I have received this very Smart Hat from Maggpie on Ravelry. It is called Smart Hat, and the pattern is available for free download on Ravelry. It is like Christmas in October around here, but I get to have the dual excitement of receiving the gifts and opening the mail packages AND playing St. Nick and delivering them to their future owners.
I LOVE mail, I LOVE yarn, I LOVE textures, and I LOVE giving. Now, I have it all wrapped up on one project. I am loving this arrangement. I will not be the direct mail recipient for all the projects, so will not always get to have such fun and excitement from the post box.
Thank you, Maggpie, for this wonderful hat! It is soft, bulky, and a wonderfully manly color. I am certain that the Veteran receiving this one will appreciate all your hard work.
How are your projects working up? Have you tweeted the Project today?
Yesterday in the mail, I received two separate donations. I am posting them in the order in which they were in my mail box. (I will post about the second one on Monday.) The above hats came wrapped up in heartfelt packaging from cmunholland of Ravelry.
They are wonderfully crafted and are very soft. I absolutely love the color, and have requested her pattern(s) so I might be able to make one for myself. If possible, I would like to compile a pattern link list on our Yahoo Groups page so participants can browse there for inspiration.
I think the one on the right is Spring Beret by Natalie Larson. It is available on Ravelry (here).
My requested donation from any one person is only one item for each project, so she has even gone beyond expectations with her generosity in donating two hats. Thank you so much, cmunholland!!
I have seen comments here and there about this project by people who express a wish to help, but a lack of time to personally create an item. For those of you who fall into this category, let me remind you that Etsy, Artfire, and 1000 Markets sell handmade items, and many shops offer hats and slippers at very reasonable prices. If you wish to contribute, you could purchase a handmade item and still be able to donate it to the cause.
To date (including what will be featured on Monday's post), we have received 3 pair of slippers and 5 hats. The deadline for this project is not until October 25, so you still have time if you would like to participate.
I have mentioned the project from Sharing Our Gifts that is currently doing a hat and slippers drive for Veterans in Southern Oregon. This project will be our team project for October, and the deadline to have these received by me is October 25, so please allow appropriate mail time. I will be presenting these to my contact at the facility on November 2, just in time for Veteran's Day.
Further details and updates for the project can be found on the Sharing Our Gifts blog, but here are the basics:
Our 50 states tour begins in the beautiful state of Oregon. We will be making hats and slippers for Veterans at the Southern Oregon - White City Rehabilitation Center. It is a 600 bed facility, and I am told that they always appreciate hats and slippers. These can be knitted, crocheted, or sewn. The key is that they must be handmade. If you don't make items yourself, but you want to contribute, you could purchase handmade items at Etsy, Artfire, 1000 Markets, or some other handmade venue. They should be size and color appropriate for adult males (slipper size 10-12), and machine washable.
The address to send your items for this project is:
Sinclair P.O. Box 1046 Jacksonville, Oregon 97530
Please leave me a comment here or on our Yahoo Groups page to let me know you are participating in the challenge, and please help spread the word even outside the boundaries of the Hoarders Unite group. As always, our group goal is to use up stash yarn and supplies before purchasing more. Visit our Yahoo Groups page to upload your project photos and to share pattern ideas.
Just wanted to share with you the finished donation sock monkey for the Craft Hope Project #4. He is complete and went out in the mail yesterday to his destination. Amilia fell in love with him and gave him a very warm goodbye. We sent him off with loving thoughts and a note to his new human.
Hop on over to Craft Hope and see the photos of the 101 monkeys they have already received...
This is a cross-over post because I wanted to share with you the wonderful places on which my project has been featured today. We are growing each day, and getting the word out there. Today, we are featured in TWO places!
1. DinnerTime Chimes has featured us on the Etsy Team blog NCTriangle. Even though our project is not specifically Etsy, this team blog has opened its arms to our project, and I am so thankful for the mention. Check out the blog and all the wonderful Etsy sellers there as well.
2. Kae at Kae1Crafts has joined our project drive and has featured us in her blog post today as well. Kae has two Etsy shops: one for her crafts and one for supplies (shops currently on vacation mode). She also has her own ongoing charity project, donating knitted wool helmet liners to military troops. Specifics on her project and how you can help are found on her Squidoo page.
Visit and Stumble It! Even if you cannot personally engage in either of these projects, please Stumble this post and visit each of the links and Stumble those as well. Then, if you Twitter, tweet the projects for us. For Sharing Our Gifts, please add the hashtag #sharingourgifts to your tweets. (you can just hit the Tweet This button at the bottom of this post if you like, and use the Share This button above the post.)
In my Internet travels, I ran across a succession of blogs that led me to one called Craft Hope. I am very happy to have found this site because it puts important things together. It combines the importance of beauty, appreciation, caring, sharing, helping, and hope all into a tidy bloggy box of love.
In doing so, it puts helping people together with those who are in need of help. Here is what the founder, Jade, says in her About section:
"Craft Hope is a faith-based, love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those less fortunate. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world."
This is similar to my goal with my sister blog, Sharing Our Gifts. I have not been as faithful in developing that blog as I would like to be, but finding Craft Hope has helped kick my thoughts about it back into gear. Meanwhile, I think I am going to join in on the Craft Hope current project to make a sock monkey for the Little Heroes Preschool Burn Camp in Sacramento, California. The camp is by the Firefighters Burn Institute in Sacramento, and runs from September 25-27, 2009. I encourage you to join me in this September Hoarders Unite Challenge and do the same.
So, the link above to "sock monkey" will take you to a place to learn how to make a sock monkey, and to purchase a sock monkey kit if you (like me) have never made one. Even more exciting, a message on the Craft Hope Nest Bulletin Board from Tamara at sockmonkey.net states that she will give a discount on sock monkey kits to any person purchasing specifically to make a monkey for this project. If you don't need a kit or a discount, sockmonkey.net is just a fun place to visit for free pattern ideas and monkey inspiration.
The deadline to get your sock monkey in for this project is September 18. If you're interested, visit Craft Hope and get started!
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