A Call for Hats and Scarves!

My little town of Anderson has had some downturns. With another fabulous Midwest winter coming on, I wanted to give something back. Ulterior motive, I need to use up yarn as well.

I contacted a few shelters in Anderson and they could use some handknit/crocheted hats and scarves. So I am officially putting out the call for items to be donated through March 2015. If you knit or crochet and can contribute, please do! If you don't knit or crochet, hand bought items would be welcome too! Anything to keep the men at the shelters warm while the temperatures drop below freezing. If last winter was any indication, it could get up to 20 below, real temperature.

The first place we'll be donating to is The Christian Center on Main Street.  The Christian Center serves as a rescue shelter for men

The Christian Center's Rescue Shelter program maintains a 24/7 ** "no turn away" policy. Immediate physical needs are met, as guests sign up for beds, eat three meals a day, take showers and get haircuts and pick out fresh clothes. Men can stay up to 30 days, during which time Christian Center staff help them to evaluate their next best step, which may include enrollment in our Men's Program or different recovery programs with other service providers in the area.

The second place we'll be donating hats and scarves to is House of Hope of Madison County. House of Hope serves as a halfway house

The House of Hope is a well-established program that has served Madison County and the surrounding counties for many years in helping men recover from their addictions. In fact many of our employees throughout the years, have started as clients, became house managers, and either remained with the House of Hope in management roles or went to other treatment facilities to further their professional ambitions

For now, the residents we'll be donating to are men, so men's colors are needed. However, I am still researching and trying to contact shelters for women and children as well.

If you are interested in donating, please contact me at manadabomb AT gmail DOT com.


EDIT: Free patterns for hats/scarves

Tin Can Knits

Just a Beanie

Hole the size of a dime...kinda

It's been a while. But this time I have a good reason :)

My knitting has been a bit on hold due to a hand injury. Luckily, I have no pictures of this injury because it made me break out into a sweat when I looked at it. Blech. A small incident getting Eva out of the car with a ramp caused me to rip a chunk of my hand off (left behind on said ramp). I didn't realize it at first, just thinking that I scraped it on the sandpapery "floor" of the ramp. Once I got Eva to the backyard, I checked my hand and saw an almost dime-sized hole missing between my little finger knuckle and ring finger knuckle. As in... could see muscle underneath. And cue cold sweat.

Not much can be done for a hole like that so for 3 weeks, I left knitting by the wayside to nurse a hole-y, bandaged hand.

But I'm back!

On The Needles

I'm working on a Christmas present, although I said I wouldn't be. I'm so close now I decided it HAS to be done by Christmas. Details once it's given to the recipient.

My Halloween socks, my go-to vanilla sock pattern, in Gnomeacres Smell My Feet are on the needles but on hold. Halloween is so gone....

I was working on the Stephen West Shawl KAL and am still on clue one. Seriously, yes. I'm ok with this. Right......

I also have the I Flunked The Written Sunnydale KAL project on the needles and that's been on hold too. Oy.

Christmas vacation is coming soon and I know I'll get lots of knitting worked on. Just need a bit more time!

For Your Eyes

I've caught myself up on Haven, Castle, The Walking Dead and Z Nation. I have quite a few more shows that are waiting for me to catch up on (Sleepy Hollow, Outlander, Elementary)

I'm really enjoying the tongue-in-cheek goofiness of Z Nation. TWD just floored and upset me with it's mid-season finale but I guess I'll survive. Damn you, Kirkman!!!


I leave you now... more to come as I get back into the swing of knitting with a holeless hand!

Eva - staring daggers at Maggie chewing on an antler. Share, kids!

My Favorite Podcasters

My bucket list now officially covers Rhinebeck : New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm so jealous of these ladies.

It thrilled me to see my favorite podcasters all together :)

Kim from Craftstash, Kristin from Yarngasm, Maria from Subway Knits, Laura from The Dyer's Notebook and Dana from Danadoodleknits (blog).

If you enjoy yarnporn, this is an episode to watch!

Double the Fun!

I haven't been involved in a KAL (knit-a-long) for a while. I want to say it's been a year. Yeesh.

I've joined up for 2 KALs and they both start tomorrow. I'm pretty excited because one of them is Stephen West's Mystery Shawl KAL !!!  Wooooo!  For $6, you buy the pattern but Stephen doles in out in pieces to you, so you really don't know what the actual shawl will look like until the end. But based on the work Stephen does, it's going to be amazing!

Follow Stephen on Instagram. You won't regret it.


I picked out my 4 colors and got them caked up. I swapped out the Tempted yarn in the photo when I realized it was lace weight yarn for a cake of Madeline Tosh Sock in a bright red (no label).

My color A is the Knit Picks Bare yarn, with the bright red, bright green and bright purple as my other colors. I have no idea how these will look together but that's the fun of it! My project page is here for the yarn info.

Next up is the KAL for the Sunnydale Yarn Club - Patrol 2 (BUFFY!). It is hosted by the Dizzy Blonde Studios and honestly, I loved this yarn club so much I'm going to try and snag a spot on the Patrol 3 round. My love of Buffy knows no bounds.

I'm using the yarn called O Soave Fanciulla based on the episode Passion. Oh, that episode. Heart. Breaking.

All caked up and nowhere to go

Even though we can use any pattern with the Sunnydale yarn to enter the KAL, I chose to buy I Flunked The Written because it just looks cool and in this colorway will be magnificent!

So, Halloween night.... bring it on. I have knitting to do and many many episodes of Buffy to watch!

Christmas is Canceled!

Not really.

Maybe.

I had a notebook with ideas on what to knit folks I love for Christmas. I had started very early, in the summer even. I did this exactly the way I should have done it.

There's no way I will get anything done.

Lately, work has been on the edge of "way too much" and recently, it's jumped off that edge. I've been working more in the evenings to keep my head above the water line and it's really wearing on me when I would rather spend time with friends, family and my knitting.

Speaking of family, my rescue pup, Eva, has taken a turn for the worse. The vet calls this period hospice and some of the meds are helping her with pain and letting her eat and drink. At this point, I'd rather work and knitting go to the background so I can spend time with her.

I finally frogged the work and re-skeined the yarn from Becky's present I had started. That was a huge step and another reason why I think my heart wasn't in this.

After all this, I decided that handmade Christmas presents are not in the running this year. There was just too much pressure at fitting everything in. That being said....

Things are still being made. I've decided they will be "I love you" gifts.

A little less pressure in my life will help me with everything, I think.

same concept in knitting

It's for charity!

I usually always have something on the needles for charity. I have a group called The Firewalker Project that sends chemo caps and prayer shawls to Midwestern cancer centers and usually knit for Caps For A Cure as well. I think I feel like... I can knit well and if I have something I am good at, I should use it for good (with great power comes great responsibility!).

I received an email about an auction/raffle going on to raise money for the Friends of Ostomates-Worldwide and decided to knit a new Dichotomy shawl to send. I made it pink and white striped and actually didn't get a picture of it before I sent it out (oops). But I hope it brings in some good money! If you are in the Aurora, IL area on October 26th, go check it out!

My company is having it's annual food drive in a month and I am knitting up some things to donate to the silent auction. Last year, my large gnomes brought in $80 a piece and my ninja brought in $50.

Not the real charity gnomes

The ninja found a home

This year, I'm knitting dishcloths to add to a kitchen gift basket. I figure a set of 3, plus a few crocheted scrubbies a friend is donating, plus some other goodies, would make a nice auction item. And the bright and cheerful yellow and white yarn can't hurt.

Then I'm making the awesome rainbow scarf I made myself, but in Indianapolis Colts colors.

Lastly, I'm making a set of Adventure Gnomes to auction off. Those little guys have all the fun!

Philip the gnome in the Philippines

photos by Amy Brown

hooo boy

photo by Warren Sifre

Sir Crooked Beard at Victoria Falls, Africa

photo by Becky Savage

Herbie running the Get Your Rear In Gear race!
photo by http://instagram.com/eyesnappedonyou

Knit for Charity!

Fallin'

Fall is pretty much here. The windows are open, the air conditioner is off (buh-bye, high electric bill!) and I am happier. I do think Fall is my favorite season.

I'm super happy to report that I completed my first 5K since injuring my back! I did it in under an hour and cut one minute off my average mile. Last year was the inaugural Choose to Move: Race to Beat Parkinson's and since it hits so close to my dad's birthday, I've decided I will be walking (and maybe running) the 5K every year. My sister joined me last year and my mom joined us both this year. They did the 1 mile fun walk and I tackled the 5K walk (untimed). There was a really good crowd this year and I hope it keeps getting bigger!

Me, mom & April

 

:)

Next Sunday, my friend and I tackle the Chocoholic Frolic.

On The Needles

Still working on the Noro Waterfall scarf. I really need to get monogamous on something so I can start knocking these things off the needles. The color changes on this one are so addicting to watch so I may just cozy up to this scarf for a while.

Also still working on a Christmas present for my mom. I have about 30 rows (lonnnnggg rows) left to knit before the finishing. It's very pretty as well but I won't be able to mention it or post pictures until after the holidays. Arrrgh.

My Halloween socks are languishing.

I casted on one more Christmas present today - bulky weight yarn  so it should go quickly.

Boy, have I reconsidered my Christmas knitting. The majority of things I planned are no longer on the list to be worked for Christmas. I don't want to stress myself out this year and there are so many things I want to knit for myself.

Off The Needles

Another FO! I finished a present for my massage therapist - the Dichotomy shawl! The yarn is so dang pretty I really sped through knitting this just to keep seeing the color changes.

I do hope she likes it!

I also made up 2 Adventure Gnomes to give away this week. They went to the co-workers who paid $80 for a big handknit gnome for our silent auction at work that benefited a local food bank. I wanted to give them a little something extra.

The military gnome is just a little version of the big one that was requested. I made the other in leftover light blue and navy blue yarn. I changed the pattern to knit in the round because I really dislike seaming!

Cute little guys :)

Casting About

While I was looking for yarn for the gnomes, I found I had lots of spare yarn, little bits and pieces. So today I bought about 10 little totes and sorted all the spare yarn by weight. I'm thinking for most of the extra yarn, I have enough for some chemo caps, more adventure gnomes and I'm thinking of using iMake's mitered square recipe to make a pillow cover for a throw pillow. I have enough weights I think I could do the pillow and get a throw blanket out of them!

That's about it... back to listening to podcasts and knitting before heading back to the concrete jungle tomorrow!