Purple Chair Crochet: Charity

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Oh Baby! (Charity)

Check out this lovely hat and blanket set I made for a friend's niece. Crocheting for charity is immensely rewarding (and beautiful)!

The blanket was made with 2 strands of incredibly soft "baby yarn", worked together, and the flowers are "Irish Roses" made with silk & bamboo blends- incredibly soft and beautiful. It's not the traditional baby-blanket look, which is good because babies grow up. :)

Have a Lovely Day!
~Jess
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

2 of 4 Lace Slouch Hat (Finished!)

These lace slouch hats certainly take it out of me. The first one took a couple of weeks to complete, but this lovely lady (it's a girl) took me, what, nearly two months? Easily 6 weeks of work.

Sheesh.

Honestly though, they're worth it because they're *gorgeous*. The pattern is a must-have for anyone who gives handmade gifts or likes to have pretty, luxurious things themselves.

Before you scroll down, let me fill you in.
I'm crocheting items for charity.
The lace slouch hat is one of them.

This is the original post on the lace slouch hats (swoon!).
This is the first - 1 of 4 - completed hats.

You now have my blessing to scroll and meet 2 of 4 in Emerald Green.

So pretty. :) I'm definitely planning to hoard the yellow one for myself. So, technically, only 3 will be available for Charity-Fundraiser purchase. BUT if I wear it out and about and people *ask* me about my hat, it gives me a nice opening to talk up Meal-a-Day. Plus, it's sunshiney yellow, and I need all the sunshine I can get this time of year.

Have a Lovely Day!

~Jess
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

What's New? (Charity)

Here's some pictures of what I'm working on for my charity project. This hat is One of Four (green one is in progress!)

My little helper, keeping me company. Look at his pudgy little fingers. Look at them. He's so smushable!!

Tagged and ready for sale!!

Care instructions for the purchaser. It's the little things. :)

$50. More than I'd ever pay for a hat (of course, I can just make my own). I justified the price because 1) this item is hand made 2) it took forever 3) lace weight yarn is a wee-tad tedious to work with and 4) it's for charity!

Some more stuff ready for the mini-sale in December. Scarves, a flower garland (and that hat again!).

Oh yes, and I replenished the pins. A bunch of them (and the earrings) sold during the last fundraiser, so I figured I'd keep up with demand.

This is Ringo. He's thrilled to be a part of the charity work as well. And by thrilled, I mean contemptuous. Contempt is really the only emotion cats are capable of. But he's sooooo smushy!! The boys adore him, as do I.

Yeaaah, I don't think this one is for sale....

....but it's "sister" pin is!

Also in the works (besides the 3 other slouch hats) are a few more scarves, a couple pairs of fingerless gloves, and *earrings*! I love earrings. You can't have too many. Just sayin'.

That's the news from me!

Have a Lovely Day!
~Jess

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Lacy Slouch Hat (Charity/WIP)

Thanks to the magical world of Pinterest, I came across a very-gorgeous-indeed lacy slouch hat.

Image courtesy of: Linda Permann via Ravelry

Smitten, enamored, gaga, call it what you will, this hat stuck with me for a month or two despite our summer of Hades. I'm talking 100+ degree days here with no AC. That's some hat. So when I narrowed the next charity project down to scarves, pins, earrings and hats I zoomed right back to Pinterest which took me to Ravelry and a few clicks later this pattern was m i n e!

Did I happy dance? Of course. Wouldn't you?

I jumped right into the gauge. I only had fingering weight yarn, so I gave it a whirl (and a yarn over or two) on my hook. After a tedious hour or so (yeah...) I realized that I needed to buy new yarn.

Naturally, I didn't waste any time.

Lace Weight Yarn, fresh from KnitPicks

Since they were hanks (a hank is not a skein, by the by), I had to wind them into balls. By hand. Which, initially I didn't really consider, but then it dawned on me... 440 yards x 4 hanks = 1,760yards. 1 yard = 3 feet and so 1,760 yards = 5,280 feet. And I wound it all. In one day. With wobbly arms, I lay my yarn balls aside and went to bed. No crocheting. Just rest. Sweet rest.

The next day I was back at it! Once I got the gauge correct and ~~mastered~~ wonky crocheted through the Foundation Double Crochet stitch (nope, never used it before, but I'm a believer now!) the pattern worked up like a breeze! I love how gorgeous and simple the repeat is.

The approach is fairly nontraditional (in my experience) for a hat, in that it's worked from the brim toward the top. You know... you work bottom up rather than top down. Uh, I don't know how else to explain this.... you decrease your stitches to shape the tube into a hat rather than increasing your stitches to shape your sphere into a dome. Wow, that sounded more complex the my original statement. How 'bout I just say this: it's great. You'll love it.

How about a sunshiney yellow hat? Yes? Sold! This pattern calls for 1 hank/skein per hat, which leaves me feeling a little queasy with recklessness. Seriously: what if I run out of yarn!?? I ordered this online, I can't, I just *can't* reorder it! And yet I must continue on, and constantly check my little purple ball of yarn to be sure it's not unraveling into a hat too quickly.

How about a gorgeous, grassy green? A neutral tan (officially called "Oregon Coast", which is such a delightfully nonsensical name for a color)? Yes to all? Perfect. :)

I've been eyeing real yarn bowls on Etsy, but then what would I do with my collection of Pyrex?

I am in lilac, lace weight, merino-and-silk blend, puff stitch LOVE!

To Summarize: I'm incredibly antsy to show you the finished hat, but that's a ways off. These things take time, you understand. At some point it'll be ready for display, and after that its 3 siblings (Sunshine, Grass and Oregon). You'll just have to follow along. :)

Have a Lovely Day!
~Jess

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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Meal-a-Day Fund of the Americas (Charity)

In the beginning of this long and crazy (and oft tedious) summer, I wrote a little post entitled: Give Love. At the time I needed to work out how to incorporate charity, giving, and love into my crochet work. I stay at home with my two beautiful sons (a young-2 and an old-3) and while I believe this work is deeply important and is shaping a future generation, there is a drive and desire in me to help others outside my core family now.

I struggled with how to give through crocheting. My charming husband suggested I crochet hats and scarves for the homeless or hats for preemies. A noble idea, and one that I do love, but I know myself and that's not something I can see doing long term. Perhaps that would be a great way to introduce crocheting to others, but I get too bored making the same thing. Plus, this may be due to an unhealthy emotional attachment to the things I make, but I want whoever receives something from my hands to be a thing that person *loves*.

And so, enter Meal-a-Day.

Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund of the Americas was an easy charity choice for me. I know the chairman, secretary, treasurer and director. Several of my good friends have gone on missions trips with Meal-a-Day. I wanted to help with the work somehow, even in a small way, to make me feel like my days were dedicated to my husband, my kids and others. Plus, in their "Ideas for Giving" section of the website, #1 is: "Use your talent to make a handicraft or paint a picture or ??, sell it and donate the money".

On a whim, I dedicated a week or two to crocheting items to sell. Most were smallish: $20-$30 items. Garlands, bunting, pins, earrings. Little things, easily transported from hither to yon. There were a few decorative pillow covers in the mix. I decided that my time and materials were free. I priced the items and sent them to a bible school (after a brief attempt at Etsy, but there's way too much competition on Etsy for this sort of thing) to be sold as a donation for Meal a Day. And ooo-de-lolli! About half of the items I made sold for a donation somewhere in the realm of $500. Not a ton of money, but more than I could have just given otherwise. Those buying the crochet support a good cause and get a beautiful item to tell the story ("Oh, where'd you get your earrings?"). Meal-a-Day gets money to go towards projects. The people on the receiving end of Meal-a-Day's efforts get education, food, shelter, hygiene, essentials. I get joy knowing that I'm helping a bigger picture. It's win-win-win-win.

The summer bible school is over, so now I'm focusing on a winter gathering. Winter and crochet = very ideal!

I narrowed it down to scarves (ruffle!), hats (lacy slouch!) and more earrings & pins.

I went to KnitPicks. They are absolutely my favoritesterest place to buy yarn! I got over excited at the "Free Shipping On Orders Over $50!" option and took advantage. This is, after all, for Charity. ;)
I ordered.
I waited.

And then: New Yarn!

Oh, and a book. Whaaat, I needed free shipping-- and those flowers will make gorgeous pins and embellishments to hats! It was 40% off. I'm not gonna explain myself anymore- quit judging me. =P

I'm so-so delighted I looked for an opportunity to help. The plan is to do this as long as I can (or as long as it works, I guess) and hope others (like you, you crafty crocheter!) will consider giving some of your love to Meal-a-Day!

Have a Lovely Day!
~Jess

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