Friday, March 13, 2009

a flock caught my eye

Hi Knitters,
Yesterday I finished my editing and shipped my book pages back off to my publisher. In my sigh of relief I grabbed my needles and a skein of Blue Sky Cotton, emailed Lucinda for her bird pattern and dug in to knit a little blue bird for the cause I wrote about here. It felt good and perfect. 

I had a kind of sign yesterday, at least I took it like that anyway. Let me tell you about it.

Yesterday morning I saw the new Knitty was out. I was casually looking at the new patterns, browsing from top to bottom. Suddenly I scanned down with my eyes to the last pattern and was stunned when I saw this. Sometimes things happen that take your breath away. To see Flock and to be thinking about Cooper's Flock took my breath away. 

To continue on, I glanced at the next pattern in the sequence I had been browsing in before and I saw this. The designer's name is Birdy Evans and the design is called Flit and Float. Lucinda's son was nicknamed Birdy, like that, with a y at the end and thus the reason for the knitted bird charity. 

I emailed Lucinda about this strange coincidence. She emailed me back and simply said, "I got chills." I did, too. I know that things just happen for no reason and often that is the case but what if this wasn't one of those times? I am feeling the need to do a little more for Lucinda and her Birdy today.
Lucinda only wants the donated birds to be knit in Blue Sky Cotton. The lovely Sylvia at Blue Sky has already sent Lucinda an enormous box stuffed with their gorgeous cotton. That is great for Lucinda and the knitters around her but I want to get some of this cotton in your hands if you want to help. 

I happen to have a little Blue Sky Cotton, left over from a project, at my house and I would like to send some to you to knit these little birds. I have 4 skeins of the Blue Sky Cotton in pretty spring shades that I want to give to some sweet bird knitters. Lucinda says you can get 3 birds out of one skein. That means with this yarn we can knit a dozen birds for Cooper's Flock.

If you are interested in knitting a few sweet little birds for Lucinda as a memorial for her son please email me directly to enter (my email address is on the sidebar). Please do not enter for the yarn through posting comments. Here is the thing, I will select 4 people, to send one skein each, tomorrow. In your email, please send me your name and mailing address. Please U.S. mailing addresses only for this one.

Please only enter if you are going to knit birds for Lucinda. We can do a really good thing for a family dealing with a painful loss through our knitting. Okay, hope to hear from you, little bird knitters. I will email you back to tell you if you will receive a skein of yarn for bird knitting. If you don't get an email from me tomorrow assume you have not been selected. I will select the recipients randomly, probably writing names on slips of paper and having one of my kids blindly select the emails from a hat.

Now about the bird I made, to get the pattern go to Lucinda's blog and her email is on the sidebar. Email her and she will send you the pattern via email with an attached pdf file. 

I knit my bird on a set of four US size 6 dpns. I adjusted the pattern very slightly in several places. You don't need to adjust as I did, the pattern is fine and wonderful as is. I almost hesitated posting a picture of my bird because I know I will get questions about what I did but I posted photos anyway because I want people to knit birds. So the following are my modifications. ( it is an easy, easy pattern as is)
Tail: the same
Body: Increase to 28 stitches. Work 16 rounds. Decreased to 18 stitches (the same as in the pattern).
Head: Increased to 24 stitches (8 on each needle). Worked 6 rounds. Decreased to 9 stitches (the same as in the pattern, 3 stitches on each needle).
Beak: switched colors, knit 3 rounds. K1, k2tog on each needle. Knit one round. K2tog on each needle. 3 sts remain. cut and pull through.
Wings: I knit them separately, not picked up as instructed. 
Cast on 15 sts, 5 sts per needle. Join to work in the round.
Knit 4 rounds.
decrease:
rnd 1: k2, k2tog
rnd 2: knit
rnd 3: k1, k2tog
rnd 4: knit
rnd 5: k2tog
Cut and pull through. Lay the wing flat, whipstitch to the bird's back.
Knit the bird any way you'd like. It's the thought that counts and any bird will be beautiful and appreciated.
I tied an off-white silk ribbon to the back between the wings in case they want to hang it.

Fly away home, little bird.

I hope to get a few emails from anyone interested in knitting a bird in recognition of a beautiful little boy who will continue to touch many.

Have a good weekend, Knitters. I know I am ready for a few days off.
best, susie

10 comments:

Betz White said...

what a sweet thing you are doing! I had the same thought when I saw those bird on Knitty. I thought for sure they were the same ones!

Anonymous said...

I thought it was incredible when I kept running into knitted birds that day. I followed your link to Slip Slip Knit and love their bird pattern too. I have leftover Blue Sky from a hoodie I did for my granddaughter and started a purple birdie last night for Lucinda. I have three other colors leftover also so I'll be making those as well. Tough loss, great project to work through some of the grief, and wonderful pass-it-forward birdies!

Kathy said...

I had exactly the same thought yesterday when I saw the spring Knitty. I had read about Lucinda's story on Sunday after reading about it on the Fairy Godknitter blog. Then you posted about it, and then I saw those patterns on knitty. I don't think it's a coincidence. I emailed for the pattern earlier this week, and the package with the Blue Sky Alpacas cotton came in the mail today. I can't wait to get started on knitting some birds.

knittingknirvana said...

Everything happens for a reason.

Kerry said...

I think that a lot of us feel the same way. I found Lucinda's sight the day before I browsed the new Knitty. When I saw the bird pattern I wished for some way to let everyone who loved the pattern know that perhaps if they didn't feel up to knitting the whole thing they could knit a bird or two to join Cooper's Flock.

It is wonderful with all the traffic that your blog gets that you are helping to spread the word.

ps don't put me in the running for the yarn, I have my own ordered.

laurie said...

very cute knitted birds and a lovely project.

Rebekah B. said...

What a cute birdy, and what a great cause. I've tried to email you, but for some reason it won't let me. Anyway, I'd love to get some of that yarn to knit some of those cute birdies.

peaknits said...

I had e-mailed lucinda for the pattern as well - and have some "circus peanut" (em, peaknit:) BSA cotton waiting to be a bird or two - thanks for the inspiration in the first place - and thanks AGAIN for sharing all of this positive karma today.:)

MaryLou said...

Is Lucinda's pattern the same as the one on Knitty?

Susan B. Anderson said...

Mary Lou,
No, it is not the same one: )
susan