Kindness, Giving Away Kindness and Blogging in Alphabetical Order

Blogging in Alphabetical order brings us to the letter K today.  In the two previous rounds of blogging in Alphabetical Order I've blogged about Kindness and knitting for the letters K.  I really didn't come up with any new word for this, the 3rd round of doing so.

Do you know a knitter, or a crocheter?  If you could give a yarn boutique like the pretty one above.  That would be a wonderful act of kindness.  Give it for nothing specific...in that it's not Easter, or Christmas, or someone's Birthday or Mother's Day etc.  Just give it, as an act of kindness.  Trust me.....it will be well received.  

Craft a note to go with your yarn boutique to spread the kindness yet further.  In your note say something like I just wanted to share some kindness from me to you......and suggest you do the same, by using this yarn to knit/crochet something you can donate to someone in need..........yet again sharing more kindness.  

Maybe you have favorite charities you could include in your note to help the person think of charities or to have something to select from?

Maybe you would prefer something like above.  Spotted this on Facebook and thought it worth a share.  You could print this and include it with your yarn boutique.

If you do anything like this, please let me know.  Take a picture of your arrangement with your yarn, or your note...I'll share it here on blog to help encourage others to reach out in similar fashion.  If you would prefer not to include your name with the post, simply let me know.  I know some of you big hearted people are a bit shy.  Contact me by leaving a comment here on the post, or by using the contact form in the right side bar, or by emailing me at sandycrochet@gmail.com

**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.

New Afghan Needs Name, Blogging in Alphabetical Order, Jobless and Judgement

This is the beginning (2nd picture I've taken) of the afghan I'm currently working on.  Will take some time before this one is ready to donate, as it's only about 7.25 inches when the picture was taken.  It's a bit larger now and has one additional color, green.  Not sold on a name yet..Lines of Jewels (lines because it will be striped?), Striped Jewels, Jewel Palette?  Thoughts?

Blogging in Alphabetical order brings us to J.  Some words I came upon associated with homeless are jobless, and judgement.

It's so easy to pass judgement on others.  Sadly, we all do it naturally.  We must fight our instincts to not pass judgement on others.  That becomes, I think even harder when thinking about Homeless People.  Often people judge homeless people to be lazy, to be criminals to be bad people.........when none of that may be true.  Living on the streets is NOT easy, to stay alive alone means you're not lazy; but that stereotype judgement exists.  Maybe the person is homeless because they lost their job, maybe they lost their job through no fault of their own, maybe they lost their job due to health issues.  So many possibilities.  A child may be homeless through no fault of their own.  Military often come back from service broken, be it physical or mental or both.  Certainly that's not their fault and they should not be judged.  

Being jobless when homeless is very difficult.  How do you apply for a job when you have no address?  How do you apply for a job when you have no means of cleaning up?  How do you apply for a job when you no phone or other means of being contacted?

Difficult problems being homeless, being jobless and being judged unjustly.

Blogging in Alphabetical Order, Illness in Homeless

In keeping with blogging in alphabetical order between posts that share donations, we're now at the letter I.

Last time through the alphabet, I blogged about Making an Investment.  
The previous time the letter I was about Inspiration.

Doing a google search for words that start with the letter I, that have a connection to Homelessness I found the following:
Illness
Insecure
Invisible.........among other words.

ILLNESS, jumped out at me.  Doing a bit of research I found a list of the top 10 Health Issues that Homeless People suffer from.

Mortality...and unintential injuries (bruises, cuts, and burns).  Homeless have a higher risk of death.  Listed as some of the highest risks of morbidity and morality are falls and being hit by motor vehicle.  Also listed is overdoses from drugs or alcohol or both.

Exposure is listed a major hazard with frostbite, hypothermia and freezing in cold weather, and severe sunburns, and heatstroke in hot weather due to dehydration.

Suicide is also listed, as is violence.  Violence stats were a combination of assault, rape and murder against the Homeless.

The warm items we knit, crochet or loom can help ward of freezing and hypothermia.  Perhaps sunscreen is something that should be considered for personal care items during the hot months?  First aid kits?  Aloe for both burns and sunburn?

If you have other thoughts about how we might bridge some of the need in this area, please leave a comment or send me a note via the contact form in the right sidebar.  Thank you for reading this blog, Thank you for helping in whatever way you can.

Been awhile since I've listed the alphabetical blogging blogs.  If you've not read or commented on A-H this time round, please do so.



3rd List Blogging in Alphabetical Order.
A=afghans Resurecting Learning Logs.
B=Barnacle Bill and Blogging in Alphabetical Order
C=A Cocoon of Yarn, Blogging in Alphabetical Order
D=Blogging in Alphabetical Order, D=Dog & Homeless
E=Ends, Blogging Alphabetically
F=FEAR, Fibers, and Fun Colors Matter
G=Donald Gould, Homeless in Sarasota, Florida
H=Hard Life, Hovel, Homeless & More, So Sad

**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 Learning Logs Afghan Completed

Learning Logs Afghan is now complete.  I last blogged about it on April 6th.  You can see how much it's grown.  This afghan started out as a class project to learn how to do color work, knitting with 2 or 3 colors through a class on Crafty's.  The inside square is a bit larger than the class project, as I kept going a bit more.  It's tedious, but also fun.  The original pattern called for making 6 said squares and stitching them together for an afghan.  I thought beside being really time consuming, it was quite busy so elected not to do that.

Used the class square as a center and continued using the same colors, binding off and picking up stitches to try and keep the class square as the center.  The next section is full of lots of textures.  Needing to have it lay a bit nicer, I changed to all garter stitch for the 3rd zone, but still the same colors.  Kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.  I may actually have more of some of these colors down in the basement in my stash; but can't do steps with being in my ortho boot and still limited movement.  

It's laid out here for the photo; but needs to be laundered and blocked yet.  Hubby's been too busy to do that ...laundry is also in the basement.   It should be several inches bigger and lay still a bit nicer after being laundered and blocked.  It's sized large enough for a family afghan and is quite warm.

We're making headway on our goal for afghans.  Though would LOVE to go over goal, as the goal was still pretty low compared to some of our earlier years.

**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 Afghans Warm Hearts

 This is a continuation of the wonderful donation of afghans crocheted by Sheelagh S.  If you didn't see the previous  post, please scroll back.  You don't want to miss anything.  I've flipped a corner of this Polish Star Afghan so you can how different the two sides look.  Both front and back are awesome.  Please do click to enlarge so you can see the detail.  This is quite thick and will be very warm.  LOVE the colors as well as the unusual pattern.  Not one I was familiar with, but perhaps you are.  Sheelagh tells me the pattern comes from "Crochet Spectacular Polish Stars" (The Needlecraft Shop.  The stitch pattern is available for free on Ravelry, HERE 

 Trying for a closer look in this picture of both front and back.  The pattern link above is a pillow pattern, but the stitch...the Polish Star is there.

AND....yes, another gorgeous crocheted afghan from Sheelagh.  Once again I encourage you to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see details.  The variety of stitches in this afghan is really something.  It's called Lace and Bobbles from Scrap Yarn Afghans Book Two.  Click here to purchase pattern on RAV. 

The families who receive either of these beautiful afghans is going to be thrilled.  

Many thanks Sheelagh, 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.

The Afghan Inspired by Poldark, Delmelza Donated

Thank you Sheelagh S for this gorgeous afghan.  PLEASE click folks to enlarge, as you can always do here on the blog to see things in more detail.  You really want to check out the variety of details and colors in this beautiful afghan.  It's bright, it's cheery, it's large and very warm.  Look at the flowers.  It's made with a very large center square, has 22 large squares on the edge, has 4 sections made up of 4 smaller squares each...plus sections of striping connection the largest center squares to those 4 x 4 squares.  This is a work of art!

I'm particularly excited by this afghan because I very recently posted a blog post on my personal blog, talking about the BBC movie Poldark.  The name of this afghan pattern is Demelza.  Before reading the intro to the pattern, the series Poldark immediately came to mind, as I had not heard the name Demelza prior to watching all 3 seasons (hoping for season 4).

Sheelagh was good enough to leave the link to the pattern on RAVELRY in her note.  Which is how I learned it was indeed The Demelza I was thinking about.

Meet Ross Poldark and his wife Demelza Poldark.  AND ladies, if you've not watched the series you are truly missing out!!

This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download, from Catherine Bligh's Ravelry page and was publised in Morbidsparks.

This blanket has been inspired by the character ‘Demelza’, from BBC’s Poldark (2015). I used Demelza’s colour palette and incorporated her love of flowers into each square.

So, if this has inspired you; grab your hook, your yarn, and crochet away while you watch Poldark and crochet this beautiful afghan, Demelza, who by the by is one of my favorite characters from the series. 

**Stay tuned folks, there's more!