A Yarny Project for GayRomLit

There are many things that delight me about the LGBTQ romance community.  One is how passionately we support various LGBTQ groups and causes.  Another is how many of us are passionate fiber artists.  This fall, let’s bring those passions together at GRL to support Atlanta area homeless LGBTQ youth.   

Lost-n-Found Youth, Inc is a non-profit organization dedicated to getting kids off the street.  But there are only so many shelter beds available, and they need warm clothing for those who can’t get a spot.  If you knit or crochet, please consider making a few hats, scarves, or mitts and bringing them to GRL for Lost-n-Found.  A wide variety of sizes and styles can be put to good use; I only suggest that the yarn be machine washable, so that the items will stand up to wear and tear.  If you have questions about the project, I can be reached at fibrobabe@yahoo.com.  You’ll also find me as Fibrobabe on Twitter and Ravelry (the greatest fiber crafting website ever!  If you’re not a member, you should be.  There’s even a M/M lovers’ group!).

 

Thanks for helping us keep these kids warm this winter, and letting them know that there are people out here who love them.

Becky

The First 44

Whelp, the first 44 hats of 2013 are on their way to cold heads.  Or, sort of.  The ones in the box have been dropped off with a woman who volunteers at a food pantry for the homeless/near homeless in Johnson County, just south of Indianapolis.  Even though tomorrow is the first day of spring, we're still having highs in the 30s and 40s, and we've got a couple days of snow coming up in the 10 day forecast.  And there are no homeless shelters anywhere in Johnson County, something that I just found out.  So a lot of the people they work with are sleeping in cars, if they're lucky, or outdoors if they're not.

The hats in the laundry basket will get boxed up, and those will being going in the mail tomorrow for Trinity Place Shelter in New York.  Trinity is an LGBTQ youth shelter that I heard about from Leanna Renee Hieber when I met her last year at RT.  I saw a tweet yesterday from Trinity that the weather has been ugly in NYC, too, and their volunteers have been coming in early to provide a few extra hours of warmth and shelter to the teens they serve.  Trinity does good work, and if you've got a little wiggle room in your budget, I know they'd be happy for the help.

And now, I need to go knit something.  My donation tubs are empty again.

On the Tenth Day, I Sinned

One of my goals for 2013 was to lay off on the yarn buying for a while.  I have a whole, fancy new cabinet full of the stuff, so it's not like I'm hurting for something to knit or anything.  I was doing pretty well until yesterday, when Mom said, "Hey, do you want to go to Michael's?  They're having a sale on yarn."

Gulp.

I went with the best of intentions.  I was needing a pair of size 10 dpns (double pointed needles for the non-knitters- they're used for making circular things, like hats or socks), and I figured it wouldn't hurt to just *look* at the yarn.  And I set myself a small budget, in case there was anything that was just too good of a deal to pass up.

This is what I came home with:

The two giant bags are from Michael's.  The smaller bag is from a small LYS (Local Yarn Shop in knitter talk) called Starstruck Cat.  Mom talked me into going there, too.  And again, I went in with the best of intentions.  This time, I was looking for a set of size 13 dpns.  13s are big, maybe as big around as a finger, depending on how big your fingers are, and they aren't always easy to find.  I came out with the dpns and this beautiful yarn:

Isn't it gorgeous?

The little bag from Starstruck Cat cost as much as one of the giant bags from Michael's, but the yarn from Starstruck Cat is the good stuff: soft, cuddly merino.  It's going to make a lovely hat, for me this time!

Between the two stores, I managed to seriously blow the budget.  But the Michael's stuff was on sale for a really good price, and it's all going to be made into hats for donation, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much.

And after all, I've managed to keep my resolution not to buy any more ebooks... so far.

ETA: On the positive side, I've already finished a charity hat from some of the new yarn I bought.  It came out kind of cute, I think!

And a view from the top:

Donation 2012

Last year I knit my brother a pair of warm house socks for Christmas.  I had some yarn leftover, so I decided to knit a hat.  And since I didn't have anyone in particular who needed a hat, I decided to donate it somewhere.  And then, because this is me we're talking about, it kind of snowballed.

Here's that first hat:

And here's a picture of my 2012 knitted donation:

Final count was 3 scarves, 2 cowls, 2 pair of fingerless mitts, and 33 hats.  40 items all together.  Woot!  Ten items went to Trinity Place, a ten bed shelter in New York City for homeless LGBTQ youth.  The rest went to Ruth Ellis Center, an organization in Detroit that has both a drop-in center and residential programs for LGBTQ youth.  Ruth Ellis estimates that there are 800 homeless teens in Detroit on any given day.  The situation in NYC is even worse.  According to this article, as of 2008 there were approximately 3,800 homeless youth in NYC, but the city had only 250 shelter beds reserved for teens.  Some knitting doesn't mean much in the face of those kinds of numbers, but hopefully these things will mean something to the 40 people who get them.

I'm already plotting my donation for next year.  I give cash when I can, which isn't as often as I'd like.  But in the meantime I have a cabinet full of yarn and all the time in the world.  For 2013 I hope to be able to donate 100 hats.

Because I Really Needed Another Project

Look what arrived on my doorstep today!  Lots and lots of yarn.  I've been feeling the need to knit for charity for a few months now.  But not just any charity.  I've been wanting to knit for homeless LGBT youth.

Did you know that somewhere between 5 and 10% of youth in the US identify as LGBT, but 20-40% of homeless youth are LGBT?  Approximately 26% of LGBT kids are kicked out of their homes when they come out.  They are also significantly more likely to be sexually assaulted, become addicted to drugs, to be forced to turn to sex work for survival, or to attempt suicide.  They're even more at risk for abuse from shelter staff than their heterosexual counterparts.  (That there is any abuse of anyone by shelter staff makes me sick to my stomach.)

These are kids who need help.  They need to know that there are people out there who care about them.  And they need to be warm.  So I'm knitting for them.  Right now I'm positively obsessed with hats.  I've knit two in the last two days, and I have two more that I knit in January with the intention to donate.  All that yarn in the picture above will be hats soon.  After that there will be scarves and cowls and fingerless mitts.

So far I have one place identified to send these items-- Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco.  There's a woman who collects knit and crochet donations all year long to go into holiday gift packages for the kids.  I've also contacted an LGBT youth center here in Indianapolis to see if they have a need for hats and scarves for their clients, or know of a program in the area that does.  (I'd really like to keep at least some of this local.)  And I've found programs in Iowa, Michigan, New York, and Nevada that look like they could use handknits.  I'll have to contact them and see if they have any specific needs or guidelines for donations.

If you know of any LGBT programs in your area that could use handknits, please let me know and I'll add them to my list to contact.  And please, consider making a few yourself if you're crafty, or finding other ways to support this population.  They sure as hell need all the kindness and support they can get.

And now, I'm going to cast on for another hat.

Frog in a Party Hat

I finished a new knitting project tonight.  Don't adjust your screens, it really is this bright.

OK, maybe the color doesn't come through really well in this picture, but trust me, it's BRIGHT.

The pattern is Sockhead, and the name of the colorway is Frog in a Party Dress, so I've named this Frog in a Party Hat.  It's nice and cozy, but not so heavy that I couldn't wear it in spring or fall as a fashion statement.  (You know me, I'm all about the fashion statement.)  I'm quite satisfied with this hat, and I expect that there will be more Sockheads to come.  And I already have plans for the leftover yarn, of which there is a fair bit.  A book of sock patterns came in the mail today, and there's a really cute one that calls for just a little bit of a contrasting color.  This pink and green yarn should be almost a shock of color against a black yarn.  Or maybe  it will work against some deep purple I have in my stash.  We'll see.

My brother and sister-in-law came for dinner tonight.  Jer's birthday is in mid-February, and he very humbly requested another pair of heavy house socks.  He asked for a pair for Christmas, and he loves them so much that he hasn't been willing to skip wearing them around the house long enough to get them washed!  Clearly, this is a guy who needs at least one more warm pair of handknit socks.

Lip Balm of the Day: Pink Cake

This is a Little Embarrassing

As I mentioned the other day, I'm getting started on my 2012 New Year's resolutions.  (Why wait to make positive changes in your life, right?)  So, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone here-- post some pictures and talk about the cleaning and organizing I need to do.

Here they come, the embarrassing pictures.

This is the giant pile of crap that completely blocks access to my closet.  There are a couple of tubs and boxes on the bottom, with clean clothes, yarn, shipping boxes, and God knows what else in the mix.  I haven't measured it or anything, but it's probably 5 feet long, 2 feet deep, and waist high at one end.  This is probably my most daunting challenge.  A lot of this stuff needs to go into the closet, somehow.  But I can't *get to* the closet with the pile in the way.  And I don't have the energy or the space to move the pile so I can get to the closet and put it all away.  It's a conundrum.  But I'll figure something out.

This is one end of the pile, and also the little table I use as my nightstand.

This is the other end of the pile, as well as my dresser, which is thoroughly cluttered and covered in about a quarter inch of dust.  On the positive side, you can see my Christmas cards hanging on the door!

This is the set of plastic drawers that I use as my other nightstand.  See the pink/white/black thing under the tissue box?  That's the sack sock I mentioned a couple posts ago.  It's coming along nicely!

As you can see, the whole room is piled, packed, choked with stuff.  Part of the problem is me.  I have a hard time letting go of stuff that I think I might need.  Or I set something aside, and then it disappears from my mind.  It just doesn't exist for me anymore.  It does, however, continue to collect dust for the next 6 months until I finally throw it away.

But a really big part of the problem is I have no organizational tools or system.  That blue tub at the bottom of the first picture is filled with CDs.  But I have no place to put them.  There are two or three boxes of books taking up space on the floor of my closet, but I have no shelves to put them on.  That big ol' dresser?  Holds a lot less stuff than you might think.  (But to be fair, I really need to go through some of it and either pack it up for winter or just let it go all together.)

I haven't started doing my one song of cleaning a day.  I was thinking about doing that today, but I did 11 minutes on the Wii instead (first time in *months*), and between that and MTX day, I am pretty well worn out.  But I have started thinking about how I want to arrange things as I get them put away.

Shelves and such are not an option right now.  The room desperately needs to be painted (the walls are scuffed up and full of nail holes, and one wall is painted a horrible gray-purple), and I don't want to put anything big and heavy in the room that will have to be moved to get to the walls.  And since it's January, it's going to be months before the weather is really appropriate for painting.  I'm looking at probably 6 months, minimum, before I can put in shelves.  (Also, I want to put in some sort of entertainment system to hold my TV and for storage.)

All this listing of what's wrong, and what I need and can't get right now is starting to feel like a novel.  A long, boring, Russian novel.  Something by Turgid.  (Points to anyone who gets the reference!)  I think I'm going to leave this here and come back tomorrow with what I see as my specific requirements for my room, and what I'm going to try to do to meet them in the short run, even if I can't have my dream room right now.

Lip balm of the day: Pick Me Up Peach!  (And boy did I need it.)

In Flux

I don't know about you, but for me the week between Christmas and New Year's is always an odd one.  The old year is over, but the new one hasn't started yet.  It's a time for wrapping up old business and gearing up for the new.

For the old business, I'm mostly making sure that my book and knitting records are up-to-date, bills are paid, that kind of thing.  Reading the last of the holiday stories-- tonight's is Carol of the Bellskis, a m/m Hanukkah story.  And wrapping up a stray knitting project-- a hat made from the leftover yarn from my brother's Christmas socks that I intend to donate to a local homeless shelter.

For new business, I've started my first knitting project for myself.  It's this sack sock to collect all the random plastic bags that I keep finding all over my room.  (For someone who rarely leaves the house and shops almost exclusively online, I have a shocking number of plastic bags floating around the place.)  (Bonus, it will help me keep my room clean!)  I've picked up a couple of songs that inspire me for the beginning of a writing soundtrack.  I'm not working hard yet, but I'm poking in that direction.  And I've got my eye on a reading challenge over at Goodreads that should help me control the ebook buying issue.  I felt like crap today (monthly surge in symptoms, plus I'm just worn out from the past week or so), so no activity whatsoever, and no cleaning.  I think I might need the same for tomorrow.  But Wednesday, look out!  I'll poke around and do something or other.  My favorite Wii game encourages me to compete against myself, to always go just a little further, so once I get into it again that should help keep me motivated.

So, progress.

And with that, I will leave you with a picture.  I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back I discovered someone had stolen my spot.

It's a little hard to tell, because the bed is so cluttered.  But that green thing is the hat, almost finished then, and completed now.  There's also a cone of white/black/pink yarn that I'm using to make my sack sock.  I'm getting an interesting swirling stripe effect as it knits up.  I'll take a picture in a day or two, when I'm further along and it's easier to see what's going on.

'Night, all!