Frogs

Here's a great photo of one of our members, Barbara, showcasing the rice-sack frogs that she has made!  What a colorful selection and so much fun to do!

The Weekly Stitch

Hey there ladies! Happy Monday to all of you! It's officially fall now - time to start planning out all of those fall and holiday projects. And, it's time to ramp up our inventory of hats and scarves for the cancer centers - cooler temps means cold bald heads and chilly necks and shoulders.

Meetings this week:

• Tuesday - 10AM in the Hospitality Room at First Baptist McKinney
• Wednesday - 6:15PM in the Connection at First Baptist McKinney

Have you checked out our blog yet? If not, make sure you do so soon - Jennifer Stover has been working hard to put lots of information out there. You can access it by going to http://yarnsofhope.blogspot.com. You can also follow new posts to the blog by clicking on the "Follow by email" button, typing in your email then hitting submit. I believe will get a confirmation email in your inbox which you will need to confirm before you start receiving emails about blog posts. This is going to be a great new tool for us to communicate with each other about projects, events, sales, and anything else going on in the yarn world! Check it out soon!

Current Projects:

• Chemo caps and scarves for both adults and children - donated to Texas Oncology McKinney, McKinney Regional Cancer Center, UT Southwestern in Dallas and MCCH oncology unit.
• Blankets for MCCH - either a child-sized blanket or 12 x 12 squares to combine into a blanket for them.
• Finch knitting/crochet club - I have had 2 or 3 of you volunteer to help with teaching and Becca Masters has volunteered to be the coordinator! (Yea - thank you Becca!!) Look for details soon about when we will start the club. Also, we could use several more teachers. If you are thinking about teaching, go to MISD to fill out a volunteer application.
• Mission trip to Nepal: In October, Susan Horn will be traveling to Nepal on a mission trip with Dare to Care. She could help accumulating the following items for her trip:
• Packets of Chile con Carne
• Italian Salad Dressing mixes
• 1 jar of Cream of Tartar
• Birthday candles
• Individual packs of candy for the Orphans and host families

Love you all! Have a great week!

The Weekly Stitch

Hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying the rain and cooler weather! Also, it's football season - which means a great time to sit and knit/crochet for hours at a time!

Meetings this week:

• Tuesday - 10AM in the Hospitality Room at First Baptist McKinney
• Wednesday - 6:15PM in the Connection at First Baptist McKinney

Current Projects:

• Chemo caps and scarves for both adults and children - donated to Texas Oncology McKinney, McKinney Regional Cancer Center, UT Southwestern in Dallas and MCCH oncology unit.
• Blankets for MCCH - either a child-sized blanket or 12 x 12 squares to combine into a blanket for them.
• Finch knitting/crochet club - I have had 2 or 3 of you volunteer to help with teaching and Becca Masters has volunteered to be the coordinator! (Yea - thank you Becca!!) Look for details soon about when we will start the club. Also, we could use several more teachers. If you are thinking about teaching, go to the McKinney ISD website to fill out a volunteer application.

You ladies are the greatest - thank you for your dedication to our group.

Martha Stewart Crafts Knit & Weave Loom Kit, By Lion Brand

For all you loomers out there, this is the latest and greatest tool that will make your looming more versitle, fun and drive you absolutely wild with the endless possibilities!

Lion Brand is partnering with Martha Stewart Crafts and created the Knit & Weave Loom Kit.  It is an erector set of connecting looming bars and joints where you will be able to make small rosette flowers all the way to ponchos and everything inbetween.  You will be able to work flat projects such as scarves and toys, or items in the round such has hats of varying sizes.  In addition to the loom knitting, you can also use this as a weaving tool; very similar to the pot-holder looms by making placemats or joining pieces together to make large afghans in record time.

Lion Brand created a couple of You-Tube introductory videos about this kit to explain how this works and the possibilites with this tool:

Introduction to Kit
Project Inspiration

At this time it does not seem to be sold in stores but it can be purchased online from $35-$45.  Although the price may seem a bit high, when you think of the variety of sizes one can get from the assortment (including pegs!) it would cost just as much if not more to buy pieces individually as well as make storage for the larger looms.  With these attachments, they can be disconnected and stored in a compact manner when not in use.

Note: This is not a paid advertisement, just a great new tool that was found and wanted to share with other interested parties.

2012 Winter Fiber Fun Retreat

Just when you’re about to say to yourself “I wish I had more time to work on some of my projects and learn a new technique” the clouds part and rays of light beam down from the sky.  Behold, the 4^th Annual Winter Fiber Fun Retreat!

Mary Berry, the owner and proprietor of Fancy Fibers Farm located in Farmersville, created this retreat to get us like-minded yarn-a-holics together for a long weekend of stitching, spinning, weaving, felting and whatever else our fun-loving, creative minds can think of when it comes to yarn and notions! 

The exciting part about this retreat is that you can do whatever you want!  You can pick and choose what classes to attend.  If you only want to come to stitch, you can do that as well.  You can work your projects outside or indoors and away from the busyness of your house.  Heck, you might be able to finally finish that blanket that has lain dormant for so long!  In addition to the myriad of classes to choose from you can build a great network of local friends with common interests!

Here are some basic details and more detailed information can be found on Fancy Fiber’s website.  I’m posting this information early so you can get to registering for the classes you wish to attend.  Space fills up fast!

When:    February 16^th-19^th, 2012

Where:   Tally Retreat Center @ Camp Copass in Denton, TX

What:     23 Instruction-based courses to choose from (prices vary from free to $60 per

              course but mostly lie in the $15-$25 range)

Lodging: $80/night per room (max occupancy per room is 4)

Meals:     Buffet-style in the dining hall. Breakfast $7, Lunch $8, Dinner $8

Retreat Fee: $30

And if all of the above wasn’t enough to get you motivated to register, I created a Top 10 list.  If you agree to at least one of these, then you need to go! 

Top 10 reasons why you should go on a stitching retreat:

10. The cushion on the couch needs to be rotated because of the divot from sitting and

      stitching

  9. When the household pets use your project as their personal blanket and shed more fur

      than what you use yarn-wise

  8. You only know 21 ways to cast on and you know that someone else knows a 22^nd option

      but they’re holding out on you

  7. You can make a t-shirt that says: I stitched for 96 hours and all I got was this lousy

      t-shirt (and a couple of finished projects)

  6. Ravely has become your official home page

  5. The husband and kids are waiting for you to finish “one more row”

  4. You wear a button that says “I Knit So I Don’t Kill People” on a daily basis

  3. The only exercises you’re required to do are finger exercises

  2. *P1, K1, YO, SSK; repeat from* becomes your bedtime lullaby

  1. This will be the only place where you can bring your stitching to the dinner table and

      no one will object

Wednesday Only Sale @ Michaels - Impeccable Yarn for $1.99!

This is a great sale not to be missed!

Michaels is having a one day only sale on their Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn for $1.99!  If you have not worked with this yarn before, it is a self-striping worsted-weight yarn with a texture I would compare to Vanna's Choice or Red Heart Soft.

It is for Wednesday only so be sure to check it out and get them before they're gone.

Also, for those who have not signed up for Michaels Rewards, be sure to ask for a free application at the store and then register your card number on their website.  They provide additional coupons and store events that are not readily available to the public.

Craft Fair Success!

9

Saturday was a great day to be outside stitching with friends and talking about one of our favorite hobbies!  There were a dozen or so gals from the group who stopped by to set up, sell, strike and visit throughout the day.

Tables and walls were filled with everything knit and crochet-related.  Hats, scarves, purses, dishcloths and toys were proudly on display.  Knitter Critter (Hillary’s custom-stitched children’s accessories) and Charmed Charms (Gina’s sister, Christine who made our great jewelry) partnered with Yarns of Hope and donated a portion of their proceeds to benefit the group and our mission.  In total, Yarns of Hope raised over $170!  In addition to the money raised to purchase supplies, we encountered several people who were interested in learning how to knit and crochet or wanted to find a group to be able to donate their time and resources.  The day was truly a blessing for YOH and we were glad to be a part of Princeton’s celebration.

The Weekly Stitch

Important note for Tuesday morning attendees: We will NOT be meeting at First Baptist tomorrow! The church is hosting a Volunteer Expo for MISD that will take up all of the resources at the church. We will be meeting at Gina’s house instead which provides lots of comfy seating outside and indoors as well as fun play spaces for the kiddos. We will be back at the church next week.

• Tuesday @ 10: Gina’s house.  Please contact Gina Hammack for directions and information.
• Wednesday @ 6:15: Connection @ First Baptist McKinney (open area between the sports center & sanctuary)

Here’s what we’re working on this week!

• Chemo hats and scarves for adults and children
• Blankets – either a child-sized blanket or 12”x12” squares that will be combined with other squares
• Finch Knitting/Crochet club – Becca Masters has graciously accepted to be the coordinator to lead this group.  There have been two or three who have said that they will help teach the 5^th graders, however we still need more volunteers.  We meet during the kid's lunch break for about 30 minutes once a week.  Last year we had over 15 students express an interest and would like to break the kids into small groups in order to make the teaching easier for them.  There has also been talk about giving a name to the group.  Helping Hands is the front-runner at this time. More details will be coming soon as to when we will begin teaching.

Be sure to let people know about YOH, our blog and also sign up to know when the site has been updates!

Thank you all for your dedication to the group.  You truly are a blessing!

New Book Added To The YOH Library - Cabin Fever: Need A Hat? No-Sew Knitting

Yarns of Hope has received a wonderful donation - all the way from Canada!  The moderator with Chemo Cap Pattern Library on Ravelry offered a few copies of  the knit book Cabin Fever: Need A Hat? as a giveaway and chose our group to be one of the recipients!

Geared for knitters ranging from beginner to intermediate, this book's strong feature are the thoroughly detailed Size/Gauge & Yardage charts that create endless possibilites for all the hats featured in this book and essentially for any hat conversion outside of the book as well.  If you want to make an adult hat with chunky yarn, the chart will provide the suggested needle size as well as the estimated stitches to use.  If you want to make the same hat for a newborn using sock weight yarn, the chart has that information also.  Include this with the basic pattern and presto!  You have the same hat in two different sizes with different weighted yarns without having to break out the calculator!

Check out all the hat designs through the above link and then check out the book through YOH.  I personally am anxious to try designs # 3, 5, 7, 8, 11 & 12.  Heck, I think I'm going to make them all!

Another trip to MCCH and a Special Request

All of you ladies have been so busy that our stash was overflowing with blankets and quilts, so I scheduled a visit to children's oncology unit at Medical Center Children's Hospital today. The Child Life Director was thrilled will all of the blankets, quilts, scarves, hats and toys that I delivered to her. She wants all of you to know that she, her staff, and all of the patients love our generosity and all of the things that we make for them. While we were visiting, she mentioned a need for "rice frogs". Now, I had no idea what a rice frog was but she explained it and sent me these links:  Rice Frog (1) and Rice Frog (2). Basically, they are fabric frogs made out of scraps then stuffed with long grain rice. The frogs can be placed in a microwave to warm then placed on the patient's aches and pains. She said that the kids all just love these frogs and they really help as well.

So, if anyone would like to help out by making some of these frogs, please just bring to one of our meetings or let me know.

God bless,
Gina