OCTOBER 28, 2006--Well, all the St. Louis baseball fans must be thrilled! I am sure downstate of here is a bit bleak this morning, but those Tigers had an outstanding year.
Snow is falling this morning, and I spent last evening organizing, sorting and bagging up squares for blankets. With ten ready to crochet together, I will be busy in November. I also guess I have enough squares for ten more blankets when I have room to lay them out and bag them up. In case your curious, I sort by colors and textures and sizes. Then I start laying out the squares by using one striking square for a center focus. From there, I build out, in seven rows of five squares. Sometimes there are more squares per row if they are small or less if larger. I then put each row in a ziplock bag labeled by row number in the order to be crocheted together. The they go into a tote or larger bag. This way I can grab them, sit down for a night of television, and when a plot in a program gets good, I can mindlessly grab the bag for the next row and not miss a scene.
Special thanks this week go to Shelly from Minnesota and Kathy from New York. A plastic container arrived at the post office yesterday, filled with squares crocheted in the loveliest patterns as well as a complete blanket. These women were busy. You will see their work when I get some pictures up (SOON--I promise) of our latest projects.
This week my cousin from Missouri is due in town; we're heading to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for what is now an annual trip with other women friends. I am taking some knitting, a pot of stew, plenty of topics to discuss and the joy in knowing I will be with family and close friends for three whole days, uninterrupted!
OCTOBER 23, 2006--A few updates I want to make sure to acknowledge. I have had boxes and packages arriving daily, and honestly, I have not kept up with my correspondence and thank yous as I should. (I can hear my mother now!) First of all, I want to thank the residents at Canyon Villas in San Diego. Their friend, Diane, writes: "Canyon Villas is a residential care facility with independent and assisted living apartments. There are activities each day, and we have [an] activity director who is always looking for new things for the residents to do. I came across your website from Blankets for the Gulf. . . the ladies are above 80. They like to get together. I always print out your updated news from the month , and read it to them. They make squares in their rooms. And when we meet, I always put the squares that have been made on the table, so everyone can see the beautiful squares. We also have some residents who have taken the idea to the senior center and to the church they belong to. . .One of the residents, Mary J. sent the info to her friend in Hawaii. I am enclosing three squares that Kathy I. made."
So yes, Hawaii is now on the map! And also I cannot begin to thank all the ladies in San Diego for their support. As I am piecing squares together, each one I pick up has the memory of the person who made it. I feel connected to you all. It is an extremely powerful feeling which propels our project.
Secondly, I want to thank Marjorie and Nan from the middle of Michigan for their continued help and squares as well as Carmel from New Jersey, her second batch of squares, and a new contributor, Bryne, from Pennsylvania. I have updated our Map of Contributors.
Thirdly, as the months pass and the images of the Gulf States lessen on the news, we cannot forget what we saw a year ago and what those residents endured and continue to endure. The blankets are small gestures which won't make an insurance company pay a claim or the government provide a trailer, but it gives security and hope that there are people out there who care. That is sustenance for another day.
Well, it's close to midnight, I have a blanket to piece together, so I am sure there's a movie I have to watch on television. The World Series is now tied (let's not talk about being torn: I grew up in St. Louis and live in Michigan), so if you're watching baseball, your favorite television program, knit us a square or crochet one. We squares are a great bunch and alway welcome one more.
OCTOBER 18, 2005--Yes, we're here; it's been a few weeks I realize since I updated, but between an early snowstorm last week (Cheboyghan had close to two feet and beat Buffalo in snowfall amounts), a cat spay/neuter clinic last Saturday, trying to get the yard and property winterized--well, no excuses except to say we have been busy! By the way, our two mobile spay/neuter clinics performed surgeries on 65 cats--WOW! The funny story here is we had the last clinic at the VFW in a nearby town. The vet operates from his mobile hospital, but we check in the cats inside the hall, which is also the "recovery room." Well, most of the cats had not eaten since midnight, and we started lining them up in cages at 8:30 A.M. The post Commander opened up the hall for us at 8 A.M., and that's when we noticed the room had the distinctive odor of the prior night's weekly Fish Fry. Imagine 37 hungry cats in a hall that smelled like fish--It was loud and actually hysterical.
I have been receiving boxes from our supporters via UPS and the post office, and I do want to say the blankets we are putting together will be sent to several shelters in New Orleans for Christmas. Thanks so much to that incredible group in San Diego as well Carmel, Shelly, Yvonne, Nan and Marjorie--you guys are amazing!
Since we've had a hard frost, we're waiting for Indian Summer. But it's definitely blanket-making weather in northern Michigan.
OCTOBER 3--I cannot say I am sorry to see September gone; it was a tough month. However, it ended well with our local animal shelter group, Elk Country Animal Shelter ,holding a mobile cat clinic and helping local residents on fixed incomes, without cars and with plenty of pet cats get them "fixed" and vaccinated. We "did" 28 cats in less than six hours , and here's hoping we see less litters in town next Spring! (This is my other "project.") By the way, in case you're wondering the name of the shelter is Elk Country because we have an elk herd in Northern Michigan, near Atlanta, Michigan. There's nothing like driving down one of our dirt roads early in the morning, coming through a fog-covered stretch of pines and meadow only to see a few elk off to the right, just looking, grazing. They are huge animals. As with deer, we watch out for them while driving especially this time of year before hunting season.
All I can say about this week's mail is those residents at Canyon Villas in San Diego have been busy! They have sent us the most beautiful box of 100 squares. And also my friend in New Mexico--Yvonne-- has sent another box along with Marjorie in Bay City, Michigan. It's terrific to have so many "squares" all over the country. We now have 18 participating states!
I mailed blankets to Louisiana three weeks ago, and two came back. The reminder here is that, even though a year has passed, some residents continue to live in trailers which makes it hard for the delivery services to find them. I contacted Heather at Blankets for the Gulf, got the requestor's email address, contacted the gentleman, and we now have a new address. So Victor will get the blankets he needs! Many times the people are using computers set up at the local community centers because their streets are still without electricity, and let's face it--powering a generator for day-to-day living needs is more important than a computer hook-up.
A reminder about the Yo-Yo square blanket--Here's the link. If you want to do some of these to break up the square monotony, a helper in Minnesota will put them together for us. It's a great way to use up leftover yarn! Speaking of which, I have some if anyone needs yarn!