And they're off!

So today, everything is making its way to the post office.  The ladies came over last weekend (here are Claire, Carlene and Suzanne), walking in the door.  We ate, we packed, then we ate some more.  Carlene has already dropped off the boxes to Baffin Larga and the stuff for Gjoa Haven and Moosonee walks out the door today.  The Moosonee kids library project is well on its way, as well, with the wonderful help of Orca Books, Usborne Books and Scholastic.  Yay!

These neckwarmers came to us in a box from Ayr Ontario, but with no name.  Ayr, thank you.

And these are from Kirsten Wiszynski on Ravelry.  Kirstin is a wonderful Canadian living in Umea Sweden.  Thanks, k, for being our first Swedish contributor.

Hat thanks to M Rosamond, Plentimawfish from Waterloo.

Karen Zorn of Churchbridge SK sends stuff in for pretty much every shipment.  We love Karen.  I had to take a closeup of the sweater below because of the bunny buttons...

Knitknackers at Carleton Place contributed this stuff - Knitknackers, I've got to get out to your new locale.!

And here is Claire, holding up the afghan that she made.  It is huge and cosy - she's a friend of Carlene's who came over for her first packing date.  Girl, you fit right into the chaos.  Thank you for coming out!

Jackie Lambert of West Richland, WA - thank you so much for all of the stuff.  In my notes that I use to track for the photos, I just wrote, Jackie - so many things!

More Jackie....

And even more Jackie...

Jeanine (DouceAubergine, also a WH vet), is wearing a blanket from a box that we opened which was sent to us by Nandani Rajagopalan (20cFrog) of NYC.  Thanks, Nandani (we love your stationary, by the way).

My friend Margaret, who escorted the last shipment up to Rankin, delivered these socks, made by her neighbour Muriel. 

This is a stack of stuff from what I wrote down as the "Prayer Shawl People".  Suzanne, do you know any details about this group?  Whoever they are, thank you.

Dianne Suzak of the Ottawa Knitting Guild dropped off these scarves and headbands.

And the sorting begins....

Jeanine Turcotte is a knitter as well as a weaver.  This is one of her beautiful woven blankets.

Marie Claude, a long-time contributor, made a stack of cosy scarves, and blankets.  MC (also known as Claudette), we love your colour choices.  MC also made the blankets below.  My favorite is the red and black one - it pops.

MC also made these slippers, worn by one of our charming show-models.

Slippers again from MC, along with more blankets.

We love boots!  Jeanine and Suzanne brought over these sets of boots, which we stuffed with matching socsk before piling them into the boxes.  Moosonee will be so pleased.

And the table fills up even more... (and you're not seeing what is sorted on 8 chairs and the floor)

A close-up of my favorite Claudette blanket.  See the boxes we are filling in the corner?

Yikes, maybe we underestimated the size of the box, compared to the size of the knitting.  Time to repack!

And we are done, baby!  Time for cake, wine and celebrating.  Another WH success story, thanks to all of you!

So Many Boxes and a Fundraiser

This one came from Markham Ontario.  Markham, who are you?

Okay, forgive me.  There are a mountain of boxes and envelopes to open right now - everything is beautiful and though I know that we will collectively ooh and ahh on packing night, because time is of the essence, I'm just going to post photos and creds - I love them all! 

Now before I go off on a tangent (or maybe I'm doing that now...), I just want to draw your attention to a blog called My Knitting Basket.  The gorgeous Sabrina (hint, some of her stuff is here),  is running a fund-raiser.  She's hoping to get $120.00 in Canadian Tire money.  Now let me tell you, CT $ is like gold to Warm Hands.  No wait, its better than gold:  its boots.  We're going to use the CT money to buy some boots for the kids.  Boots and hand-knit socks make the most incredible gift to a Northern child.  Its like saying, "I care that your feet are warm and dry.  You are important."  So Sabrina will gladly take your CT bucks, and next September, you'll be sending a great message to a Northern kid.

Close-up of Markham's hat because I loved the label.

These two are from Wendy Lindquist of Jersey City.  Wendy, thank you!  These are perfect for a 5-6 year old.

And this arty photo is captioned:  "17 hats and 2 socks".  The address was Waterloo but the name is a mystery...

Two pairs of socks from Vivienne Shishkakly (Muffy) of St. Lazare QC.  This is not Vivienne's first time giving to Warm Hands.  Thanks for coming back, Muffy!

Pile'o' socks from Kathleen Walling of Bedford NS (Kathleen01 on rav).  I liked the turn of the heel so much that I took a close-up, below.  Thank you, K!

Bonnie Belanger is also a Warm Hands vet - Bonnie, everything was bagged and labeled - rather than pull things out and mix them up, I just took out one item, the neckwarmer, being worn by our spokesmodel, above.

Tons of hats, contributed by the lovely Sabrina of Mississauga.  Sabrina has a whole knitting collective producing for her.

And finally more hats by Muffy.  Thanks again everyone!

Lots of Stuff...

Okay, so many things to say!

First of all, I just got a note from Hannah Qirqutt, our community liaison in Gjoa Haven.  Once again, it looks like it took some time for the stuff to arrive.  First Air is amazing, but they can't do anything about those crazy blizzards.  Here's her note:

Dearest Anita,

 

I have received your 4 boxes and am very thankful for our community and I am ever grateful that I had signed up for our community to receive these donations!

As our community is finally back in their workplaces this week, I will pass the boxes on to our Mom & Tots workers who will distribute the items to the needy.

Once again Thank you from our community.

Have a blessed New Year Anita.

 

Hannah Q

Cute, eh?

Okay, next thing:  looks like Vogue Knitting wrote an article about all of you Warm Hands knitters.  Haven't seen it myself, but Carlene and Amy did and they said it was mighty thrilling.

Here are some items that came in the mail in December (my apologies for the delay in posting the photos!).  This means that I am all caught up though which is good news:

We got a gaggle of hats from the knitters at the Valleyview Bible Church in Kamloops BC.  Thanks Valleyview.

Kathryn Riosa of Charlottesville made this little blazer.  My boy inserted the candy cane for a little additional flash.

This hat and neck-warmer came from Kathleen Sullivan of Pleasant Hill Indiana.

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And these warm socks and mitts came from Kathleen as well.  Love the woolies from our Southern neighbours!

The blankets plus the hats and socks included in the pix below come from M Rosamond of Waterloo Ontario.  Thanks M!

And finally, kind of a non sequitur but kind of not:  I took a trip to India this Christmas.  It was exhilerating, terrifying, humbling, humorous, a little gross and life-changing, usually all in the same 30 seconds.  When I got back, I wanted to keep the sweet feeling alive so I became a bank for Kiva who I have always loved but never loaned with (partnered with? loaned to? not sure of the correct term.  But I digress:  point being, there is a group of women looking for a loan so that they can buy local yarn and weave it then sell the stuff.  How cool is that?  Women and business:  good.  Yarn: good.  Shopping: good.  Its all good.

Remember Margaret?  She's my friend who came back from dropping off our knitted stuff in person to the daycare in Rankin Inlet.  Toy knitters: be assured that your little doodads are now in the appreciative tiny hands of the toddlers of Rankin Inlet.  Margaret was recently in Costa Rica and she told me about an organization called Not Just Tourists.  Here's what happened: Margaret picked up a suitcase of medical supplies (bandages and stuff) and delivered them to a public clinic in Costa Rica - this is stuff that is not available or cost-prohibitive in the local economy, but is surplus in Canada.  I love it!  Wish I had known about it before going to India.  Not Just Tourist don't want your money - they thrive on donations in kind (bandages, etc and your free luggage space when you travel).  I'll just put a shout-out and mention that one thing that they do appreciate receiving are suitcases that you no longer want - they can be used to carry the items, and the suitcases are also donated to the clinics for future use.  Another win-win-win.

So last of all: let me wish all of you Warm Handers a 2013 that is a bit like my trip to India:  exhilerating, terrifying, humbling, humorous, a little gross, and life-changing.  Its all good.

Love,

Anita

Lois, Sabrina and Vivienne

So the January knitting season is upon us!  I am starting to get packages already for the January 2013 shipment.  Here are 2 sets of socks from Sabrina Thompson of Knit Yours Knot Mine.  Sabrina has a zibbet site as well.  On Ravelry, I love her name:  Knitphomaniac!

And here are some photos from Vivenne Sishakly of St. Lazare(Muffy on Ravelry:  okay I am spotting a trend of cute Ravelry names - wish I'd thought more about mine:  Warm Hands sounds like it could be a little dirty...

Vivienne also sent in this beautiful baby set - V, I have kept all of the items wrapped up and together so that they will be considered "a set" for a new mother.  Many thanks.

And finally, Lois Manton of Montreal Quebec.  Lois has mitten fever and sent in a wopping 50 pairs of handknit mittens, all beautifully packaged.  I took a picture of a bunch here but I didn't want to take them out of their packaging, so after ooing and aaahing, I picked my favorite one...

....and here it is.   Lois, thank you so much and I hope that you keep sending in your stuff, because we love it!

Boxes on their way!

Okay, lots and lots to say this time, so here's a summary:

1. Vic Mitchell, the Mayor of Moosonee, and ED of the Friendship Centre came over for dinner.  I interviewed him and he is unbelievable.  First, he gave me a detail breakdown as to where our stuff goes.  Its quite amazing.  I'll be posting the interview as soon as I get time to transcribe it, but basically, he has a system to ensure that everything gets to the right place.  He first distributes through the maternal health programs, then goes through the schools, then through various other programs (Christmas baskets are used to provide blankets, hats and socks to families in need).  Finally Vic has arranged a deal through Air Creebec, where he ships the remaining items up James Bay to various communities for distribution.  Vic wants our help in setting up a children's library to serve Moosonee/Moose Factory.  I know there's a way, we just need to figure it out - any thoughts?

2.  We packed and packed!  Vic took boxes of boots and winter woolies up north, and yesterday, I brought fourteen (!) boxes to the post office to be sent up to him.  And there's still more!  The reality that these items actually go to Moosonee, Moose Factory plus five more communities means that there is a lot of need that gets met this way.  There are a few more boxes to ship, then we have to get the remaining boxes up to Hannah in Gjoa Haven and Kwedzo in Rankin Inlet through Ed Picco and the wonderful folks at First Air.

3. While we packed, we also did some last minute photographing.  You aren't seeing Carlene's fabulous blankets (she always brings bags and bags), but she took pictures on the Ravelry Group.  Below are also some pictures from Suzanne, Claudette, Janet, Ellen and Mary, as well as Rammy and Wendy.  Thank you, ladies for all of the time and energy and love you put into each of your hand-knits.

So this is Vic and me.  Vic brought a truck to Ottawa, and we filled it with lots and lots of boots, blankets, sweaters and hats.

This is the partially filled section of his car.  Vic was pretty happy to pick up the items now, as the Friendship Centre hosts a Halloween event which gets many many families from the community into the centre.  His plan was to use the party as a way to get hats, sweater, neckwarmers etc tried on and distributed, as all the kiddies would be there.  Great idea, eh?  Vic and I spent a night talking talking talking about why he does what he does, the community in general (80% living below the poverty line), and his hopes for the future.  Right now, the project that he'd like to do is to create a children's library, as there is no library in Moosonee, and he recognizes that unless kids read for entertainment, its very hard to improve literacy.  He's got some space in a Curling Lounge (they have no funding to maintain the ice, so the lounge is now unused).  So I'm putting the word out.  If anyone out there has an idea as to how we can get new (not used) children's books for Moosonee, then let me know - let's work together on this!  I'm visualizing a space that's warm, friendly and has a books for the older kids as well as a few toys for the younger sibs.  How can we make this happen?

Carlene, Amy and I met last Friday for a "packing party", and holy cow was there stuff.  These beautiful blankets came from Suzanne (suzanneknitter).  The colors are striking, and I always love Suzanne's stuff.

Amy took this picture and entitled it "Claudette's mitten mountain".  Claudette we absolutely love your mitts.  The colours are fabulous.  Below is a close-up of some hats doen by Claudette, as well as her labels, which I loved.  I don't know how you do it Claudette, but I'm glad you do it.

These blankets are by Claudette.  They were incredibly cozy (especially the on on the top right and bottom left).  I took this picture standing on a chair, so that I could get as close to the details as possible.  They kind of have a fluffy quality.  Claudette or Suzanne, what kind of yarn was used for these ones?

Janet (bus13knitter) and her sister Ellen and friend Mary (I hope I got that right), sent these items in via Carlene, from New Brunswick.  Janet, we wound up not opening this bag, because you used a vacuum packed one and we wanted to box it exactly like this to save some shipping costs.

Here are some mittens, hats made by the East-coast knitting posse mentioned above.

OK I took a closeup of this hat because it was adorable, and I made my daughter try it on.

The gorgeous icelandic sweater and blanket come from the same group and will be going to Rankin Inlet.

And finally adorable baby bears made by the East coast posse for the Rankin Inlet daycare.  They were so cuddly and cute - perfect for a newborn's tiny hand.

Oops, one more!  These blankets also came from Janet, Ellen and May.  Janet, we almost just forwarded your boxes up north because they were so tightly packaged, we were afraid that we'd never be able to get them back in again, but then decided against it and I'm glad we did.

Look!  Its a bag of carrots for the Rankin Inlet daycare, from Rammy!

...and finally, Wendy Lindquist of Jersey City sent in these two hats.  Thanks Wendy!

Critters from Alex

Four baby owls to go to Rankin Inlet

My favorite from Alex - the snake was curled around everything.

And finally the last set is from Jeanine.  Thanks for dropping by, J and the chit-chat!

So Jeanine came over today, to drop off some amazing stuff.  She had her own stuff, but in addition, there was a package of toys that were dropped off at her place by Fiona and her 12 (!) year-old daughter Alex.  Alex, you've definitely got a talent.