Now Norma Knits

Red Scarf In The News

An odd and unexpected (and hopefully isolated) thing happened this week with regard to red scarf collecting. Sigh. Just when you think nothing else can go awry....

Anyway.

Thanks to Harriet Levy of the Albany Times Union blog for being on top of the issue, for publicizing it, and for rescuing the 40-odd scarves that were turned in. They will now be sent to their rightful recipients. 

Please take a moment, if you would, to go comment on the Times Union blog in support of Harriet's writing about this issue, and for being gutsy, standing up for her principles, and demanding that the scarves go where they were intended to go.  

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I don't know about you, but I know I'm inspired to do even more for this project to sort of try to counteract some of that less-than-good energy that was exhibited there.  So....for starters...

...as promised, we drew three names for prizes last night. Each of these three lucky people receive a $15 gift certificate to my beautiful and friendly and wonderfully supportive local yarn shop, Kaleidoscope Yarns. And the winners are:

Manise! (my dear friend and commenter extraordinaire)

Christine C.

and

Samantha T. 

Congratulations, ladies!  The certificate numbers have been emailed to you, and you can use them on the online shop or print them out and take them in in person if you are local (but I don't think any of you are).  

Thank you a hundred times over to Jill of Kaleidoscope for coming back from the flu, having I'm sure an overflowing desk of stuff to do, and yet still being thoughtful enough to send me the certificates for this fundraising drive!  

AND there is still one more $15 gift certificate left to KYarns which will go to some lucky future winner.

If you didn't win yet, don't worry, there are still lots of prizes left to be won! Everyone who donates over $5 is a winner of a thank you discount coupon from JessaLu. I hope you are remembering to use your coupon and buying yourself a nice little gift, or a gift for a friend, from JessaLu's shop. We must all try to support those who support us, and we so highly appreciate JessaLu's lovely gesture of offering everyone who donates more than $5 a coupon. 

If you haven't made your tax-deductible donation yet, please consider doing so today:

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We've got some more wonderful, exciting, and interesting prizes that have rolled in that I need to find the time and energy to tell you about. And tomorrow there will be three more prizes awarded. Thank you to everyone for your donations!  We're doing well -- as of the last accounting I received from Lynn, we are in the range of $5,500 in money donations, and more came in since that time. Next Saturday is the next date that the scarf-processing group has set for processing scarves. Shortly following that day, we'll have a total of scarves received to share with you.  

Thank you, everyone!

HEADS UP!

There will be six prize drawings this weekend -- three on Saturday and three on Sunday.  

Be sure to get your donations in and notify us at REDSCARFFUND@GMAIL.COM if you want to be included.  

Sorry I'm Late For The Blog Today

But I have a good excuse.

Behold! 6 inches completed of the back of the blue sweater.  

(Yankee Ingenuity Bonus:  Old piece of 2 X 4 used to hold it down flat for the photo.)  

Chic Knits Prizes!

Today in our Red Scarf Fundraiser, 

we have two wonderful prize offerings from

Chic Knits!

PRIZE ONE

4 Printed Brochure Patterns from Chic Knits (Basic Chic Hoodie, CeCe, Mondo Cable Pulli & Sandrine).

 

PRIZE TWO

Yarn & Pattern to make a Cassidy's Cap: Malabrigo Worsted in the color VAA and a Cassidy's Cap printed pattern

 

A huge thank you to Bonne Marie for (as always) helping us with our fundraising efforts.  

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For more information about our ongoing fundraiser, prizes to be won, and prize drawings, click on the category in my right sidebar labeled "Red Scarf Project," 

and for a more succinct statement of the rules and such, click here.  

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Oh, and don't forget to click here, too:

And don't forget to notify us at REDSCARFFUND@GMAIL.COM of the amount of your donation, so you can be entered in our drawings.

The Blue Vintage Cardigan, It Is Begun

If your name is My Mother, please do not read this (or if you know My Mother, please do not tell her about this).  

So this is the Fair Isle sweater kit my mom bought for herself, oh, I don't know, at least 20 -- maybe 25 -- years ago, on a vacation to Nova Scotia. She just happened to mention it to me (I did not know of its existence) last spring. She pulled it out to show me, only to discover she had lost the pattern. 

 

With the help of a couple of readers of this blog, I was able to get hold of not one, but two, copies of the pattern. It has sat while the garden and a few other things have taken up my time and attention, until the other night when I took it out, and without much fanfare at all, just went ahead and cast on the back. 

It's fingering weight Shetland wool, I love the color and LOVE the fabric in all its sturdy, authentic, wonderful slight (slight? ha!) scritchiness. It will be one of my all-time favorite knits, I am sure, if I ever finish it.  

I've got a fondness for Shetland wool garments. I own a dark olive green fine-gauge Shetland wool sweater that I bought on a trip to St. Albans, England, back in '93, that has started to fray a bit around the edges, but they'll be prying that thing from my cold, dying hands, I love it so. It's just a plain ribbed pullover, slightly oversized, but not too bad, and slightly mannish. It was purchased on a day of sightseeing for me that turned cold and sleety, I needed to get warm, and I bought a small man's jumper (pullover sweater) in the shop called Jumpers. It's the perfect tweedy green, and I just adore that thing. 

It's too much to hope that I could get this blue sweater for my mom done by Christmas, but if I could, wouldn't that just be the most marvelous thing ever?  So I shall try.   

Whatever doesn't kill me will make me stronger, right? And I am sorry to you if you were hoping for a holiday or birthday knit from me, as much as I would love to knit for you, because this is going to take up all my knitting time, I am quite sure.  

At least it's only stockinette, and once I get past the ribbing and go all the way up to those huge honkin' size US 4 needles, it should fly.  For the non-knitting readers, that is SARCASM -- these needles are TINY, and the gauge is 7 stitches to the inch.

Some would say that the "most fun" part is done -- the Fair Isle colorwork -- but me, I'm quite happy just to knit stockinette till I turn blue in the face and leave the colorwork to those more adventurous than I.  (EDITED TO ADD:  CindyCindy asked if the Fair Isle portion was already done as a part of the kit, or if my mom knit it. Yes, it was done as part of the kit -- can't tell if it's hand- or machine-knit. And another interesting note, the price tag is still on the kit -- way back a quarter of a century ago, the price was $45 Canadian, marked down to $39 when my mom bought it.)

I'm guessing there will be some chiropractic visits, and perhaps some massages, necessary before this is over.  But here we go.  We're off!