Starting a Charity - My Earth Day Work

So I've thought about doing this for years and since it's Earth Day I'm going to put this out there and see where it goes. I've always loved knitting and crocheting ever since my grandmother taught me. When you create something, just like in sewing you always end up with "scraps" of yarn - sometimes a lot and sometime a little - and like the fabric scraps I keep them all. I've always thought I'd figure out what to do with them.

I've finally figured it out - I'm going to knit or crochet them all together - whether they match or not - into blankets to donate to needy people. It's going into Spring and Summer here, but somewhere in the world people are cold and need a blanket. I know there are many people out there that have these scraps of yarn too! I want to put out the call to people to collect those scraps and hang on to them, stockpile them because I'm going to turn them into help for the ones who need it. I have the big trade show in mid May and will be way too busy to organize this until after that, but it's important to me to put these little scraps to good use.

I call this new (hopefully official non-profit group someday) Maggie's Blankets. Maggie was what many people called my grandmother - I never did, but I always loved hearing it - her name was actually Mary Magdalene. I have already collected many balls of yarn from my own projects, but I have also had many full balls of mismatched yarns from co-workers. I'm going to be working on my own blankets, but after the show i would love to coordinate a circle of women (and men!!) to knit or crochet blankets of all sizes, colors, and shapes to send to the needy. I'm going to contact my pastor at church because I know they work with mission groups around the world and might know of a specific need.

Maggie's Blankets are labors of love and it doesn't matter what colors or how many multi-colored and multi-textured yarns go into them. Warm is warm. This is for you Grandma - you taught me to be strong and use what I got - I'm going to do just that and pass it on. I miss her and I hope to keep her memory alive with this project. Won't you help me? Step 1 - collect that yarn and get others to do the same.

More to come. Please email me if you would like to get involved. Thanks!!!