She's been busy knitting hats, scarves, cotton dishcloths, and MITTENS!

You all know how excited I get when we get mittens.  She always takes time to tag her mittens and hats with size......thank you very much.  AND she's taken things a step farther.  Check the top picture.  She's attached sets.  In some cases the sets are fingerless mitts, and in other cases full mittens.  She watched the video I posted HERE, about how to loom knit fingerless mitts.  I did this 
after we received some made by Anna W that were particularly nice and very warm as they extend up the arm a good deal.  Sandra said in her note to me, she thought it was fun to try something else, so she purchased a loom and went at it.  

As always, many thanks for your generous donations and your long time support of Ohio's Homeless through Bridge and Beyond.  You truly make a difference.  Please, please keep up the good work.

***Look how are goals are coming along, it's fun to watch those graphs and numbers grow.



**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Scarves Essential in Keeping Homeless Warm

Thank you Karen S for this wonderful donation of two sided scarves.  Love the texture and the contrast between the two sides of the scarves.  If you've been to this blog before you probably recognize this technique, as one I call Karen's signature stitch.  If you're new though to this sight, or just haven't seen this before, please check out the video I've posted a few times demonstrating how to perform this technique.



Karen has been a very generous and long time supporter here on Bridge and Beyond who does beautiful work.  Many many thanks Karen, we truly appreciate you and your skills.

Please keep up the good work and know you make a difference!
**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Knitted Loomed Hats and Cotton Cloths Aid the Homeless

 Thank you Karen S for this thoughtful donation of crocheted and knitted goodies.  Please remember folks you can always click on pictures to make them larger and see details here on Bridge and Beyond.  Karen has been busy crocheting cotton washcloths.  What fun variegated mixes she used.  I've seen the brownish one before, but don't think I've seen the green-yellow-reddish one before.  Very nice!

She's also been busy with her knitting looms!  Check out the hats.  While I know it's August, often referred to as the Dog Days of Summer, it's been cool here the last couple of nights.  When I got up this am...it wasn't even 60.  So, it's really cooling down a bit early.  I hope that doesn't mean Fall is going to be colder and sooner than normal.  People will be needing warm hats before we know it.  Unfortunately!

For all you folks who have looms at home, please scroll back to the previous post.  I posted a link with written directions and a how to video for using those looms to knit really nice writs warmers/fingerless mitts.  PLEASE check it out.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Looming Fingerless Mitts

The above video shows you how to make the awesome fingerless mitts Anna W made (please scroll back to the previous post.  This video is a bit long, but it's pretty easy to skip to the point you need to see for the next step in the pattern.  You have to over look her bird must be tweeting as she's talking and some of the time it's hard to see, as the camera work isn't the best; but.......with that said it's helpful and I think you can still follow it.

The link to her written pattern is HERE

These are especially nice, as they really extend up the arm and would be warmer than short ones.  I asked Anna for the pattern she used, plus.......I know many folks use those looms, so wanted to share this.

Sorry folks for the gap here on the blog with posts.  I was out of town unable to post for longer than expected.  Then once back, had too much catch up to do.  AND sadly there were some spamy comments to deal with.  Thank you Sandie P for letting me know.  I was able to get them deleted.......so we can now get back to business here on Bridge and Beyond.

Thank you all for patience.  It's hard to believe kids are back in school.  Where did summer go?  It seems with each passing year, it goes faster...the sad part of that.....to my way of thinking, we know bad weather isn't probably too far off.  AND I like summer, am not a fan of cold, winter or the white stuff.  Pretty sure our Homeless Friends aren't fans of it either.  

So if you're one who likes to take summers off with your knitting and crocheting...I fear it's time to gear up again folks.

Again Thank you Anna for sharing the pattern you used as well as the video.  Much appreciated.  And thank you Sandie for alerting me about the spamy comments.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Matching Hat and Scarf Sets for Ohio Homeless

Thank you Karen S for this thoughtful donation of hats and scarf sets.  If you've been to this blog before, chances are, you've seen Karen's signature style.  The scarves are made using the method called Cro-Hooking, Crochenit, Reversible Tunisian, Reflective Reversible, and Double Ended Crochet.  Apparently there are a raft of names for this method.  The scarves are crocheted, but with a crochet hook at each end of the needle.  I can see why it's called Reflective Reversible...look at the light and dark sides of the scarf.  The feel of scarf is added warmth, it's a bit thicker then crocheting would be, from my touch.

In this post, I have a u-tube video showing you how to perform this technique if you'd like to give it a try.  Until Karen started donating hat and scarves sets to Bridge and Beyond, it was not a technique I had seen or heard of.  Let us know if you give it a try.  I must admit, I still haven't, though it's on my list of things to try.  I really like the look.

Click Here for my post with the video

Please keep up the good work Karen and know you are so very much appreciated.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Loomed Wrist Warmers Help Ohio's Homeless

Wanted to do a follow up on a previous post, regarding loomed wrist warmers.  Please click the above link to take you to that post where you can see the wrist warmers I'm talking about.  What's particularly nice about them is the length.  They go well up the arm, therefore providing extra warms.  Likewise they cover a larger portion of the hand than some wrist warmers do.  Both of these are real pluses.  I asked Anna W to share the pattern she used to make her wonderful loomed knitted writs warmers.  She provided the link for this awesome how to u-tube video and here's the link to the pattern on a blog.

Click here

So many of you use those looms to make hats, and scarves, I wanted to share this with you.  Hope it's of help.

 


**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Blogging in Alphabetical Order, U= USA Today, Hope and Soap, and Janson Winter

Blogging in Alphabetical order today brings us to the letter U.  There'a USA Today article and video, some of which I saw on Facebook.  There's also a CNN story, a separate Facebook Page with information about a man named Jason Winter, a trailer, homeless being able to take a shower.

Jason started out small with a friends collecting clothes, warm items as it was winter at the time.  As time passed and the weather changed he asked some of the homeless folks what they really needed or wanted if they pick.  They said showers.  He's out fitted a portable shower he can haul around that holds 125 gallons of water, generally enough for 27 showers.  

Jason started a company called Hope and Soap.  Every Sat morning he and friends and volunteers have block parties.  He cooks up hotdogs, puts on music and people line up to get a shower and while waiting can select from donated clean cloths to put on once they've showered.  The USA today article I read was written by Daniella Barker.

Take a look at the video, associated with Daniella's article(link above), or look it up on Facebook, google for the CNN article.  It's a wonderful story of human kindness.  With all the negative we see and hear daily, it's nice to read some positive stories about the good that people do.

Jason has his block parties in Atlanta.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Blogging Alphabetically, T=Tiny Houses

We've all seen ads on TV about tiny houses, people living simply, choosing that in order to travel...but, I'm talking about a different type of tiny houses.  Several articles have indicted perhaps the first village for tiny houses to house the homeless was in Oregon, a place called Dignity Village.  Portland City fathers were continually raiding, moving and breaking up various tent cities in the the downtown area; but in a matter of days a new tent city would take it place.  Homelessness was on the rise and shelters simply couldn't keep up.

A solution came about when city fathers and homeless people started working together (2001).  Private donations,and volunteers without government financing built a village of tiny houses to house 65 residence on donated land.  Mark Lakeman was the Architect.

The theory was multi-layered.  House the homeless, lessen environmental strains on the community. Statistics indicated that houses were becoming larger and larger, and people were spread farther apart; therefore not knowing or caring about neighbors.  From 1950--2012 the average square footage of a family rose from from 983 to 2500.

This village has been successfully run by self government of the residence who live there without oversite.  There are other similar communities around the country, some modeled after this village...some with local backing and or some governmental funds. 

I'm not aware of any such villages in my area.  In my google research for this post, it seems many of these little villages of tiny homes dot the map in Oregon, Washington, California, and Colorado.  I plan to do some follow up about the possibility of one in Akron, Ohio; so stayed tuned.

**A good deal of the info above was gleaned from an article titled, "Solution to Homelessness" by Georgia Perry.  Credit for the above picture goes to her as well.

Please turn on your sound and watch this video for additional information about tiny houses.



**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

The Lost Scarf Picture is Found

YIPPEE!!  Two posts ago I mentioned that the picture showing Sandra R's scarves had been lost.  It's since been found.  Somehow when transferring from phone to computer this picture ended up in the wrong file folder.  How two pictures taken the same day and transferred the same day, at the same time could end up in two different folders......I am clueless.  I have always transferred to my Yarn/Bridge folder and somehow this ended up in a totally unrelated folder.

The Good is now you all get to see what I saw, how nice Sandra's scarves all.  Nice, thick, warm and colorful.  AND...did you notice the two tone brown scarf?  She's again used that method first introduced to us by Karen S. Doubled Ended Crochet.  Click for the post with u-tube video describing this method of crocheting known by so many names. You might have heard of Cro-hooking, Crochenit...or Reversible Tunisian. 

So am thrilled the picture's been found and I can share the picture with you.  Sandra's has been a long time, generous supporter here on Bridge and Beyond.  Thank you Sandra and please keep up the good work.  You make a difference.


**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Homeless Man's Belongings and Pollution, Blogging in Alphabetical Order

Today's letter in our blogging in alphabetical order is P.  I focused on Pollution.  When I viewed this video, that's what first came to mind.  This jogger, initially named #Jogger Joe and later identified as Henry William Sintay is polluting.  Does he actually think he's helping clean up trash...or what he thinks is trash by throwing it in Lake Merritt in Oakland California?

• Yes, some of the stuff, the personal belongings of a homeless man may appear to be trash to walkers, runners etc that frequent the area; but how does breaking the bottles and spreading them about help?
• How does stealing personal belongings that aren't yours help?
• How does polluting The Lake seem like a good idea?
• How can things like this be fixed?   Are there not enough trash cans around for the homeless man to put his actual trash in?
• What a cruel and thoughtless thing for this #joggerJoe, #HenryWilliamSintay to do.  I'm glad he was arrested and put in jail and fined.
• Doing a google search produces several articles and other video's.  Apparently This Henry William Sintay arrest is for first degree robbery, he's also assaulted someone, tried to steal a cell phone.  Thus the large bail at $100,000.00.
• In one clip he says he's cleaning up trash and pretends not to know it's a homeless person's belongings........in another clip he says the man has taken up permanent residence in this area.  So clearly he knew it was just "trash".
• Homeless person is Greg Markson known to people in the area as a peaceful homeless man who goes by the name of Drew (which I saw spelled a few different ways in my google search of articles).
• JJ Harris is the person who did the filming.
• When Greg Markson returned to what had been his tidy camp (according to those who interacted with him on a regular basis), he stuff had been destroyed.  Locals brought him fresh blankets to help him through the weekend.

**This is the same park where a White Woman recently called the police on Black picnickers who were grilling out.  You might remember his video went viral.  Speculation is, this White JoggerJoe, Henry William Sintay is yet another racist incident, as the homeless man who's camp was destroyed is a Black Man.

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Ends, Blogging Alphabetically

How do you weave in, tuck in your ends when you're crocheting?  This is a concern when changing color, when you come to the end of a skein of yarn, and especially when your crocheted item is complete.  Sadly, it's not uncommon for me to receive donations sometimes where this hasn't been done.  I use all 3 of these methods.......but most often I use the first one listed when finishing an item.  

1. Weave through the stitches. Run that needle through a couple stitches, change directions and run it vertically, then weave it in the opposite direction. ...
2. Whipstitch the stitches. ...
3. Weave as you crochet

When I receive items that have ends sticking out, tails at the end of the finished item; they do not get donated as quickly.  They are laid aside until I can take the time to finish the item by working in the ends.  Sometimes, an item that wasn't quite finished with a tail hanging has started to unravel and needs to be fixed.  Thankfully, not often.

When knitting, I do pretty the same thing......but, if you have a stretchy piece here's a u-tube video that shows a method I also use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-p4qsiyuI8

The important thing is, to NOT tie a knot and cut...and to not leave tails dangling so your item looks unfinished and or unravels.

The other important thing to note in the 3 methods listed above...the lack of tying a knot and cutting the yarn very close to the knot.  When I receive items that this method was used, they require more work on my part before they can be donated.  In a few cases, I've unraveled and added some of my yarn in order to make a good finish that will not unravel with heavy use.



**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Wanda Witter Wins FINALLY Against the Government

Wanda Witter lives homeless for 16 LONG years in DC while trying to get the money owed her from Social Security.  No one listens, they think she's crazy.  Finally 16 long years later, her case has been proven and she has a home, and all the money owed her, $100,000.00.

Please watch Lester Holt talk about this in the video.
W= Winning, Wanda Witter as I blog in alphabetical order .



**The counts on our progress bars are current. Percentages are current, as of Feb 15th. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Ebony Arrested, Car Impounded, Jeff Glazer APD and CNN's Victor Blackwell

This story tells about a mother, Ebony and her 4 children being homeless, living out of their 20 year old car, a Buick.  How she was arrested, the car impounded by The Atlanta Police Department.  But, there's more as reported by CNN's Victor Blackwell.  This is a post for the letter V....a bit of stretch perhaps using the reporters first name to fulfill the alphabetical challenge of the needed post.

VIDEO

A Go Fund Me Page

**The counts on our progress bars are current. Percentages are current, as of Feb 15th. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.