Knitting for Charity

Thanks KnittyGirl, for asking about charitable knitting. What a great idea for those of us with the time and means to make something beautiful and useful for those less fortunate than ourselves! Here are a few of my favorite charities:

Afghans for Afghans is a grassroots, humanitarian, people-to-people project that sends hand knit (and crocheted) blankets, sweaters, socks, and other necessaries to the beleagered people of Afghanistan.

Binky Patrol provides blanket and quilts to sick, abused, or needy children across the country.

Chemo Caps is an effort begun by the mother of Heather Spol, who passed away in 2000 at the young age of 25, to provide comfort and warmth to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.The website has patterns and information on finding local branches.

Operation Homefront has patterns and information about knitting wool helmet liners for our troops stationed overseas.

On a local level, there is of course the ongoing blanket project at Cultured Purl, knitting premmie hats for area hospitals, and I believe children's mittens are always welcome at the Neighborhood Art House.

Also, there are dozens of other projects online which can be found by doing a Google search of "Knitting Charities". And readers, if you have a particular favorite, please let me know and I'll add it to this list.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Online Supersocke 100 sock yarn

As I embark on this mission to knit 12 pairs of socks in 12 months, it occurs to me that it might be useful to review the yarns as I go. There, now it seems a more productive and less frivolous use of my time, although is a handknit pair of socks considered a frivolity or more a lovely way of life!



I asked my nine year-old, who's modeling the February socks, if handknit socks are better or is it just that he loves them because I made them for him. He replied, "well, yes, there's that, but it's just no ordinary sock."

I think I'll ponder that awhile. In the meantime, here's the review...

Online Supersocke 100 Highland Color
100gr/420m
75% superwash wool, 25% polyamid
made in Italy

One skein knit up a pair of child's (shoe size 2) socks with plenty of yarn to spare. You can easily knit a pair of women's or men's regular socks out of just one skein.

I used a set of US 1 1/2 (2.5mm) double points. However I am a very loose knitter and I would imagine most people would use a US 2.

The yarn is smooth and even in its thickness. It doesn't have much of a twist, and is rather loosely plied, although I didn't have any problem with the yarn splitting. There is a certain scratchiness to the material which made it less of a pleasure to work with than Cherry Tree Hill or Lorna's Lace. My son, who always watches my progress eagerly and wass quick to pull them on the minute they were finished, found them cozy but way too itchy to wear until they were washed. I ran them through a warm water machine cycle then let them air dry and they softened up enough for him to wear them to school with no problems at all. They blocked well and seem to be holding their shape nicely. I'm seeing very little pilling.

Supersocke 100 comes in a variety of colorways and I absolutely love the striping pattern. There is a definite repeat to the stripe, so that it's easy to make a matching pair. I have to tell you however, that mid-way down the cuff of the second sock, there was a break in the yarn which had been tied to a different section of the pattern. While the two pieces were close in color, they were different enough to cause the pair to be slightly mismatched. Despite this, I will happily use this yarn again.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Socks

In the spirit of Shirani's Year of the Sock, I've decided to knit a pair of socks a month...I normally wouldn't put this kind of pressure on myself, but it just dawned on me today (about 30 seconds before I set my goal) that it's only mid January and I'm all ready half way through my second pair - thinking of it that way makes it seems a little more reasonable.

So here's sock number two - technically February's sock- done in a really cool striped Online yarn.

Yours in yarn,
Claire

I've run out of sock needles...

Not that I don't own plenty of size 0 double points...it's just that they're all holding unfinished projects...

All beautiful yarns that I had great plans for. It's been so long though, that when I dug through my sock stash this morning, I couldn't for the life of me identify the yarn, or remember who each sock was intended for. Except for that whitish Lorna's Lace (i think) in the middle...that one is the second of a pair I used in a class and had promised to my daughter who wears a lot of that color. And last week I jumped right into that second sock only to realize to my horror that I had misplaced the first...

So, I am ready to start her a new pair, out of that gorgeous new Noro sock yarn (up there on the right) only what to do for needles....

Yours in mountains of sock yarn,
Claire