QRS Update and Halos of Hope

Hi, Knitters,
The Quaker Ridge Shawlette (QRS) Knitalong is buzzing along with only a few weeks left to go. I am having the best time with this fun and chatty group of knitters. Finished QRSs are popping up left and right and they all look fantastic. Many are venturing into shawl and bead knitting for the first time and they are having great success.

Quaker Ridge Shawlette pattern
Quaker Ridge Shawlette Knitalong
Quaker Ridge Shawlette posted projects

The photo above (used with permission) is of three of the Itty-Bitty Knits group members and Quaker Ridge knitalong-ers having a meet up in Seattle at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. Don't they look wonderful in their freshly knit shawls? I love this photo so much.

From left to right are (by rav id), gathersnomoss (her shawl is still on the needles), redbayknits, and jenb69. Thanks for sharing! Here is what gathersnomoss had to say about the Itty-Bitty Knits gathering:

Today, we had an Itty Bitty meet-up in Seattle. Luckily, there were QRSs so we could recognize each other. We took a field trip to Churchmouse Yarn and Teas and modeled our shawls. Please ignore the fact that mine is still on the needles. We got loads of compliments and one person wanted to know who knitted them for us. It was a fun outing.

For the QRS knitalong group I have been having weekly prize drawings. The first prize drawing to kick off the knitalong was from me, 10 winners won a gifted pattern of their choice from my Ravelry pattern shop.

Along with this prize, I have had some generous donations from other vendors so far. This gorgeous prize yarn is from Luna Grey Fiber Arts. Jackie, the owner and dyer, generously donated this beautiful hank of her Polwarth/silk fingering weight yarn.

Click here for Jackie's etsy shop, Luna Grey Fiber Arts!

Jackie also donated this project bag to go along with the yarn. Now for the best part......

The winner! This is racedogmom (rav id) , SallyAnn. This photo (used with permission) was taken by her husband and I just love it because you can just feel her excitement. She's so cute and joyful. It really is the best.

Thank you, Jackie and thank you, SallyAnn for sharing!

The next prize drawing was from Sun Valley Fibers. Jeanette is a local vendor to me and she is always so incredibly generous and quick to donate. I love that about Sun Valley Fibers.

Jeanette has donated a new colorway, called Bug Juice, in her Merino/Cashmere/Nylon fingering weight base. Click here to read more about it! It is really beautiful. Sun Valley Fibers attends and sells at major knitting events all over the country and is quite well-known in the industry. So it is an honor to get to have prizes from them for the knitalong.

Click here to see all of the Sun Valley Fibers yarns! Hop over and check out the Yarn Buddies, too. I have one and I use it all the time. I love it.

Okay, the latest prize being drawn for later today comes from my buddy and fellow Madison native, Jaala Spiro. She has started her own hand-dyed yarn line through her Knitcircus brand. She is just so creative. Jaala generously donated the yarn in the photo above for one lucky winner. Thank you to Knitcircus yarns and Jaala. Here is more information about the yarn.

Knitcircus Silk-Wool Fingering in Autumn Harvest: 
Self-striping long repeat moves from burnt orange through ochre and
goldenrod yellow. The softness of wool blended with silk's strength and
gloss; hand-dyed one at a time. 70 merino wool, 30% silk, 440 yards/skein.
Perfect for lace, shawls and heirloom knitting or crochet. Colored using
professional-grade acid dyes.

Click here for the Knitcircus etsy shop for gradient and kettle-dyed yarns and gorgeous patterns!

Click here for the Knitcircus website, sign up for the newsletter, listen to Jaala's podcast with Amy Detjen (love this one!) and more!

We are having a ball over on the Quaker Ridge Shawlette knitalong. If you missed out on this one, I will host another knitalong soon. I have lots of ideas in the works including another shawl design that is already completed. I have some fun toy ideas for a knitalong, too. If you have a preference let me know what type of pattern you'd enjoy for the next knitalong.

I have a couple of quick announcements here to finish out today.

I am hosting the October Charity Knitting on the Itty-Bitty Knits group on Ravelry but anyone can join in and send donations. I am honored to be co-sponsored this month by Halos of Hope.

Click here for the Halos of Hope charity knitting organization!

Click here for the downloadable label for your Itty-Bitty Knits donations!

Click here for the Halos of Hope charity knitting thread on the Itty-Bitty Knits Ravelry group! We are already having responses from people who will be donating this month.

Here is the information directly from Pamela Haschke, the President and founder of Halos of Hope:

As we were looking through what we’ve received lately, realized we actually may be short on kids’ hats. We’re going to do two larger campaigns for kids here in the next few months, so stocking up on kids’ caps is probably a great way to do this KAL/CAL with Itty Bitty Knits. We’ll need both basic kids patterns (simpler) hats, as well as some festive ones, which always bring a smile to the kids. 

Sizes should be 14 - 19” in circumference. This is considered baby to teen size. No preemie hats, please, as those go to a different area of the hospital that the cancer units. Hats need to be 5.5” to 6” in height.

Yarns: The key is soft and washable for kids’ hats. Cottons, cotton blends, acrylics, acrylic blends, 100% superwash wool. Two comments here, please ask folks to be careful with economy worsteds, because they often are scratchier than 100% Highland wool, and don’t soften when washed. So those hats sit at the centers, because they aren’t soft enough. The second is, if the hats have any wool content, just let us know. Because of the washables, we don’t shy away from wool, but we just need to have the hat ‘tagged’ if it has wool content. Also, Fun Fur. I know it sounds crazy, but the kids seem to love these. 

Address to mail your donations:
Itty Bitty Knit Group Hats
Halos of Hope
P.O. Box 1998
Arlington Heights, IL 60006-1998

That way my guys will pull these out from the general donations, get them to me, and I can count them separately. We’ll try to get photos of the overall donated hats to share through our social media, and post to the group once they are all received.

About Halos of Hope:

Halos of Hope is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 organization not-for-profit organization committed to providing in-need cancer patients with crafted hats donated by caring volunteers. The organization was started in October 2007 by Pamela Haschke, a survivor of a rare breast cancer with a high mortality rate, and provides caps to more than 475 cancer treatment centers across the United States. We currently support over 155 pediatric centers nationally. 77,000 hats have been provided to comfort cancer patients since our inception, and over 2,400 continue to be sent each month. We believe cancer is a journey of courage, and we hope a caring, handcrafted hat provides some comfort along the way. Centers are asked to give the caps to their patients free of charge.

What an organization! I hope to get lots of donations throughout the month. Be sure to let me know or post on the thread if you donate. Thanks to Pamela for letting us all be a part of this important charity that does so much good on such a large scale. I'll share more on this as the month progresses.

best, susie
p.s. It has been announced by The Knit Girllls that I will be teaching at the SSK (super summer knitogether) in Nashville in June 2013! I am so excited about this upcoming event that is so popular that they have a lottery drawing to get in and a huge waiting list for those who don't get in through the lottery. More to come on this soon!