parcels arriving

As a member of Knit4Charities, I am again collecting warm clothing and accessories on behalf of Australian Inland Mission, an arm of the Presbyterian Church. The parcels have been steadily arriving since Wednesday 27th April. DD found a home for the parcels as they arrived and the pile has been steadily growing.

This is the space between a bookshelf and a set of drawers that was empty so that I could fit in another set of drawers.

In addition to this 180cm (6 feet) tower of parcels, I also have these three bags:

I have bought another set of drawers but assembly will have to wait - DD wants me to hold off opening these until she comes home from her trip north to see the in-laws!

ETA: This was supposed to post on Thursday but Blogger was having maintenance issues. On Friday I received three more parcels so the tower of parcels would be more like seven feet now! My thanks to all the contributors; it'll be like Christmas in May when we open them all.

the first of autumn

In Australia, our seasons change on the first of the month (not on the equinox as in some other countries). Today is the first day of autumn - not that it felt any different to yesterday with the temperature forecast about 32*C (92*F) with high humidity. Yet there is a promise of cooler weather ahead.

The organisation I collect knitted items for, Australian Inland Ministries, is the charity of the month in April on knit4charities, as is another event I support: Sydney's Homeless Connect Day. I'm knitting as fast as I can but, as you all know, it's never fast enough! I have revisited some long neglected projects and have knitted new ones. I only cast on a new project when I have completed a UFO so that means relatively monogamous knitting is happening here.

I am currently knitting from patterns. That is unusual for me as I either use my "go to" patterns (especially for beanies and socks) or design my own patterns. Out of curiosity, I typed "charity" into the search box on Ravelry's pattern page and was stunned to get a very large number of patterns in response! I also trawled my friends' projects/faves to add to my Ravelry queue which is now so long (for me) that I'll never knit everything that's on there!

So here are a couple of my recently finished projects:

The Campus Scarf (Ravelry Link) knitted in Moda Vera Cynthia on 4mm (US 6) needles. I modified this pattern to use only 30 stitches because 42 was too wide. My scarf is a little narrow but it's long so it can be wound around the wearer's neck twice for extra warmth.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I finally got around to putting the zipper in this Tomten jacket! How embarassing - I finished knitting this in 2009!

More about my other finshed projects when I have photos to show!

K4C CotM April 2009

As a member of Knit4Charities [K4C], I had the privilege again this year of nominating Presbyterian Inland Mission as one of the Charities of the Month [CotM] for April. The P.I.M. was formerly known as Australian Inland Mission and was founded by John Flynn who also founded the Flying Doctor Service.

It was such fun when the parcels start arriving. I saved them up, DD came to visit and we opened them all and set them up to take photos. We counted all the items and re-packaged them ready to deliver to my contact who is also a member of the Blue Mountains branch of the Knitters' Guild of NSW.

This year we collected 209 items. My contact commented that she was surprised there were so many; she thought every one was knitting for the bushfire victims. So, thank you to my fellow members of K4C, Wendy [a non-member], my mum and DD - the donations were gratefully received and will soon be distributed to Aboriginal communities around the nation.

Here then, for your viewing pleasure:
the beanies, mitts, socks and scarves [and a lone knee rug]

the cardigans and jumpers [sweaters for my US friends]

and the other items that arrived after our first photography session!

I am looking forward to doing it all again next year. There truly is a blessing in giving!