still working on those blankets for fire survivors

I'm still here. My plans for finishing my own projects are well and truly on hold as I use every available minute to work towards completing more blankets to be given to survivors of the recent devastating bush fires in the Blue Mountains.

Both fires are still burning but they are contained and, as far as I'm aware, there is no threat to life or property. But 200 homes were lost and 200 more were damaged, probably irreparably.  So blankets and other household items are needed.

After a suggestion was made to the president of the NSW Knitters' Guild, donations of squares have started trickling in. I have the feeling that this is just the beginning of what might be a flood! 

I was naive! I had no idea how long it takes to put 28 squares into an acceptable layout, then seam all those square together -- 1,125cm (450") of seaming per blanket, in fact! Oh, yes, and then there are ends to be sewn in...

That's assuming that the squares are all the same size to begin with! Most of what has been donated so far, while very much appreciated, is far from being a standard 25cm (10") square! And that means additional work of knitting or crocheting to increase size; or blocking for a bit of extra stretch (a waste of time since most of the donated squares so far are acrylic and will not retain their blocking!).

Beside my knitting chair, I have one blanket on the needles. It is being knitted in one piece, based on the "Moderne Baby Blanket" (found in Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne). I knit on this while WM and I are watching television; it has nice long rows of garter stitch which is just perfect in this situation. (I can't sew seams while watching TV).

Also beside my knitting chair (in the background of the photo) are some squares I am knitting for Knitted Patchwork II. 

It's just as well WM is very forgiving and compassionate -- the living areas of our house are slowly being overrun by knitted/crocheted squares.

This is a corner of my living room floor, where I have laid out the remaining thirty five pieces of knitting left over after I completed the "Knitted Patchwork" Blanket. I am adding more by knitting on to these pieces and joining them using the garter stitch no-sew joining method taught by Ghalena Khmeleva. 

My dining table looks like this. It contains all the squares I collected form my LYS last week plus three completed blankets all knitted by one person; hurrah for such kind knitters who donate full blankets so that my only task is to deliver to the local charity!

In the corner of the dining room, on the floor, are three bags of squares delivered to me by the Guild president yesterday. I haven't even opened them -- it will probably be weeks before I even get to them. 

Maybe it's time to hold a sewing bee. Anyone want to come and sew squares with me? Pleeeeeez?

knitted patchwork

Late last night, I finished the blanket (afghan) made from seventy smallish rectangles. It took me the better part of three days to stitch them all together into long strips then join the strips together. At 9:45 last night, I began stitching a border around it. Crochet is not my forté and it took me nearly an hour to go all around the 232" perimeter using double (US single) crochet.

The Knitted Patchwork blanket, along with my Intarsia Blanket (seen below) were taken to church this morning and will be given to two victims of the terrible bushfire which is still burning not far from here.

Now I'd better get back to knitting my Winmalee Blanket -- so called in honour of the village where the fire took so many houses.

Beanies for Bushfires

One of the members of Knit4Charities has a contact who is officially allowed into the area where the members of one Victorian community are living in makeshift housing. She requested beanies and other warm items because it's becoming quite cool in the evenings for those living in tents.

I usually knit beanies between other projects or when I don't want to be distracted [like during the short free-to-air televised tennis season [most of January and again for Wimbledon in June]. I knit beanies because they are fast, practical, knit-in-the-round and I can practise different stitch patterns on them. I design all my own beanies and no two are ever alike. Because I knit for charity, it doesn't matter what size the beanie turns out, it will fit someone. I knitted the first beanie of 2009 in January during a Roger Federa game but didn't knit anymore until I decided I wanted to spend this winter knitting textures.

Anyway, the upshot of all this was that I had beanies in storage but hadn't counted them! I had put off mailing them to Victoria thinking "one more beanie" [you know how it is]. Yesterday afternoon I looked in the box where I store finished projects that I had intended for another charity [more about that next month] - I had a total of thirteen beanies ready to go and completed another last night! I think it's time to get them in the post!!