Minnesota Project success!

I hope that you all had a very warm and cozy holiday filled with food, family, friends, and lots of love. Remember when I asked for help for Minnesota homeless? Thanks to all who helped Sharing Our Gifts help Hats for the Homeless in Minnesota, we sent a total of 109 hats to the effort! They received a about 750 donations in total, so they were able to make a substantial dent in the need this cold winter season. They have shared a short video:



Wishing a happy and safe New Year to all!

Purl makes sure that you never drop a stitch...

What else was in the swap box? PURL! She is the cutest ever original from The String Doll Gang, handmade in Thailand.

She is keychain equipped, so is now clipped securely to my carryall bag. They have a TON of choices!

Knitting notions

Today, another box of goodies arrived in my box from my knitting buddies. We did a holiday swap box. Swap Box, you ask? That is where one person at the beginning [me] puts a certain number of items [in our case, 6 items] in a box and sends to the first person on the participant list. Each person takes out up to four of the items, replaces with four of her own items, and sends it on to the next person. It ends with me, since I sent it out first.

Well, the box went out in October, and has made the rounds of the U.S. on its way back to me. I am awed and ecstatic about the return trip and its landing back at my house. In addition to the regular items, there were extra gifts sent just for me from various stops.

I will now share two of the items from the super duper swap box with you. One was this STUPENDOUSLY CUTE sheep tape measure from Lantern Moon. Now if I can keep it away from Amilia long enough to use it, I will measure up some knitting projects. The other was Graffiti Zoo Espresso Geckos, a handmade product out of Conyers, Georgia, and sent to me by a knitty friend from Georgia. Yum!

Blessings abound, and I am having a Merry Christmas, indeed. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas as well.

The crux of the matter...

(photo from Wikipedia)

Quite simply, I just don't have the energy lately to keep a daily post here. Or thrice weekly. Or sometimes even once weekly. I notice that my posts have dropped off sharply of late, and while I have ideas for posts here, I just don't have the physique.

Posting takes time that I haven't had lately. It takes photos which I haven't taken. Photo editing which I haven't done. Research which I haven't completed. Thoughts which I haven't formulated.

I feel a bit like I am going through a dark tunnel on a road to who knows where, driven by this economy and global unrest on a bus with millions of likewise disillusioned strangers. The buzz words are everywhere, the news is always drastic, the bank accounts are in the tank, the collection bureaus are piling up their accounts by the millions, the global battering ram is busting down doors, the legislative branch seemingly has no care for what the people want, the weather patterns and natural phenomena are alarmingly apocalyptic, and I am tired from just watching it all unfold.

My words are all jammed up like logs in a flume, and I am taking this holiday season to regroup regarding the direction of this blog for the new year. For a variety of reasons, I have been unable to fully realize my goal of self-sustainable living here at Deer Palace. While I do plan to continue along that path, I think that I may simply focus this blog for the new year on intellectual and artistic pursuits. I am considering a lexicon of sorts, and posts about knitting, sewing, and other crafted items. Maybe it will begin with "crux." Suggestions? Ideas?

60 Quick Knits

Thank you, Mr. Nature, for the great knitting book!

Thank you for the polar bear Webkinz that I can share with Amilia.

Thank you both for the cards you made, and the handmade drawing to keep at my desk.

Now, I shall have to knit you a little somethin' ...

Dear Prudence,

Thanks to Minestrone Soup, I recently ran across a Q & A of yours from last month regarding knitted gifts for Christmas. While I must agree with you that a room full of preschoolers would probably not put hand knit socks at the top of their classroom Gift Wish List, I must wholeheartedly disagree with your seemingly general sentiment about knitted gifts. (photo used with permission from bettylovesyarn)

For those who have not seen it, here is the original question and answer:
[From Slate.com on November 22, 2010]

Q. Help! Advice on Gift-Giving: I am a knitter who is knitting socks for my son's preschool class. I intend to give these socks as Christmas gifts this year. I am keeping them a secret as I would like them to be surprises. The only one who knows is the teacher as I needed her help getting the kids' feet sizes. My question revolves around the note I am going to include with the socks. Of course it will include washing and drying instructions (cold water and low heat); however, I am stumped about how to ask for the socks back if the kids don't like them, so they can be redistributed. Now, I don't really want the socks back for my own son; I would like the socks to go to someone who'd actually wear them. What would you do in this instance?

A: In this instance, I would stop with the socks and knit a sweater for my own child. While many people enjoy handmade scarves, there's a reason people stopped wearing lumpy, itchy, droopy handmade socks as soon as industrial looms were invented. It's sweet of you to want to make gifts for the entire class, but you're investing way too much time in a gift that won't be appreciated. If you want to do something handmade, maybe you should bake some treats. Or you could offer to come in and do a knitting lesson for the kids. Unless you're making socks they can hang by the fireplace for Christmas, no one wants handmade socks in their Christmas stocking.

I also agree with Minestrone Soup that finger puppets might be more enthusiastically embraced by the preschool set, but as you can see from photos here, here, and here, well made hand knit socks are anything but "lumpy, itchy, droopy" and such is certainly NOT the reason industrial looms were invented. In fact, those young feet look positively cozy in those beautiful and well-fitting socks. Ditto those cute little tootsies in the above photo!

Perhaps you prefer industrially woven Hanes, Asics, or even American Apparel socks with their unmerciful seams across the toes that dig into your feet over the course of your day, and apparently you believe that "no one wants hand made socks in their Christmas stocking," but I and many others in this world would gratefully and humbly accept and treasure such a gift as a pair of hand knit cotton socks that hug the foot and have no such deadly seams.

Also, I understand by your answer that you must not be a knitter, or you would understand that it would be a very bad idea to attempt to offer a knitting lesson to 15 or 30 humans in the 4-5 year old age range. You do realize that knitting involves the very precise hand coordination of not one, but TWO pointy sticks AND a ball of yarn that could pose a choking hazard for entangled youngsters?

Bravo in your attempt to lead the woman (who made the mistake of asking your advice) into baking rather than knitting. Have you tried to take homemade baked goods to a school lately? Most schools no longer allow such acts of culinary love - allergies and food borne illness to blame there. While you may hold baking in higher esteem than knitting, I assure you that there are those out there who do understand and appreciate the value of a lasting and useful hand made textile good. For those of you who prefer off-the-rack, I fear you may fall into the category of not "knit worthy." For your sake, I do hope you take a second look at the value of something made with actual skill and careful craftsmanship over something churned out by a Mega Corporation that pays its labor in pennies and cares nothing of real value.

My answer to the original question would have been:
Socks may be too costly and time consuming a venture to be your best choice for giving to an entire preschool class. However, there are some amazing amigurumi pattern options available on Ravelry that I am sure would be warmly welcomed by any preschooler on the planet. If your goal was something useful rather than whimsical, I would suggest hats instead of socks. Hats can be knit up more quickly and more economically, and there are some super cute patterns for hats for children available on Ravelry.com as well. For example, I offer the Fish Hat. If you are not a member of Ravelry.com, I believe, as a knitter, you would find it very useful. Membership is free. As to asking that any unappreciated socks be returned to you, I understand your reasoning, but I don't believe there is a tactful way to make that request. Perhaps you could place a tag in that suggests a charity to which they could be donated if the person, in fact, did not find them useful or comfortable. Kudos to you for putting thought into your holiday gifts rather than joining the masses in Consumerist Cash Cow Christmas.

In closing, dear Prudence, I wish that people to whom others turn for advice would not so often answer with such pithy and unhelpful advice. The power you wield must be respected most by yourself.

Sincerely,

Madeline's Christmas and Other Wintry Tales

As always, we love Madeline videos at our house. We have had Madeline dolls, books, and videos since my daughter was a toddler, and we never stop enjoying them over and over. This season, there is another release from Shout! Factory that you may want to add to your holiday viewing collection.

Madeline's Christmas and Other Wintry Tales was released on October 19, and includes five fun adventures:

Madelines Winter Vacation
Madeline And Santa
Madeline At The North Pole
Madelines Holiday With Mr. Grump
Madeline And The Ice Skates

If you are like us, and you had these on VHS, now is the time to convert to DVD! This video is very affordably priced for a Christmas gift, stocking stuffer, or just to pick up and view throughout the season. As always, Madeline movies deliver fun that I feel are wholesome and appropriate for even very young children.



I received a copy of this DVD for purposes of this review.