Packing Night Jan 2016

It was a chilly packing night - lots of chatter, photographing, sorting, boxing, vacuuming and taping.  Soon your beautiful things will be on a wonderful Canadian North plane to Jimmy Hikok school and to Cape Dorset.

In the interest of brevity, I'm just going to list names and towns below, for the contributions we hadn't photographed yet.  They are all so beautiful!

Thank you to my packing night gems: Carlene, Suzanne, Rebecca, Catriona, Claire, Jeanine.  I love you all.

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These vests were completed by M Horsburgh of Point Edward ON

There were several items above and below sent in by Janet Wright of Fredericton: hats by Ali,  neck warmers by Ann, socks by Janet and Colleen and mittens by Janet.  Thank you!

Hats above and sweaters below by M Bradford of Ottawa

Bonnie Belanger of Ottawa, thank you!

Jeremy D in BC made these 3 pairs of socks.  Jeremy is also our graphics guy - thank you!

Cathy Kihle of Sarnia ON made these mittens and socks

A "before" picture - of maybe 30% of the stuff we were boxing and packing this weekend.

The hats, socks and mittens were made by Bonnie Belanger as well.

I think that this was a stack of stuff made and dropped off at KnitKnackers

Puppy is trying to help.

The hats (50!) made by Nandini of Brooklyn NY.  Nandini I'm sure the items will be well appreciated!

Linda Rogers of Haileybury sent in these items on behalf of her crafting group.  Thank you Linda.

These items came in from Karen Zorn of SK.  

Another set from KnitKnackers!

This blanket came in from Claire who is also modelling it.  Good job, Claire!

Carlene is also modelling this blanket.  Thanks!

The blanket and neck warmers come from Carlene Sr from London ON

More knitknacker hats!

Mitts and a hat/mitten set from our new friend Rebecca.

The baby blankets, mitts and socks also come from Knitknackers

The green socks on the bottom come from Jeanine (Douce Aubergine)

…and here is Jeanine herself!

More from Jeanine!

atopbing (Anna) of Morrisburg made the socks below (she had never made them before!), the pink hat and more socks.

Dorothy Langill thank you for the vests

Catriona/Bloocanoe made the mittens, socks and slippers here.  She is also a sorter/bagger/vacuumer extraordinaire.

These two bags stuffed with blankets and toys came from the Huntsville ladies, Karen McCaskill, Bernice Smith, Janet Smith.  Thank you!

The hats, mittens, sweater, toothbrushes came from Wen the Knitter , our maven.

….and superwarm neck warmers by the same Wen.

…first we squeeze….

…then we vacuum

….then we take a break.  Ahhhhhh.

WentheKnitter's BFF, Doctor Peg, apenny, Muffy and more...

You've done it again:

The cupboards were bare in August, and they are once again full of your beautiful items, just waiting to be shipped.  Here we go:

penny of Burlington ON sent in these three neck warmers and socks.  Apenny, I think you've been with us for awhile, haven't you?

But here's a newbie!  Thanks Khamc from London ON.

You can always count on Karen Zorn of Bredenbury, SK with her socks, hats and nekwarmers.  She knits thick.  I'm guessing that the SK winters are on the cooler side as well.

Rav Muffy of Saint-Lazare, QC: thank you for the cute pink hate and socks.

DoctorPeg of Oakville always includes the best cards.  Some of these items were knit by her and some were knit by her mom Aileen.  Thanks, Doctor Peg!

Doctor Peg also made these items.  The blue and grey cowl is my favourite - I couldn't help but wonder at the back end of it.  Doctor Peg, how are you so neat?

Jeannette Burr of Oshawa ON, first time contributor, thank you!   Jeannette created sets and boxed them up.  They were so well organized that I didn't want to open them all to photograph so I just took a picture of a subset below.

These blankets were made by a mystery contributor and dropped off at Yarn Forward.  I took pics anyways because the person used our tags, so clearly she knows the WHN story.  Or maybe its a he?  Mystery!  Update:  Are these from you, aclark4?

So WentheKnitter, a long-time contributor posted about WHN on her on-line bulletin board at work, and Paulette's mother Joan contributed the following.  Thing I really like about these hats is that they all cover ears.  Way to go, Joan.

And then Wentheknitter posted again, and got these hats made by Ruth at her work...

And then WentheKnitter's BFF, Craft Ellam (Christine) made all of these - her second contribution to WHN.

Wen, you win the January 2016 maven award.

I will post photos of boxes unpacked and packed next.  Thanks everyone!

News From Whale's Cove and Your Knits

Well the holidays are over.  Trees are coming down, ornaments and decorations wrapped for another year, cheese trays back in the cabinet and relatives are back on planes and in cars returning home.  Here's my favourite part of this day:  its a time to set your intention for the new year, to look forward - 365 pages ready to be filled, many with your beautiful hand-knits.

BTW, I received a lovely note from Whale's Cove: the boxes that you sent up were soooo loved.  Our teacher contact told us that when she opened the boxes at the school, the kids were so excited - they kept asking her "who sent this one?".   My conclusion: your labels were a huge hit!  I love the idea that a child in a small community in northern Nunnavut was looking at labels that say chococupcakegirl or Wentheknitter, or craftykellam or Susan Wood or Suzanne or Jackie or...and thrilled that somebody far away was thinking about them and wishing them well.

So the warehouse (aka my basement) is full right now.  We'll start packing very very soon and getting your lovely hand-knits out the door.

Maureen Lefebre of Kamloops BC made this lovely combo.  Love the yellow stripe hat!

Socks by Jackie Lambert of Richmond, WA.  The socks are for Jimmy Hikok school (JCL, I promise them will get there).  Just a note, Jackie that we received the 2 boxes from you!).

…and I love the neck warmer, Jackie...

..and more for Cape Dorset.  Thanks, Jackie!

Kathleen Thomas of Thorndike, MA sent us 1 whole row of balaclavas and 1 whole row of mittens.  Kathleen, the balaclavas are so perfect - I can imagine kids wearing them while ice-fishing.

These hats and neck warmers are from Waterloo, ON. I think we got a box of yarn from the same person.  Thanks, Waterloo!

We have been long-time fans of Wendy Genge of Smoke Lake AB.  She is prolific, practical and has beautiful knitmanship (is that a word?).  Here are her neck warmers...

…and her mittens...

...and her sweaters and hats...

….and her socks.  Well done, again, Wendy.

Sandra MacDonald of Stirling, ON is a first-time participant.  Sandra your items were perfect and we are always hungry for socks.  Thank you!

These hats and socks and mittens were made by nannylor of Kensington PEI.  Lovely!