Monday, October 31, 2011

The Choir

Last week the kids and I went to see our favorite African friend (minus his family this time) Jeremy. He's in Canada with a Masai Choir touring the country raising money to build a school for the Masai Children.

We spent an hour listening to them sing and tell stories of their faith and culture and it was wonderful! I loved every minute. Afterwards we spent some time buying books (they are beautiful!) and bags and beaded stars...



I'm loving the bags something fierce! They will make terrific project bags for knitting and crochet. I wish I bought more, I keep thinking of more people to give them to!


Their story is quite amazing too. All the bags are made by women with AIDs/HIV in Arusha, Tanzania. They work for an organization called SEW, where they make these bags out of recycled and environmentally friendly materials. They are paid a fair wage and their story is printed on the inside of the bag. It's remarkable really that a small bag like this can mean the difference between having enough money to feed your children and barely scraping by.





The Superstar was happy to see Jeremy and scored a beaded pen (she just turned the big 13 last week, more about that, later in another post) and an invite to stay and work in Tanzania when she graduates. So she's on top of the world right now with visions of Africa and adventure playing in her head.

I think this morning I'll start another ING savings account and call it Africa. 'Cause there is no way she's going to Africa without me!

PS -  Thanks Christine for the beautiful bag! I was so happy when Jeremy gave it to me and told me how and why it's being made. Thanks so much for thinking about me!

PPS -  if you want to donate to the Masai School here's the link and if you'd like to donate to the Feser family in Tanzania you can do it here!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Gnomes - FO


 The gnomes are done! 


 I love them. 


 I'm already making more.



This time shorter and fatter...

because I have some big dpns...

and I like my gnomes well fed!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Elephant Swap

Hi everyone, after a bit of a blogging break I thought I'd come back and show you some of the things I made for the Itty Bitty Group's latest swap.




Remember Elmer? I made him back in March and he guards my wine glasses for me. When Mel told us that our next swap started with the letter E (she's been working us through the alphabet Itty Bitty style) I just knew I'd get a chance to finish my second Elefante that I started back in the spring.

I named this one Edie and planned to use the last of my Cotton Ease in cream, blue and green. Because I finished the toy before I knew who my swap partner would be, I decided to skip the safety eyes (not safe for babies) and just embroider them on. Other than that, she looks much like Elmer...







She suffered a run in with burs on our photo shoot. I felt a bit bad but she had so much fun tight-rope walking and sniffing mushrooms...




















Along with the Elephant theme I knit some washcloths, very cute pattern called the Peanut Cloth by Elaine Fitzpatrick.

And some fingerless mitts that turned out so well, I think I may make them again and again.












When I found out my swap partner was Julie (Tanknit on Ravelry) I was super excited! She had sent me a very sweet RAK (random acts of kindness) package early in the year and I've thought of her often. I was happy to be able to spoil her a bit and put together a package that would make her smile.

I love the Itty Bitty swaps and although I'm missing the next one (the christmas one too!), I'll be sure to get back on board next year with letter F (hopefully some froggy fun)!

Little Sheep Virtues

Happy Friday! I'm pretty excited to be sharing this cross stitch project with you all. Pattern: Little Sheep Virtues 1-12 by Litt...