Hats are so important in warming the Homeless

Fabulously soft and warm knitted hats from our friend Louise. Thank you Louise for your thoughtful and on going support. These 4 knitted hats are perfect in every-way. They are warm, they are soft, they are beautifully made. Four people will now be warmer. It really doesn't get any better than this. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't marvel at and discuss how wonderful all you knitters and crocheters are. It fills me with a sense of pride to know so many gifted big hearted sharing people.

Please keep up the go work, you are ALL MARVELOUS!!
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!

2011
Scarves 15
Hats 16+4=20
Mittens 0
Socks 0
Slippers 3
Ghans 0
Squares 39

Please remember January is Rainbow Month, and Give a Square continues until the end of January.

We've reached another milestone folks, this is our 300th blog post! Woot Woot

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!

This is our 300th blog post!

Every color of the Rainbow to warm and cheer those in need

Rose Marie has done it again! Many many thanks Rose Marie for your bright and cheery and very colorful donation. Rose Marie crocheted 4 hat and scarf sets, 20 crocheted squares, and 3 knitted squares. I'll add the squares and rectangles to the collection I have and soon will be designing another afghan for those folks at Faith Mission.

Don't you love the pretty yellow, bright turquoise, orange and green? Believe the girls will really enjoy these. Without knowing it, you chosen colors that really make a person think of Rainbows. How cool is that.

Please keep those hooks and needles busy, the need is great. Thank You all.

2011
Scarves 11+4=15
Hats 12+4=16
Mittens 0
Socks 0
Slippers 3
Ghans 0
Squares 16+23=39

**Give a Square runs til the end of this Month**
****Have you read about our Rainbow Project?****

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!

Hats from Louisiana warming the heads of Central Ohio Homeless

Warm, wonderful crocheted hats from our good friend Sandie all the way from Louisiana to warm the heads of two cold homeless men here in central Ohio. Thoughtful, selfless acts like this make me smile--make me believe in the goodness of people. Crafters, knitters and crocheters are awesome people. Thank you so much Sandie for your on going support of our cause. You are very much appreciated.

2011
Scarves 11
Hats 10+2=12
Mittens 0
Socks 0
Slippers 3
Ghans 0
Squares 16

Please keep those crochet hooks and knitting needles going full steam, the need is great.

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!

Joy to the World

JOY to the WORLD. You might have been singing those words from a Christmas Carole not so very long ago, or perhaps The Three Dog Night song came to mind. Both did for me. Joy indeed! Look at this wonderful donation Joy, an old high school friend sent.

Joy and I got re-connected through the beauty of facebook. She's donated beautiful crocheted items previously. Am thrilled to have her on-going support. Two matching hat and scarf sets, and 3 additional hats. All nice and soft and warm.
And, look at these fun granny squares. I've used some of her squares previously and am looking forward to designing another afghan for the folks at Faith Mission using these lovely squares. These 16 squares all are a part of our Give a Square Program, which is being extended until the end of this month of January 2011. If you click on the link for Give a Square you can see thumbnails of the ghans we've donated thus far.


2011
Scarves 8+3=11
Hats 5+5=10
Mittens 0
Socks 0
Slippers 3
Ghans 0
Squares 16

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!

Helen starts off our year helping the Homeless

Thank you Helen! Helen starts off our new year helping the homeless with 8 scarves, 5 hats, and 3 pairs of slippers! All wonderfully made. These items are all nice and soft, thick and warm...Perfect! And look at the nice variety of colors as well. Helen is our newest pair of helping hands. We're thrilled to have you join us and hope to see lots of of you Helen in the coming months.

Many thanks for your donation, it is so truly appreciated. Remember folks January is slipper month. Slippers for women and children, all sizes and colors are needed.

Keep your hands busy, busy hands are happy hands. I do want your hands to be happy!

2011
Scarves 8
Hats 5
Mittens 0
Socks 0
Slippers 3
Ghans 0
Squares 0

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!

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!

It's 2011, there are still Homeless

Before we begin yet another year of knitting, crocheting, and looming for the homeless wanted to discuss a few important issues--the business side of things.

We launched Give a Square, with the idea of it being a 2 month period (Nov and Dec of 2010). My thought was focusing on squares for a given period of time would give us the ability to spread our wings a bit, but keep things manageable in terms of squares piling up here for me to assemble. Once they were assembled they would be given to Faith Mission. They house mothers and children in temporary housing (apartments), who've been abused and or homeless. They have 20 such apartments. I thought it would be nice to donate 20 afghans, lapghans and have a few extra that they would have on hand to give out as others moved in (plus some families need more then one ghan). Once folks move in they work hard to get them back into society; find permanent housing, jobs etc. They could take their ghans with them as house warming gifts. To date we've donated 10 finished ghans and have (at the time of writing this scheduled post) 1 in the works, with 2 others designed waiting in the wings with other squares still on hand. My current thought is we will continue to collect squares throughout the month of January. The Give a Square program will not go away, it will be and off and on program. From time to time I'll re-activate it, based on the number of squares I have on hand etc. So, feel free to continue to make squares and keep your eyes peeled for posts indicating it's time to mail them. Each month I'll select an item to be highlighted; but we will continue to collect all items. The purpose of the highlighted item is to give people an idea of what to make if they're unsure what they want to make. To give us a focus. Typically it will be the item we've collected the least of--or where the greatest need is at that time. With that in mind Janaury's focus will be our "Rainbow Project".

Important Reminders:

Please remember not to knot and cut yarn when knitting and crocheting. When I receive items with knots I worry about them coming apart, and therefore take time to do a bit of repairing before I can deliver them to those in need. When changing yarn, always leave a tail (even if you do knot), and work into your work. With squares work in all tails except the last one please.

Please refrain from using loose stitches, as the items we make need to keep people warm in cold damp conditions, often outdoors for hours.

Please remember to include a note with your name and email ady, your blog url, or your ID from facebook, or Rav, or Crochetville, or wherever it is we've connected. I really do get confused sometimes with folks using different ID's in different groups.

For the month of January, we will partner with a daycare in the area to collect hats and mittens. I was contacted by a local daycare that does a service project during the month of January. The children collect hats and mittens for other children. This is a learning opportunity for them, to learn children their age have less then they do and to be able to help them. We will include their hats and mittens in our donations. I'm calling this project The Rainbow Project. Because they are children, their hats and mittens will be store bought, but our focus will remain knitted and crocheted, hand made. How sweet is that, children helping children! So think children, think rainbow colors, right and cheery if you're unsure what you want to make during the month of January. Hats and Mittens for children will be our January focus.

**Pending donations from Helen, Joy, Sandie, RoseMarie, and Louise to kick off 2011** Keep checking in, leave comments when you admire each other's work. Everyone likes to read nice words about their time consuming donation. And, spending time on the blog, leaving comments on the blog helps the blog's placement which is helpful in people finding us. Hint hint.

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!