Many Many Things...

Thanks guys for sending your stuff in! I spent part of this morning opening packages and bags, photographing and admiring all of your beautiful hand-knit items. They are truly gorgeous.

Lots to catch up on first, though, so let's start with the business then get to the pleasure:

Business: there has been some great news on the Innu front: both communities now have washers and dryers in every home. What does this mean for us? Well a few things:

1. we've now expanded our scope to indicate a preference for washable yarn, given the machine washing risk.

2. Amy and I met Chococupcake, Suzane Atkinson and Carlene (carlene runs) last October and we started talking about maybe expanding our scope - the idea was that there are many many communities in need, and maybe we could start looking at expanding our distribution base.

So here is where we are: The Moosonee Native Friendship Centre serves aboriginal families in northern Ontario. They are very keen to get a bunch of our stuff. Same situation with the washing machines however the ED feels that it would be easy to communicate with individuals that wool doesn't belong in a washing machine. He can also put some of the items in boxes to go to northern communities, in particular Kasheshewan which is a very remote community as well as other communities up the coast. We have shipping to Moosonee handled so it seems like this would be the way to go!

Here is our second thought: The Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada will be having their AGM in Feb - we will try to use that opportunity to make contact with a community that does not have washing machines and to see if we can set up a relationship.

Now for the pleasure!

This lovely hat made from sock yarn was knit by Katrin Sommerfeld of Berwich Nova Scotia.
This sweater is from Aubergine's mommy, Jeanine Turcotte. Jeanine has been with us since day one and has been a huge supporter, donating money for the purchase of boots for the kids as well.

The blankets are from May Chow of Ottawa - she has been contributing since our first year too! You can always count on May to slip a few things in the bag for us.


These baby vests are from Stephanie Sinden of Ottawa. Thanks so much Stephanie - I love that you made them in slightly wider sizes! Below is another example of Stephanie's work.

And below are hats hats hats. We got a bunch without tags or labels (this is only a photo of a few) - thank you so much, anonymous donor!

Here is a square from a massive blanket knit by another kind and generous donor. I took a picture of the square because I loved it so much.



Keep on knitting! We'll post more photos as stuff rolls in.

Thanks again,

Anita and Amy

On their way!

I drove to Dorval and back early Friday to take the boxes to Provincial Airlines. Thank you to Eric and his great team for contributing so much to this project! The boxes filled the back of my van, plus the back seat. The team at the depot can't stand to see me carrying boxes, so they unloaded for me, divided the shipment properly and weighed it in seconds. You can see the paper moving quickly in my photo! I have moved and can't find my camera charger, so I am using only my blackberry camera. The drive was great (although it is more fun with Anita on board - she was stuck at the office). It was a grey day to start, and then a bit of blue sky peeked through and then the sunshine.

Thank you so much for all the contributions that so many of you have made to this project. We'll keep you posted about when the boxes are delivered & distributed as best we can.

Amy

The Wool-Aid Stuff

Okay some pretty good news:

1. The Wool-Aid stuff has already been received by the community - yay! Check out the pics above, that Terry sent to me. Thanks so much for everything you do, Terry!

2. The lovely Eric of Provincial has agreed to ship 235 pounds in this shipment - fantastic, given that this is our biggest shipment ever.

3. I contacted the Director of Community Health in Natuashish (the second community) - we haven't shipped to them since year one. You were so amazing with your sheer volume of socks and blankets that we will be able to ship to both communities. Amazing work, knitters.

So what next??? Let's talk!

chococupcake and the boxes

Okay, some quick shots:

Chococupcake girl (aka Michelle of Montreal - there's a pic of her and her dad) came over to drop off some stuff - the last items to make it into the shipment! The boxes are pictured below - I used the "vacuuming" technique - gets 3 times as much stuff in.

Also good news: Terry tells me that the Wool-Aid stuff arrived in the community and has already been picked up. That's 135 pounds, just in time for snow!

3 posts in one night - read the 2 prev please!

Okay, these socks are by Kalyle from Kagawong, Ontario. I feel like I know Kara because she's been with us since the start. Here's what she wrote: "Hope this can make the sept 30th shipment! As you can see I didn't get much done this year. However I didn't worry too much...because another woman in Quebec City where I was living learned of WH from a mention on my rav page and she went gangbusters - the infamous Esther and her German gals. Blown away by what they've contributed! This summer I moved back to ON...Manitoulin Island so we can be closer to home, with our little on (8 mo. old Cedar). I bought a knitting book at a local sale and look at what I found on page 15! (anita's note: its a picture of Innu kids learning to knit in the 1800's!). Included copies for both of you as an inspiration. Keep up the heart warming work!"

Kara you awesome thing, I love the name Cedar, first of all, and don't know how you found the time to make the socks and send us the beautiful note with an 8 month old, but thanks... here they are:



And here are some lovely socks by Shari Roy of Nova Scotia. Check out her blog here:

And finally, Stephanie Anderson of Ottawa dropped off a BUNCH of blankets at Yarn Forward this week, along with a note. The yarn she used is from Newfoundland. The orange one is my favorite:

And below are Amy and Suzanne holding up a map that the Germans sent us with the location of the items they have shipped. Thanks guys, these will be forwarded on.

It happened one night....

Okay so please check out the previous post because I had to break this one in 2 (too many pictures). This week, the ladies came over and we gawked at the piles of stuff everywhere in my house.

Here's Carlene modelling a Suzanne blanket:



Suzanne is the queen of assemblage. She attached a whole bunch of squares and this is what she got!

And I loooove this one because I think this is is a communal ravelry blanket (ladies feel free to post if I've got the blankets confused).

Carlene's pretty crochet (yep they are all Carlene's):

The ladies sorting like crazy - these are socks only - not sure where we're going to be eating thanksgiving dinner. Germans and other ravelers, can you see your stuff?

Blankets blankets blankets blankets. Haven't counted but the piles are unbelievable!

Carlene, Suzanne and the Sorting Frenzy

Okay I am having trouble uploading all the fab pix from this week, so I'll show you what I've got so far and upload more later.

Carlene (carleneruns) and Suzanne (suzanneknitter) cam over this week along with Amy and we had a little fun. Okay, first is a picture of Amy admiring Suzanne's blanket made from squares (ladies, comment and correct me if I make any mistakes).


A couple of beautiful Carlene hats - love the colours.

Okay here is a patchwor blanket made of (Carlene is this right?) donated yarn.

and some of carlene's amazing blankets...how many have you made for Innu kids, Carlene, like 500??

Suzanne admiring Carlene's handiwork

More Carlene blankies (photos don't do them justice)...

And more...

and my favorite is the fire coloured one at the top. Suzanne, I will try to post yours next!