Day 24 – Christmas Eve Socks

In 2016, I started a new tradition for my family of 3.  As a teen, I had a german friend who stated her gifts to me had to be opened on Christmas Eve – my younger brother then argued he should get to open a gift Christmas eve, and then it carried on from there.

For my husband’s family tradition, they had nothing under the tree before Santa arrived…so empty tree going to bed, means you can’t choose a gift to open Christmas Eve…so I created a tradition to work for both.  In the evening, I place a box under the tree marked “Open Christmas Eve” and inside are 3 pairs of socks.

Day 23 – Weaving in all those ends…

I’ve already said this, but there is more to ‘just knitting’ a gift; day 14 was blocking; day 9 was gauge swatches; day 4 was ripping back mistakes/wrong needle size/wrong yarn choice.  Today is weaving in all the ends to finish the project. 

I tend to leave this part last; sometimes I’ll knit up facecloths, put them in a pile to weave in the ends later.  So at this point in the knitmas chaos, I ‘should’ be done the knitting and just have a pile of ends to weave in….but as mentioned on day 20, I’m behind – partly due to Day 3 (distractions) and day 4 (mistakes).  So to prevent multiple IOUs (day 15) I have to weave in ends to ‘finish’ projects ASAP.

Knitvent Day 22 – Shoeboxes

A number of years ago, my brother asked us to stop exchanging gifts and to donate what I would normally knit him. Now, I knit ALOT of items year-round that I give away one way or another such as school PAC, hospital, shelters, and to my son’s school when they take on a donation drive like the ShoeBox Project (eg http://www.shoeboxproject.com/victoria.html )


I was upset by my brother doing this, so the first year I still knit a bunch of items that I wrapped in a box for him with a note that he could choose where to donate the items.  This has now become a yearly tradition – I gift a box of knits to my brother for him to donate to a cause of his choosing.

There are a number of charities accepting knits year-round, so if you knit, consider giving shelters some help during the year:

Open Shelter Winter & Summer Needs List

Dandelion Society List of Needs

#yyj Knitters: Knitting for Others

Description: Photo of knitted hat, yarn, and k...Image via Wikipedia

Considering this is the last day of National Volunteer Week, I thought I’d post a piece from my Beginner’s Knitting Class handouts on Knitting for others.

Knitting for charities is a great way to practice on small projects, and the charities are very appreciative of your efforts. Some groups even provide wool, needles and patterns in exchange for your knitting time!

Facecloths

James Bay Child Care Society – daycare centre

Our Place – for showers

Canada Comforts – for Haiti

Socks for Soldiers – for overseas soldier care packages

Baby Hats

Victoria General Hospital

Welcome Wagon

Knit Slippers

Royal Jubilee Hospital


Community Knitters – Marilyn Guille has a group/listing of charities across Canada, and also coordinates pickup/dropoffs via Knotty by Nature Fibre Arts – http://www.communityknitters.com/


Below are some organizations for which the Victoria Knitter’s Guild coordinates pickup/dropoffs:

Afghansforafghans.org Woolen items as requested at website.

Canada Comforts Baby/children’s sweaters, hats blankets, any fibre.

Blankets for Canada 8”X8” washable squares; help assembling too. http://www.blankets4canada.ca/

Mex Tit Bits These are breast prostheses for women in Mexico who have had mastectomies. More information below from the coordinator of this project. In the meantime, you can knit some tit bits from this Knitty pattern if you are interested.

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTbits.html

Or you can take a look at some ideas here:

http://www.titbits.ca/v1/tb_shop.html

Royal Jubilee Hospital Gift Shop Slippers, baby and children’s sweaters, just about any lovely knitting, except plain toques for children; they have plenty of these plain hats right now. Other stylish hats, any size, would also be welcome.

VGH Mother-Babe Unit Hats for newborns.

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