So Carlene Came Over....

Carlene is here right now.  While she is madly crocheting (um, I think that she may actually build a whole blanket in one evening), I'm uploading pictures that we just took.

We got these adorable comfort dolls from JCL (Jackie Lambert of West Richmond, Washington).  Jackie, they will make it to Rankin Inlet, where the daycare kids will love them.

...and here are some more things that she made...

Carlene brought these sweaters from her friend Veronica (Veronica, the photo doesn't do them justice, but I am singing the Elvis Costello "Veronica" song to you right now, I hope that helps).

Carlene brought over this box.  It is huge and heavy, and filled with socks (72 of them) and other lovelies below!  The box came from Nandini Rajagopalan of Brooklyn.  

So here are some of the 72 socks...

And here are more of the 72 socks...

And yes, even more socks.  Nandini (ravename 20cffrog), thank you so much - looove the sizes.

Here are some crocheted sweaters that Nandini made - I put my favorite one on the top - you are going to make some little girls very happy!

and last but definitely not least, my sweet and gorgeous Carlene made these and the next pic.  She is my ravelry hero, and she can't see me typing right now but when she gets home she will read this and blush.

Love to all of you,

ab

Its rolling in now...

I got 3 packages in the mail this week, plus a giant garbage bag filled with stuff.  Carlene is coming over tonight so we can confab about the shipment, then off we go!

These hats and the vests below come from Bonnie Belanger (Panther on Ravelry) of Ottawa.  Thanks Bonnie, the hats and vests will be very appreciated!

These 9 hats came in an envelope simply labeled "Waterloo, Ontario".  I think these are a ravelry installment, but feel free to comment, and thank you!

Coldwater!  We love you and your hats!  This picture and the the three below represent all of the hats received from the Purple Sock.  I arranged them in a little game I like to call "find your hat".  Coldwater knitters, can you spot your hat?

And last but not least I got a giant garbage bag of stuff from Judy from Kingston (hats, mittens, socks, and vests).  Judy, I thought I'd have my daughter model samples of the mitties and slippers rather than undo your perfect packaging.  There must have been 50 pairs of the slippers which are just perfect.  My daughter's reaction: "So cozy.  Can we keep them?".  No we cannot, they have a long plane ride to go before they get on the next set of cold and appreciative tootsies.  Also, check out Judy's honeycomb mittens below - she knit at least 10 sets.  Again Judy thank you so much, I'm pretty sure you single-handedly contributed 100 items, and we're grateful!

xxx

Sara, Ann, Cathie, Tina and Barbara are planting trees

Nelson Henderson said 'The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.'  There's something that I love about that quote.  I got it mailed to me via the Happiness Project (they send me a morning quote each day which kind of sets my compass most days). 



Ahhhh September.  The month in which you are so grateful for every hot day because you can see them disappearing soon.  The month when asking "how was your summer?" is the greeting instead of "I cannot believe its so cold out here?  It was minus 30 this morning for (*&$ sake.  When is this freaking winter going to be over?  What's it going to go down to tonight?"

Or is that just the standard Ottawa greeting? 

In September, the letter-carrier and I also get to be girlfriends.  I see her a lot more, as she's dropping off your fabulous boxes.  And without further ado...

SO Sarah (aka camrosegirl), Ann (aka hockeyfleck) and Cathie of Camrose Alberta sent in a lovely box of items.  Above are 3 blankets by them.

And here are a bunch of itty-bitty socks.  Ladies, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you adding the labels.  You are saving the Warm Hands army lots of legwork (fingerwork?) on packing night.

And another blanket and hats by the same gang, with a pair of mitties thrown in for good luck.

This hat a mittens comes from Knits Yours, Knot Mine.  Her zibbet shop can be found here.  Sabrina, I love your stuff, and thank you so much for sending in the spinny hat and beautiful baby sweater.

Tina is from Greenfield Park, QC.Tina Martin, what is your rav name?    At any rate, we looove your hats.  The sizes are great, and you are a gifted pom-pom maker.  How come my pom-poms always turn our scraggly, and yours are a poofy work of art?

Barbara Dreher is our longest-distance knitter.  She lives in Takasuki City, Osaka, Japan.  Barbara, my boy (the one you knit the sens hat for) took this picture of your stuff.  He wanted it to be arty, so he grabbed a flower from our garden and threw it in there.

And Barbara also made these gorgeous two-ply hats.  They are larger sizes, which is always lovely for the older kids.  I can just see some kids in Moosonee and Gjoa Haven turned out in Barbara designs.

On a final note, we got an email from Vogue Knitting recently - looks like we're going to be featured in their Canada Gives column at Christmas time (Carlene, our VEEP communications will fill you in a bit more).  Did you ever think when we started this journey together, that we would be here?  Remember when the goal was 50 items to ship in total?  We've got more than that in this blog post alone. 

Thanks to all of you WarmHanders for planting those trees.

xxxooo ab

Lynn, is this you???

Ahhh back to school.  I love it!  A chance for renewal, to start again, to get organized....

In that vein, my mind turns to our fall packing party for WHN, and I started opening boxes.   Problem is, matching boxes to emails has now become complicated.... Lynnw63 of Minding my Own Stitches fame, is this yours?

Lynn, I think that these were part of the package.  There were socks, there were beautiful blankets (I loooove a crochetted blanket).

...and there were even sweaters (south-east part of this photo).  Thanks, Lynn!

Saskatchewan, Maryland and Jodie and her Mom

Karen Zorn of Churchbridge Saskatchewan sent in these sockies.  Thanks for making them machine-washable Karen, and thanks for the cashola which will go towards the boots fund.

I loved the picture on the card - I have a family member who shall remain nameless who looks exactly like the card from Clauroni (hope I got that right) Delaney of Laurel, Maryland.  I love the nori neckwarmer.

These are from Jodie's mom of Ottawa.  Jodie's mom:  These 27 pairs of mittens were so perfectly wrapped, I didn't open them.  They'll go to the community exactly as is - thank you!

Question:  Are Jodie and Margaret the same person?  I got big boxes and I'm a bit confused.  I believe that these come from Margaret Bradford, of Ottawa, but they were dropped at my front door on the same day as I got Jodie's stuff.  Mystery to be solved...

And here is a closeup of my favorite Magaret Bradford hat, just because its so darn cheerful.  Thanks Margaret!

Toys for Rankin Inlet

I put the call out for toys awhile ago, and I got these soft knit balls from Esther Richter of Drachenwolle fame.  Thanks Esther!

And these finger puppet creatures came from Lynnw63 of Minding my Own Stitches.  They will go to the Rankin Inlet daycare where they will be much loved!

I can't believe the uniqueness of these little critters.  Here are a teeny zeebra and goat.  Love them all!

And finally a cuddly teddy, again from Lynn.