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.

Volunteering Takes You Places

OK, just a teaser here, as they say in US. You know I extol the emotional and social benefits of volunteering. Knitting and doing community work does take you to wonderful places within the church halls, but now it will be taking me abroad.

So I have talked about Northern Loops in Norway and America and our calendars have reached New Zealand and Australia, but this time I will be going to Estonia.

Just a teaser for now.

More Pockets and Some Spring Surprises

I did not photograph the lovely pocket purse-lets that were Patreen's latest contribution to the what you can do with triangles library. Once again her creativity made me smile as much as the pockets themselves. And that's the idea. A bit of cheer with wool and a button or two. Amazing.

I have been doing the not-as-fun work of meetings and organisations and such, but if we want NL to keep itself going and to grow and realise the mission, then we gotta do the organisational things.


Things coming up to watch out for-- our anniversary celebration on Knit in Public Day with a Tea Mosey--more about that to come.

Good News about shawls and shawl ministry

The shawl ministry has been welcomed into the fabric of the church life. News of it has gone all the way to the top of the church, and as importantly all the way to the shoulders of folks in need right here in our community.

No one needs to be a member of a church to receive a shawl or to be part of the knitting of one. The stories about where these shawls (and pockets and scarves go) is enough. And we learn as we go along. A person who is ill often means an entire family in need of comfort or consideration--the pockets recently came into their own when we discovered that.

I saw the first photo of someone wearing one of the shawls--soft blues draped like a quiet smile around her shoulders--and it made me smile deep down. That's what the knitting and the ministry is all about--finding a way to smile through the hard times or celebrate the good ones.

Now as I finish the shawl on my needles, I'll be able to visualize the difference it will make.

Pockets!

I'm a bit behind. I meant to have Patreen's pockets blogged before now. Once again, my photos can't capture the colour and good humour of these pockets as they came tumbling out of Patreen's bag.

She does not want her photo taken, but I don't think she'd mind that I tell you that is her elbow. Also, it seems only fair to mention that the hands are Ella's --uncharacteristically quiet. She is usually knitting up a storm. We all stopped to admire the pockets.

Now if you are new to the blog and you are wondering what these pockets are all about, here's the story on that. Some folks will have times or places when a shawl or a stole with pockets just won't work for them. If they are in the hospital and arounda lot of equipment or they just don't fancy a stole.

The pocket is a good size for attaching to a wheelchair or zimmer frame with some keepsake inside --a wee prayer or a special photo or something to remind folks that they are connected to us, to each other, to a part of a caring community. So you see, the pockets are a bit like Dr. Who's tardis--much bigger on the inside!

Getting Shawls on Shoulders!

Thursday in Dunnet Church Hall was one of those quiet celebrations that represents the culmination of a lot of work as we got the shawls that have been made, displayed, and blessed in packages with labels and care instructions.

Now they are ready for distribution throughout the areas covered by the Central Churches of Caithness. Thanks to our partners, Central Churches and Project Linus UK, we can concentrate on the knitting in the confidence that our knitting will go to welcome homes.

As we knit and stuffed and chatted, I was reminded that no one knew the whole history of the shawls that led to the shawl ministry for Northern Loops.

It started with a book. Angela had the book, but Ruan (being a librarian) is often the one who brings books to us, so it might have started with her. This book was about knitting for peace. That was perhaps the first thread in the shawl ministry.

Another book -- one of very few about knitting collaboratively--had a pattern for a shawl made out of triangles. Now if this were a panto, I would expect to hear boos and hisses from the crowd because we did an awful lot of triangles, and then as a consequence, an awful lot of sewing up. I might not have mentioned triangles --folks rightly are a bit twitchy on the subject--if I had not run across the original paper templates I used to try to design with in the boot of my car. No one will be surprised to hear that I find forgotten things in the boot of my car, but just to let you know that this was found because I was tidying up--honestly!

Olive and Angela are shown here working to get the shawls into the packages. As with triangles, it sounded easier than it turned out to be.

Lastly I include here a photo of the wool recently donated to Margaret. It will start the cycle all over again because the shawl ministry will keeping putting shawls on shoulders.

Oh I forgot to mention another thread of the shawl ministry. When we started down this path, I put Northern Loops on the map of the international shawl ministry from a reference in Angela's book to the ministry, the first in Scotland! So the shawl ministry is one of the ways a handful of knitters in the far north of Scotland help make a better community here in our own backyard and beyond.

It was a busy Thursday. Tomorrow I'll blog the latest in Patreen's pockets.