Well we are basking in a heatwave at the moment - we are not as bad as some of our colleagues south of the border but it is bad enough for me to have to hide from it :0( Shouldn't moan the kids are all outside in Jenna's huge paddling pool (all the kids in the street are there I think from the sound of all the hilarity!) the school holidays have just started so hopefully we will get nice weather for a week or so for them to have fun in the sun.
Spending today boxing up another load of wonderful donations to send out - having been doing it monthly for the last wee while we are going to have to cut down to doing it weekly as our numbers keep growing - can't believe how succesful it has all become - thanks to all of you wonderful members with your big hearts xxx We have a never ending stream of parcels and boxes coming in here all the time keeping Kelly and I ever so busy sorting, photographing, listing and then packing up for the outward journeys.
Todays boxes will be for - A breast feeding support group in Milton Keynes, Avril at Tommee Tippee, Nia at Friends of the Animals rtc in Wales, Algerian Action, Scotia Aid, Prem and burial items for Abi our group leader in Portsmouth, Wool for a new group of knitters, several maternity wards and Sands.
We will also be packing up blankets and pet beds to take to Fife Cat Shelter and Perthshire Abandoned Dogs Society. Such a hive of industry here :0)
Miss Jenna had her birthday on Saturday and got a lovely wee kitten - called Toffee - ever so cute ;0)
Right - had a breather so back to packing boxes - better be careful though - I keep bursting open my shoulder and it meandsmore rows from the wound nurses when I go in to the hospital to get the dressings changed :0)
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Knit in Public Day 2009
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Here we are again - been a long while since I posted on this Blog - so much work to do over at Loving Hands Forum that I never seem to remember to put any updates on here - sorry.
As you will see by the photos I have posted this time we are still making lots of knitted breasts for breastfeeding classes in UK and I have still a long way to go in my healing so I am under wraps with bandages and a selection of very cool wigs (all the way from China courtesy of ebay :0) to keep me looking good for the public.
Knit in public day this year is next Saturday 13th June and we are all going to be having a Knitpic in the park again. This year we will be in Pittencreiff Park in Dunfermline from 1 to 4 pm. The plan is to meet up between the Pavillion and the childrens play areas or if it is wet in the Pavillion itself. Bring your knitting or crochet, something to sit on and a picnic - the coffee bar should be open in the Pavillion so you can get teas, coffees and snacks from there too. There is also a bar in the pavillion that sells drinks and hot meals as well.
Hoping we get a really good turnout this year. We are now over 600 members from all over the world and I know that some of our outlying members are going to join us from places like Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen so it should be a lovely day.
Looking forward to seeing lots of you there xxx Good luck to our friends in Shetland and Harris - hope your knit in public events go well too xxx
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Where does the time go?
Where on erth does the time go - can't believe I haven't updated this Blog site for sucha long time. Still spending lots of time on Loving Hands website and keeping the forum running smoothly there - we now have over 500 members at Loving Hands and have been making hundreds of items for the variou scharities we support :0)
We have been making things for :- Blythswood Care, Linda McDonald Foundation, Teddies for Tragedy, BISS, Feed the Children, Save the Children, Trauma Toys for UK ambulance and fire crews, Blankets for Animal Shelters, Teddies for the Kenyan Orphans Project and Shelterboxm blankets for a Zambian Aids Hospice, Squares for the Soweto Comfort Club Knit a Square project, Baby clothing (both prem and newborn sizes, blankets and burila items for UK maternities and have recently added Algerian Action to our list of charities we support. We do get about a bit and are kept ever so busy.
Currently our stitchers are making bags to save baby Puffins :0) It makes us smile to think we are helping them too :0)
Hopefully there will be a contigent from Loving Hands at the Scottish Knitting Only show at Perth Racecourse on Saturday 9th May from 10am to 4pm - some of us were at the first one last year and it was a fabulous day - hopefully as long as I am not in surgery or recovering I will be there again!
My accident happened last July - I slipped in the bath, cut my cheek and had to go get it stitched. 30 stitches later I was home and packing for our holidays. The next day it was getting swollen so doc said to put ice on it which I did. Later the saem day it was swelling even more so we went back to A&E and were given antibiotics and sent home again. By lunchtime the next day my head looked like an elephants and I was struggling to breathe because of the swelling - back to hospital - this time in an ambulance. The upshot of it was I had contracted necrotising faciitis (the flesh eating bug) in the wound on my face. Over two days and three surgeries they removed my forehead, left side of my face and temple, the whole of my left eye and my left cheekbone. I was in a coma for three weeks during which time I suffered from terrible drug induced nightmares - don't understand how anyone could deliberately put themselves through that for fun -and finally woke up in August :0)
Since then they have rotated part of my scalp to make a new forehead for me and covered my face with part of the skin from my leg. I am goin in soon to get a pedicle flap done (they will raise part of my chest with skin and muscle, lay it back and leave it for about 6 weeks to develop it's own blood supply and then they will re-open my cheek and attach the flap to my face leaving me attached to my chest for a further 6 weeks to make sure it takes properly. The final step will be to seperate the chest and face. Hopefully this will give me a much more natural looking cheek.
Later on they will give me a prosthetic to wear with an artificial eye, eyelid and eyebrow and this will cover the fact that my cheekbone is missing and the gap at my temple.
Finally they will put a balloon under my scalp to stretch the skin so they can eventually give me a new hairline and I can stop wearing wigs.
It is going to be a long slow process but worth it in the end. I have never been down or felt sorry for myself - far too busy with my family and loving hands - I count my blessings every day as I was ever so lucky to survive the bug with it being so close to my brain - I can still do almost everything I could do before, work, drive, run my group, go shopping etc. :0)
Right - back to work now - we will be having our World Wide Knit in Public Day knitpic in the park this year in Dunfermline. Just waiting to get the date etc so we can get it properly organised. Hoping to get lots of our members together that day - praying for good weather :0)
We have been making things for :- Blythswood Care, Linda McDonald Foundation, Teddies for Tragedy, BISS, Feed the Children, Save the Children, Trauma Toys for UK ambulance and fire crews, Blankets for Animal Shelters, Teddies for the Kenyan Orphans Project and Shelterboxm blankets for a Zambian Aids Hospice, Squares for the Soweto Comfort Club Knit a Square project, Baby clothing (both prem and newborn sizes, blankets and burila items for UK maternities and have recently added Algerian Action to our list of charities we support. We do get about a bit and are kept ever so busy.
Currently our stitchers are making bags to save baby Puffins :0) It makes us smile to think we are helping them too :0)
Hopefully there will be a contigent from Loving Hands at the Scottish Knitting Only show at Perth Racecourse on Saturday 9th May from 10am to 4pm - some of us were at the first one last year and it was a fabulous day - hopefully as long as I am not in surgery or recovering I will be there again!
My accident happened last July - I slipped in the bath, cut my cheek and had to go get it stitched. 30 stitches later I was home and packing for our holidays. The next day it was getting swollen so doc said to put ice on it which I did. Later the saem day it was swelling even more so we went back to A&E and were given antibiotics and sent home again. By lunchtime the next day my head looked like an elephants and I was struggling to breathe because of the swelling - back to hospital - this time in an ambulance. The upshot of it was I had contracted necrotising faciitis (the flesh eating bug) in the wound on my face. Over two days and three surgeries they removed my forehead, left side of my face and temple, the whole of my left eye and my left cheekbone. I was in a coma for three weeks during which time I suffered from terrible drug induced nightmares - don't understand how anyone could deliberately put themselves through that for fun -and finally woke up in August :0)
Since then they have rotated part of my scalp to make a new forehead for me and covered my face with part of the skin from my leg. I am goin in soon to get a pedicle flap done (they will raise part of my chest with skin and muscle, lay it back and leave it for about 6 weeks to develop it's own blood supply and then they will re-open my cheek and attach the flap to my face leaving me attached to my chest for a further 6 weeks to make sure it takes properly. The final step will be to seperate the chest and face. Hopefully this will give me a much more natural looking cheek.
Later on they will give me a prosthetic to wear with an artificial eye, eyelid and eyebrow and this will cover the fact that my cheekbone is missing and the gap at my temple.
Finally they will put a balloon under my scalp to stretch the skin so they can eventually give me a new hairline and I can stop wearing wigs.
It is going to be a long slow process but worth it in the end. I have never been down or felt sorry for myself - far too busy with my family and loving hands - I count my blessings every day as I was ever so lucky to survive the bug with it being so close to my brain - I can still do almost everything I could do before, work, drive, run my group, go shopping etc. :0)
Right - back to work now - we will be having our World Wide Knit in Public Day knitpic in the park this year in Dunfermline. Just waiting to get the date etc so we can get it properly organised. Hoping to get lots of our members together that day - praying for good weather :0)
Saturday, 24 May 2008
World Knit in Public Day
Soooo Sorry that I have been ignoring this Blog for such a long time - it just seems there aren't enought minutes in the day and with the website going strong www.lovinghands.org.uk and the Forum demanding my constant attention to keep it up to date I am afraid I have just not taken the time to pop over here and update.
Just wanted to let you all know that Loving Hands will be hosting an event to celebrate World Knit in Public Day on the 14th June.
We are having a KNITPIC IN THE PARK ! (and I don't mean an excuse for the narrow minded to start knitpicking! I mean a lovely day out for all fibre crafters to meet up and knit, crochet, sew or whatever in the park while we have a lovely picnic!),
We are meeting up in Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy from 12 noon to 3pm. You will easily spot us we will be the crazy bunch of Knitters (and maybe a few nutters as well :0) by the big Gazebo in the park!
Bring along a chair or picnic blanket, some picnic goodies and of course whatever you are going to work on! Don't worry if you don't know how yet we will have materials with us and our lovely ladies would be happy to show you how to knit or crochet while you are there!
Let us hope that it is a nice day and we get a great turnout! (As far as I know we are the only one listed for this event in Scotland at the moment!).
See you all there! @0)
Just wanted to let you all know that Loving Hands will be hosting an event to celebrate World Knit in Public Day on the 14th June.
We are having a KNITPIC IN THE PARK ! (and I don't mean an excuse for the narrow minded to start knitpicking! I mean a lovely day out for all fibre crafters to meet up and knit, crochet, sew or whatever in the park while we have a lovely picnic!),
We are meeting up in Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy from 12 noon to 3pm. You will easily spot us we will be the crazy bunch of Knitters (and maybe a few nutters as well :0) by the big Gazebo in the park!
Bring along a chair or picnic blanket, some picnic goodies and of course whatever you are going to work on! Don't worry if you don't know how yet we will have materials with us and our lovely ladies would be happy to show you how to knit or crochet while you are there!
Let us hope that it is a nice day and we get a great turnout! (As far as I know we are the only one listed for this event in Scotland at the moment!).
See you all there! @0)
Friday, 4 April 2008
Head Teachers Office!
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Here you go girls - this is the wonderful Retirement gift that Maureen made for her friend. It is the head teachers office - isn't it amazing! The detail is fabulous - you are such a clever girl Maureen - we are so lucky to have you with us :0)
I tried to put these pictures onto the forum but couldn't get them to go but here they are anyway!
Don't foret we want you all to join us on the Forum http://lovinghands.freeforums.org/index.php we now have almost 60 members who are on there (162 members in total now!) and it is a great place to get to know everyone better and see what we are all doing!
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Easter Challenge and Different Mediums!
Hello Again!
Just an update for you all - hope you have all been watching the Forum as that is where all the daily news is posted and you can get to know all the other members! (Link to the Forum from the website www.lovinghands.org.uk ). Hopefully more of you will be brave enough to sign in on the Forum and start posting the occaisional comments - we do love to get to know everyne and see what we are all up to!
The Easter challenge is going fantastically - Fridays countdown on the Forum was:-
Sailors Hats 91
Boobs 52
Toys 63
We are doing brilliantly and we still have till Easter Sunday to go (23rd March this week so another 6 weeks to watch those totals go soaring way over what we asked for - keep up the good work girls!).
After my search for members using different mediums we have now got some more sitchers on board and have had interest shown by some machine knitters - this is fantastic as we will be able to expand our reach and help more people and animals with the help of these lovely ladies! Suzanne is going to get me started off with my newly acquired sewing machine on Monday as she has cut out some Angel Pockets so she can show me how to assemble them properly - I am really looking forward to the challenge (it will never take over from my knitting obviously but it will be a great way to make sure we have enough Angel Pockets and Burial Gowns for all the maternities on our lists). Arlene from UK Sewing has now decided to join us as a stitcher as well and hopefully some of her stitching friends might be interested as well - thank you Arlene - I will pass all your details on to Suzanne on Monday and the two of you can have a chat about what we need :0)
So it is definitely full speed ahead for Loving Hands! What a great start to the year! We have also been mentioned not just once but twice in the new edition of Let's Knit magazine so hopefully that will bring in some new members too!
We now have 100 members from all over the UK and every one a gem :0)
God Bless you all - keep up the good work!
Just an update for you all - hope you have all been watching the Forum as that is where all the daily news is posted and you can get to know all the other members! (Link to the Forum from the website www.lovinghands.org.uk ). Hopefully more of you will be brave enough to sign in on the Forum and start posting the occaisional comments - we do love to get to know everyne and see what we are all up to!
The Easter challenge is going fantastically - Fridays countdown on the Forum was:-
Sailors Hats 91
Boobs 52
Toys 63
We are doing brilliantly and we still have till Easter Sunday to go (23rd March this week so another 6 weeks to watch those totals go soaring way over what we asked for - keep up the good work girls!).
After my search for members using different mediums we have now got some more sitchers on board and have had interest shown by some machine knitters - this is fantastic as we will be able to expand our reach and help more people and animals with the help of these lovely ladies! Suzanne is going to get me started off with my newly acquired sewing machine on Monday as she has cut out some Angel Pockets so she can show me how to assemble them properly - I am really looking forward to the challenge (it will never take over from my knitting obviously but it will be a great way to make sure we have enough Angel Pockets and Burial Gowns for all the maternities on our lists). Arlene from UK Sewing has now decided to join us as a stitcher as well and hopefully some of her stitching friends might be interested as well - thank you Arlene - I will pass all your details on to Suzanne on Monday and the two of you can have a chat about what we need :0)
So it is definitely full speed ahead for Loving Hands! What a great start to the year! We have also been mentioned not just once but twice in the new edition of Let's Knit magazine so hopefully that will bring in some new members too!
We now have 100 members from all over the UK and every one a gem :0)
God Bless you all - keep up the good work!
Friday, 25 January 2008
Knitting, Crocheting and Sewing for Charity!
Well guys we are now officially Knitting, Crocheting and even Sewing for charity! As well as all of our usual knitting and crocheting we have now got some lovely ladies who can stitch beautiful burial gowns and convert blankets into animal bedding! All very much needed skills - especially for our group as we grow and try to help as many people as we can :0)
We have had a lot of requests from our maternities this week - it has been great emailing and chatting with the midwives and finding out what they particularly need in each hospital. We have had a request for two 2ply baby shawls from one hospital - I don't know if any of you feel you have the time to spare (OR THE PATIENCE) to create these beautiful things. If you do let me know - we would happily supply the patterns and yarn. I know that I could do them myself but running this group, working nightshift and trying to look after my tribe takes up so much time that I would not get any other knitting done for weeks if I take this on personally. :0)
Some of our hospitals have especially requested burial gowns and angel wraps so if any of you are strong enough to try making these very much needed but heartbreaking items I can provide patterns for knitted and crocheted items.
Right - it is 4.30am and the weather is appalling out there - so if I manage to get home this morning without getting drowned or blown away I will be back soon to keep you up to date with the Easter Challenges and all of our donations and requests :0)
Keep up the good work!
We have had a lot of requests from our maternities this week - it has been great emailing and chatting with the midwives and finding out what they particularly need in each hospital. We have had a request for two 2ply baby shawls from one hospital - I don't know if any of you feel you have the time to spare (OR THE PATIENCE) to create these beautiful things. If you do let me know - we would happily supply the patterns and yarn. I know that I could do them myself but running this group, working nightshift and trying to look after my tribe takes up so much time that I would not get any other knitting done for weeks if I take this on personally. :0)
Some of our hospitals have especially requested burial gowns and angel wraps so if any of you are strong enough to try making these very much needed but heartbreaking items I can provide patterns for knitted and crocheted items.
Right - it is 4.30am and the weather is appalling out there - so if I manage to get home this morning without getting drowned or blown away I will be back soon to keep you up to date with the Easter Challenges and all of our donations and requests :0)
Keep up the good work!
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