Thanks, Canadian North!

We have been busy, and it looks like the craziness won't be abating any time soon.  Its good craziness though, because we're getting lots of feedback from our community partners, and we're sending lots of stuff up North.

So first things first: thanks to the wonderful folks at Canadian North, we were able to send up a shipment of three large boxes of furs coats.  We were featured in the Ottawa Citizen in January, and the article included a summary of our fur coat up cycle project: we send the coats to Igloolik, the people up there unstitch them, wash them and reassemble them into linings for parkas, kamiks and into new mittens.  The response was beyond anything I had imagined:  wonderful people pulled mink coats out of storage to donate, women donating their mothers' fur coats: it was the quality that blew me away - beautiful, warm, high quality items which the community can use.  I love the idea that the community is using their artisan skills to turn these coats into something that will benefit many.  A perfect partnership, really.

And now its time to turn our heads to packing for Arviat and Cape Dorset.  We shipped to them in January and both said that the warm woolies were gone in a matter of days, and that they'd be happy to distribute more.  More?  We got more!

Here's a sample of what I've received in the past week:

Morel D'Amour and Nicole Garneau from Iles de la Madeleine, QC sent in the blanket and package of mittens.  THe mittens were donated by Arthure and were knit by her deceased mother.  Thank you for our first contribution from Iles de la Madeleine!

Peggy Wallace (Dr Peg) is a favourite of ours.  She knit the balaclavas above and the scarves below.  Peggy, I can guarantee that those balaclavas will be very much appreciated - my daughter tried on one of them, and they definitely do a good job on the ears and neck.

The blankets came from Nancy Murdoch of Lindsay Ontario. (Rav name grandma10).  My photo doesn't do the vibrancy of them credit, so I took a close up of the one on the far left so you could see the stitches.

These booties are also from Nancy - thank you.

Karen Zorn of Bredenbury SK can always be counted on for a box - I loved that you used the labels, Karen, so I took a close-up.  Really nice!

And here are the neck warmers by Karen.  My favourite are the pink and yellow.

Mitts and hats?  Karen can do that too!

Sandra Halpenny of Pembroke ON is a first time contributor.  Thank you to you and to Riga!

Bonnie Belanger (panther on Rav) put together these blankets, using squares sent into her from constanmak and plentimawfish.  Perfect and thick - thank you to all three of you!

…and more made by panther…nice sets!