Mossy Cottage Knits

What Would You Have Done?

(Update: No postings on Friday or Monday, Dear Readers. I'm taking an impromptu day off, mostly to figure out, now that the weather refuses to cooperate, how to fit the 25 people who are coming to the Knit-In into TMK's tiny living room. We're leaning toward tiered seats like in a gymnasium and, for those who want to linger after the Knit-In is over, bunkbeds, all outfitted with Ott Lites for late-night knitting. Then Monday is the Memorial Day Holiday, of course, which we will dedicate to consuming large amounts of alcohol in order to recover from fitting 25 people into TMK's living room.

Knit on, dudes!)

In 2005, when the Dulaan Project started, Meredith, the Executive Director of F.I.R.E., made it clear to me that I should send to her all the items I receive, regardless of quality. She explained to me that the Mongolians, especially the children living on the street and in the tunnels under Ulan Bataar, are so cold and desperate that anything that will help protect their bodies from the -40 degree winter weather will make a difference.

This black-and-white, very clear, and actually very freeing rule of thumb worked extremely well for me…until the day I received The Scarf That Would Not Bend. The scarf (not knit by anyone I know offline or on) had been knit so short and on such small needles relative to the bulky yarn used that it had, astonishingly, no give. In an agony of indecision about whether to mail it to Arizona (after all, much heart and effort had gone into the knitting of it and Meredith's rule was very clear, and yet...), I showed it to other local knitters on the off chance I had forgotten how scarves are supposed to work or—remembering how I didn’t know what a gaiter was when I started this project—that it was a unique piece of winter wear that I'd just never seen before, but they said that, no, it wasn’t a unique piece of winter wear; yes, it was a scarf; no, it wouldn’t bend; and, no, it wouldn't be very useful to the Mongolians. Sigh.

Fortunately, that scarf proved to be the absolute exception because 99.999% of what I receive or what gets mailed looks like this!

Except for the pink sweater, which has a story of its own, these sweaters were all knit by Laura Simeon who works at Acorn Street, my LYS. Aren’t they outta this world? How skwoodgy-woodgy is the tiny gray, green and blue sweater at the bottom? And don’t miss the one with the people-holding-hands motif around the yoke, and the one with shawl collar and the teal one and…heck, I just love ‘em all. Yet another moment when I want to go, “Squeeeeeeeeee!”

The pink sweater, as I said, has a different story. Through her other job as a school librarian, Laura knows an apparently very special first grader by the name of Olivia. When Olivia learned about the Dulaan project, she wanted to donate one of her sweaters and chose the pink one. First grade, people, first grade! This ranks right up there with last year’s story of Marylee’s physically and mentally challenged students making blankets for Dulaan, don’t it? And yet again, “Squeeeeeeeeee!”

So, how are we doing on the “50 State, 10 Provinces, 3 Territories, and 1 District” Project? The news is good!

Anne Hibbert, who lives on PEI, says she has two hats that are ready to mail. Thank you, Anne! This means that, in Canada, we are down to Northwest Territories (just waiting for official confirmation) and Nunavut (where things are a’boilin’). I fully expect to take both of these territories off the list soon.

In the United States, Oklahoma and Mississippi are accounted for and I have actual proof of a hat being knit in Wyoming…

…so we are down to Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Dakota (just waiting for final confirmation from knitter Mara Trygstad for this state).

Woot!

Posted by Ryan at May 24, 2006 11:44 AM