Warm greetings: Craft Hope Project 6 (finally) in the mail

With our snowy weather, I haven't made it much further than sled can carry me lately. It's not so much the fear of winter roads that keeps me home. It's more a fear of other drivers on winter roads. Preschool gets canceled when the public schools have a 2 hour delay, so we've had little reason to go out.

Ranger, the Raptor, and I ventured out to the post office today to mail (late) our fuzzy contributions to Craft Hope's initiative for the Orphan Foundation of America's Red Scarf program. Knitters, the star scarf pattern (left scarf) is quite lovely and makes a dense scarf (perfect for cold climates). The twin rib pattern is incredibly fast to knit and easy to remember. These scarves work well for either gender.

The Raptor found the photo's background dull, so she sprinkled some Cheerios around for a more visually compelling backdrop.

***Baby Toolkit is the independent opinion of two Midwestern geeks with ever-increasing snow-shoveling experience. We should level up any day. (c) Baby Toolkit, 2010, some rights reserved

Project Awesome 2010: Soldiers' Angels (like Charlie's Angels with yarn)

In a continuance of last year's Project Awesome, a few friends crocheted (Magpie Art and Mimi & Moe's Mom) and I knitted lap blankets for VA medical centers through the nonprofit group Soldiers' Angels. For our project deadline, we chose Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Everyone brought their blankets to ship and we enjoyed an evening of soup, pitch-in food, and games.

Friends and family who don't crochet or knit provided the shipping funds. Earlier this week our blankets arrived at a VA facility where they will be given to veterans along with our thanks and best wishes.

Knitting this blanket did a lot for me. Building a blanket from yarn is a meditative exercise in perseverance. Each individual stitch contributes to a useful whole. Small labors (even the imperfect stitches) build into something tangible. The construction is a hopeful metaphor that renews my belief in the value of individual actions. I don't think my blanket will change the world, but it is soft and warm.

If you want to beat the mid-Winter blues with some uplifting activism:

• Soldiers' Angels offers a diverse array of projects that support troops in the field as well as wounded veterans.

• There's still time to crochet or knit a scarf for Craft Hope's Project 6 which is sending handmade scarves to the Orphan Foundation's Red Scarf program. The project deadline is February 14.
  

***Baby Toolkit is the independent opinion of a couple geek parents with more yarn than time. We benefit richly (but not monetarily) from our Project Awesome friends and goodhearted programs like Craft Hope and Soldiers' Angels.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Party Preparation

For Ranger's birthday party, we wanted a no tears craft that would engage kids from toddler through 5th grade. After considering at a number of very clever projects, we decided to stick with what we know.

I printed off the crown template I use for fabric play crowns. The day before the party, I traced six of them onto each of five sheets of white posterboard ($0.70 x 5= $3.50+ sales tax for 30 crowns). A wonderful friends brought loads of crayons. An adult sized and stapled the finished crowns. (Hint: Staple from the inside of the crown so the flat side of the staple is against the wearer's hair and the points are on the exterior.)

The levels of interest varied greatly. Some kids put major effort into their crowns and wore them throughout the party. Other kids (Ranger among them) were more interested in getting back to the dance floor and playroom.

That brings us to the Rock. Jim put together a party mix from some of Ranger's favorite tunes:

1. I'm So Happy You're Here Blue’s Clues
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song the Flaming Lips
3. Mahna Mahna Cake
4. Stayin' Alive the Bee Gees
5. I Am a Paleontologist They Might Be Giants (w/ Danny Weinkauf) [free download- thanks, TMBG & Girlie Action! Thanks for the tip, Spare the Rock! *pre-order this great new album for the bargain rate of $9.99 on Amazon]
   
6. The Hoppity Song Five for Fighting
7. Mix Tape Jim’s Big Ego [free download courtesy of Jim's Big Ego!]
   
8. A Little Less Conversation JXL Remix
9. All the Small Things Blink 182
10. Gotta Be Me Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
11. Music Farm Xtatik
12. Rockin' Robin Bryan White
13. My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors Moxy Fruvous
14. Family Tree Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
15. Lovely Rita The Beatles
16. Go Down Emmanuel Road Dan Zanes & the Rocketship Revue
17. Silly Hat Blue’s Clues
18. Flying Machine Father Goose
19. King of Spain Moxy Fruvous
20. Come Together The Beatles
21. So Glad I'm Here Elizabeth Mitchell
22. All Night Long Dan Zanes & Friends
23. I'm Yours Jason Mraz
24. So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh Dan Zanes & Friends

Feel free to don a crown and break out your boogie shoes.

Heartfelt Handcrafting: Project Awesome Blobbies Wraps Up

The best man from our wedding came to visit last night. While he's long known that I'm generally an apathetic housekeeper, a token shuffling of clutter still seemed appropriate.

It was finally time to part with a cheerful tower of blankets which friends and family contributed through the last two months. The giant box I had designated couldn't hold all 38 handmade blankets with the 16 additional blankets given.

Wonderful friends and family shared time, materials, postage, and talent to fill these cozy parcels.

This project, especially watching the pile of fuzzy blankets grow, was a great precursor to Spring.

Want to try your hand at something similar? You too can send blankets to Chicago Children's Memorial or another CareWear.org institution. Or you can join the Project Awesome crew as we sew some dollies for craft hope's project #2.