It is national yarn/craft or some such appreciation month. The new wonderful yarn shop in my town is hosting a 24 hour knitting marathon to knit a blanket to be raffled off for charity. Shifts are two hours with 4 knitters needed per shift. My shift starts at midnight tonight, to attract more attention especially during the day it is being held in a small park at the beginning of our little downtown. It is to be 20 degrees here on the Maine coast...Yikes, what was I thinking! LOL actually I am looking forward to it, just having trouble staying awake until it's time to layer up and head out. The whole thing is pretty cool, glad I didn't sign up for the 2-4 or 4-6am shifts!! Those people are strong!

I hope you do knit a warm wrap to fend off the chilly temps.

Thanks, I think it will be warm since it is all wool and the colors are beautiful, many muted shades. Will go with everything but mostly we want it to warm someone who needs it.

That is indeed a very fine thing to do. I respect a person who thinks and feels for others.

Take care, stay warm. Bless your endeavors.

Thanks very much, very kind of you. This is the first community function of this type that I have been a small part of in a long time, feels good to be doing this and I think it will be fun too.

Every time I step outside I re-think how many layers I need to wear, worried about my feet a little but it our hands we need and to the best of my knowledge none of us have found gloves we can knit effectively/efficiently in. Hope the fingerless mittens are enough.

Thanks again!

one year for xmas

i made my grandkids
2 great nephews
my great neice
my mom
my older sister

granny square blankets


i havent touch any yarn for over
a yr
i got warn out and tired
by crocheting

Well the charity knitting marathon went very well, as far as I know all the knitters showed up for their shifts even as the temps kept dropping and the winds kept up. It was really fun, lots of laughs and shared stories, very glad I took part in it. Heading over soon to help pack and clean up...can't wait to see how much we all knit in 24 hours. I think we will make a decent contribution to a very worthy charity when the raffle ends next month at our towns Festival of Lights.

Take a picture of the finished product if you can!! How wonderful of all of you to do something like this.

This is a wonderful thing that you are doing for those in need. I have never heard of anything in my area like this. Very cool indeed!

You may have started something here In Colorado Springs. I conveyed your idea to the ladies with the recipe club. They know many who do knit. They are going to knit for the Homelessness and the needy people here. Thank you for the idea. The ladies are really running with this. I do not knit but I can prepare food.

I think you can read lots more about our project on some of the social network sites like facebook and twitter, may get ideas from them that will help your recipe group get started. I am not on those sites so can't tell you how to find the links but I know the local press covered our event for the social networking sites. I wish you and your group the best, heaven knows there is a lot of need out there. You may also find information by goggling the store Over The Rainbow, Rockland Maine

If you do put something together be sure to let us know!

Thanks again for your kind words, I passed them on to all the knitters.

The Ladies were discussing it this very morning after church services.
They are asking the wives of the service men to help also. It will indeed be out of my hands.
Your city Idea was so good, they are talking about, going to the local stores for discounts on supplies. These Ladies will indeed get it too.
They talked this morning about getting the fleece material to make blankets for the homeless. They do have some wonderful people that can organize the groups into teams.

You are welcome. It is a grand idea that everyone wants to do. The ladies were looking for something to do for this years holiday season. Now they do. Blessings to all.

We had a blast doing it. Next year we will likely be beating volunteers to knit off with a stick! I already signed up for the same time slot for next year. Maybe the wind will be less aggressive!!

After the event all the food donations were counted to determine which charity will get the proceeds from raffle tickets which we will continue to sell until Thanksgiving weekend when the winner will be picked during our Festival Of Lights. So far they are selling well so hopefully we will raise a nice chunk for the winning charity. Votes were in the form of non-perishable food stuffs put in the labeled box of your choice, after the count all the food was taken to one of our local food banks, I won't swear to the figure but 'votes' collected during the 24 hour period weighed in at something like 270 pounds, not bad for an event planned only two weeks in advance and given minimal advertising.

Some really nice things happened during the event, people not only voted and bought raffle tickets but also gave us hot soup, bags of candy bars and cookies, cups of coffee. There was a big cruise ship in our harbor, many tourist bought raffle tickets with the request that we write "from your friends in Germany" (or where ever) on the tickets, basically these were donations because none of the people from out of town want us to ship the blanket should they win it.

Really I can't wait to do this again next year but also look forward to all the things in-between. Nov is Coats for Kids month so we will be knitting hats, mittens and scarves to donate. The shop will replace for free the initial ball of yarn purchased for this when you bring in a balls worth of finished pieces, pretty cool. I had no idea what a great group I was stumbling into when I first started going to knitting group after learning the store had opened but I am loving being a small part of a privately owned shop with such a generous community spirit.

Thanks again for your replies and good wishes.

Oh I will take pictures of the blanket but don't know how to load them here...unless it is just like loading pics I used in my profile. No clue how some of you get all those whacky pics on here...

Our Gated retirement community has a catered Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimings that Saturday before. At Twelve O'clock We start rolling through the complex "Sounding the Horns of Plenty to signal people to put out bags of Grocerys with an attached flyer we have passed out early in the month. It helps people remember and if they "forget" they can always bring down a few cans to the dinner at 5pm.

We usually have to make two passes through the park shouting "God Bless/Thank You" as we fill to the brim at least one full size pick up if not more. A thousand pound donation or more each year as some actually collect a can or two each month over the whole year shopping with coupons.

We even recieve canned pet food for one of the women's shelters that allows homeless children to kennel a beloved pet until temporary foster homes can be arranged and parents can find houseing that allows pets.

The flyer is a Black & White (to be colored) page most have Grandchildren or extreamly homebound Elderly decorate that we use for a drawing of a small value gift card. If neighbors want to they can use their own house number or that of a neighbor who might be "struggleing" but we draw from the pages turned back and then display them for the rest of the month.

Everyone gets a big bang out of it! Many have their pictures taken by the accomplishment of frail and disabled seniors who remember the hard times and still are generous even though many are on fixed incomes.

Then we download the smileing happy Holiday greeting to Emails to family and friends. Many of our Seniors do not use or understand computers but their families welcome the annual pictures as treasures.

This is fabulous, just fabulous. There are people doing good and generous work all over out there. It does make a difference in people's lives, both the givers and the relievers. I am just happy to be a small part of a good group again. Nice to get out of my shell after so long.