Sharing our Gifts: 50 Projects for 50 States

Charity knitting is great but as an impatient and easily bored knitter, I have a hard time sticking to a charity knitting project that requires me to make many of the same pattern or item. Some people can crank out baby hats for Newborns in Need or blanket squares for Warming America, but that's just not me. Thankfully I found out about a new charity group - Sharing our Gifts: 50 Projects for 50 States. This group is picking a different charity organization in a different state each month and encouraging members to knit/crochet/sew/craft for that particular organization. The first charity chosen was a veterans facility in Oregon that requested men's hats and slippers. I dug through the stash and came up with a fast and easy pair of slippers. Now the group is working on women and children's hats and mittens for the Lee Shore Center in Alaska which provides a safe haven for women and children affected by domestic abuse. I had actually been wanting to knit mittens out of our new Super Wool Gigante and had even dyed up a skein in bright red for the project. Since mittens really aren't very practical here in NC the yarn ended up being used for a pair of children's mittens using this free pattern.

Bark n Knit Podcast

About a week ago I attended SAFF where we had a booth for a second year. I'll be posting more about the weekend soon, including lots of pictures. One of the many people I had the opportunity to meet over the weekend was Natalie from the Bark n Knit podcast. Natalie and I have two important things in common- we both love to knit and we both LOVE our dogs. I love that Nat podcasts about both of these things and that she always tries to encourage people to adopt pets that have been abandoned or neglected. As you know, my own little puppy dog princess is a rescue! Natalie even took time out of her weekend to come by the booth and do an interview. This is the first time I've been interviewed on a podcast and it sure is weird to hear myself coming out of the computer speakers. She had some good questions and managed to prevent me from embarrassing myself too much. Plus she has some other interesting interviews in the same podcast, so its definitely worth listening to. Check our Natalie's Blog and make sure to listen to episode 37!

SAFF

Tomorrow we are loading up the truck and heading to Asheville, NC for SAFF! The festival runs Friday through Sunday and we will have a booth downstairs in the main hall (exactly opposite from the main entrance).

Laura will be teaching a class on knitting with Gradiance yarns Saturday afternoon and there are still spaces available; you can sign up at the door.

We will have limited internet access while we are away, so we may be a little slower than usual to answer emails or respond to Ravelry posts.

If you'll be at SAFF please make sure to stop by and say hello!

Amani Children's Foundation

Every couple of months we get a letter from the Amani Children's Foundation with an update on how things are going and usually a short story about the kids they help and a photo. I always enjoy reading their letters, and I thought you might enjoy it too. You should be able to click on the letter to the right to be taken to a larger and hopefully readable version.

Learn more about the colorway that we dye to support Amani!

Charitible Contributions

At the end of every quarter I add up 50% of all the yarn and patterns we sold supporting specific charities and send in our donations. I thought you might be interested in knowing what your purchases have allowed us to donate this quarter:

Doctors without Borders: $265.38 Here is the link to their website, and here is the link to our colorways supporting them

Susan G Komen: $99.50 Here is the link to their website, and here and here are the links to our colorways supporting them

Amani Children's Foundation: $33 Here is the link to their website, and here is the link to our colorway supporting them

Animal Rescue: $143 Links to our colorways are Here and Here. We choose a different Animal Rescue group to donate to each quarter. If you would like to recommend an organization, please let us know!

Introducing....Super Wool Gigante!

We are pleased to introduce the newest yarn in our collection- Super Wool GIGANTE! This bulky yarn is softer than you can imagine and dyes up in the most brilliant colors. I've already knit myself a hat and a sweater out of it and am now eagerly awaiting colder winter weather so I can wear them!

Two Tattoos

For several years I've been talking about getting a tattoo of the multicolored sheep that we use as our logo. Three years ago my mother in law drew the line drawing of the sheep and I colored it in with watercolor colored pencils and since then its come to represent the company which means so much to me and seems to consume every waking (and more than a few sleeping) moments of my life now a days. So it felt right that my first tattoo should recognize something so important to my life and who I am as a person.

Finally, about a week ago, my husband and I took a trip to a tattoo shop, Blue Flame, that came highly recommended. We thought we would have to schedule an appointment for later in the week, but they said that for such a small tattoo we could come back in an hour. And before I knew it, I had a tattoo! You can see a few photos of my tattoo experience here.

To celebrate my new tattoo, I'm getting one for you too! Only, yours won't hurt as much and will come off with a bit of scrubbing in the shower. I had temporary tattoos made using our logo Sheep. We will have them with us at festivals (like the one coming up on October 4th!) and you can also snag one with your next order. Just tell us that you'd like one in the comments section when you check out!

ETA: the tattoo is on my thigh, for those wondering!