The Drachenwolle Mob

Check out these amazing pictures from the German gang. Germans, can you find your stuff?

Okay got a MASSIVE box last week and have finally opened it to reveal the treasures above. Much thanks to the following lovely ladies:

Christiane Schelling of Dusslinque

Eva of Postdam (cute turtleneck topper - very handy!

Silvia of Eggendorf (Austria)

Daniela Ronner of Ostereich

Liebe Gruibe of Austria (?) hope I got that right Liebe

Liebe Gruibe of Castrop-Rauxel Germany

Michaela of Rutensheim in Baden Wartembeg (check out her blog)

Jennifer from Soest

Juli from Stuttgart

Liebe Gruibe of Bietigheim Bissingen Moggel Moni (wait a minute, I'm seeing a trend with the Gruibes)

Juli of Stuttgart

Niniflix of Bavaria

Simone from Germany (girl your mini sock keychains are so cute)

Anna Nychelharpen

8-fach grope

Claudi of Berlin

Andrea from Osnabrueck

Sysabbe from Cologne

wolschaefchen and her sister

Karin of Osnabrueck

Audrun from Heidelberg

Andrea Rathing of Bad Munder

Kristin (Charrisha) from Nonnenhorn

Martina

Claudette, Jeanine and Barbara

So I went to one of our yarn partners last weekend, and Gisele (of Wool 'n' Things) had a bunch of blankets for me. There were 18 blankets from Claudette! Claudette, not sure who you are exactly (post a comment so I know) but you are absolutely marvelous.

Okay, here are Jeannine's items. I put my favorite one in first. This blanket is gorgeous - its woven (Douce Aubergine's mommy is also an amazing weaver, as well as a knitter)

Two more knit blankets from J and a bevy of socks....

Barb heads up the Japanese arm of Warm Hands. Here are 3 lovely blankets she sent in. Barb, thanks so much for the extra yarn - we try to join all pairs of socks before we send them to the community.

Jeanine and the Germans

Sounds like a band, doesn't it? Josie and the Pussycats/Jeanine and the Germans?
So the initial trickle of items coming in is turning into a small continuously flowing river. This week, items came in from Jeanine, the Germans and Barb of Japan.


Jeanine and Barb, I'll be putting your stuff in a separate post, 'cause it looks like this one is overflowing.


So here is the route for the German stuff: Germany-St-Georges-Ottawa-Montreal-Goosebay. Jeanine, who was one of the very first Warmhanders and has been a great cheerleader on Ravelry, picked up the stuff from Esther in Quebec and brought it to my place. Here is Aubergine's mommy herself. In her right hand are German socks, and in her left is a blanket she made herself:

Okay, you fabulous German sock superstars, the name of the game is "find your socks". Take a look at the pictures below and see if you can find the socks you sent in.
A million thank yous to the following:
Ute of Griefswald
Eva
Heike Sonntag
Claudia of Berlin
Jirgen Rischer
Daniela Ronner of Wien
Elizabeth Bak of Lohne
Andrea of Braunschweig
Ute of Augsburg
Silvia of Eggendorf
Jurgen of Lauf
Eva of Potsdam
Nattie from England (hey! our first Brit!)
Petra from Kastellaun
Jana of Zwichan
Jurgen Fischer
Petra Massing of nauheim
Andrea Rosel of Nattheim
Euridke of Essen (check out her blog)
Josi and Cindy from Hohenwarte
The "sun lady" from Nuremburg (you know who you are)
And last but not least, the rockin' sockin' Esther and her sister, of Drachenwolle fame, who found us and said, "Germans? Innu? I see the connection!"

To whoever sent in the toothbrushes, lipbalm and little girl hair items, thank you so much! These items will make a huge difference to a child.

Thanks Janet and Kathleen!

Okay, got some amazing items to post on:



1. This is from Janet of New Brunswick, aka bus13knitter on Ravelry. Janet thanks so much for the charitable contribution as well. We'll use it to buy boots for sure.







2. And before I left on holidays (Vancouver (or as my people call it "Bancouber"), Seattle, Portland, Victoria), I got this amazingly humungous box from Kathleen aka Kathleeno1 of Nova Scotia:





blankets first (the mitred one is my fave):





now socks, in an amazing array of sizes:



Given all the ravelry traffic, and the stuff that's already come in, I do believe that we'll be able to get every needy kid in the community a few pairs of socks - what a concept.

I'm waiting for the boot sales now, and we'll buy whatever we can to fill the shipment (though I think we might be cutting it close at the 100 pound mark) - thanks for everything guys, and stay tuned.

Finally, an update on shipping: I spoke to the lovely and talented Eric Fudge of Provincial Airlines and that absolute sweetheart is back in for another shipment. Eric, we love you!


Anita

It Came from Japan (and Ottawa)

Hey fab knitters!

After a quiet June on the Warm Hands front, stuff is starting to roll in. So last week, I got TWO big boxes from Japan (Takatsuki City to be precise), from our lovely Barb Dreher (aka obisaan from Ravelry). Barb is an ex-pat living in Japan right now, and has been contributing to Warm Hands for almost 2 years now.

The first thing I saw was that Barb made our very cool Mags Kandis pattern (hugs and kisses) which was created by Mags (of Mission Falls fame) especially for Warm Hands. Mags told me she thought of hugs and kisses because she wanted to convey to the kiddies that we knit for, that we're thinking warm thoughts about them.

Here is my favorite Barb blankie - Barb, I love it both for the pattern and the colour. I took the photo outside so the shadows are of tree branches hanging over the blanket. I love the stars.

And here are 6 more of the blankets that Barb made. I love the scalloped edges. Barbara, thank you thank you thank you!

Here are some mittens knit by Daphne Edmonds of the Knitting guild. Daphne has knit over 100 pairs for us since we started - thanks again, Daphne, my librarian!

And here are a couple of cute hats by Peggy Holton, also of the Guild! Guys, I love the little tags that you attach to your stuff. I think its great when we attach something that says to an Innu mom, "this was something made especially for your child, from warm hands, and warm hearts".

Love you all - you make this project happen!

Anita and Amy

The Germans are In!

So we were contacted by Esther, a German now living in Canada who asked if we'd be interested in hooking up with a Ravelry group out of Germany who are fans of Drachenwolle, owned by the very generous Christiane (more on that later). Of course, Amy and I said "the more the merrier".

Well they are going to town. I can't even keep up with them (esp since most of them discuss in German, and babelfish gives me great translations like: "Yes, I like Kurt also! More coming!") but here's a link to their ravelry group:

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/drachenwolle

And here is a link to Christiane's company, Drachenwolle - her yarn is beautiful and she has graciously offered to donate yarn to the Germans for our campaign. Yay!

The three pictures above are actually teasers of her stuff. Titillated? Check out her site at:

http://www.drachenwolle.de/english-navigation-1.php

The Count from March

I just realized that I never did post the count from the March Innu shipment, so here it is:

Socks: 108 pairs
Blankets: 22
Hats: 218
Sweaters/vests: 56
Mittens: 62

Thanks to each and every one of you, and here's to the September 2010 shipment!

Anita and Amy