Little Dresses for Africa

I was on Twitter on Sunday afternoon and I saw a tweet about a swap-bot.com swap involving 'Little Dresses for Africa.' Intrigued by the title, I clicked through and followed the link to find a wonderful website with pictures of beautiful African children wearing these adorable dresses. Each one is hand made with love and attention, and those little girls look so happy to be wearing new dresses that were made just for them.

So, I joined the swap and immediately went on an excursion to see if I had anything suitable in my fabric stash to whip up some little dresses. I did not really have enough pretty fabric, so I took a quick trip to Hancock fabrics, which is down the road from me in the Penn/Branch Shopping Center. They were having a sale, so I was able to get enough adorable cotton print fabrics to make 12 dresses for $34. Well, almost because that price does not include the thread and the elastic, but when I total it up, I think the cost for each dress will be about $3.50 each. Not bad.

My girls were thrilled and they wanted to help. We measured and cut the dresses on Sunday, and then yesterday, since Jordan had the day off from school, she and I made three dresses so that I could work the kinks out of the process. The next nine will be made in assembly-line fashion. It will be a fun, creative project.

As I was working on the first three samples, I thought how nice it would be to also send them to Haiti. I learned on Saturday from an interview I heard on XMradio between Deepak Chopra and Wyclef Jean, that 61% of the population of Haiti is under the age of 21. That's a lot of children, and the girls will need dresses. Leila quickly noticed that we should also be making boy clothes as well, on our next trip we'll get suitable fabric for britches for boys.

We had been feeling like we wanted to have more of an impact on helping the people of Haiti and showing them our love other than just sending money. Now, we have a way to send our love in a tangible way to the little children in Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and soon Haiti, that we love them, we want to see them smile and we want them to have hope and a future.

Here's a picture of Jordan modeling one of the dresses that for a much smaller girl:



So, if you're a member of swap-bot, join the 'Little Dresses for Africa' swap with me. If you are not a member, visit the Little Dresses for Africa website and contribute a few dresses or send in your donation to support this amazing organization.

My Interview in the New Infinite Field Magazine

I was interviewed by Synolve Craft, the editor of the Infinite Field magazine, about my passion for knitting. Take a look at the February edition, which is absolutely lovely. My interview is the last story in that issue.


http://theinfinitefieldmagazine.com/current-issue/

Snowed In But Still Knitting!

Here in the Mid-Atlantic we were slammed by a huge snowstorm yesterday. I don't watch TV, so I'm not sure exactly how many inches we got, but I'm thinking we got around 24." I'm thankful that we were all safe at home, but now we're actually snowed in as I live on a secondary road, which does not seem to be a priority for the plows. . .

It made me think back to my childhood days when I lived through the Blizzard of '78. In that storm the snow drifts were so high they completely covered our front door. In order for my dad to get out of the house he had to climb out of a second-story window (in my bedroom) which was right above the roof over the front porch. He climbed out on to the roof, slid down the roof and on to the snow below. I was afraid as I watched the top of his head disappear that the snow would swallow him up.

But, of course he was fine and he set to digging out our front door and then our cars. We were out of school for two weeks. It was lots of fun for me because I was a little kid then.

So, yesterday we watched movies and I finished up some of my writing work and I got a bit of knitting done on my Totally Autumn blanket that was in knitty.com a few issues back.






I've never been much of a blanket knitter beyond making baby blankets, but earlier this winter our furnace broke down and we had no heat for a few days. That caused me to scramble around to find every blanket I could. That little experience inspired me to get some Fisherman's wool and knit a blanket. It's now getting so big that I usually work on it in bed where I can spread it out, or when I'm watching a movie.

Since we'll probably stuck in this house again today, I'm going to make a hat from some of my newbie hand spun yarn. I've been saving this precious yarn because it's the first yarn I made when I got my wheel, but I think it's time to use it. This yarn is a hot mess of thick and thin because I was just getting the hang of spinning. I will hold two strands together to make a heavy worsted, not quite bulky weight yarn. Take a look, but please don't laugh:

I know that my spinning skills will improve with time. For now I will enjoy the fruits of my labor and knit myself a hat made with yarn I made myself!

Crafters Unite for Haiti Relief

I am so proud of the way my fellow crafters have joined forces to raise money for our sisters and brothers in Haiti who have been devastated by last week's earthquake.

I've collected some links for ways that we as crafters can help the relief effort in Haiti.

Crafters for Haiti Relief:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6404143&page=19
A bunch of etsy.com artists have joined together and are donating a portion of their proceeds for Haitian relief.

The Indie Fixx blog is running a silent auction where 100% of proceeds will go to Haitian relief:
http://indiefixx.com/2010/01/14/haiti-relief-fundraiser/

Ravelry.com, one of my fave knitting websites ever, has a growing selection of items where a portion of proceeds go to Hatian relief. Look for the little 'help for Haiti' tag.

http://www.ravelry.com

Finally, here is CNN's handy list of ways to help Haiti now:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

So, do what you can and keep Haiti in your prayers.

A Shout-Out to My Swap-Bot Peeps!

I'm a member of Swap-bot.com, a website where creative, crafty people get together and swap stuff that we make. Since I'm a knitter I usually swap knitted items, but I also enjoy making ATCs and Dottee dolls and swapping them with people all over the world.

I'm currently in a Blogger followers swap. So we all agree to visit each others blogs, follow them and leave a nice comment. Last night I visited about 20 of the most fabulous blogs and found a few gems that I may never have found otherwise.

So, I know this is a bit late, but "Hi!" to all my swap-bot people. ;-)

Inspiration from Shirley Paden

I am a knitter who loves cables and lace, so I've been a fan of Shirley Paden's for many years. Today I was thrilled to see her upcoming book being highlighted on Interweave's Knitting Daily email message.

Here's a quick video that gives you an insight into some of the designs from her book and her overall approach to design:








This book comes out on February 15th and I'm looking forward to grabbing a copy to add to my vast collection of knitting books. I will publish a review once I've gotten my hands on a copy.

500 Tiny Hats for Infant Mortality Awareness!

I spoke to Claudia Booker of DC Birthing Hands on Wednesday to find out how the hat project is going. She was leaving one birth and was on her way to another, but she told me that she has received 500 hats so far. She did mention that many of them were far too big for the tiny newborns whose heads are often the size of an orange, so she is going to donate the bigger hats to the local childrens hospital.

Here are the hats that I have completed so far:



You all were so generous in knitting up these little hats to warm the heads of our tiniest neighbors. I plan to continue to knit these hats because she is giving them to the new mothers when their babies are born.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the contest. When we figure out who the winner is, I will post it here.