Sweetness

That's the only way to describe it, when you open up 4 boxes and inside are lovely knitted things but also 4 of the sweetest notes you'd ever want to read.  Ladies I feel I know you all personally, and your notes just speak to me!  I also love all of the little labels on the stuff - I do believe that the labels with your names and locations touch both the grown-ups and the kids that much more.  So great for them to read that there is someone in Vancouver, or Washington or Montreal or Toronto who is thinking of them.

Roll tape!

Jackie Lambert (rag tag icl) can be counted upon to send us at least one box for each shipment -  Jackie I loved the notes, and took a picture of one of them below. 

These lovely neck and head-warmers came from Melanie Achen (mwachen on rav) from Burnaby BC.  Rockin' the purple.

Peggy Wallace of Oakville (drpeg on revelry) made the hats above, and also the socks, mittens, neck warmers etc below.  

I took a closeup of drpeg's fasteners because they looked so northern to me!

And this I love - Kara Mcalyle(aka kalyle) made this blanket that is a revelry squares community effort.  Thanks very much to square-creators: penny (Burlington), Andrea "aclark4" (Ottawa), Plentimawfish (Waterloo), Marlene "constantmac" Ottawa and Betsy "yarn habit (NY).  The note attached gives all of the names and says "This blanket was pieced together during the winter olympics, with contributions from many stitchers.  We hope you enjoy it."
See why I captioned this post "Sweetness"?  

The mittens come from Elaine, Kara's mom, rag "cheatelaineboothe".  Thanks, Elaine!

And finally more stuff from Kara - love the baby booties, Kalyle!

So I've got an email out to the doctors to let them know that we are ready when they are ready.  It may be a balmy 25 degrees here but in Pond Inlet, its 5 degrees, and in Arctic Bay its -5.  Your stuff is appreciated year-round.  Thanks again to everyone for contributing!

Off to Igloolik

So, as I mentioned, I'm off to First Air to send boxes to Igloolik.  We will have 5 boxes filled with your cozies for the community.  Rhoda, our community contact, said she can get the items distributed very quickly - there is such a shortfall of clothing.  Interestingly though, they are interested in items that fit into their own more traditional animal skin clothing - kind of using it as a liner.

I got a couple of boxes in the mail this week, and I'm squeeeezing them into the shipment as well - I want to send absolutely everything we can - let's make our cupboards bare!

So here's what I got this week:

The elephant above, the monkeys and the hats/mittens are from Sabrina Thomspson of Miss ON (otherwise known as knitphomatic on Rav).  Sabrina, thank you very much - your toys will be appreciated in Igloolik!

So when I sent out an "I'm not sure if I have enough" message, of course, Jeanine (douceaubergine) anted up immediately:  Jeanine, the socks and mittens will be very appreciated as I understand the last sets are currently linking kamiks and mittens.  See Jeanine's mittens below:

And finally, we LOVE Barbara Dreher of Takatsuki City, Japan.  Yes, you did read that right:  Barbara sends us stuff for each shipment - she's a Canadian living in Japan to be closer to her grand-babies.  Thanks, Barbara!

And above is a lap blanket/baby blanket from Barbara.  Your timing could not have been better!

BC, CT, Germany and Igloolik

We woke up this morning to yet another dump of snow.  While half of me is holding a pity-party, the other half is thinking about our friends up in Igloolik who are still dealing with -25 degree weather.  In June, they will be experiencing +4 which is what we are going to have today.

So we got a couple of lovely emails from Igloolik this week - they got our "welcome" box that we sent about a month ago, which is nice.  Apparently your lovely stuff went out the day it was received, which is something I LOVE hearing.  We got some stories about a grand-mother who didn't have anything to give her newborn great-grandchildren, and found something perfect in the box.  Hunters are wearing socks and mittens as liners in caribou skin boots - also great to hear.

So bottom line, we put out the request to the lovely folks at First Air who have agreed to put through another shipment - love those guys!  Bottom line is that the cupboard will once again be bare once this shipment goes out - a great position to be in, as it means all your great stuff is being worn and appreciated.

And without further ado, here is the last set of boxes that came in the mail:

These 2 balakavas are from Melanie Acher of Burnaby BC - thanks, Melanie!

Pegg Prestage of Newington, CT: thank you for your beautiful items,  especially the psychedelic socks.

All the way from S D'Onofrio in Stuttgart Germany, comes the blankets above and below, as well as the little hats and neck warmers.  My photos don't do the blankets justice - the flowers are actually crochetted on.

Opening and Packing Night

Hi everyone,

Lots of news and I'm not sure where I left off so forgive me if I repeat myself:

1. We had an opening and packing night on Friday - crazy fun.  Suzanne, Jeanine, Carlene and I opened stuff, admired stuff, organized stuff and ate stuff (not the same stuff).  Here are a couple of pix:

2.  We sent up 2 more big boxes with the doctors in January.  Here are a few pictures one of the doctors took when they dropped off our last set of items.  Desolate and beautiful but looking very cold.

3. Yesterday, we got 2 other boxes out the door: one to Igloolik: we've never shipped there before but I received a lovely request from someone living in the community.  She mentioned that there are several orphans in the community and she was wondering if we could help out.  We also sent a box to the Children's First Society.

4.  The doctors are going up again in June and I think we'd ship with them again.  There may be other opportunities to send "intro boxes" to some communities (maybe Northern Quebec?).  We shall see what the year will bring!

5. Okay, here is what we opened on Friday:

These sweet sweaters and the 24 (!) vests below were sent to us by Nandini from Brooklyn NY.  Nandini, you are prolific.

These socks and hats and mittens were created by Jeanine Turcotte (Rav name Douce Aubergine)

Eliza of Vancouver created the hat and neckwarmer combinations.  Eliza, I'm guessing the weather in Vcvr is nicer than it is here...I heard the flowers are out.

Jackie Lambert (jcl on Rav) has been a prolific contributor.  You know I love me some socks!

Lynn of Scarborough (Her blog is Minding my Own Stitches) is here.

Lynn, I loved the detail on the blanket so much that I took a close-up.

Some lovely donor from Wool n Things in Ottawa provided these items.

Clarione Delaney from Laurel MD knitted these two hats.  The one on the left is super-soft.

Hats and socks and mittens from Robin (rav name "rej" from Ottawa.

Hats, mitts and socks from a mysterious benefactor in Qualicum BC

Penguin hats.  Adorbs!  By Sabrina Thompson of Missisauga ON

Trish from Alberta made the purple hats and the lovely shawl.

...And 5 hats from Oakville ON

Hats from Waterloo Ontario - thank you!

I added this closeup because the tag was so nice...

Peggy from Oakville are these yours?

Peggy from Oakville, another nice collection of your stuff - I liked the story about the vest - there's a close-up below.  Thanks so much!

People are Good - Books and Knitting

I hope that everyone's holidays were filled with food, wine, sleep and laughter - I spent most of it with family but also managed to sneak in some reading time.  Right now I'm reading Dan Brown's Inferno - all of Brown's books are near-apocalyptic, describing global problems that are in his mind, unsolvable.  He loves looking into the heart of e-vil (pinky to corner of mouth) because I guess that sells more than the fundamental truth:
The vast majority of people are good, and doing their very best with the skills and resources that they have - we are all looking for the same thing: a sense of value, however you define it.

Okay enough deep thoughts from Anita - on to greater things.  I have 3 things on the agenda today.

1.  Remember my friend Margaret?  She of the mystery-booties from the last posting?  My friend Seetal hooked me up with a literacy coordinator in Moose Factory, who then hooked up with Margaret.  Margaret took this on as a personal project and has done spectacular things - she has coordinated the shipment of 1350 pounds of books to the community which are used in book camps, after school programs and for other stuff.  There is no real community library so this is kind of huge.  The challenge is always to ensure that the books are the ones that the kids there want to read and make sense - in the words of the coordinator there, no point sending BabySitter Club or Olson Twins books to these communities as this is not their reality.  The big hits seem to be non-fiction, books about animals, books with aboriginal relevance.  Here are Margaret's words:

Books for students along James Bay

As a reader of The Warm Hands Network blog, you may know that Anita identified a need for children's books and established a contact with the literacy specialist at the school board serving Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany and Moose Factory.  These First Nations communities are located in Northern Ontario along the James Bay coast.  There is no road access to these small communities; Moose Factory has rail access but all the rest are fly-in only, most of the year. 

This post is to bring The Warm Hands Network up to date with the events of 2013. 

I’m a friend, neighbour and former co-worker with Anita who got involved when I found a few nature books at my local library book sale.   From my first box to send to Vicki Von Zuben at Omushkego Education Authority in early June 2013, the book campaign has grown more than I ever imagined.

I was at a major book sale in June and the light bulb went on -   when the sale closes, all these books need to go somewhere !!  I explained how the books would be used and the organizers gave me all the children's books at the end of the sale.  So I went from intending to buy a few books at 2 pm to having a truckload of books at 4 pm.  (Big surprise for my husband).   

Through various contacts here in Ottawa including: literacy specific books from the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library; buying at thrift shops; donations after book sales; a book drive by the Nepean Girl Guides; and donations from individual families, the grand total for 2013 is 42 boxes and 1350 lbs of books sent to schools along James Bay plus 7 boxes shared here in Ottawa.  

TD Bank has agreed to donate $1300 to cover the shipping costs for 2013. 

Everyone I've met has been very excited to contribute books to children who otherwise would not have access.    And made great suggestions and linkages that get more books and support.  

I'm excited about how this has developed and the potential for replication. If Ottawa can support 4 or more remote communities with high quality, used children’s books; volunteers in other Ontario communities could establish links to Northern communities for similar book collection and shipping. I’d be happy to provide more details to anyone who would like to take up that challenge.    Please email me at jamesbaybooks@gmail.com.

2.  I got a sweet letter back from the Children's First Society in Inuvik.  I wanted to share a photo of a giant card that one of the groups of kids made: I am such a sucker for kiddie hand traces.  Cuteness or what?:

I have sent an email to the head of the organization to see if they would like a second shipment in January.  Wasn't part of our master plan but its so damn cold (-30 without the wind-chill today) and I hate thinking of any little kid without socks, hats, mitts, sweaters.

3.  Got tons of new stuff!

Here we go:

So the next 6 photos are of items which came in 2 separate boxes and I was blown away by the loveliness of them.  Clearly there are some expert knitters at Duke.  The note attached is as follows:

"These gifts were knitted by the preop anesthesia group at Duke University Med. Center - donated in honor of our physician director Dr. Ron Olson.  Dr. Keri Wahl and Mary Hawthorne organized the project."

Keri and Mary, thank you so much for thinking of us - I promise that the items will go to very good use.  I took a closeup of the crochet blanket because I love the detailing on it.

Bonnie Belanger of Ottawa (rav name Panther) has always been a wonderful supporter - you can always count on at least a couple of boxes in the mail from Bonnie, and once again, she did not disappoint.  Bonnie, you know that I love me some socks - these ones will come in very handy!  Bonnie also knitted the hats, neck-warmers and and socks below.

Karen Zorn of Bradenbury SK - you can see that I'm having trouble  extracting this little guy from my girl's arms.   So sweet!

Karen also made this sweater, baby mitts and sockies...

...and the vests and sweaters above.  I can see a little boy being thrilled with the sweater.

And finally Bartone (sorry couldn't fine your first name) of Conneat,  Ohio, thank you for the hats - very very cozy!