Showing posts with label Sydney Homeless Connect Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney Homeless Connect Day. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

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!

Sunday, 16 May 2010

knitting for charity

warning: photo heavy post

In April, Australian Inland Ministries was one of the "Charities of the Month" for Yahoo group Knit4Charities. I was the collection point and from late April dozens of parcels arrived at my house. Yesterday was the final tally before I handed the donations over to my contact - I was sent an amazing 449 items! The photos below are a desperate attempt by DD and I to record all the donations.
beanies / hats
 more beanies / hats
still more beanies plus socks, sets, mitts, hair ties, a teddy and a square
 jumpers and cardigans (sweaters)
 still more jumpers and cardigans
scarves, wraps and blankets

I can take a deep breath now, finish putting my study back in order (there are still postpacks and boxes in here) and get back to my knitting.

The Sydney Homeless Connect Day is on Tuesday 8 June and more scarves are required so that's what I'm knitting at the moment. The one currently on my needles is knitted in Moda Vera Spell that I picked up at Spotlight sale a couple of years ago for $2 a ball. I am down to my last 150g. The scarf will be 150cm (60 inches) when I'm finished. I've already sent some beanies and have knitted this pair of fingerless mitts.

In June I will be knitting frantically to complete one more blanket (afghan) for Wrap with Love - that's 28 ten inch (25cm) squares knitted and sewn together. I designed this slipped stitch pattern for a workshop I was tutoring. So far I've done two squares (hey, that's six percent!)