Warm Hands Equals A Warm Heart

As cold as we get sometimes here in the bush, it's good to remember that there are others who get colder than us. Over the last couple of years, I've done some charity knitting for women's shelters, preemies who have to start their lives in hospital, homeless folks here in the north, and for local folks struggling through chemo treatments.
Last year my charity knitting went to two groups; scarves for our local homeless and chemo caps for folks in Sault Ste. Marie.
This year, I'm going to add knitting for folks in the FAR north. Like Rankin Inlet and Resolute.

I stumbled across Warms Hands Network, a group that collects, packages, ships and distributes knitted and crocheted items that communities in the north have expressed a need for. Sweaters, socks, vests, blankets, hats, shawls, mittens and neck-warmers are just some of the items commonly made and donated. I think this is a great idea, so I'm in! Mom has decided she's going to donate as well, I think it will be interesting to see what we can come up with between the two of us.
WHN also has a Ravelry group, which is how I found them. The group has been going for a few years now and is an inspiration with conversations about donations, photos, where the items are shipped and sometimes even responses from the receiving community.

If you knit or crochet, take a look at the Warm Hands Network website, and/or their Ravelry group and consider jumping in with us. It's a great feeling to do something nice for our fellow human beings.

Knitting With The Future In Mind

This is just one version of an Irish Hiking Hat.
It turned out on the small side, but I'm pleased with it nonetheless.

Those of you who visit on a semi-regular basis know I enjoy knitting. I've shown off various projects here before. It helps me stay sane sometimes, and sometimes it makes me crazy. But usually there's something very comforting about  being about to create with pointy sticks and string/thread/yarn. There's so much room for individuality that how could one get bored? I've been trying to amass a pile of hats for my son's school This year.  Kids being kids, they always lose hats, mitts and scarves. So last year I thought I might knit kid-sized hats and mitts, keep them aside and then once the chilly weather comes, label them with approximate sizes and drop them off at the school. (Keeping in mind that my own boys will want new hats as well!)

I've also been knitting the occasional scarf.
Seen here is the Spicy Tomato Soup Scarf. So named because

• It has two different types of red in it to "spice things up"
• It was made to be donated to our local soup kitchen, who will then hand more scarves than just this one out to homeless and financially challenged folk

The goal here was to knit and amass scarves, donate them to the local soup kitchen, who would then hand them out to those who needed them.

Also on the needles as some of you know, have been baby blankets.

I enjoy knitting those, but to be truly useful, they need to be a good size.

There just aren't enough hours in the day!

*grin*

Do you knit? Crochet? Maybe you're crafty in some other way that doesn't require sticks?

Let me know what you like to do in the comments!