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)
Saturday, 24 May 2008
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!
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Parcels!
Well girls - I have just spent two whole days re-organising the office a bit and now have all of our yarn stocks separated into boxes labelled with whats inside! This will make it a whole lot easier for me to make you up packs of yarn to send out when you need it! If any of you have knitting machines and like to make our wee things by machine I do have quite a few cones here - let me know if you want any sent out as they do take up a lot of space and there aren't many of them suitable for hand knitting unless we use two or three cones together to maybe knit blankets (the colour schemes would be rather nice don't you think!).
The exciting news is that I have just parcelled up 30 jumpers and cardigans for Feed The Children! I will get them off in the post this week - our first donation to them! I also have five bags of things for Blythswood Care - two are used clothing, one is bric-a-brac for their shops and the other two are filled with blankets, scarves, hats, mittens and other garments to be sent overseas!
I have also packed a box for Shelley at preemiesuk with the items for her washbag challenge (she wanted to repay the kindness shown to her father when he was in intensive care by donating some filled washbags for patients who are brought in suddenly) and also some wee hats and cardigans for her charity as well. We also sent twenty of our knitted 'boobs' to Peterborough Hospital as Shelley had a request for some there. The other eighty were shipped off to Tommee Tippee headquarters (much to the delight of Avril Deane who has now got our wee Jenna's photgraph - complete with her bucket of boobies - pinned above her desk!). These ones will be taken to the Midwives conference next month and hopefully will all be snapped up by the health professionals attending for their classes (in exchange Avril is asking for donations for Breast Cancer Charity so we are helping in two ways here!).
Our Easter Challenge is going really well too - we now have 40 hats and 14 dolls and bears in the challenge box! No boobies in the box yet but I am off to start on those right now! (I know some of you have been working on these too but I don't count them till they arrive here in the Office so hopefully the 'boob' target will shoot up in a week or two! :0).
Once the letters start to come back in from the hospitals we will have a better idea of the needs there are out there. We are very lucky to have a new member who is able to sew beautiful burial gowns for our little lost angels which will be such a comfort for many parents. We also have one or two willing to knit angel pockets or gowns - it is very hard and for most of you an impossible task - I know my very fist angel pocket was soaked in my own tears before it was finished and my dear husband asked me why I was doing it if it hurt me so much. The answer was easy - if it was my baby I would want to give the little mite some dignity and care before letting it go off to live with the angels. Fortunately these days there is so much that can be done and the majority of prem babies do survive but at least when the unthinkable happens groups like ours are here to provide some support - well done to all of you for being with us and working so hard to help others :0)
Right enough crying over the pc - there is work to be done! Hopefully by next week these targets for our Easter Challenge will have grown - and now that I am organised your requests for yarn and patterns can be sent out even faster!
Keep up the good work girls - you are all real stars!
Any visitors reading this blog please think about joining us or tell all your knitting and crocheting friends about us - we love to have new members - there are 103 of us all working away all over the UK at the moment and we have meetings in Kelty Commuity Centre on Mondays from 1pm to 3pm and in Kirkcaldy at the JRD Trust, 9 The Esplanade (the old YWCA) on Mondays from 7pm to 9pm as well. You can visit our website lovinghands.org.uk for more information and contact details :0)
Oh - and watch out for the February issue of Let's Knit! magazine as we are featured in there again - we are getting to be known more and more - not bad for a group that only started in July last year don't you think! :0)
The exciting news is that I have just parcelled up 30 jumpers and cardigans for Feed The Children! I will get them off in the post this week - our first donation to them! I also have five bags of things for Blythswood Care - two are used clothing, one is bric-a-brac for their shops and the other two are filled with blankets, scarves, hats, mittens and other garments to be sent overseas!
I have also packed a box for Shelley at preemiesuk with the items for her washbag challenge (she wanted to repay the kindness shown to her father when he was in intensive care by donating some filled washbags for patients who are brought in suddenly) and also some wee hats and cardigans for her charity as well. We also sent twenty of our knitted 'boobs' to Peterborough Hospital as Shelley had a request for some there. The other eighty were shipped off to Tommee Tippee headquarters (much to the delight of Avril Deane who has now got our wee Jenna's photgraph - complete with her bucket of boobies - pinned above her desk!). These ones will be taken to the Midwives conference next month and hopefully will all be snapped up by the health professionals attending for their classes (in exchange Avril is asking for donations for Breast Cancer Charity so we are helping in two ways here!).
Our Easter Challenge is going really well too - we now have 40 hats and 14 dolls and bears in the challenge box! No boobies in the box yet but I am off to start on those right now! (I know some of you have been working on these too but I don't count them till they arrive here in the Office so hopefully the 'boob' target will shoot up in a week or two! :0).
Once the letters start to come back in from the hospitals we will have a better idea of the needs there are out there. We are very lucky to have a new member who is able to sew beautiful burial gowns for our little lost angels which will be such a comfort for many parents. We also have one or two willing to knit angel pockets or gowns - it is very hard and for most of you an impossible task - I know my very fist angel pocket was soaked in my own tears before it was finished and my dear husband asked me why I was doing it if it hurt me so much. The answer was easy - if it was my baby I would want to give the little mite some dignity and care before letting it go off to live with the angels. Fortunately these days there is so much that can be done and the majority of prem babies do survive but at least when the unthinkable happens groups like ours are here to provide some support - well done to all of you for being with us and working so hard to help others :0)
Right enough crying over the pc - there is work to be done! Hopefully by next week these targets for our Easter Challenge will have grown - and now that I am organised your requests for yarn and patterns can be sent out even faster!
Keep up the good work girls - you are all real stars!
Any visitors reading this blog please think about joining us or tell all your knitting and crocheting friends about us - we love to have new members - there are 103 of us all working away all over the UK at the moment and we have meetings in Kelty Commuity Centre on Mondays from 1pm to 3pm and in Kirkcaldy at the JRD Trust, 9 The Esplanade (the old YWCA) on Mondays from 7pm to 9pm as well. You can visit our website lovinghands.org.uk for more information and contact details :0)
Oh - and watch out for the February issue of Let's Knit! magazine as we are featured in there again - we are getting to be known more and more - not bad for a group that only started in July last year don't you think! :0)
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Easter Challenges!
Hi Guys!
Just realised I had posted the Easter Challenges on the Forum site but not on here! Meeting myself coming back these days I guess :0)
Right here we go:-
The challenge for Easter Sunday 2008 is .........
100 small dolls for prem baby units and baby pack (the Jelly Babies one posted on this site is brilliant or you can use one of Jean Greenhowes or the wee baby pack bears maybe - you choose!).
100 Hats for seafarers - this is to help out the British and International Seafarers Society (BISS) who have been giving hats to fishermen and sailors since 1818. The hats need to be in a washable yarn as they will probably be machine washed on board a lot of these boats. We have the patterns for these too although you can use any man's hat pattern you like and make them as funky and as bright as you wish - just because they are men doesn't mean that everything we send has to be in blacks, blues, greys and sludgy greens :0)
Finally - our old chestnut - another 100 boobs for our dear friends at Tommee Tippee - Avril has now got involved with the Breast cancer society and they are taking our boobs along to shows etc with them and if any health professionals want some for their breastfeeding classes they make a donation to the breast cancer society as a thank you - so this way we are helping two fold which is great! (The other greats here are all the donations for Baby Pack we get from Tommee Tippee in return and also the postage is free so no strain on our resources!).
Our next challenges will probably be more 'baby' related as we have now written to all of the SCBU's. Delivery Suites and Post Natal Wards asking for their 'wish lists' for 2008 so we will probably have a huge list of wants and needs very soon!
Keep up the good work and remember to get in touch if you need any patterns, wool, stuffing or needles - it is better off out there with you guys being used up than stored in my office (and Meg's caravan which is apparently about bursting at the seams with all the stuff she keeps squeezing into it!). :0)
A big welcome to all our new members who have joined us either at the meetings or by post in the last few weeks - our membership now stands at 102 - not bad for an organisation that was only begun 6 months ago :0)
Watch out for counters to let you see how many items we have made for the challenge this time. Preemiesuk did a great job of kickstarting us off with a donation of 28 sailors hats, 2 dolls and 7 Feed the Children jumpers last week - we were all delighted - thank you so much Shelley! :0)
I have since come home with another 6 hats and a bear from the meetings yesterday and I have made 4 Jelly Baby dolls and a hat myself in the last few days too so we are well on our way!
Just realised I had posted the Easter Challenges on the Forum site but not on here! Meeting myself coming back these days I guess :0)
Right here we go:-
The challenge for Easter Sunday 2008 is .........
100 small dolls for prem baby units and baby pack (the Jelly Babies one posted on this site is brilliant or you can use one of Jean Greenhowes or the wee baby pack bears maybe - you choose!).
100 Hats for seafarers - this is to help out the British and International Seafarers Society (BISS) who have been giving hats to fishermen and sailors since 1818. The hats need to be in a washable yarn as they will probably be machine washed on board a lot of these boats. We have the patterns for these too although you can use any man's hat pattern you like and make them as funky and as bright as you wish - just because they are men doesn't mean that everything we send has to be in blacks, blues, greys and sludgy greens :0)
Finally - our old chestnut - another 100 boobs for our dear friends at Tommee Tippee - Avril has now got involved with the Breast cancer society and they are taking our boobs along to shows etc with them and if any health professionals want some for their breastfeeding classes they make a donation to the breast cancer society as a thank you - so this way we are helping two fold which is great! (The other greats here are all the donations for Baby Pack we get from Tommee Tippee in return and also the postage is free so no strain on our resources!).
Our next challenges will probably be more 'baby' related as we have now written to all of the SCBU's. Delivery Suites and Post Natal Wards asking for their 'wish lists' for 2008 so we will probably have a huge list of wants and needs very soon!
Keep up the good work and remember to get in touch if you need any patterns, wool, stuffing or needles - it is better off out there with you guys being used up than stored in my office (and Meg's caravan which is apparently about bursting at the seams with all the stuff she keeps squeezing into it!). :0)
A big welcome to all our new members who have joined us either at the meetings or by post in the last few weeks - our membership now stands at 102 - not bad for an organisation that was only begun 6 months ago :0)
Watch out for counters to let you see how many items we have made for the challenge this time. Preemiesuk did a great job of kickstarting us off with a donation of 28 sailors hats, 2 dolls and 7 Feed the Children jumpers last week - we were all delighted - thank you so much Shelley! :0)
I have since come home with another 6 hats and a bear from the meetings yesterday and I have made 4 Jelly Baby dolls and a hat myself in the last few days too so we are well on our way!
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Gummy Babies!
Print Gummy Jelly Baby Craft Project from Craftbits.com
Here it is guys - the lovely - yummy , gummy, jelly baby pattern Raynor found for us on Crafty Bits - now do not be surprised if this pops up in the Easter Challenges - we will be announcing what they are on Tuesday! Watch this space.......
I do love these gummy babies though - they are very cute - 4mm needles - odd balls of dk yarn and Bobs your Uncle! You could send these in unstuffed as well - like the boobies so it would save on p+p :0)
Our prem baby units would love these and Shelley has already said Preemies would like some for their baby units and we can also use these as the toys for the Baby Packs so they do tick a lot of Loving Hands boxes!
I have printed off and laminated some copies of this one, the sailors hats and the boobs patterns so if any of you need any 'hard' copies just let me know and I will post them out to you! :0)
Here it is guys - the lovely - yummy , gummy, jelly baby pattern Raynor found for us on Crafty Bits - now do not be surprised if this pops up in the Easter Challenges - we will be announcing what they are on Tuesday! Watch this space.......
I do love these gummy babies though - they are very cute - 4mm needles - odd balls of dk yarn and Bobs your Uncle! You could send these in unstuffed as well - like the boobies so it would save on p+p :0)
Our prem baby units would love these and Shelley has already said Preemies would like some for their baby units and we can also use these as the toys for the Baby Packs so they do tick a lot of Loving Hands boxes!
I have printed off and laminated some copies of this one, the sailors hats and the boobs patterns so if any of you need any 'hard' copies just let me know and I will post them out to you! :0)
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