Mother Bear Project

As soon as I get paid again for something I'm going to send for a knitting teddy bear pattern for the Mother Bear Project. They've given nearly 50,000 teddy bears to children with HIV/Aids in Africa and other places. All bears are made from the same pattern, and either knit or crocheted. I'm just ordering the pattern because I already have yarn and needles. Just the pattern is $5.00. If you need a whole kit, it's $20.00. If you are near Anaheim CA it would be great to have a group gathering for bears. What do you say? http://www.motherbearproject.org/

Heat Wave in July

I've confined myself to quarters, so to speak, during this heat wave. My truck doesn't have air conditioning and unless I have to be somewhere I'm going to work out of my home as much as possible. Luckily for me I have many knit and crochet projects going on right now, and there is no risk of running out of yarn anytime in this millenia.

I want to see the new Harry Potter movie that is coming out soon and fortunately movie theaters are air conditioned in S. California, so no worries there. And I want to find my Slytherin scarf so I can finish it to wear to the theater. But only if I go at night, because it's way too hot to be sporting a neck scarf in these temperatures.

Once again I'd like to remind the knitters out there that learning basic crochet is almost essential to be a successful knitter, because that hook comes in handy for retrieving dropped stitches, fastening odd bits of knitwear together and doing decorative edgings. In general, crocheted edgings work up a whole lot faster than knitted ones. But if you are looking for brownie points for having used knitting and only knitting for the entire project, have at it. I'm not your mother.

Getting Organized

I just spent over an hour sorting a tote bag full of tangled yarn projects. It had a hipband in progress, a finished pink snood, a Christmas scarf almost finished, a doll I started about 15 years ago, several balls of yarn that didn't seem to go with any of the projects, 2 crochet hooks, a circular needle, 2 stitch holders, and other odd bits. Now they are all hanging safely on hangers in the hall closet.

Box O' Yarn

Determined to clean out my old storage unit, we put 3 of my boxes in the truck last time we had it open a week ago. So, today I finally took the boxes out of the truck. Happily one of them was all yarn. Plus about 6 dolls I had knitted sans arms and never finished. Luckily I recognized what they were. I also found about 10 steel crochet hooks, some sewing tools, and 2 bigger aluminum crochet hooks. I'm happy to put all these things into use. Waste not, want not.
The other box had several needlecraft projects in it including some Christmas tree ornaments in cross stitch and a Christmas stocking.

I also found my index book of all the commercial stamps I bought. It was very nostalgic looking through all those.

The last box says 'costuming' and I didn't get to go through it today. Tomorrow is another day. It's already 1 AM.