Donating Yarn to the Ohio Homeless

Cheryl B, fellow Ohioan donated a box of left over yarn she had in hopes it could be put to good use. I assured it would. You might know Cheryl from Rav as Cheryl1973. Some of above yarn is wool so will be used most likely for those outdoors and mixed with some darker colors. We're happy to have you join us Cheryl, and hope to see you here often. The more, the merrier.

*****Please avoid open and lacy stitches, if you can see your hand through the item, and or poke your finger through...it's too lacy and not warm enough. *****

2011 Donations:

Scarves 407
Hats 903
Mittens 247
Socks 2318
Squares 567
Rain Ponchos 8208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 100
Afghans 44 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

I'm very pleased and excited to see our numbers of donated items continue to grow and hope we see lots more of the same. As the numbers grow, I know we'll be able to help more folks in need. Wouldn't it be wonderful to hit 1,000 this year in hats donated? Or 500 scarves, knowing each item helps some cold man, woman, or child in need.

As a way to remind, and reflect as we approach years end....We help Men living outdoors, truly under bridges. We donate to men luckily enough to get a night here and there in a shelter through Faith Mission. We donate to men trying to keep their families in tact through The Homeless Families Foundation, and we help men living in temporary housing through The YWCA also a family shelter where people are trying hard to get back on their feet.

Tomorrow's post will review the women we aid, please check back.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Give a Square, Thank You Sandie

16 crocheted squares from our very good friend and long time supporter, Sandie in Louisiana. These wonderful purple, lavendar, pink, dusty rose squares will find their way into an afghan for our Project Welcome Home to benefit The Homeless Families Foundation. They may be group with other squares, they may be used on their own....I'm needing to check the stash of squares I have on hand to decide.

This is a perfect December 1st blog post, as it kicks off our month long focus on squares. Squares knitted and or crocheted are joined to make afghans that are donated to The Homeless Families Foundation as house warming gifts when they transition from their temporary shelter housing to more permanent housing. Squares will be collected for the month of December, then put on hold until. I prefer not to collect squares all year long, but I will periodically call for them to be mailed again. So, don't worry if you run into a time crunch during the busy month of December. I like to hold on squares to control how many I have on hand to join.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 407
Hats 903
Mittens 247
Socks 318
Squares 551+16=567
Rain Ponchos 208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 100
Afghans 44 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

Squares should be made of washable yarn, be no smaller then 7 inches or larger then 10 inches. Please avoid using solid white. Do not knot and cut when changing yarn, please leave appropriate tails of several inches when changing yarn and work all ends into your work, except the final tail. Leave a tail of at least 5 inches on the final tail. Any questions, please leave them in the comments and or email me.

*****Please avoid open and lacy stitches when making hats, scarves and slippers. If you can see your hand through the item, and or poke your finger through...it's too lacy and not warm enough. *****




All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Crocheted goodies being donated

Thank you Mary H from Ohio for this thoughtful and abundant donation of crocheted goodies. There are 11 brightly colored scarves, sized nice the kids, a pink shawl that I believe one of the ladies/Mom's at one of the 2 family shelters will enjoy wrapping up in, and a Candy Corn Colored crib sized ghan to brighten and warm one of the young children for our project, "Welcome Home" for The Homeless Families Foundation. Nice work Mary, keep up the good work.



2011 Donations:

Scarves 396+11=407
Hats 903
Mittens 247
Socks 318
Squares 551
Rain Ponchos 208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 100
Afghans 43+1=44 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

This is day 30 in our Jack Otis Memorial Month, tomorrow starts our focus for squares. Please read the details before your knit/crochet/loom and mail. Thank you.

This post is #565...can you believe how fast we zipped by our last mentioned milestone of 400 posts? WOW. Each posts represents the hard and wonderful work you all do, as each post highlights a day of donations from someone...impressive isn't it! Give yourself all a pat on the bag for stellar work.

*****Please avoid open and lacy stitches, if you can see your hand through the item, and or poke your finger through...it's too lacy and not warm enough. *****

Reminder that posting comments helps the blog. How you might ask? Increased comments helps our search engine placement. When we place well in the search engines more folks can find us to help us which in turns means we can help more people. So, please please please. I know many of you visit, and read. Be brave, leave a comment, let us know you were here. Encourage each other and admire each other's work. Be friendly and get to know the other wonderful folks who help. It truly does help the blog which in turns help those we're reaching out too. You do not need to be a blogger to leave comments. Simply type your comment and click the drop down box that says name and url and leave url empty if you don't have a blog. Please use the name and url instead of anonymous. Anonymous doesn't tell us who was here and often ends up in the spam folder which in turn does not help the search engine optimization.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Donation from Canada

Three warm and very soft knitted hats and a pair of knitted mittens from our newest pair of helping hands, Bonnie B (Panther from Rav) from Canada! These hats are nice and stretching and will fit a good range of head sizes. One can leave the brim rolled once as the orange and brown hats are, or double roll it as the darling turquoise print one is. Thank you so much Bonnie for your thoughtful and well made donations, they are greatly appreciated. Hope to see you here on Bridge and Beyond often.

Today and tomorrow left in our month long Jack Otis Memorial Month. Many thanks to all who read the story about Jack, and my other classmate and friend Bill. I'm always interested in learning others personal stories to share with you all. It's important to understand the homelessness does effect people we know. If you have a story you can share, please email at:
sandycrochet@gmail.com.

**Reminders:
Please include a note with your email, on line profile page and or ID's with your donations so I can contact you to let you know your thoughtful donation arrived.
Things to avoid in your knitting and crocheting: white, lacy stitches, and knotting and cutting your yarn.
***Working calendar lists each of the monthly highlighted items for this past year. I will be posting a new one for the upcoming year of 2012, please stay tuned.
****The blog is updated often, so please take time and read guidelines, some items may have changed since you began donating based on the groups we are donating too.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 386
Hats 900+3=903
Mittens 247
Socks 318
Squares 551
Rain Ponchos 208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 100
Afghans 43 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.

December's focus will be squares, please check guidelines before you knit or crochet. Please email me with any questions regarding those guidelines and or times to mail squares.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Help for Ohio's Homeless from New York

Our good friend AnneMarie has done it again with has, slippers, scarves, and mittens. A variety of sizes and a variety of colors. Awesome work AnneMarie.

AND, 31 more packages of ponchos and 6 dozen more pairs of socks! She sent 3 boxes and as I was opening and photographing here and there to catch up from being out of town, I didn't get all her's together. You may have seen the first installment of socks and rain poncho's HERE.

AND 43 packages of hot packs, most good for up to 8 hours according to the packages and some good for up to 18 hours according to the packages. Awesome donation, and really awesome idea. I must look the next time I'm at Sam's and see if I can get something like this in bulk?

Many many thanks AnneMarie for your thoughtful donation, and your continued support for our folks in need here in Ohio. Please keep up the good work.

Day 28th for our Jack Otis Memorial Month. I would still be interested in sharing any stories you all might have regarding homelessness having a face. Please emaill me if you have a story to share.

December's focus will be squares. Please read details regarding size and color in the side bar or across the top of the blog.

**When someone asks you why take time to make something special for someone you don't know, I think the perfect answer is, "Hope is powerful, giving someone a special hand made item made special for them, gives them Hope."

2011 Donations:

Scarves 395+1=396
Hats 888+12=900
Mittens 242+5=247
Socks 258+60=318
Squares 551
Rain Ponchos 146+62=208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 98+2=100
Afghans 43 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.


All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!