APRIL 2007

April 25, 2007--My helpers are cranking out the blankets! Therese and Ruth did three this week! I pieced 11 more together yesterday--beautiful stitches and colors! I am suffering a bit from "gardener's back" so the break for blankets has been good! Weather is great here despite being a bit cool, but the sun, the bulbs and the loons back on the lake are all positive signs! Two weeks until the end of the semester, and three weeks until my middle son graduates with his Master's in El Paso. Then he's no longer a student, but soon to be a working member of the community--he's moaning over his 'reality smack," but he is anxious to move on and ahead.

April 18, 2007--Carroll from Lovells, Michigan presented me with two completed blankets--way to go!

April 17, 2007--Received two finished blankets today from Kathy in New York!

April 16, 2007--Sorry for the vacuum of information during the past two weeks, but duty and income taxes called. We finished our taxes on Friday, had a final cat clinic on Saturday and spent Sunday recouping. Our shelter group spayed or neutered 83 cats over the last four weeks at three Saturday clinics! The last group, however, had to be the "stinkiest" yet--how can anyone live with an un-neutered male cat??????

My son called me this afternoon with news of the horrible affair at Virginia Tech. He spent the summer in New Orleans with an intern from Virigina Tech--they both start work in New Orleans after they graduate this May. David talked with his friend who was in the building next to the one where the shootings took place. David kept saying how senseless and crazy it was--it is indeed. And for whatever reason, one of the huge dilemmas college instructors face is growing threats from students who are disgruntled. I had a student put a drill bit in my tire, a student threaten me with a lawsuit, and another student who prompted police escorts for me for a few months going to and from my car on campus. Now folks--I am a reasonable person. Heck, I survived the seventies on campus at Kent State! And I believe in a free and open campus, but people can be scary. And let me go off one more time as I sit in northern Michigan, land of hunters and the NRA--the fact that anyone can get a gun--well, quite frankly, it is criminal. This disaster is so sad for me as a college instructor and as a parent of college-aged children. The students and instructors' lives were stolen as well as the innocence of a liberal education that welcomes open classrooms.

On a brighter note--I started a blanket project for a friend's son, graduating from high school this June. The graduate is highly allergic, so I searched high and low for fleece yarn. I found it, special ordered it, and all I can say is WOW--what a great knitting experience. Any yarn left over will go to make a few squares--believe me! It's lightweight, warm, and machine washable--perfect for a college student.

We have a new recruit for piecing blankets together--Thanks Therese! She also nudged me to update the website this week--notice all the new photos--Mary Beth had a long, cold weekend in St; Louis to get these touched up! We have plenty of great examples of how we make it do, use it up, and pass it along on this page. People send us abandoned projects, such as the cross blanket. Special thanks to Shelly from Minnesota for finishing it! We also receive yarn donations which a very talent gal from New York named Kathy crafts into beautiful blankets for us!

Here's hoping Spring comes soon; we had eight inches of snow last Thursday--a cruel joke! Shall I quote T.S.Eliot--"April is the cruelest month"? Talk with you all soon!

April 3, 2007--Well, if all arrives as promised today, I should be able to mail 21 blankets to UnMet Needs tomorrow. Kathy in New York did two blankets which have been mailed to Michigan, and my friend Ruth surprised me with another blanket completed over the weekend as well as Carroll who has done another two. I have been putting off "UPSing" the box in the hopes we would reach as close to 20 as possible. What is truly exciting is the fact we will have sent over 150 blankets when the box goes out and used over 4000 squares!

Thanks to Nancy from Miami Beach--the crochet squares and rectangles will be in a blanket soon!

Hope you all are enjoying early April--we're supposed to have snow this weekend! Thank goodness the last Cat Clinic will be on the 14th of April! By the way, we spayed or neutered another 24 cats last weekend. So our numbers this Spring are at 56. . . . You know for an English major, I seem to be fixated on numbers--cats, squares, blankets, states. . . .Hmmm. . . .what does this tell me? I do know I prefer Scrabble over Suduko; I dislike doing checkbook work, but there's nothing like new office supplies or a new computer application to try out. . . .

I will update this page later this week. I will also be sending new blanket pictures to my cousin to "fix" this week, so new photos should be up in the next week or so.

P.S. Thanks to Bev from Esmerlda's --Colorado is now on the map.