Hats for Romania --And They're Mailed!!

To the 24 friends who decided to join me in making hats for the Christian orphanage in Romania, I’d like to say thank you, thank you, thank you! When I first wrote about this project in August, I didn’t expect that so many ladies would join and use their love of crafting to help others. I’ve been pleasantly surprised, amazed and encouraged to see so many of you eager to help. I also heard from some of you who weren’t able to participate this year {for various reasons} but who would’ve liked to. Well, I’d like to say thanks for your interest as well. Maybe I’ll host something similar sometime in the future!
Today, we were able to mail the hats we knitted and crocheted for Romania. Even though the past few months have been busy ones here, my sisters Sara, Leah, and I were able to make 17 hats! It’s been such a blessing to be able to make warm hats for the poor children in Botosani, Romania! I’m glad that we were able to use our talents to help others.
The goal for this project was to knit, crochet, or sew 100 hats for the orphanage in Romania –one for each child. Many of you have left comments saying how many you mailed, but it’s difficult to keep track of numbers left in comments. So I’ve decided to set up a form for all the participants to fill in so we can find out just how close we were to meeting our goal!

If you participated in the Hats for Romania project, please click here to fill out the progress form!

Here are photos we took of the hats before they were mailed:

Did you write a blog post about the project? Please leave the link up below!
Hope everyone’s having a blessed week!

Progress?

A few weeks ago, I started the Knit & Crochet for Romania project. So far, we have 12 participants and I’ve been delighted to see my Blogger friends join me to help provide warm clothing for the the children living in a Christian orphanage in Romania.

My sisters, Sara & Leah, are also participating and together we’ve finished 11 hats. It’s been a blessing to be able to use our talents and love for knitting and crocheting to help these children in need.

If you’re participating as well, please leave a comment and let me know how you’re doing. Our goal is to make 100 hats {one for each child} and I need to know how much progress we’ve made towards that goal.

If you haven’t joined yet, you still have time to help! Please click here to read the guidelines and leave a comment on that post to sign up. If you join, your name and blog will be added to the list of participants in my sidebar!

If you’re already participating, I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress! And, of course I’d be delighted to have more participants too!

Blessings!

 

Summer With A Purpose: Week Nine

Another week, and another SWAP post! Summer has been flying by oh-so-fast! I’m happy that I’ve been able to make these hot summer months, productive too!

This morning I looked at the list of summer goals I set three weeks ago. And I was encouraged to see that I have been making progress! This week I spent a lot of time resting, as per the doctor’s orders. If I do too much activity, my mouth gets sore again so I have to relax a lot…definitely easier said than done for such an active person like me! ;-)

Here’s how I’ve been making progress with each goal:

{1} I decided to organize a knit & crochet-along for a Christian orphanage in Romania. So far I have five participants (including my sister and I!). Hopefully more people will sign up so we can meet our goal and be able to bless these children with warm clothing for the winter. I have four knitted hats completed and ready to be shipped out to the orphanage and Sara might make some scarves to match!

{2} Sorry to admit it but, I haven’t made much headway with the friendship afghan. I haven’t been in the “crocheting” mood lately, if you know what I mean! I’m still trying to slowly ease myself back into a “normal routine” after my surgery two weeks ago. But I’m sure I’ll be knitting and crocheting before long! I’m organizing my yarn today so I can see which yarns would make great squares and maybe find some cool patterns too!

{3} One thing I’ve been doing this week is practicing piano. Playing piano is always fun for me and I’ve been working on some challenging songs this week. This morning, Sara took this video of me playing and singing one of my favorite worship songs, Here I Am To Worship:

{4} I didn’t do much sewing this week. But I did make a new skirt  just a couple of weeks ago and I’m planning my next project –a new handbag! So look out for details and pictures sometime next week!

{5} When I set my new goals three weeks ago, I decided to read at least three more books before the end of summer. Since then, I finished reading both Ships of Mercy and In the Presence of My Enemies. Now I’m reading through Shadow of the Almighty. by Elisabeth Elliot. The book is a biography about her husband, Jim Elliot who was killed as he and 4 other missionaries tried to make contact with a remote South American tribe. He’s life is truly inspiring and I’ve enjoyed reading through it! 

I’ve also been studying the GED test prep book…the work hasn’t been difficult –it’s  just lots of review so I’ve been doing it while resting. 

Even though it seems like I didn’t do much this week, I’ve been making progress toward my goals. I can’t believe there’s just one more week of SWAP! It’s been so much fun being productive this summer and actually get things done!

Did you set some goals for this summer? How are you making progress?

Praying that all of you have a blessed weekend!

Knit and Crochet-Along for Romania

Lately, God has been putting it on my heart to use the talents that He's blessed me with for the benefit of others. A few weeks ago I was reading through Scripture and came across this verse:

 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good until all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. ~Galatians 6:10

Last month while in the craft shop with my Dad picking up some yarn, he had a thought. Why don't we purchase some extra yarn to knit and crochet hats for the orphans in Botosani, Romania? Our family has known the Hand of Help orphanage for several years and have been amazed at the work that God has been doing through their ministry. Hand of Help is a nondenominational, Christian organization that is dedicated to " providing spiritual and physical aid to the forsaken of society throughout Eastern Europe". Their orphanage, located in northeast Romania, cares for nearly 100 children and each of them receive the individual care and attention that every child needs. Several years ago when my sister and I were practicing our knitting skills, we made several hat and scarf sets for the orphanage. They appreciated the clothing so much and it made my sister and I feel happy that we had an opportunity to use our God-given talents to be a blessing to others.

So now that I have improved my knitting skills and have learned to crochet, I quickly agreed with Dad and thought this would be the perfect project for my blog's next knit & crochet along project!

Since the friendship afghans project is still ongoing, I didn't plan to start this month. But after discussing my plans with Hand of Help, I learned that their winter container leaves the US in October and I realized that we need to start soon if the hats are to arrive at the orphanage in time for the winter. This knit & crochet along is great for both beginners and pros because you can choose what you would like to make (a hat or scarf), and use any yarn you like. Here are the guidelines, please read them carefully:

{1}  There are almost 100 children in the orphanage and the goal is to make a warm winter hat for each child in the orphanage.You can make hat and scarf sets or just hats.

{2} The children's ages range from 0-18 so the hats and scarfs can be any size and any color. Please remember that it gets quite cold during Romania's winter so the hats shouldn't be lacy or thin. You can use any needle or crochet hook you prefer and all yarns are accepted.

{3} If you finish the hats and scarfs on or before October 15, please mail them to this address:

Hand of Help - Shipping

1012 South 3rd. St.

Watertown, Wisconsin 53094

U.S.A.

Hats and scarves received before the end of October will be placed in the ministry's container and shipped from there to Romania. If you miss the container deadline, you'll have to send the hats and scarves directly to the Romanian orphanage or wait for another container to leave the ministry early next year. You can find the address for the orphanage here.

{4} And if you've read through this looooong post, you can enter my giveaway! Yes, you read correctly. I'm hosting my second giveaway! (You never know where you'll find a giveaway, do you!?!) It's important to spread the word about this knit and crochet-along so we can meet our goal of 100 hats for the orphans of Romania. To encourage you to tell all you friends about it, there will be a free apron (hand-made by me) for the person who refers the most participants! To enter the giveaway, let your friends know about the knit & crochet-along, ask them to join and let me know who referred them. You can write a blog post, mention it on Facebook, and even tweet about it. And to make it even easier for you to refer your friends here, I've made a blog button! 

To grab this code for your blog, copy
the code in my right sidebar!

At the end of this month, I'll announce the winner of the giveaway who will receive a free, custom-made apron! So get started and spread the word! 

If you want join us, please leave a comment below and let me know you'd like to be counted as a participant. All participants will be listed in my sidebar. Once you've finished your hats and scarves, let me know how many you made so I can know when the goal has been reached!

Happy knitting and crocheting!

FA: Let's Get Started!

{Picture credit}

Today's the 15th and the starting date for the friendship afghans project! The blue color theme won the vote so we will making twelve 7 inch squares in shades of blue. Since we have six participants, we'll be mailing two of the squares to each participant keeping two for ourselves.  Remember, you can either knit or crochet the squares --whichever craft you prefer. Try different patterns and designs to make your squares unique. Lion Brand has a wonderful Stitch Finder where you can find a wide variety of designs for both knitting and crocheting projects so stop by there for some ideas! However, try to avoid patterns that are lacy or have a lot of holes.

Please visit the Friendship Afghans page to review the guidelines for the project and leave a comment there to update me on your progress!

So get started, and happy crafting!

Friendship Afghan: Guidelines

{Photo credit}

To make it easier for all my friends to join me in making friendship afghans, you can either knit or crochet your afghan squares -whichever craft you is easier for you. However, there will be a few guidelines we'll need to follow so that the squares are about the same size. 

GUIDELINES for the FRIENDSHIP AFGHANS

1. You can use any needles or hooks you need to get an 7 inch square. Be creative and try different stitches and patterns for your squares, waves and color blends are a plus! However, try to avoid stitches that are lacy or have a lot of holes.

2. You can use any 100% acrylic, worsted weight yarn. Most acrylic yarns have the same washing instructions and acrylic yarn usually has the widest variety in stores. Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand is one of my favorite yarns and great for afghans so I'll probably use it. They have a wide variety of color choices to choose from; you can see some of the colors available on Lion Brand's Blog. However, feel free to try something new or have fun working with your favorite yarn!

3. It would be a good idea to set a time limit to complete the squares. This should help us to finish the project and add a little incentive to go through with it. We'll be making 12 afghan squares each, and I'd like to have them in the mail in about 4 months. So if we start on the 15th of June, we can complete the squares by mid-October! Once you receive all your squares, you can begin sewing them together and it's up to you how long you take to finish it off! What do you all think? Is four months enough time to make 12 squares or do you think you'll need more time to finish them? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

4. In order to select colors that will match and make beautiful afghans, we'll need to choose a color theme (for example, autumn, pastels, pink and cream, blues). Once I have a complete list of participants, I'll set up a poll so we can vote on a theme! If you have a color scheme you would like to suggest for the poll, please leave a comment below!

I've tried to make the guidelines as flexible as possible so that everyone that's interested can join in. This is going to be lots of fun and I can't wait to start! It's important that I hear back from you if you're interested so I can get a list of participants, and we can start planning together!

Blessings,

P.S. From now on, I'll put "FA" in the blog post titles that are about the friendship afghans.

Friendship Afghan!

Now that my hand is much better, I'm having fun getting back to knitting and crocheting. I thought of a cool idea earlier today! I was wondering if you all would be interested in joining me to make a friendship afghan. Each of us can crochet afghan squares (number of squares made will depend on number of participants) and mail a square to each friend that's participating, keeping one for ourselves. Once we receive squares from participating friends, we can stitch them together to make a friendship afghan and would be a great keepsake to remember our blogger friends by! :-) We can keep everyone updated on the progress of our squares by blogging about it or leaving a comment here.

Before starting, I need to make sure there are enough friends interested to go through with the exchange. I'd like to have 12 participants so we can make 12 squares each. Once I have enough participants signed up for the afghan, we can select a yarn and pattern and begin!

I've been making some progress on the baby throw that I started for the KCA (Knit/Crochet Along) a couple of months ago. Five out of nine squares have been finished so far and it's been a lot of fun to work on this project! The yarn is soft and has an interesting texture making it a pleasure to work with.

Ideally, I'd like to start the friendship afghan squares on the 15th of June so please comment below if you're interested and be sure to tell your friends too!

Blessings,

Friendship Afghan - Knit or Crochet!

Picture from Google Images

To make it easier for all my friends to join me in making a friendship afghan, you can either knit or crochet your afghan squares -whichever craft you is easier for you. However, there will be a few guidelines we'll need to follow so that the squares are about the same size.

I'll be outlining the guidelines in a future post, but for now I'd like to hear from you if you're interested and would like to join us!

Please leave a comment below if you would like to join, and be sure to tell your friends too! All participants will be listed in my sidebar!

Hope you all have a blessed day!

A Broken Arm

I decided to get a second doctor's opinion on my arm. It's been hurting constantly since I fell over a month ago and Dad and Mom agreed it would be a good idea to see another doctor. The doctor I first saw (Dr. C) told me that it should feel much better within 2 weeks but after nearly 3 weeks of constant pain we decided to get an appointment see another orthopedic surgeon.

So this Thursday, Dad took me to see Dr. T. I'm glad that I saw another doctor because it turns out that I actually broke my arm instead of fracturing it as we were told at first. Dr. T did agree with the first doctor and said that my wrist should heal just fine in the splint but I shouldn't be exercising it as Dr. C said. Instead, I need to leave it in the splint and sling for another three weeks and should try to avoid using it too much. And after the splint comes off, I'll have to attend physical therapy to regain proper use of my arm and make sure I use it properly.

Sometimes I'm able to crochet by using my right hand more than I normally would when crocheting. It's slow going but I'm making progress on the baby blanket. :-)

I got a new sling that has better support for my arm. :-)

Hope you all have had a good week and I pray that you all will enjoy this weekend.

KCA: The Fun Begins!

Yesterday, Sara and I went into town and visited our local yarn shop. The store didn't have much Vanna's Choice yarn to choose from so I decided to purchase several balls of Lion Brand's Cupcake yarn instead. Cupcake yarn is worsted weight like Vanna's Choice but the gauge works out slightly smaller so I might have to add a border to make up the difference in size. It's really soft and the colors are pretty too, so it's perfect for a baby blanket.

I've already started on making a square! 

I'm continuing to make progress on the Hanover hat. It probably measures about 2 inches right now, so I'm not quite at the halfway mark. I love working with Homespun yarn and this project is lots of fun!

If you haven't joined our knit or crochet along yet, it's not too late to do so. Participants will be knitting a hat or crocheting a baby throw, whichever you project you choose. There is no time limit and the patterns are rated easy so it would be great for beginners too! 

If you've already started working away at your project, please comment and let me know how you all are doing with your projects. 

Blessings, Eden-May

*Sorry if you tried to view this post earlier but weren't able to. I posted this  earlier but had to delete the post because it wasn't displaying properly.*

Knit and Crochet-Along

I haven't posted for several days because I couldn't think of something interesting to write about.  Sometimes, reading through my blog archives helps, and this time it worked. I noticed that I haven't written anything more on the knit/crochet along so here's an update. :-)

Because there seems to be split on which craft should be chosen, I'll feature two patterns, one crochet and the other knit. That way, we can all participate.

If you decide to join me in this knit and crochet-along, please write about your progress on your blog and link back to my blog. If you don't have a blog, you can still participate, just add a comment below letting us know you're joining in.

For the knitters, we'll be working on the Hanover Hat. The pattern calls for Vanna's Choice yarn and size 9(5.5mm) needles. Vanna's Choice is worsted weight yarn so you can substitute it with another yarn of the weight. The pattern is rated beginner and has several good reviews so it should turn out good. :-) To access the pattern, you'll need to register at Lion Brand's website. Registration is free and you gain access to over 2,000 free patterns! :-D 

I'll also be crocheting the 9-patch baby throw. This pattern is rated easy and also uses Vanna's Choice which is easy to substitute. It's made in 9 squares which are sewn together when you're done. I'm sure we could also add a good border around it too. :-)

Feel free to experiment with different yarns and colors to make something uniquely yours. I'll be posting on each project and the yarns I choose tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you all participate!

Blessings,

Eden-May