The Warm Hands Network - A Community Partnership

Monday, November 4, 2019

Autumn Update!

Hi Crafters of Warm Hands, checking in with a quick update for you on what has been going on at WHN World Headquarters!

Most importantly - a HUGE shout out and thank you to Canadian North, our airline sponsor, who handled our boxes for Jimmy Hikok and confirmed their support for WHN for another year. Without Canadian North we couldn't get our warm woollies to our northern partners - thank you Canadian North for another year! We literally could not do this without you!

Reminder that our slipper campaign for Larga Baffin is still on and running until November 20. So there's still time to whip up a pair or two of slippers and pop them in the mail! For all other items, please time to arrive by December 20 and we will sort and repack to go to Iqaluit early in the new year.

As well, parcels from the following fabulous crafters have arrived at Headquarters between October 6 and 25:
S from Stirling ON
Tracy from Vancouver BC
N from Fergus ON
Nicole from Toronto ON
Lynn from Selkirk ON
Susan from St Lazare de Vaudreuil QC
Ellen from Baden ON
Olive from Moncton NB
A parcel from CH
Janet from Fredericton NB
Anne from Victoria Harbour ON
S from Nelson BC
A package from Parksville BC
J from Halifax NS
DouceAubergine
Jackie from West Richland WA
Thompson of London ON
PurlsofWisdom Ottawa ON
Wentheknitter Ottawa

Thank you all!

WHN mascot Trinny wants you to know that all items have the Trinny seal of approval!

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Shipments and Slippers!

Good day knitters and crocheters of Warm Hands! Popping in with a little update on a number of items.

First things first - we have a few new deadlines to share with you. If you are a slipper-maker, we are running a slipper campaign! Slippers are quick to make and are great for using up a variety of yarns. More details on the slipper campaign are below, and please ship them to arrive in Ottawa by November 20.

For all other items, after our October 15 shipping date has passed, please ship to arrive in Ottawa by December 20 and those items will be sent up with a doctor heading to Iqualuit.

On Sunday, Anita and I had an impromptu afternoon of opening parcels together, as many of you have been sending in items in advance of our current October 15 timeline. Since our last Packing Night on September 6, we have received generous and cozy items from the following crafters below, most of which are bound for the school-age children in Kugluktuk. The final items that arrive by October 15 will be included in the boxes and then will be making their way north, with thanks to our generous airline partner Canadian North. Thank you all!

Anna in Morrisburg
The Perpetual Bazaar Knitters
Anne in Victoria Harbour
Robin in St. Pascal Baylon
C. in Rockport Mass.
Ruth in Saratoga Springs
Nancy in Lindsay
Shona in Lethbridge
Eleanor in London
Wendy in Smokey Lake
B. in Toronto
Hazel in Edmonton
Donna in Forest ON

(Note that items that were sent to the old address and that arrived after our last Packing Night on September 6 are not included above, as we were just sorting what has arrived at the new shipping address since then. Please rest assured though that parcels sent to the former WHN shipping address will make their way to the next Packing Night.)

We counted up the following:
Hats 84
Socks 36
Sweaters and vests - 22
Neckwarmers - 16
Slippers - 2
Blankets - 1

For a total of 161 items, which is pretty awesome when you think we just had a packing night a month ago. Want to see what 161 handcrafted items looks like?

And speaking of SLIPPERS...we are partnering with Larga Baffin to provide slippers as Christmas presents for their residents. As many of you know, Larga Baffin is a residence in Ottawa for those from the Baffin region of Nunavut, who are in town for medical treatments that are not available locally. This project will help spread a little cheer to our northern neighbours who are far from home during the winter holidays.

Please time your slippers to arrive at Warm Hands HQ for November 20th. This will give our volunteers ample time to unpack, sort, and deliver the slippers in good time for the holidays. This is a great time to use up any acrylic you have on hand - acrylic is great for slippers!

Speaking of which - a gentle reminder to use wool or majority wool blends (75% or more wool content) when knitting hats, socks, vests, sweaters, mittens and neckwarmers for Warm Hands. Wool is warm, breathable, durable and insulates even when wet. We have received a number of 100% acrylic items lately - if your preference is for acrylic, please consider making slippers and/or blankets for Warm Hands, as we accept those items in acrylic.

As always, thank you for being a part of Warm Hands. Here's one last picture to warm your heart, so you know what it is like to open these wonderful boxes!

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Hawaii! And Burlington!!

Hi Everyone, we had a great Packing Night on Sept 6! Six of us were there at the new(ish) WHN World Headquarters, aka Anita’s house.

As you know, we have a shipping deadline of October 15 and this get together was to get a jump on packing and sorting what has been coming in over the summer. There were many (many!) generous boxes and packages of beautiful hand knits/crochets and it is so amazing to be able to see all the incredible warm items and the artistry and talent that goes into making them. Packages had been sent from as close as across town in Ottawa, and others that had journeyed from Japan and Hawaii! We truly are an amazing network! All the Packing Night crew just love seeing (and patting) the beautiful gifts from your needles and hooks. We can’t thank you enough for all you do to share your time, your energy, and your generosity with Warm Hands.

At Packing Night, we have a system. We open all the boxes and parcels that have been arriving since the previous Packing Night. We do a quick check for quality and ensure that pairs are tied together so they don’t get separated in transit. We lay the items out separately by each contributor, take photos, and write a description so we can match up the right photo with the right name. We then sort the items. Lastly, they are placed into vaccum bags which are sealed and then the boxes are sealed, ready for shipping.

We ended up this night with three boxes complete and a fourth mostly full, but waiting for a few more to be sealed for shipping. We counted up all the items for the first time (usually we just weigh the boxes when they are shipped: we will continue to do that) and by the end of the night we had over 475 items!!!

This included:

18 sweaters and vests

131 hats including balaclavas

96 Neckwarmers

133 pairs of mittens

8 slippers

74 pairs of socks

16 items in sets (8 sets of hat/mittens or hat/Neckwarmers)

The blankets had already been bagged ready for transporting to Larga Baffin so I didn’t count those but I think there were at least over half a dozen, and some sweet baby items as well.

We also had a good discussion over pizza and cake about options for potential new partners and campaigns. Early days yet of course, and will keep you informed as we explore what is possible.

One change for the blog format that we wanted to share with you: taking the photos of each individual parcel is the most time-consuming part of the evening and creates a big bottleneck for the packing process. This actually is a VERY good thing in a way – it really emphasizes that we have many generous knitters and crafters! However, now that so many people are sharing their project pictures on Ravelry and other social media – which were not as prominent when WHN first started over 10 years ago – we are going to move to another model. After today, instead of taking individual pictures we will be taking “action shots” from Packing Nights so that you still get a flavour of the evening. And we will still provide the first names and locations (or Ravelry names if applicable), so that folks know their packages arrived.

And now, on to the photos!