A New Deadline for a Good Cause

It has been a week of coincidences.  At our first Northern Loops meeting since my return, I was given some squares done by one of our occasional knitter-visitors.  I thanked her and wondered what I was going to do with them

As I was wondering I received the following email:

Just wondering if anyone in your knitting groups would be able to help with this http://dementiascotland.org/news/2011/calling-on-knitters-young-and-old/


To cut through their rather vague website, Alzheimer Scotland are trying to break the world record for a knitted blanket.
They need 4" (10cm) squares knitted.
Any wool, any stitch.
The only snag is that they need them before 30th May, but it takes no time at all to knit one 4" square. Every little helps.
If anyone makes several squares, please can they sew them up, in to strips of ten.
If more than one strip is made, please can the strips be sewn together.


Sorry for the short deadline, I've only just found out about this myself.


Best wishes,
Caroline.

The squares I had received were 4 inches square, so I have a start on a few squares.

Because the time is short, I am using our online communication to reach as many loopsters as possible.  Please do a few squares for Alzheimer's Scotland in the time we have.  I'll collect them and send them on.

Volunteering Takes You Places: Estonia

Alexander Nevsky cathedral looming over old houses in Tallinn city centre

I am just back from a week in Estonia, thanks to support from the following organisations:  (Thanks also to Joanne Kaar. I pinched this notice from her blog http://joannebkaarbakersbotanistswhalers.blogspot.co.uk/ because I am not techno savvy enough to do it on my own.)

This trip was organised and funded by:
Arch Network is a Scottish Non Government Organisation promoting learning and development in natural and cultural heritage between Scotland and other European countries..
Culture and Heritage Interpretation and Sustainable Tourism Program (CHIST

I was able to take this trip not because I am rich or well connected but because I work unpaid for something I believe in--preserving our heritage and connecting with each other. It sounds so simple, doesn't it?  But heritage often becomes the thing that everyone knows until no one knows it any more and someone says why didn't somebody do something?

So volunteering is part of that being a somebody who does something.

This is Voluntary Arts and Crafts Week, so get out and see what 2 million people in the UK alone enjoy every day. Tomorrow we are celebrating at Castlehill Heritage Centre with a wooly taster session.  The spinners and dyers will be cooking up things and we'll have felting for necklaces or snakes--to each his or her own.  There will be knitting and crochet and we expect a special guest appearance by the proper star of this wooly event--a lovely ewe and her new lamb.

Latest Addition to Shawl Ministry

I am as always running behind time. Today will be Northern Loops Dunnet and I cannot face my pals without having added at least one photo of their recent contributions--I had forgotten that I had these in my camera!
If you are a knitter, you will quickly spot that this is not knit--it is crocheted. We are not craft snobs--as in that old joke about an American cowboy celebrating his liberal tastes --"I like both types of music-- country and western."

I must confess I learned to crochet first and so sometimes even now when I want something fast or a certain shape or size, I reach for a crochet hook. Take a look at the lovely detailing in Ruan's shawl at the tip. Someone will be very happy to receive this. Tomorrow I will have a post about one of the folks who received a shawl.