Post a Patch

Have you heard of the Post a Patch project?  People from all over the world knit or crochet squares which are then sent to the lovely Iona in Australia who makes them into blankets and donates them to charity.  A wonderful initiative, and a great use for all those oddments of yarn you have lying around.  Visit http://www.post-a-patch.blogspot.com.au/ for all the details,or you can follow Post A Patch on Twitter.

When I first saw about Post a Patch through a retweet on Twitter, I knew I really wanted to be involved.  As soon as I had a few spare hours I whipped up 8 colourful squares which started their journey to Melborne yesterday. 

If you have a little spare time and yarn, I urge you to get involoved too.  It feels so rewarding - it's lovely to know that the blankets will be given to people who really need them (you can see which charities are currently being helped by visiting the website).  Full details of how to make the squares and the address to post them to can be found here.

If you know of any similar projects, particularly in the UK, I'd love to hear about them.

Rolt

Rolt, a photo by SakuraBlythe on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Alex's bunny I crocheted using the pattern in issue 2 of Simply Crochet magazine. He named him Rolt 'a cross between Ralph and Bolt'.

Rolt joined Alex on his recent stay in hospital and was even allowed into the operating theatre with him. Several of the doctors and nurses said how much they loved Rolt, which made me feel very happy!

In my Grandmother's footsteps

This little case is one of most precious possessions.

A few years ago I taught myself to crochet.  I have a very short attention-span though, so I made a couple of things (badly!), then got bored, and moved onto something else.  But a couple of years ago, I came back to it.  I got a really good book and started from the beginning again.  In December 2011 my Grandma sadly passed away, and my Granddad gave me her treasured crochet hooks and knitting needles.  Contained in the little red case now are the crochet hooks which I have collected along with the ones with which my Grandma spent her life creating things of great beauty.  It means a lot to my Granddad that I am continuing in her footsteps, and have a great love of crochet like she did.

On Saturday when we were visiting him, he spoke again about how my Grandma would have loved to see me taking after her.  He told me how when she was young and lived in Germany during the Second World War, she and her mother were too poor to afford a crochet hook, so she taught herself to crochet using a broken knitting needle.  It was such a powerful story, and I wanted to record it while it was fresh in my mind.

I hope she would be proud if she could see me now, and happy to see her hooks so well used and loved.