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)