Pink Knitting Kits

Tonight I wound up the pink yarn that I bought so I could make Las Cruces Knit Charm Operation Stay Warm 2014 knitting kits with the rest of the coral yarn that was donated to the project.  I was able to make seven more kits.  This brings the total number of kits to 71.  I finished knitting one kit yesterday and I'm working on weaving in the ends.  I will start knitting another kit tomorrow.  And I'll also start to call the retirement communities in town. 

Knitting Kits for Operation Stay Warm 2014

This past week my toddler outgrew his first pair of sneakers!  He's running and climbing and tackling little stairs.  So fast!

And this year I'm making knitting kits for Las Cruces Knit Charm again!  For Operation Stay Warm 2014, we are going to knit 5" by 5" afghan squares and sew them together to make afghans and lapghans for the Camp Hope tent city yarn bombing on October 19th.  If we get a lot of squares we can spell out messages within each blanket.  Like fair isle.  But with squares.

I bought someone's vintage acrylic destash on Ravelry.  

And I found a couple of vintage acrylic lots on ebay.  (Note: this fluffy frosted yarn is delicious to knit with!)

I wound the yarn up into mini cakes and sorted them by color.

And I made kits that include yarn and two free patterns for knitting 5" by 5" squares.  There is enough yarn in each kit to knit twelve or thirteen squares.  

The patterns I included are for mitered squares so you don't have to worry about gauge.  I'm almost finished knitting up my first kit.

I've given out over 30 kits so far and I have about that many left.  They are available locally in the Las Cruces, New Mexico area.

I'll be making more this week because I bought some more pink yarn to go with a donation of five skeins of coral acrylic.  I'm going to call the retirement communities in town to see if I can make presentations to their knitting groups to see if anyone would like to get involved in this project.

I'm so excited that we are going to have another big project this year!

My Rainbow of Books & Other Projects

I organized Rex's children's books by color order this week and it's super cute!  It's something I've always thought looked great on bookshelves but I usually arrange my books by author.  But I think it's a great way to organize children's books and it might help Rex learn his colors.  His books used to be on the lower shelves but he was pulling out my vintage cookbooks every day and carrying them around the house.  I thought he would carry his own books around and maybe look through them if I put them up on the second row of shelves where my vintage cookbooks used to be.  Nope!  I think the vintage cookbooks are his favorite no matter where I put them.  They are pretty cute.

 I've also been working on some fair isle beer can cozy designs.

I love incorporating words into my knitting and this is another new way to do that.  I currently have designs for the words SUPER and BEER, and I'll be working on more soon.  Stay tuned for pictures!

Since this post is about projects, I'm going to also get caught up on a few from Christmas vacation.  One of my projects over Christmas vacation was making pecan pancakes for Rex.  They were very tasty and freeze well and are now a daily snack that I can send with Rex to grandma's house.  I substitute whole wheat flour for half of the flour called for in the recipe.  The recipe is from the book Blender Baby Food.  I was super excited to order this book a few months ago but never ended up making anything from it until now.  I've made these pancakes twice already and will make them again as soon as we run out.  The recipe is actually called Nutty Waffles in case you are interested in trying them.  We don't have a waffle iron and the cookbook was right when it said that the batter makes awesome pancakes too.  I love when I find a recipe in a cookbook that I really like.

I also made mini-bunting for Rex's room out of felted wool that I had put aside.  It really complements the other decorations in his room, which include Charley Harper alphabet cards and the bunting that I made for his comic book super hero first birthday party.

I also made a mini-bunting for the door to his room.  It feels like a much more colorful and cozy environment for him now.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Sock Monkey Collection

One of my goals for this year is to felt two cozies each week and to list the cozies felted the week before on Etsy.

Meet the Sock Monkey Collection!

My plate is pretty full with my day job and running after a 13 month old, and I love that I can still continue to grow my creative business.

Have a wonderful week!

Las Cruces Knit Charm

The next Las Cruces Knit Charm yarn bombing of the Camp Hope Tent City will be on October 19, 2014!  You can help by knitting or crocheting afghan squares, afghan panels, washcloths, and other items!  

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Last year I started organizing Las Cruces Knit Charm!  It is a charity knitting group that yarn bombs our local tent city here in Las Cruces with knitted and crocheted items.  

On Sunday, October 19, 2014 at 10:00 AM Las Cruces Knit Charm will yarn bomb the Camp Hope tent city in Las Cruces with knitted and crocheted afghans, lapghans, washcloths, and more!

Operation Stay Warm 2014 - Afghans! Join this project and knit or crochet afghan squares or panels. We will seam them together to create afghans and lapghans to keep Camp Hope residents warm this winter!

For afghan squares, knit or crochet squares in multiples of 5 inches. For afghan panels, please knit or crochet panels 10 inches wide by 45 inches long. Feel free to use any color and stitch pattern you like! Please leave a 6 inch tail at the beginning and end of each item and use only machine washable and dryable yarns. You can knit or crochet entire afghans and lapghans as well!

Operation Clean Fun 2014 - Washcloths! Join this project and knit or crochet washcloths for the residents of Camp Hope! Washcloths can be any shape, size, or color. Please include a new wrapped bar of soap with your washcloth donation so that each washcloth can come with a new bar of soap.

Camp Hope was yarn bombed with 190 washcloths, 44 scarves, 12 afghans, 6 hats, and 3 pairs of socks in 2013. Lets beat those numbers in 2014! All kinds of knitted and crocheted items will be accepted!

Items are due by September 15, 2014 so they can be assembled and tagged with a Las Cruces Knit Charm tag and animal charm.

If you live in Las Cruces you can drop your items off at Quillin Fiber Arts. Make sure you tell Kym or Dedri that the items are for Las Cruces Knit Charm because they collect for a number of projects.

If you don’t live in town you can mail your knitted items to: 
Las Cruces Knit Charm 
P.O. Box 1266 
Las Cruces, NM 88004

On October 20, 2013, eighteen Las Cruces Knit Charm volunteers yarn bombed Camp Hope with 255 items: 190 washcloths, 44 scarves, 12 afghans, 6 hats, and 3 pairs of socks! We also donated 200 bars if soap. Starbucks donated 100 cups of coffee and Albertsons donated 5 dozen donuts for Camp Hope residents to enjoy while we yarn bombed their camp.

Tent city residents and other homeless people who were on the area were super happy and thankful for all of the beautiful donations. They posted a story about the event on their blog: http://hopevillagelascruces.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/las-cruces-knit-charm-yarn-bombs-camp-hope/

We have more info on the Las Cruces Knit Charm facebook page too: http://www.facebook.com/LasCrucesKnitCharm.

And we're also on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/las-cruces-knit-charm.

And here are pictures from the 2013 yarn bombing!

This project was so much fun and made a difference in our community! Can't wait for this October!