Checking In! :0-)

Morning all!

Just finished packing up some more parcels of yarn to send out - apparently we now have a following in Forres - thanks to lovely Margaret Hamilton our member in Morayshire! The ladies in Forres have been busily knitting 'boobs' and have even enlisted the help of the LYS in Forres - welcome on board ladies!

I have even got Sophie from Quick and Crafty! magazine knitting for us as well - she was delighted with the information I e-mailed to her the other day and asked for some photos to add in as well. Looks like we are going to be featured in October - a date for your diaries girls - buy Quick and Crafty! magazine in October!

I am adding a photo of myself for you today girls - not to scare you all - just so you can put a face to the name!

I do hate getting photos taken - never mind I have been on a diet recently and have already lost over a stone - I was fed up with the press photographers having to switch to wide angle lenses every time they took my photo! :0)

Talk to you all soon!

Quick and Crafty!

Hi Folks!

Well I have just had a very exciting e-mail from a lovely lady at Quick and Crafty! magazine - apparently she is working on a feature about charity knitting for the October issue and wanted to know more about us and what we are doing so she could include us in her feature! I have just sent her back a reply - hopefully she will decide we are worth a mention and we will get some more publicity!

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing - we are reaching out all over the place now and getting new members all the time. I will make a point of taking more photos as things come in so that you can all see what everyone is doing!

All of my chenille yarn for number 1 son's birthday jumpers has turned up today - it is lovely - hope I can manage to make them without him noticing - he is so used to seeing me knitting baby clothes and 'boobs' when he pops in - I will need to make sure I work on his things when he is not likely to visit - wouldn't want to spoil his surprise!

Popped into the post office and Kate handed me another bag of wool someone had handed in to her. This is mohair so would make some nice scarves - I also got some wrapping paper etc as I have to send out some yarn to some of you lovely members who are in need of materials to help you create! :0)

Talk to you soon!

First Group Meeting!

Well ladies - we held the very first group meeting of Loving Hands in the Kelty Community Centre this afternoon and it went very well. I came home clutching a whole box of knitted baby clothes and a bag of knitted and crocheted blankets as well as a large drum of knitting needles donated by one of the members.

Since it was school holidays Miss Jenna accompanied me and was very helpful - she seemed to enjoy helping everyone and handing round the cakes and biscuits! (Mind you I had to 'pay' her £1 for the ice cream van for being good as gold - for a change! :0)

Next step will be to get the meeting advertised in the local newsletter as I am sure most of the ladies who knit in the village read that (if the response I got to the advert and story about the knitathon is anything to go by!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME :0)

Today is my 48th birthday! My young grandaughter stayed over with us last night and played up all night long so Grandma looks more like 68 this morning (while little miss Cassie Bear is prancing around wih her auntie Jenna fresh as a daisy - not fair!). Never mind - hopefully as the day progresses Grandma will manage to stay awake to see the family!

I managed to buy a large load of Sirdar WOW! chenille yarn this week so I will be really looking forward to that arriving - number 1 son is desperate to have a nice new chenille jumper so I am going to kick off by making one or two for his birthday and then I guess I will have to do the same for number 2 son who is now almost 15 and looks up to his big bro! Miss Jenna has already laid claim to the fab Raspberry Pink lot and wants a nice jacket made with that so that should keep me out of mischief for a wee while.

I have already had some money for my birthday so I am heading off into town this week to buy some new clothes - I have lost over a stone in the last 6 weeks so my trousers are too big and the shop I go to has a load of very in vogue tops in right now so my daughters might actually aprove of my purchases for a change! (Normally a shopping trip with my gang involves loads of threats to call out the fashion police and screams of 'You are not buying that!' :0)

Right back to the sofa for me to watch last night's Supernatural and knit the cuffs and band onto a lovely wee cardigan for Baby Pack - I had some nice variegated yarn that is perfect for Africa (remember not all white for Africa girls - it is the colour of mourning over there :0) so I am going to knit it up into cardigan, hat and shoes sets. Still very excited about the new nappies that are coming - they will make such a difference - Grandma is tired but the world is not such a bad place! :0)

Another Great Donation!

Great news! I have just had a very exciting e-mail from Jane at Lollipop Children's Products. She tells me that since I wrote to them back in April asking for donations of nappies for The baby Pack Project they have been collecting up second hand nappies and ones that are factory seconds but still perfectly usable! They are willing to donate them to us for Baby Pack which is fantastic! With this help and the donations from Tommee Tippee we will be able to help give so many more babies a good start in life - aren't people wonderful! :0) I have been knitting some more matching baby sets (cardigans, hats and shoes) in lovely bright colours for baby pack so hopefully we can have a nice fundraiser during the next few weeks so I can get all of this shipped over asap.

The Kelty meeting starts on Monday afternoon at 1pm in the Community Centre - I will let you all know how that goes!

:0)

New Look

OK I have been messing around with the look of the site and thought this one was nicer - what do you think guys? The old one was a bit staid and boring and we aren't - we are wonderful woolly people with Loving Hands and hearts of gold!

Do you like it?????

Stitch N Bitch

I have now added out details on to the Stitch N Bitch site. It seems to be areally great Forum full of lots of happy knitters - they had a charity knitting section and one for groups so I have added our details in both categories - I think next step will be to contact Simply Knitting and Knitting magazines with our details as well - seems like every time I join something new we get a few more members which is great for us and even better for the charities we support!

I am going off down today to book us in to the local community centre for Monday Meetings (1pm to 3pm in Kelty Community Centre from 23rd July) and I will get in touch with the church in Dunfermline and the Volunteer Centre in Kirkcaldy to arrange days and times with them.

Hopefully we will have a very productive summer!

I have to go in to Dunfermline tomorrow to the Sewing Machine Centre to buy some more tartan knit in ribbon for a bonnet I had ordered the other day. I am also going to look for a pattern for a Man's Tammy hat as an old neighbour wants one for her nephew to wear to work. There are not an awful lot of LYS around here - I normally go to the lady at Kinross Market as her prices are good and she orders things in for me if she doesn't have them. The other local stores are Pins and Needles in Lochgelly which is like a Tardis - very small shop but packed floor to ceiling with all sorts of lovely yarn and associated items. The Sewing Machine Centre in Dunfermline which is more expensive but has all sorts of crafty things in it over two floors - well worth a visit if you are in the area. Apart from that there aren't really any good stores here.

Why not post on site and let us all know what is available in your area? Which are your favourites and which would be worth a visit if any of us were visiting your area? I know that the first thing I do when we go on holiday is check out the LYS to see what they have! :0)

Patterns

Hi Guys - I have just managed to scan the patterns into my pc so if any of you need copies of the patterns for the boobs, bears or other things just let me know and I will e-mail them to you as attachments!

Yarn Donation

More great news today - a lovely lady called Joan from the Isle of Harris has very kindly offered to send us some oddments of yarn she has lying around. Family commitments will not allow her time to knit for us at the moment (we will be here when you find the time Joan don't worry!). But she very thoughtfully offered us her spare yarn to use in the meantime! Thank you so much Joan - you are a real star! :-)

Been really busy since last night - just finished an all white unisex baby set for the duaghter's mother - in - law (her friend from work is expecting but they don't know aht it is to be yet) I did a cardigan, beanie hat and shoes for her with wee teddy bear buttons. Then I got an order on e-bay for three lacey bonnets so I have finished two and just away to do the third one. I also got an order for two aran cardis and matching bobble hats in aran for twin baby boys in Port Glasgow - good job I did lots of scarves for Loving Hands when I was on holiday last week or I would be feeling I was neglecting that in favour of orders! :0)

It would be lovely if you could all post in the comments list what you are working on at the moment - whether it be for charity or for yourselves - I am sure everyone would love to see what you are doing!

I have added a few photos of some of my finished orders at the top - the lacey bonnets are great sellers - I sell them all over the world!

Secret Pal

Hi Guys!

I have just signed up for the next Secret Pal - this round will be secet pal 11 - it is a brilliant scheme which joins together knitters and crocheters from all over the world. You get assigned a secret pal and you send gifts to them and you are also assigned another one who sends gifts to you. You have to have a Blog and a secret e-mail address as your identity is kept secret from the other person till reveal day. I have had some lovely pals in the past and received some really great gifts from all over the place! I will keep you all posted as to how it goes. If you want to get involved google secret pal 11 and join up - you have till the 31st July to get involved in this round and all the rules are explained on the site!

UK Handknitters

Hello Everyone!

I have just joined UK Handknitters Yahoo group so hopefully we might attract some new members from the wonderful people who are part of that group. They are all very keen knitters and have a wealth of skills and knowledge that would be great for hekping us out here! If any of you UK Handknitters members have logged on to take a peek at this Blog - WELCOME!

I will add a few more photos from the knitathon today - the others came out really well I thought!

I had a lovely lady e-mailed me yesterday who had seen the article about the knitathon in the local newsletter she has been busily knitting baby cardigans ever since and has a load to hand in - Thank you Rose Kelly - you are a star! Keep knitting though we need all the things we can get! :0)

As you can see the knitathon was attended by all ages and both sexes! We do not discrimate! (Hats off to Kaffe Fassett and Sasha Kagan!).

A bit off topic here - but I am sitting today nursing a broken bug toe! Last night I tripped over our 10 stone Irish Setter in the dark and ended up in Casualty! Ouch! The only good thing is that now the kids are doing everything for me and I can sit here and do my e-mails and blog and then spend the rest of the day KNITTING!!!!

Talk to you some more very soon!

Lou x

Another Newbie!

Today we welcome another newbie on board - Beatrice Lea is on holiday at the moment and looking to join us as a charity knitter - welcome on board Beatrice! We are delighted to have you!

The Lion Brand website is doing very well attracting new members to the group - thank you Lion Brand!

One of our local members Margaret has been ever so busy knitting 'boobs' for the breastfeeding project and now has over 2 dozen waiting in the wings to be added to the box for Tommee Tippee. I am really looking forward to going down to Newcaslte to meet up with Avril and the midwives - it is great to see where things are going!

I will try to get the hang of adding photos to these posts as I have already got quite a few really good ones from the Knitathon in June. As you will see I have cracked it! There is a box of 'boobs' sitting waiting to be bagged up!

The second one shows some of the wonderful brightly coloured baby sets I made for Africa for the Baby Pack project - remeber if you are knitting for this one don't knit all in white as this is the colour of mourning over there! The other one is a mountain of knitted scarves, boobs, squares and baby things which were done for the Knitathon - we had hundreds of things made in advance of the 3 day event so there were lots of packages to be sent off to the various charities after that!

Now that I have figured it out I will keep posting photos as we go along to let you see how we are all doing!

Happy Knitting!