On the way again

No camera available today, so no progress picture. The rug is on its way to Lesley. Happy
knitting!

The rug has arrived

Now to check the stash for a new colour and pattern for my section. What a lovely peppermint perfume when I opened the package! Thanks Belle

Help

The rug is still here with me (belle), because I don't have an address to forward it to.

Could Joy or Jennifer please email me a forwarding address.

belleg9@gmail.com

Thank you very much :)

My bit done.........

.......and the rug will go in the mail on Monday.

It was great fun knitting it, although I wasn't looking forward to all those stitches to start with. The rug has such a lovely feel, I'm sure our little miss is going to love it. The purple rows were done by Donni.

belle

Hi from Belle - via Donni

Belle is having trouble posting on the blog but asked me to let you all know the rug arrived at her place and she is knitting away as I type.

She will update you as soon as she can.

It's on the Road Again

I finished my section last night - sadly can't flash photos as my camera is at home - but I really enjoyed doing it.

The rug came with me to my Kids T-ball training session and a little 5 year old girl spied it. I almost had to wrestle her to the ground to get it off her - so there's proof in the pudding. A little girl is going to love it.

Last night as I tucked in my almost 7 year old daughter - I saw that she still had her blankie there - the one she got given when she was born. Wouldn't it be nice to think that what we all created together will be loved that much.

Thanks - I loved being a part of it.

On the road again!

The rug is now on its way to the beautiful coastal city of Wollongong.

I had intended to knit a lace pattern in acrylic to lighten the weight, but the rug cried for a stranded colour pattern [in wool]!

Here's what I wrote in the book:

As you wrap this blanket around you
or snuggle under its comforting warmth
draw strength and courage from the love knitted into every stitch.

Here's the rug so far [spread out over two circular needles]


And here's a close up of the last three knitters' work:


Thanks, Joy, for allowing me to be part of this.

It's here!

Oo, it looks even better in real life - and it's so warm and heavy already!! Great work Joy, Helena, Leonie, Kylie, Kerry, Jenny and Leah.

DD and I had fun reading through the book. It's so pretty, Joy, you've done an excellent job and everyone wrote such touching comments - I think putting something in the book will be more difficult than the knitting!

Thanks Leah for Cherry Ripe - one of my favourite chocolates - it arrived a little the worse for wear from the heat and distance but it'll be fine after a short time in the fridge! LOL

Now to choose colours and patterns - something lacy perhaps? [If you read my blog you'll understand my last comment!]

Ready to start another?

Hi everyone! I am loving what I am seeing here and the exchange seems to be running very smoothly. I must sincerely apologise for my slowness at getting the boy's rug moving and am now giving myself a severe kick up the backside to get it started. However when I went to set up my spreadsheet with all your addresses to organise the order etc. I realised that many of you who are not already on the girls' list did not send me your address.

So, if you're still keen to join in on the second project, let me know asap and provide your postal address so I have no more excuses NOT to get it organised! I do have excuses... work, study, toddlerwho keeps getting sick... but this is an important project in my eyes and if I don't MAKE time for it I will never get it going. So come on knitters, send me an email as a kick up my bum to get going on this one!

Finished!

I've completed my 7cm in a 10 stitch basket weave pattern in a dusty pink superwash wool. Still waiting on inspriation to write in the book, but I plan to post the blanket on to Lynne on Monday.

It's looking great!

It's arrived!

The blanket has just been delivered by my friendly parcel lady. It's looking great, and I can't wait to get started.

Finally finished

Finally I have the rug in the mail. I have no idea when it was supposed to move on but it's on the way to Leah now. We had a major health crisis in the family just after the rug arrived here and my elderly dad was rushed to hospital where he stayed for over a week. I'm terribly sorry if I have put the project behind. Everyone else will have to knit twice as fast now, ha ha.






I did a triple bobble pattern to make a row of flowers, it's difficult to see it in the photo.
This is what I wrote in the book:
"Know that this blanket was knitted for you with love by women all over this country. Some are mothers, some are sisters, all are daughters.
When you snuggle with this rug, whether you are happy or sad, know that our love is there with you."

May I just say also that it is a wonderful thing to knit something that others have also worked on, you can feel the energy in the blanket and the kind thoughts that people were thinking as they were knitting. It is quite a powerful thing.

Over to Tassie!

The rug is in the post and off to Jenny in Tasmania. Jenny, I hope you have as much fun knitting your 7cm as I did!










My addition to the book was adapted from a song written by Canadian quilter Cathy Miller:

May this rug keep you safe from harm
May it be your good luck charm
I do not know your name, nor the mountains you face
But what you hold in your arms is a knitter's embrace

On the Move again!

Sorry that this is getting off late - I have dragged the chain with getting this done and the dreaded Morning Sickness has not helped at all!

So here it is, my 7cm. It was getting a little too purple! So I thought some pink was in order. It is a machine wash 4ply knitted double and I knitted a little butterfly pattern into it! So Cute!

I ended up adding a poem! Changed slightly from this one here!

My Blankie!

This has been my favourite blankie,
Since the day that it was received.
Even though it is loved & treasured now
With dirt and just a little torn.

Mumma tries to coax me,
To let her wash out the grime,
But I sneak it out from the laundry,
Just in the knick of time!

Saved from suds at least for now,
It has my smell and the feel I love,
its my bedtime security.

Someday I will be brave enough,
To pack me treasured blankie away,
And will be a picture in my memory
Of that blankie that is so special to me!

"Better Late Than Never" was going to be the title of this post, but I, too, can't post a title............never mind. Sorry that I haven't posted before now-I had time to finish the knitting & mail the rug to Kylie, but that was about all. It was the end of school term here, and we had head colds, and just general pandemonium. I did quickly take some photos, but due to gale force winds here, they are taken inside in less than ideal conditions (that's my excuse for any bad pics, and I'm sticking to it).

I did some garter-stitch stripes, and then a simple chequer-board section so that it wasn't lost in the variegated yarn. If I had been better organised had more time I would have transferred the stitches onto a piece of waste yarn and taken a picture of the rug fully spread out.....

Oh, almost forgot-here is my entry in the accompanying book.

I hope that this blanket gives you much pleasure. It will travel around Australia during its creation before it arrives home to you, but that will only be the beginning of its life as it travels with you through your life. Wishing you health and happiness.

Sorry girls, I can't post titles at the moment on my blog posts... no idea why.

Just wanted to post and say that Kylie has now received the girl's rug, and we are 1 knitter off starting the boys rug! So I will go and buy another circular needle this week and cast on for a lucky little boy so the rug can be on it's way before we head to the snow in August.

Keep up the good work girls, and I look forward to seeing the latest rug pics when you get a chance to upload them Leonie. Hope you're all keeping warm and knitting happily.

Rug Received Safe & Sound

Just letting everyone know that the rug arrived here today safe & sound. I already have my colours picked out from my stash-just need to do some browsing for suitable stitch patterns. It's looking lovely in the flesh. Thanks to Helena for the choccy treats as well ;)

14cm and counting!

As always the hardest thing was choosing a pattern, but after a little research on my bookshelf I decided on a simple slipped stitch pattern, easy enough to do in front of the TV but with enough pattern to keep my interest! I am pretty happy with the result. I was thinking it might be nice if we blogged what we had written so that everyone, including those who have already done their 7cm can see the kind and loving things each other have written. Just and idea.
Here's what I have said:
Every stitch of this rug is a little bit of love and hope for a wonderful life full of sleepover, secrets and many wonderful lessons.
As you grow I hope it always has a place in you heart.
Best of Luck for a wonderful varied and positive life.

I have added 2 stitch markers at either end so that no thought whatsoever is needed to remember to always knit the first 5 stitches of every row.
Tomorrow the rug will be on it's way up the hill to Leonie...but in the meantime here it is!

Birth Announcement!

That's right, rug#1 has been born. It still has a lot of growing to do, but I'm sure with all the nurturing in this knitting group it will grow up beautiful and warm! My fingers are too sticky to knit tonight after covering our little notebook, but I've done my first bit, so that's okay. The rug will be meeting it's new foster mum (aka knitter!) Helena on Wednesday evening when we plan to have a knitter's supper to hand-over. I am really looking forward to the hand-over as I get to meet up with Helena, and munch on homemade apple pie while we mull over patterns and show off our projects.

It took just over 50gms wool to get the required 7cm. I did the majority in a parallellagram knit/purl pattern so I didn't get lost in so many stitches as I haven't worked with rows that long before, and then finished with a few garter stitch stripes to get the extra distance with some left over yarn.

So the rug is officially on the way! Happy knitting!!

And we're off and knitting!

Thankyou to everyone who has joined up so far. Sign-ups have now closed for Rug#1 as we now have enough knitters but I will continue to take expressions of interest and put people down on the list for Rug #2 so that when we get enough knitters for that one, we can start that too.

For the moment we will be working on Rug#1, a rug for a lucky little GIRL. We have a wonderful group of knitters to work with, who have added some excellent suggestions during the sign-up phase, some of which I would like to incorporate into our project.

1. Knitters will be organised into a list based on where they live, so we will have the rug go through all the knitters in a state before moving onto the next state. This will save us postage time (it generally only takes a day to post in the same state) and also allows people to meet up and hand the rug over in person if they so choose, which just goes on to build the comunity spirit that exists amongst knitters worldwide.
2. It is suggested that if you are able (don't feel you have to do this if you are already paying a bit in postage), you can not only add a small gift for the next knitter to the parcel, but also a stamp or two which will help some of our knitters towards the end of the list that will have a heavy rug to put through the mail.
3. There will be one knitter doing 14cm of rug instead of 7cm. These knitters will be Susan. These ladies will get an extra 2 weeks (4 weeks total) to knit since they are doing twice the work. Thanks for volunteering so we can get the rug underway. Edited to change that to just Susan doing 14cm - thanks for volunteering Kylie and Lynne, but I accidentally left two of our knitters off the list so you only need to do 7cm now.

I have started on the rug, and have done about 5cm in purple so far. My estimate is that it would take about 50g of yarn to do the required 7cm. I will finish my knitting off in the next week and pass it on to Helena, who is our second rug knitter in the list. You can find out when you're up and a rough estimate of when you can expect the rug, here (we will keep track of the rug here so you will be able to see a more accurate estimate as we go) :

1. Joy SA (14-27 May)
2. Helena SA (31 May -13 June)
3. Leonie SA (18th June - 2nd July)
4. Kylie VIC (6th-20th July)
5. Kerry VIC (25th July - 8th August)
6. Jenny TAS (August)
7. Leah ACT (Aug)
8. Lynne NSW (Sept)
9. Donni NSW (Sept)
10. Belle NSW (Oct)
11. Jenifer NSW (Oct)
12. Lesley NSW (Nov)
13. Corrie NSW (Nov)
14. Susan NSW (Dec)
15. Jane NSW (Dec)
16. Peta-Anne QLD (Jan)
17. Karen QLD (Jan)
18. Dawn QLD (Feb)
19. Dianne QLD (Feb)
20. Cathy WA (Mar)
21. Joy SA (back to me to finish and donate in time for next winter) (Mar)

I underestimated the time it would take to get all of your details in my spreadsheet and add you all to the addressbook and group and have now decided that I must go to bed... zzzzz... but I promise those that are not added to the blog or bloglist at the moment will be added in the next few days.

I look forward to working with you all and would like to thank you in advance for your generosity. Pictures to come of the start I have made on Rug#1! Keep your eyes peeled!

Woops - sorry Donni and Leah- you're in the list now - please forgive me - it was very late at night!

Halfway there - but need more knitters please

Hi all,

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to those already signed up to this exciting project. Unfortunately we still son't have nearly enough knitters to do both rugs but are halfway there to getting enough for one. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please send them a link to this site, or talk about it at your local knitting group to generate some interest. As you know I think it is a great project to get rid of some left over yarn that you might not have any other use for, and at the same time, make something wonderful and warm for a child in need, whilst getting support and encourageent from other knittes and getting to know them through the project.

Some people emailed and were worried about the postage costs. I realise that as the blanket gets further along it will get heavier and hence more costly to post, and unfortunately have no way around that as this is a national project. However I had planned to do it state by state so that all the knitters in one state knit first then it gets sent to the next state, goes to all the knitters there and so on. This was more to save on postage time as it still costs the same to send interstate or in your own state, however one of our knitters offered a great solution, and that is that instead of posting between knitters, some may choose to meet the next knitter in person and hand it over that way. That is perfectly fine, and encouraged as it will help build the community sense of the project. If you REALLY don't want to send the rug in the post, let me know and I will make sure that you are not the last knitter in your state.

Now, I have to apologise that I haven't listed all of you as fast as I would have liked, but please understand that with a full time job, a household, a 1yr old son and a Masters degree to juggle, it can be difficult for me to post names on a daily basis. However I do try to get to it at least once a week and check to see if there are any more willing volunteers. I have just updated the list tonight, so if you have applied to join but aren't in the list, please send me another email, as I may have missed it. Also, those of you that have blogs, I have linked them to your name where possible, but if I didn't catch your blog address on your email, I haven't linked it. If you would like me to add the link, please send me your blog detals.

One final thing to check is that you have received an invitation to join the blog. You need to accept the invitation to post in here, which will be required once we start knitting so we can follow the rug around Australia and also see it blossom in all it's growing glory! If you are unsure about how to post to the blog, feel free to ask me your questions, or email your photos/progress details of the rug to me and I can update the blog. You do NOT need a blog to join, and if you'd rather not post to the blog, you can still join as long as you promise to keep us updated when you get the rug via an email to me at that time.

There, I think that covers everything for now. I just hope we get enough interest to make this a reality!

A little inspiration

This is a photo of Oddball Blanket #1 which is currently working it's way around America. I just thought it would be good to post the pic here so you can all see what I am on about - this is truly inspiring work!

Also, I have a very humble apology to make - I forgot the dot au part of my email address when I set this blog up last night so if you tried to sign up today and failed, please try again by emailing me at chillychookatyahoodotcomdotau (swap the at's for the at symbol and the dots for actual dots).

Calling volunteers!

What's it all about?
The Rugz 4 Kidz project is a charity project for disadvantaged kids. With the weather becoming cooler, some families are short of warm winter blankets and these kids struggle to keep warm and get the good night's sleep that their growing bodies need. This project aims to create two blankets to start with, one for a boy, and one for a girl and if it works really well we can run it again and again so that several children can be spoiled with the warmth of a hand knitted blanket. The blankets will each be 100cm x 155cm - enough to top a single bed or wrap around the child. Along with the blanket the child will also receive a beautiful fabric covered book with messages of hope and love from the knitters who created their special blanket. The spin-off is that we get to share our work with each other, use up a ball or two from our yarn stash and virtually meet some other knitters that we may not have "met" otherwise.

What do you need to participate?
Firstly you need to be located in Australia for the duration of the project. Unfortunately, we can't make this an international project as postage between knitters would take too long. Other than that, all you need is some knitting time and some machine washable 8ply yarn (wool or acrylic or a blend of both) to spare.

How does it work?
I will start the blankets, setting up with the correct number of stitches using my own circular needles. Once they are started I will send each blanket (with needles included) to a person on the participant's list and that person is required to knit 7cm of blanket. You can change colours as many times as you like in that 7cm so it's a great way to use up leftover yarns. Be creative, try out a new stitch or use a stitch you particularly enjoy knitting or want some practice with, or if you are a beginner, just plain garter stitch or stocking stitch will be perfectly fine. However, no matter what stitch you choose, it is requested that you keep the borders going so that the blanket is better able to hold it's shape and sit flat.

When you have knitted your bit, post the blanket to the next knitter (you will be emailed with the name and address of that person at the start of the project so that each person's details only go out to one other knitter). The blanket will also travel with a bright cloth covered book. Inside this book, please write your name and a special message for the child who receives the blanket. If you have kids yourself, perhaps they might like to contribute with a colourful drawing? Send the book on with the blanket and some goodies for the next knitter.

If you are on both lists (you decide if you want to do either one or both blankets) I will try to spread out the allocations so that you won't have to knit both blankets at once. When the blanket has been through all knitters on the list, the last knitter will return it to me so that I can finish with the garter stitch borders and donate them to a local charity (I haven't worked that out yet but it will probably be the Red Shield blanket appeal or the Salvation Army). When I donate them I will post to the blog so that everyone knows that their hard work was well received and passed on to the charity for two very lucky kids!

How do I sign up?
As winter is fast approaching I would like to aim for sign-ups to be complete by Saturday 19th May or until we have the right number of knitters. We need at 20 knitters for each blanket, with the blanket taking an expected 11 months to complete (2 weeks per knitter plus 3-4 postage days between knitters). If we start now, the blankets will be ready for winter 2009.

Sign up by sending me an email at chillychook at yahoo.com.au

Please stipulate if you want to be on one or both lists, and if you only want to be on one, let me know if you have a preference to be on the boy's or girl's blanket list. I understand that you may have more of certain colours in your stash so will try to assign you to the appropriate list, however if I get too many people for one list and not the other I will have to allocate accordingly.

The rules:

1. Use the dedicated needles (they will travel with the blanket) and please send them on in the same condition you receive them.
2. Use 8ply machine washable yarn (wool, acrylic or a blend of both)
3. Knit the first and last 5 stitches of every row - this is the garter stitch border. Do what you like with the rest of the stitches.
4. Post to the blog when you receive a blanket, and again when you send it on (perhaps with a picture for your second post showing your completed section), so we can keep track of it and watch it growing.
5. Try to get your knitting done and the blanket sent on within 2 weeks of
   receiving the blanket.

Some Guidelines

Please try to include a small treat as thanks to the next knitter for taking part, something like a few chocolates or special coffee sachets is fine, just something nice to let the knitter know you are thinking of them.

Try to stick to the boy/girl colour themes where possible. You shouldn't feel you have to go out and buy yarn specifically for this project as it is a stash buster after all, but it would be nice if the colours didn't clash, so that the final recipient will adore the finished blanket.

Remember, you are knitting for kids who might be sensitive to very scratchy yarns. Please package the blanket appropriately when you send it on - respect all the hard work that has gone into it.

I realise that it will get heavier as it gets bigger, so the postage will get more expensive the further down the list you are, however I will try to group the allocations by state so that you may choose to meet up with the next knitter in person to pass it on if that is what you would prefer to do.
If you have any further questions add them in your sign-up email which should also include:

• Your name
• Your postal address
• Your preferences for one or both blankets

One final note on signups
PLEASE don't sign up if you don't intend on doing the required 7cm of blanket within a fortnight of receiving the blanket. It would be a very big disappointment to EVERYONE if a blanket ended up in someone's half finished projects box and never got to the intended recipient. If something comes up and you aren't able to do your bit on the blanket within the required time frame PLEASE let us know by posting on the group blog and send the blanket on. Of course if you're just going to be a few days late, not to worry, let us know and send the blanket on when you are done.

I look forward to working with you all on this exciting project! Also, as this is the first project I have run like this, your suggestions will be more than welcome on how to improve it. Now I'm off to get prepared, buy some needles and needle protectors to knit those gorgeous blankets and to cover some blank note books to hold those inspiring messages!