Yellowbird Yarn Room

Deadline extended!!!

Something very cool happened to me this morning that inspired a change of plans.

It appears that, thanks to some very nice FB sharing, a very nice lady from the local paper found out about the blanket raffle just the other day.  She contacted me for more information, and when we spoke this morning I told her that I would postpone the drawing if she could mention it in the paper.

She's going to see about slipping something in on Saturday.

Very cool!

That means, then, that I need to give all those lovely readers a chance to make it in to River City over the weekend.  So, now, Monday it is!

Good thing River City is open on Sundays in December!

Just one week left to support a wonderful program!

Maybe you're new around here and don't know about my annual blanket project.

Maybe you've been around a while but figured you had plenty of time to act.

Either way, I'm here to tell you that I need your help and time is running out!

Brief synopsis:  Every school year I teach an after school knitting program to kids in 2nd-4th grades.  They learn to knit and finish squares that are pieced together into blankets, which I then raffle off and give all proceeds to a local program that provides Christmas presents for families in need.

Now, last year some really cool things happened to shake up my annual routine that I must tell you about!

First of all, instead of my usual year-long club-type approach to the after school program, I taught 7 or 8 shorter sessions in two different schools.  This not only allowed me to teach more kids than usual, but it also really inspired those kids to keep the needles moving...even at home!  I was absolutely blown away by the number of squares they whipped up for me every week.

My average during the previous three years had been around 50-60 squares by the end of the school year, enough to put together one large blanket.  Last year, between the two schools, all those programs, and a small stack of squares I had leftover from the previous year, I found myself with around 120 squares come May!

Wow.  Way to go, guys!!!

Such big work out of kids who could still count their age on their fingers called for a bigger charitable gesture.  So I thought about it, and talked to the kids in the last few classes, and came up with a plan.

We decided that the usual big blanket was really just too big and heavy, and the number of squares I was getting was coincidentally just the right amount for four smaller blankets.  Lap blankets, if you will.  And since I had two schools, and had kept track of which squares were from which school, I would put together two blankets for each school.

At one school, the blankets were donated to the Summit County Children's Services.  A wonderful lady came to accept the blankets and talk to the kids about how Children's Services helps kids who need it, and she talked to them about how they wanted the blankets to be used.  They decided the blankets should be used in the visitation rooms so that the blankets could bring comfort to one child after another, year after year.

Still with me?  Good!  Because here's were I need your help!

The two blankets from the other school are at River City, ready to support the Share-a-Christmas program once again, and time is almost up!  Tickets are available at the register at $1 for one or 6 for $5, and the drawing will be held next Thursday, December 8th!  Two blankets means two winners, and both winners will have a new option.

You see, the winner(s) this year may be able to help two causes!  Obviously, the winners may choose to keep their prizes - they are so fun and comfy and warm, after all!  But maybe they have plenty of blankets of their own and really just wanted an excuse to help out the cause, and that's okay, too.  If that is the case, I will glady donate their prize(s) to Children's Services on their behalf.

And one more way you can help:  share this post in any way you can before the deadline!!!  Be it mass email, Facebook sharing, or Twitter feed...the more people who know about this raffle, the more chances there are for families in need to have a joyous holiday.

Thank you!!!

Official Open Knit changes and bonus events

Alright, it's official.  Time for an Open Knit shake-up, and here's how the lint is settling:

• Tomorrow, Tuesday the 6th, I will be in as usual from 10:00 until noon
• I will not be in Thursday the 8th due to PTA duties
• Next week starts my new schedule of Monday/Thursday from 10:00 until noon

But wait, there's more!

This Friday and Saturday, September 9th and 10th, you can visit the River City booth at the Copley Community Center for the "Craft Fair and Picker Days" presented by the Copley Veterans Post.

(Did you catch all that?)

I will be there the better part of both days, and the hours are Friday from 10-6 and Friday from 10-5.  I'm hearing talk of crafts and candles, flea market finds and fair food.

Mmmm...funnel cake....

And what's more, the following weekend is the Fall Craft Show at River City!  I'm sad to say that I may not be able to be there myself, but I'm working on it because this has been my favorite River City event since my Grand Opening there two years ago. 

It's a sentimental thing, you know?

So the actual Craft Show will be Saturday the 17th from 10-5, but the Kiwanis will be there the 16th-18th from 8am until 8pm selling mums and cider.  It's the perfect kind of event for putting you in that Fall kind of mood, inciting visions of leaf piles and cozy sweaters and wool socks...

Ahh, my beloved Fall...I have missed you so. 

Back to the big tasks at hand

I go through my days knowing I'm busy. 

Sure, I take some time to goof off here and there.  Sit and stare at the TV or surf the net instead of being a contributing member of the household or society-at-large.  You have to sometimes to maintain sanity. 

But as a general rule my days are packed.

So when you run a craft-based business...and you're working on two large, time-consuming projects simultaneously...and you only have an average of an hour or two a day to work on them...well...let's just say that last week's eyeglass case was exactly the quick project I needed to shake things up!

Meanwhile, one project got set on cruise control while the other got parked all together.

I have been working on prepping this year's blanket squares for their final assembly, but am only as far as I am thanks to the wonderful ladies of Open Knit!  I have nearly finished washing and blocking out all 120 squares, and most of them now have a blanket stitch around their edges (thanks, ladies!).  

I'll be crocheting like a mad woman for the next (almost) two weeks.  Wish me luck. 

Then, there's my Clapotis.  I dove into that project with both needles and couldn't wait to see how the dropped stitches were going to work out!  But then things kept popping up.  Things like blanket squares, Book Club (have you read The Help yet?  I highly recommend it!), my eyeglass case, or the freakishly hot and humid days that made me cringe at the thought of knitting with fuzzy sewing thread.  But I have picked it up here and there for a row or two, just because.   

One really nice perk of a blog is the documentation of progress.

I told someone the other day that I had been working on it for over two months, but it looks like it just felt that way because the progress is so slow!   Thanks to the blog, I now know that I started it on April 7th, and this is (about) how far I have come:

 
I added about six more rows last night because I caved and turned on the air conditiong.

 

 
Not one dropped stitch, but two!

I really am such a happy girl now!  The blankets will be done in the next couple of weeks, then I'm all about that Clapotis.  My goal is to finish it for an event in July, and I think I might just make it!   

Where are they now? - 2KCBWDAY4

 

Whatever happened to your __________?

For those of you who did not stumble onto this blog thanks to Eskimimi (who may have been reading along just because they know me, or know the shop, or who were simply clicking on things and have no idea how they got here or where the last 37 minutes went), let me just start off by saying that hers is a wonderful blog that I am grateful for discovering and I look forward to reading it on a more regular basis.

I mention this because Eskimimi is the force behind Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, and it is on this page that she gives the topics for each day.  If you scroll down a bit you will find a place where you can click day Four (today) and you will find a lovely few paragraghs expounding on the possible directions this topic may take. 

But I know my direction, and it goes the way of the blankets.

 
Last year's blanket on display during the "wrap-up party" with the kids.

In the interest of full disclosure, I fully admit that I did not knit these blankets myself, per se.  But I did handle my fair share of dropped stitches, random increases, whip stitch most of them together, and crochet a couple of edges.

So it counts.

See, this year is my fourth year teaching after school classes at my sons' elementary, and my second at another.  The kids learn how to knit, and the squares they finish are assembled into a blanket for charity.

The first year, the blanket was donated to the police department's charity which buys Christmas presents for local children who would not get them otherwise.  The officer in charge sold raffle tickets at bingo games.  I'm sorry to say that I've never known who won the blanket, but I am confident it found a good home with someone who appreciated the hard work the kids put into it, and the police department was able to give several more families a Merry Christmas.

The second year, I had just started renting space at River City and thought that the blanket would get more exposure there and we could raise a bit more money for the same charity.  I thought right!  The bonus, too, was that being in charge of the raffle allowed me to know who won the blanket.  Long story short, it is now in the home of the very deserving lady who crocheted the squares together for me along with crocheting the edge. 

The third year's blanket (pictured above) followed the same path as the previous year and was won by my friend, Cynthia, who is an Open Knit regular and retired teacher.  It has found a home in Chincoteague with her daughter, and I am thrilled to know it is there. 

This year, however, there's more! 

We will still be able to have the same raffle at River City with the same size blanket, and this will be from the squares made at my sons' school.  From the other elementary, however, I have enough squares (combined with some I have left over from last year) to finish two smaller blankets.  These blankets, I am very excited to say, will be donated to the county's Children's Services to be put to very good use.

Teaching these classes can, at times, be exhausting.  I could quit now and still be happy in the knowledge that I have done some good in the world and that I have given dozens of children something they can be proud of. 

But I'll tell you what...the rewards are more than worth it, and I will keep this up for just as long as I can!

Deadline extended!

Thanks to high demand and several exclamations of "oh, I meant to do that!" the drawing for the blanket raffle has been extended until Monday.  That gives you a whole 'nother weekend to come by River City for your tickets and your opportunity to help give a Merry Christmas to those kids in the area who need it most!  Every dollar helps, and hey...doesn't a nice heavy hand knit blanket sound good right now? 

 

Did you know...

that if you register your American Express card on their Small Business Saturday page on Facebook and then use that card to spend $25 at your favorite local gift shop (i.e. River City) on Saturday, November 27th, American Express will credit your card for $25?  How great is that!  Thank you, Amex, for the big nod to small business!

 

Special thanks...

...to all who came out to River City for the Fall Festival, it was a very nice time!

Friday was a bit gray and windy, but I have to admit that I liked it that way!  I was able to wear a sweater I knit myself, drink my hot tea (which my hand knit cozy kept nice and warm for a long time!), and knit to my heart's content.  And the bees were minimal!  They did come out with the sun on Saturday but, really, they never stayed for long.  They just wanted to say "hi", too.  And smell the bread.

If you're a Facebook fan, perhaps you saw the absolutely adorable breads my friend brought Saturday morning...cutest breads I've ever seen!  There were honey wheat teddy bears and cats, and sourdough rye turtles.  They were just wonderful!  I did have to buy some myself, I just couldn't resist as I sat there smelling them and admiring their little eyes and bows and belly buttons...

And I wish I had thought to take a picture of the sweet lady who sat and knit about 6 rows on the Yarn Tasting, just for fun!  I do love the Yarn Tasting and the way it's progressing - it's quirky and strange and delightfully unique.  One of my favorite things about coming into the shop is the occasional surprise of finding someone had knit a row or two (hi, Diane!).  I do apologize for not keeping the "Flavor" updated, but I will change the yarn this week and I promise to tell you what I changed to on the Yarn Tasting page.

We got a nice little boost in our blanket raffle sales, too, so thanks again to everyone who has helped support the cause by buying tickets.  Just as a reminder, the blanket will remain on display and tickets will remain available until early December, but now's as good a time as any to come get yours if you haven't done so already!

So, all in all, it was a very nice couple of days and I'm grateful to all who helped make it that way.  I spoke to both old friends and new, about both knitting and crochet, and that is always time well spent.       

My pet cause

Three years ago, I started teaching an after school program for first- through fourth-graders at my sons' school.  Once a week, I teach the students who sign up how to knit and they spend the year knitting 7" x 9" squares "Warm Up America"-style.  At the end of the year, I assemble these squares into a blanket, and this blanket is raffled off in support of the Copley Police Department's Share-A-Christmas Program (a wonderful program which provides Christmas presents for less fortunate children in the area).

You may have noticed the very colorful picture over there in the "Artists Spotlight" album, the one with all of those fantastic squares...

 

This is a close-up shot of the blanket, and you can see how beautifully creative the children get!  I am terribly proud of them, every year, and hope that they know how much good their efforts do.

For those of you who live in the Akron area, you will find a nice picture and write-up in the Leader on page 3.  You may all see the online version here.

The blanket is currently on display at River City, right next to my booth, and will remain so until December 8th and the drawing takes place.  Tickets for the raffle are available at the register at $1 per ticket or $5 for 6 tickets. 

Please come on in and show your support for this heartwarming cause, and for all of the work the children put into knitting this one-of-a-kind blanket.  After all, you cannot but smile when you look at the blanket and imagine the kids as they knit it.  And while Christmas morning may yet be a few months away, we can all understand the importance of a child's smile then.