Can I finish....

Here in the Model household someone always wants something when I am drinking a cup of tea. Now I don't think I have a demanding family, so maybe I drink a lot of tea, or take a long time drinking it, but there is one phrase that I seem to be forever saying. It has got to such an extent that DD has had a mug made especially for me.

So now, rather than asking that same old question yet again I will just raise my mug to them instead.....

Blankets,blankets,blankets

Over in the P/hop group on Ravelry we are making blankets....blankets of all sorts so that everyone can join in. The idea being that we can contribute squares (or strips) to whichever blanket-along we like (or more than one if we wish) and four generous souls have volunteered to co-ordinate a style of blanket, receive the pieces and assemble them.
I decided to contribute to two, the DK log cabin blanket
and the aran weight strip blanket
(and there is also a crocheted square blanket and a barnraising blanket both in sock yarn)

But there is someone far more generous, Christi1 has knitted and donated the most gorgeous blanket all by herself to be auctioned on eBay (do take a look, it's here ) A Missoni inspired merino and cashmere blanket in the loveliest of colours of hand dyed mini skeins from the Art of Zen from a pattern donated by Debbie Orr - and ALL the profit will go to Medecin sans Frontieres. It's just wonderful and I do hope she raises a large amount, she certainly deserves to - if anyone reading this could raise the awareness of the auction in any way I know Christi1 and P/hop would really appreciated it. The bigger audience it reaches the better.

Lucky number seven

I'm not usually a lucky person - well not in the sense of winning things - I'm very lucky in that I have my health, my family, my friends, a nice house and car, and whilst I'm not rich I do ok but I don't, as a rule, win anything. If I buy a raffle ticket then I think of it as a donation, not a chance of winning something, so when I put a comment on Silvia's blog it was because I often do as I have enjoyed reading Blogging in the slow Lane for a long time not because of her giveaway. Imagine my suprise when the random generator picked out my comment (comment number seven) as the winner! And this lovely parcel arrived in the post.



With a flower tucky, lavender bombs and some cute little stamped tags. I've often admired Silvia's work, and now I am the proud owner - and the bombs smell divine too.
Thank you Silvia.

"It's like a drug"

I really enjoy knitting for charity, it gives me chance to make some things I might not otherwise make, I can try out new stitches and techniques, if it's to be worn it doesn't have to fit a specific person it will always fit someone, it eats into my stash and lets me do what I like doing best.

I knit for various causes, if I see an Appeal that, er, appeals then I will join in, but there is one consistent cause I knit for and that is Knit-a-square. I feel it would be comforting, if I had nothing, to be able to wrap myself in a handmade blanket. I think it would give me physical and emotional warmth, and that's what I hope my squares will do for someone else.
I also knit hats and the occasional toy for them, and just because a blog post wouldn't be right without a photo, here is what I made in January....



So what's the connection with the heading? I hear you ask. Well, I was reading All for Orphans (the blog where you can follow the issues of the aids orphans and abandoned children that we are knitting for) and the latest post was about the article in the South African on line paper, City Press, in which they quoted Lindie Ngwenya – one of the leaders of the knitting movement in Soweto and part of Knit-a-square as saying

“Its like a drug,” Ngwenya explains, “When you are making a blanket, you think about the child who will receive it and that makes you happy.”

and that just about sums it up for me.

(You can read the whole post here and if you want to find out more there is information on the All for Orphans blog, on the main Knit-a-square website, or there is a friendly group on Ravelry.)