News from Cape Dorset

I got some news from Cape Dorset about our last packing night.  As soon as the boxes were received, they were picked up by a teacher and taken to the school.   Really, the message was so lovely.  The teacher was quite moved by the thought that someone was thinking about the kids.  

This week, I've been busy arranging for, and dropping off boxes to various ENT physicians.  These lovely men and women take our stuff up to Iqaluit where it is distributed out of the clinic there.  We've got another set of boxes which can go at the beginning of October, so if you've got hand-knits just waiting to go, please don't hesitate to drop them by!  Now that we vacuum pack the boxes, we get twice the amount in there, at least which is great.

As for all of you who contributed the items below, I just wanted to let you know that they are already on the way to the clinic.  Our cupboards are bare again!  Its a great feeling, just knowing how appreciated your stuff is, and as Carlene says, it comes in, it goes out, pretty quickly.  

I dropped off a bunch of your fur coat and craft donations to Larga Baffin, the home away from home for Inuit receiving in medical treatment in Ottawa, this week, and got a great email back.  I also spoke to one of the women who told me about how her mother was the recipient of one of the last set of fur coats, and took it apart and resewed the fur into several mittens.  Such a great notion, that hands will be warm for a long time and that furs that have been sitting in a closet for several years are appreciated and valued as something precious.

Carlene had some cool ideas about Larga Baffin.  They are moving into new facilities and she's thinking we should have a kind of "house-warming" for them, but providing a bunch of knitted slippers, etc.  What do we think?  

WentheKnitter (Wendy Piper) made the above hats and vests.  Wendy, you're getting to be quite the contributor.  Thank you!

There was a cute label on these hats: "Paula and Joan (StatsCan)".  Paula and Joan, did you make these while you were working at StatsCan?  Did you make them on your lunch break?  I need to know: there's a story there!

No name on these blankets but I loved them - they made me think of Carlene blankets.

Constantmac (Marlene of Ottawa) made these mittens.  Marlene, I just loved your note - it was so generous and kind.  You made my day!

And even more from darling Marlene.

Pompom hats and beautiful penmanship!  That's Judy and Karen Wheeler from Dallas Texas.  Thanks for your note - loved it!

Jeremy, this one is for you: we just wanted to do a close-up of your fabulous tags with the logo.  Knitters from Texas used your tags!!!  You're international, Jeremy!!!

Barbara Dreher, you're back!!!  Barbara lives in Japan and created this awesome set of neck warmers and hats.  We love Barbara because her stuff is so colourful and warm.  Thank you!

These blankets came in from Unravelled in Perth.  Thank you Joan Strack!

Marie Claude (Claudette) is an amazingly talented and prolific knitter.  I think half of Iqaluit wears a Marie-Claude hat.  There are 28 here, and...

and even more of her lovely creations here.  Thanks, as usual, Claudette!

This sweater was knitted by the lovely and talented Carlene.  Here she is, modelling it.  The colours are gorgeous.

Catriona, aka Bloocanoe came by to help us pack.  She made these beautiful items as well.  Great meeting you, Bloo and hope you come back soon.

Triny watched us opening boxes.

Carolyn Maize of Knoxville Maryland made these complicated and beautiful works of art.   Thank you Carolyn!

Jackie Lambert is all around awesome.  She is a huge contributor to the Rav group and also a major force of knitting from West Richland, Washington.  We simply love her.

The Cold Lake Alberta Knitting Club makes me very happy.  I'm hoping that you can read the little note there.  I just loved the shrink wrapping so much that we decided to leave them like that.  

These blankets were made by Bernice and Janet Smith, as well as Karen McCaskill of Huntsville, Ontario.  Ladies, the blankets are beyond cozy and beautiful.  Thank you so much!

I had to open up one of the blankets and take a photo because they are so beautiful.  The fabric is bright and cheerful and just so artfully combined.  Lovely!

Bears bears and more bears from Janet Smith!

Okay a little close-up of the bears because they were so cute.

Karen Zorn of Bradenbury, SK contributes to pretty much every shipment.  Karen, I am afraid my photo didn't do justice to your beautiful things.  Thank you, as usual!

Nandini of Brooklyn New York made 33 neck warmers.  I can see kids out on the land, extra cozy in these.  

Catriona made these great slippers and mittens, along with the neck-warmer.  Super-warm!

Northern Superheroes: Canadian North

Lots of excitement in the past month.  To make a long story short, we got stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to shipping this summer.  Four huge boxes full of your stuff went up to Iqaluit with some amazing researchers from a school down South.  They went to the 2 shelters and the Y in that community.  I received a message as soon as they got there, and was thrilled, frankly, because I got notice from the travellers that they were stranded in Northern Quebec and could not get out for 3 days due to bad weather around Iqaluit.  All's well that ends well, and I was elated to hear from our community contact that the boxes were received, and woolies promptly distributed.  Yay!

Which brings me to my next story:  we have a new shipping partner!  The amazing people at Canadian North are our new lead sponsors.  They are going to be helping us with our shipment to Cape Dorset and all of our other shipments this year.  I am beyond thrilled.  We just started working with the airlines last year, and I can tell you that I was impressed from the very beginning- no sending emails into "the vortex" - quick and kind responses, great advice on how to proceed.   They really do invest in the communities in which they serve.

I  have been happily opening your boxes, photographing, logging and bagging your items.  When hubbie gets home today, I'm going to get him to help me with the vacuum-packing part, which shrinks the knits so we can get about double in each box.  Best (only?) use for a vacuum cleaner I can think of, that's for sure.

The talented Jeremy Dick is also our logo brand manager.  I love this hat!  Jeremy just updated the blog look and feel - and all the Warm Hands tags were designed by him.

These hats the 6 sweaters and the 2 blankets below came from the amazing Anne Saint from Victoria Harbour ON.  Super warm and super lovely!

Peggy Wallace of Oakville Ontario went to town for us.  She made the balaclavas above, and the sweater and cowl below. 

I took a close-up of the button because it blew me away - its got aboriginal symbols on it.

Wendy Genge has been a long-time contributor.  She and her group, the Hooked on Knitting Group from Smoky Lake, AB sent in the hats above as well as the hats and blankies and sweater below were made by them.  Special shout-out to the amazing folks at the Custom Woolen Mill in Carstairs AB who contributed the yarn.

Knitphoniac (Sabrina) in Mississauga ON:  a warm thank you!

Rav handle apenny dropped off these socks as well as some beads.  The beads will go to Larga Baffin here who requested them for their artists visiting from the North, who want to keep their hands busy.  

LingFing of Burlinton made these pretty and warm knits.  Sorry folks, my photography skills don't do them justice.  The blankets are from LingFing as well (BTW, I will make sure that your furs get to the right place!).

Hats hats and more hats.  There was no name but the caption was Waterloo ON.  Thank you!  These will keep the heads of many students warm this winter!

Packing Night June 2015

Another packing night came and went last Friday.  Pizza, white wine, red wine, banana bread.  Was there packing in there?  Oh yeah!

So two boxes will be on their way to Iqaluit with our doctors this weekend.  The remainder will go to Resolute Bay and Cape Dorset.  Pawing through the items, I was impressed by the number of hats and neck warmers made for the "Tyler's Hats" campaign.  Thank you so much for that - near the end of this post, you'll see Tyler's hats all together.

Suzanne, Jeanine, Amy, Carlene, Claire and Julia: thanks for a great evening!

This soft grey blanket was made by Carlene's mom - Carlene Senior.  I think every person tried to wrap it around themselves.

These mittens came in a box labelled "Rourke, Canmore AB".  Thanks, Rourke!

Jackie Lambert from West Richland, WA is a regular with us.  These mittens and socks were made by her.

Not sure if you can see these hats with the cute appliqués on them, so I took a close up of one of them, below.  Margaret Bradford, of Ottawa ON: the kids will love them.

Sabrina (Knitphomaniac) of Mississauga ON made this sweater and the cute pink monkey.  

OK here is what you're not seeing:  Nandini of Brooklyn (20cfrog on Rav) made these neck-warmers, but there aren't just 8 of them.  There are 98 - piled in this picture.

3 hats by Melanie Achen of Burnaby BC.  Love the pom-pom, Melanie!

My friend Margaret of Ottawa dropped these off.  Her note said "Made by my neighbour Muriel who is 90 years young".  Thanks, Muriel!

Okay, I love these.  These are quilts made by Marnie Fielding of Ottawa.  The quilts each have different pictures of animals in the wild.  They are just amazing and the toddler who gets them will be so lucky.

Laurie Kingston, you are a fabulous woman.  Laurie has her own blog and in the middle of living each day, had time to think of some kids who will love love love her beautiful items.  Laurie: just your average super-hero.

Margaret Mitchell of Richmond ON put together these baby toys as well as the blankets.  Thanks, Margaret!

Carolyn Maize of Knoxville MD made these gorgeous and intricate hats and thrummed mittens.

Jenny Hidd of Ottawa: thank you!  Claire met Jenny on a First Air flight a few months ago, at the same time as Warm Hands was featured in First Air Magazine.  Serendipity or what?

Jenny's hats: on my notes, I just wrote "tons of hats, about 40".  

Bonnie Belanger (panther) is a lifer with Warm Hands.  Bonnie, if you can ever make it to a packing night, you always have an open invitation with us - I'd love to put a face to the panther name.  Bonnie wrote: "the two blankets I assembled were from squares made by Constantmac and anforcione".  Thanks to all 3 of you!

Wendy (wentheknitter) made these 3 blankets , the sweater and many many hats.  Thanks, Wen!

Bonnie Belanger: thanks very much for the blanket.  Its big and beautiful.

Rebecca of Ottawa made these cute baby mittens.  Very very sweet.

The neck warmers were made by Kathie of Ottawa.  Thanks, Kathie!

Our Suzanne (suzanneknitter) made these warm warm mittens and socks.  S, you know thank you isn't enough for everything you do.  Love.

Becky of Unravelled in Perth ON, made these two hats.  Becky, I don't know how you run a business and have time to contribute to Warm Hands but we really appreciate it!

The lovely traveller-slash-bagpiper-slash-event organizer-slash-volunteer made this blanket.  Art.

Rebecca Whitman of Westport ON, great job!

Claudette (Marie-Claude), you know we always love getting your stuff.  Karen, just so you know, Claudette made a special group of Tyler's hats.  She is a wonder.

More from Claudette.  Love you!

After all boxes were opened, we decided to take a picture of the beautiful tyler hats: teal/blue and purple.  The talent is overwhelming.  So is the love.  Tyler, I believe that you are looking down at these beautiful things made in your honour.  They are a hug from you to other Canadian kids.  We wish you peace, buddy.

Anna (Atopbing) of Morrisburg ON made these amazing socks.  Anna, we always love receiving socks.  Its the thing that every community says ("send more socks!").

Jeanine Turcotte (douceaubergine) is the best.  She was one of the original WarmHanders.  As usual, she knitted up a storm for ourselves, as well as other projects.

The Ottawa Knitters' Guild made this assortment of socks, hats and sweaters.  Thank you!

Rosemarie Morris of Ottawa ON made these socks and the hat.  Beautiful!

These came from C & R Jackson of Ottawa.  Warm!