Seniors #1

I finished my first item for the seniors. Its an eyeglass case in light brown. The yarn is soft and the button hole is very large, so it should be easy for older fingers to work.

A Need for Baby Items

I have heard from the Alice Day Park volunteer and donations coordinator and she has informed me that they are also in need of of baby items such as hats, booties and blankets. So I have decided that while my main focus will be on the seniors I simply cannot ignore the infants.

I plan on making 100 items for the seniors and 50 items for the infants in 2009. I hope to end up with more than that for each of them, however those are my initial goals.

Lebanon, NH Charity: A Partnership with the Alice Day Park Memorial Hospital

Since my life, no matter how busy it gets, doesn't seem complete with giving back to the community, I have contacted the Alice Day Park Memorial Hospital (ADP) and have found that they have two retirement/assisted living/nursing home facilities on their campus. What I found most appealing about this is that those who moving into the facilities can do so when they choose, and can start out living completely independently. As they age or as become ill they can increase the level of care they receive without moving. This makes the aging process as seamless and easy as possible. Many of these people live for a long time in this setup and do not get many visitors. It is therefore my projects main goal to provide items to brighten their personal space as well as warm their hearts and make them feel as important as our elders aught to feel.

The best part about a charity project like this is the many items that could be nice and useful for these people.
This is the list I have generated thus far
- Wheel Chair Totes
- Lapghans
- Shawls
- Eye glass cases
- Scarves
- Hats
- Mittens
- Pillows for propping up heads and putting between knees
- Tissue box covers
- Book marks
- Bible/ book covers
- Slippers
- Little bags they can keep things in (like candies)
- Anything else you can think of that would make there lives brighter and more cheery

I have started a thread on the Crochet for Charity page at www.crochetville.org
for more information you can see the thread Here.

If anyone would like to contribute to this charity effort who is not a member of crochetville you can either join the 'ville, post a comment, or send me an email.

Moved! and summary of Troy Charity

Well the move is officially over and I am now set up in Lebanon, NH. My husband and I have both started our new jobs, and we even got a puppy. Life is very busy and yet I still do not feel complete without a charity project going.

To sum up my project in Troy, NY
We donated 11 blankets, 8 hats, 3 scarves and 3 sets of baby booties to Samaritan Hospital in Troy NY. They will be used as needed for under privileged babies, children of abuse and the long term elderly patients who need some cheering up.We received a very nice thank you letter from the head of donations and volunteering at the hospital thanking us all for our time and effort in making the hand crafted items and assured that they would be well loved and appreciated by those who received them. Since the move was so sudden I still had enough squares for 2 blankets plus a few left over. Those were donated as well to be joined at a later time. Over all 28 people donated squares, completed comfortghans and other items to this project. Thank you all for your time and contributions!

Afghan #11

This Afghan is gigantic! Meant to keep several people warm it will probably go to the abused womans shelter associated with the hospital, I hope it will brighten the lives of a family who needs it.

(this is only half of it, its folded over so it would fit in the picture, the other side basically mirrors this one)

Afghan #10

This afghan and made with calming colors and will keep its recipient warm and loved from all of the hands who helped make it.

Afghan #9

This nice and bright afghan is perfectly shaped for a wheel chair patient and the colors are sure to raise the spirits of all who see it

Afghan #8

This Red White and Blue afghan shows pride in our country! Many of the people in the nursing home are retired military and I'm sure they will love the flag colors!

Afghan #7

This pretty ripple was donated by another great member of crochetville! The pastel color palate is soothing and relaxing and sure to comfort whomever receives it!

Afghan #6

This lapghan was donated by a wonderful member of crochetville. The awesome bright colors are sure to cheer anyone up!

Afghan #5

This is a little preemie afghan I made as a take along project when I had to travel for work. Its a super easy ripple pattern that will keep a tiny new born warm

Afghan #4

The greens and blues of this one remind me of a warm day at the park with the greens of the grass and trees and the blues of the sky

Afghan #3

This afghan makes me smile with its brights and blues edged in cream.

Afghan #2

Nice and bright, edged in black the colors seem to pop even more!

Afghan #1

I am going to post each afghan as its complete from now on in its own post, the numbers are not necessarily the order they were sent in, or completed in, but just the order I took the pictures. I welcome feedback! I realize some of these were posted previously, but as they aren't organized I wanted to put them up here again!

Update

Hi all!
Its been a while since i've updated this, although I am making great progress at this point. I Think I'll take an hour this afternoon and get pictures of all of the blankets currently completed so they will all appear here together! I am trying for a December 15 drop of date for this years afghans, but this will be an ongoing program for me so more pictures and afghans to come!

Just a Note

Hi everyone and thanks for glancing through, it was pointed out to me that I should let you all know that the images uploaded on here are all clickable thumbnails... but be warned if you internet is slow they are big pictures I've uploaded, You will be able to see all the detail that way, but it does take some time to load.

Off for a 12 hour shift at work, But then I'm off for two days in a row so I should make some good improvements!

And they are edged!

Here is this mornings progress, I love the way these colors look together!! I should get them stitched together soon, and will post another picture when they together and bordered!

edging away

I'm spending this morning edging some nice bright colored squares for another comfortghan. These squares are beautiful, just about 10 inches wide each, they came in as a set so i'm going to make them into one comfortghan. It should be about 36 inches squared total. Since they are so bright i'm going to edge them in black so they really pop. I hope it will make someone smile!

I'll post pictures of it later.

Finished Comfortghan!

Hi everyone!
I would like to share with you the first completed comfortghan!! It took a bit longer than I thought to edge and stitch this together, but I really like the way it came out. I think in the future I may make them 4x5 instead of 4x6 squares for a lapghan size. But since someone will always need the various sizes it doesn't matter in the long run!

progress

My goodness it has been hot... Working on these comfortghans in this heat just is not happening... I wish I had good AC but no such luck... I did get 90% of the ends woven in ( I thought they were all done but found a few more when I picked it up to look it over) and almost done the boarder, its just 1/2 a round left! But alas I couldn't take the heat of it on me any longer, I will get it done very soon and will post a picture just as soon as its done.

Still Joining

I spent today working on joining the red white and blue comfortghan, I'm thinking they should actually be a little smaller than this 4x6 square size is coming out. I think 4x5 would be a good lapghan size. I'm sure someone will love each and every one of these regardless of the size, and i'm looking forward to getting these to those in need!

I cleaned out my yarn stash today and found a lot of white acrylic which will be great for joining all of these!

Pictures will be coming as soon as I can get a boarder on this one!

Finally the pictures of other items which have been donated to help out this great cause.















Well that catches the blog up to this point, I'll continue to update as other items are recieved and as blankets are finished.

Please Let me know either by posting a comment here or by joining crochetville and checking out my charity link there if you would like to help

And here is two more pictures, the red white and blue lapghan and all the other squares that don't have mates yet.

Squares

I have been working on this charity with the help of many wonderful people from Crochetville. You can see the link to the page Here!

These are the wonderful squares that have been donated so far!

















The first three pictures are recent arrivals, the last three are laid out how I plan to edge and assemble them.

Getting Started

Hi Everyone and thanks for stopping by my blog! Since most of my crafting is now working on project for the charity i've started here in Troy, NY that will be the primary focus of this blog. However there will probably be posts stuck in here and there about projects for friends and family as well!

So about this charity, I contacted the local health care center (the have several hospitals and nursing homes in the area) and they said they never have enough blankets for the elderly to keep warm in the nursing home, or enough to send home with the less well off families who come in seeking assistance. They also are always in need of comforting objects for children who have been subjected to abuse and removed from there families.

Since I'm a fan of a big challenge i've decided to make this a three tiered charity project.

My Goals are:
1.) Provide lapghan sized afghans for the elderly to keep warm in their wheel chairs and in bed while they watch TV. Since circulation decreases with age and sickness many of these people cannot stay warm no matter what the temperature, and I always find they keep the temperatures too cold to begin with.
2.) To provide blankets, hats, scarfs, anything to make peoples lives a little brighter when they can't afford the items themselves.
3.) Often times the hospital is the first place children who are victims of abuse are taken when they are removed from their homes, So I would also like to provide bright colored comfortghans for the children.

If anyone would like to help with this project in any way please contact me!