Drum Roll Please!

The other day I received an email that got me pretty excited. Having just returned to town from vacation, I was in the process of trying to catch up with email, with blogging, with laundry. In catch up mode, I hadn't had the time to respond to the email from Bendy Carter of "Crochet Magazine". The very next day I received a nice phone call from her. Bendy writes a column for the magazine titled, "Caring and Sharing". Each month she writes about a different charity and asked if she could highlight Bridge and Beyond! Naturally I am thrilled and hope you all who've been busy knitting, crocheting, and looming are as well.

The process has several components. Firstly, she creates a design that matches the said charity. She's thinking hat and scarf for Bridge and Beyond. Once she makes the design, she then crochets the piece/pieces. The photo and the pattern along with information about the charity, link to the webpage, and mailing address for items to be donated will then appear in the magazine. Bridge and Beyond is currently slated for September of 2011. It's my understanding it's common place for magazine's to work that far ahead.

Do you all buy Crochet Magazine? Do you have subscription, or do you buy them on line? I am curious to know. Hoping to swing by my local book store on the way to work and pick up a copy so I can be better acquainted with it. Have you read any of her books? Used any of her patterns? Do Tell!

**Edited Dec 4, 2011 to note that the highlighted article appeared in the December issue, not the Sept issue. You can still get a copy. There are lots of wonderful patterns**
2010
Scarves 275
Hats 491
Mittens 64
Socks 79
Slippers 12
Ghans 3
Squares 130 (since Give a Square)

Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Special thanks going all the way to France, for helping our Homeless

Donations from across the sea! Look at these wonderful knitted items being donated by Sacha all the way from France! 4 hats, and 3 pair of mittens, and a pair of fingerless gloves. Sorry the sun got in the corner of the picture there on the 2nd red hat. Please click to enlarge picture so you can see her pretty detail work with the Intarsia Knitting. Also wanted to try and describe her fingerless gloves (top right corner). They're a bit different than ones I've seen in the past. The little finger and the ring finger are together covered like they would be in a mitten, and therefore the fingers you do more with are the ones out. There might be a word for that type of fingerless mitten; but I'm not familiar with it.

Sacha and I became acquainted over on The Hive and have enjoyed getting to know one another sharing our love of craft; as so many there do. Thank you Sacha for your thoughtful and beautiful donation, it is so very much appreciated.

Have you read about our latest program, Give a Square? If not please do by click on the words Give a Square.

2010
Scarves 275
Hats 487+4=491
Mittens 60+4=64
Socks 79
Slippers 12
Ghans 3
Squares 130 (since Give a Square)


Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Mittens and Slippers for the Homeless, AWESOME

Three cheers for Nelda our newest pair of helping hands. Nelda's slippers and mittens are wonderful. Please click on the picture to see the detail in her mittens (particularly the cute children's mittens). Slippers and mittens are all knitted. She sent a variety of sizes which is always helpful. The 2 larger pair of slippers might be double strand? They're so nice and thick and feel so warm. Warm feet and hands are happy feet and hands. Thank you Nelda.

**Give a Square**



2010
Scarves 275
Hats 487
Mittens 57+3=60
Socks 79
Slippers 9+3=12
Ghans 3
Squares 130 (since Give a Square)


Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

And the winner is!

We never seem to get enough mittens, so I thought we'd make this past month, October Mitten Month. Then our friend CrochetPrincess (Beth) suggested we have a mitten challenge, and Mitten Throw Down and so we did. She graciously wrote up a 2nd mitten pattern which you can find in the tabs across the top of the blog to kick us off. I told her I would supply the yarn, FREE YARN to the winner of the contest. The winner of the contest would be the person would knitted and or crocheted the largest number of mittens. Since I was going to be out of town we extended the deadline beyond the end of the month to November 8th, this past Monday. I thought perhaps people were madly still knitting and crocheting though that date and needed a couple of days to mail mittens and so declared though the deadline was Monday and the 8th....today would be the day the announcement was made.

I'm pleased to say we had 11 people participate by sending in mittens. Some you've seen here, some are still in que (generally a new post each and everyday highlighting, counting and documenting someone's pretty heartfelt work). So, you still have some to see...keep checking.

Thanks to all who participated: Sarah S and Sacha from The Hive, James from RAV, and blog friends--Linda, Bunny, Sandie and some new found helping hands who found us from searching on the net even though they don't have blogs Jean, Ruth, and Nelda, and Dorothy from Bev's Charity Challenge. I managed to get a pair in (had hoped for more, but have been madly working on ghans). To date we've collected 96 pairs of mittens, some knitted, some crocheted, some sized for men, some for women, and some for children! 66 pairs of mittens to warm 96 pairs of hands. WONDERFUL! Thank you Thank You.

The winner with 35 pairs of mittens is Jean. Jean you've not yet met, a new pair of helping hands for us. Welcome to the group Jean, Thank you for your lovely mittens. We're thrilled to have you in our ranks. Please email me your snail ady so I can put your yarn...your winnings in the mail to you.

I wrote this blog post early this am before work, and as I returned home this evening had another box of 30 mittens from Dorothy. So, have amended the numbers above. I am thrilled with how many mittens were donated. AND am going to declare 2 winners, a first and 2nd place. I'll be sending out yarn to both Jean and Dorothy.

Our current focus is Give a Square, though we continue to need and accept hats, scarves, mittens all year long.

Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Progress on Afghan in the works

You might have seen this ghan in it's design form stage 1 HERE, but wanted to share the progress to date with you using Rose Marie's wonderful knitted squares. One row of squares has been stitched together, and the wide border of navy--the crocheted section is complete. The original thought was to use the navy and crocheted around with a border in addition to the navy between the rows of joined squares/rectangles. However, I believe I'll use burgundy after the squares are joined with the navy sections due to the amount of navy I have on hand. A work in progress, one of 3 ghans I'm currently working on for our folks at the Mission.

Working on a knitted corner to corner which you can see here in the green phase.

And have an Autumn Ghan planned with some odds and end here, though edging has not yet started. After staring at this one awhile I believe I will change my joining color, thinking maybe green. Might have to switch out the two squares that have black in them? Thinking still on this one, thus haven't begun the edging.

**Winner of the mitten challenge, the mitten throw down announced tomorrow.
***Give a Square, or more. Have you read up yet on the November and December special? If not, please do in the sidebar.
*****Stay tuned for a very special, and very exciting announcement about Bridge and Beyond and a certain Magazine!

2010
Scarves 275
Hats 487
Mittens 57
Socks 79
Slippers 9
Ghans 3
Squares 130 (since Give a Square)


Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!

Knitted Mittens for the Homeless

More mittens for me to dance about. Fabulous, wonderful, warm, soft mittens! These cute creations come to us from the knitting needles of Bunny (Lynda). Look how darling there are. Bunny's work is always awesome. Bunny has been a long time supporter of the cause, she knits, she crochets; she's awesome!

I thought you might like to know how Bunny and I met. We met after Katrina when we were both working on ghans for the survivors in a group our friend Sandie (ie) organized for that cause. So, it's been lots of years that yarn has tied us together.

Many thanks Bunny for your thoughtful donation, as always it's so very much appreciated.

2010
Scarves 275
Hats 487
Mittens 54+3=57
Socks 79
Slippers 9
Ghans 3
Squares 130 (since Give a Square)

**Remember to check back on Friday for the announcement about the winner of the challenge
AND don't forget to check out Give a Square, it's time to make some squares. See sidebar for details.


Please remember 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. It truly DOES make a difference. THANK YOU!