It can't be... and Vogue Knitting features Warm Hands!

 It cannot be last February since I last posted. Where has the time gone?  I'll tell you where its gone: to income tax season, ringuette season, soccer season, end of school, summer camps.  Okay, Anita, stop whining and start posting:

3 little hats from Rock Garden, Markham.  The picture is taken on my outside deck.  Yes I know its time to restain.

These beautiful mirror mitts (above and below) come from Chloe of Mississauga.  Chloe, my girl had to try to them on.  You are going to make some northern girls very happy!

Don't think we've received anything from Minnesota lately!  Beth Koskie, thanks for the neckwarmers.  I'm guessing you get snow down there too, and know how much they will be appreciated!

Someone unnamed from Mississauga sent in this hat and shawl set.  Thanks Mississauga!

Ahhhh Janet.  Bus13knitter, please let me tell you what happened:  I got your box just after we had sealed our boxes for the Feb shipment, so it did not make it.  This week, I've been feeling unusually flummoxed by Warm Hands, and actually Carlene and I had a long talk about it today.  We're wondering about funding to communities where we don't have shipping partners, maintaining momentum with our distributors while always on the lookout for new distribution opportunities...

...So I open the Janet package, and Janet included some funds to help with shipping (thank you so much!), as well as a note that was so positive and reminded me why we do this.  J I'm keeping the card, so that on another flummoxed day, I can reread it and be revitalized.  Its like it was fate that the box was to be opened today.

Janet's teddies.

Mystery knitter, who are you?   Your booties are adorable.

Michele, aka chococupcakegirl, your sister dropped by yesterday with these lovely hats - thank you!

And last but not least, Nahini's socks.  wonderful and warm!

Exciting news!  The Warm Hands Network is featured in the Early Fall 2013 issue of Vogue Knitting.  The article is called Made in Canada by Lee Ann Dalton and is on page 22-23.  We are thrilled with the article and have already received a number of new knitters as a result of the article.  Yeah!  Look for this pretty cover on the news stands now.

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!