Red Scarf Project

Red Scarf Project
I stumbled across the Red Scarf Project a few weeks ago and was impressed by the mission. New scarf to bring a little joy to foster kids who are going off to college.

Here's a little bit about the project from it's website:

A Great Charitable Knitting Initiative Provides Warmth and Encouragement to Foster Youth

In 2005, OFA launched a unique initiative to send warmth and encouragement to college-bound foster youth. We began taking donations of handmade red scarves to put into our Valentine's Day Care Packages.

Word spread quickly around the charitable knitting/crocheting community. In the first year, we took in 3,500 scarves. The following year, that number swelled to over 15,000.

This deluge of generosity was spurred by a grass roots grapevine effect on the internet, thanks to popular knitting blog sites like Now Norma Knits.

Can you believe it? Due to the overwhelming response, OFA needs to scale the program back in order to be able to handle the demand. And this as we enter our third year!

The reason: our staff and volunteers unpack and store every scarf received, identify recipients, box them up, and ship them out. Most significantly, OFA carries the cash costs of shipping. (Cash donations earmarked toward shipping are cheerfully accepted!)

In short, the amazing work of knitters and donors is matched by a tremendous fulfillment process enabled by OFA staff and volunteers.

The Red Scarf Project is endorsed by Interweave Knits, The National Needle Arts Association, and the Lily Chin Signature Collection.

quick run down

Michael is a computer hog.
But I can't really blame him, he's been working on some cool projects which has left me time to work on some of my own like:
- Finishing Harry Potter! (So good - and final)
- Plunging right into The Golden Compass. (Very interesting so far)
- Knitting a second shrug. (The first one turned out very cute so I'm trying again with a few modifications.)
- Watching Season Two of Doctor Who. (Oh David Tennent - you just get yummier)
- Work, work and more work (I love it, but if I haven't gone in early I've stayed late (or both) for the past few weeks, and its starting to wear on me. We are interviewing this week so hopefully we will be getting some extra help soon.)
- Planning out my next sewing project. (Booties!!!)
- Enjoying the bounty of the garden. (I made pesto last night and I'm just waiting for Pepe the Pepper to turn red so I can eat him too.)
- Enjoying the bounty of other peoples gardens. (The farmers market is my new favorite place. This weekend I made zucchini curry soup that even Michael liked from one of my finds.)

Well, that's about it. Hopefully I'll pick up the posting again.
tata!

I’ve been knitting again.

It’s been months since I’ve picked up the needles with any real interest. But on Saturday I spent about an hour in the fabric store and walked away uninspired and empty handed. So I headed over to Borders and sat down in front of the knitting section finally settling on Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. The book is all about simple alteration to make a sweater pattern actually fit. Part of what has kept me away from sweaters is the blocky blandness. I would never buy a sweater that is so square and shapeless, I certainly wouldn’t spend the time and money to knit one. I’m quite pleased with this book. I’ve decided to start with the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug. It seemed like a good place with start.

I picked up some lime green Cotton Ease Yarn from Lion’s Brand for the main color and charcoal for the accent. A daring choice for me, but one that I am pleased with so far. They yarn is light and easy to work with – a nice change from my generally wool specific knitting. Saturday was a dreary, rainy day and I alternated between napping and knitting. So much so that the entire body and both sleeves are finished. Now I just have to sew up the sleeves (something I loath) and then add the ribbed boarder around the body.

I’ve really enjoyed watching the piece grow. Changing from a shapeless blob to a wearable garment. This also marks my first adult sized garment that isn’t a hat, scarf or gloves. So the motivation to actually finish is pretty strong. Plus I think that I will really wear it. Too bad my fingers hurt so much!