MAY 2006 Archives

May 31, 2006--Thanks to the knitters from the Gaylord Congregational Church; everytime I get my hair done, another bag of your squares awaits me!--Also the Knitting Club from Brewster Place in Topeka, Kansas; the colors and work you sent are beautiful. Our car will be filled in August! I have two helpers crocheting the blankets together. So the numbers of completed projects will start rising. We also have a new state colored on our map--New Jersey!

MAY 26, 2006--Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

MAY 23--2006--My son spent last Saturday helping "gut" a home in New Orleans. The first question out of my mouth was "Did you wear a mask?" "Yes, Mom, and gloves," he replied with the long sigh of a son who all too often doesn't get credit from his mother for superior common sense. But then--once a mother always a mother. At any rate, I have two pictures to share of the project. It was pretty horrific--the washing machine still had water in it from the flooding, and the flood level in the home was twelve feet.

MAY 17, 2006--Mother's Day is over, spring is finally arriving in Northern Michigan, the garden is calling, but my middle son has also arrived in New Orleans for the summer and reminds me of our project's importance. There are still few hospitals or medical facilities up and running in New Orleans, so many people commute as far as two hours away, getting up before dawn to arrive at work by 6:30 A.M. The company he's working for has their own paramedic on premises to serve the employees' needs while at work. Progress in the downtown is apparent, but he sent some pictures of the Ninth Ward he took last Sunday. He describes that area as resembling a place where a bomb went off. He was moved when he saw firsthand what had been only images from the news a few weeks ago: houses marked with body counts, no signs of any reconstruction and piles and piles of rubble. My husband's company has offices in New Orleans, but this building still stands empty with broken windows. (It's right next to the Superdome.) Keep knitting and crocheting, all you squares. We're heading to the area in early August; we want to take a car full of blankets!

MAY 1, 2006--Happy May Day! As you can see CLOSE KNIT HUGS has hit the magic 2000 plus squares used in blankets! And the good news is I have a spare bedroom filled with more squares to piece together into blankets thanks to a knitter in Bakersfield, California, the knitting group from Gaylord, Michigan's First Congregational Church, the students and staff at Arrowwood Elementary School in Saginaw, a friend in New Mexico, my cousin and aunt in St. Louis, Missouri and packages from avid knitters in Saginaw and Bay City, Michigan as well as my hometown of Lewiston. With summer approaching, I know the garden and other projects are calling (they are screaming at my home), but I encourage all of you put your feet up some night over the next few weeks, nurse the sore back with a pillow, turn on your favorite television show, and knit or crochet me one square. We would love to be able to take as many blankets South this summer as possible. Simply put the squares in a mailing envelope and send them our way. The postmaster in Lewiston is used to the packages now! Have a terrific week.