Still time to do some good . . .

Just a reminder that you have until Wednesday, December 15 to comment on this post and be entered to win a $25 Kiva gift certificate!

'Tis the season--to do some good!*

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

I try to keep this in mind when making charitable donations--who's just throwing money at a problem, and who's really trying to do something to improve the underlying causes of the problem?

I have several charities near and dear to my heart, but today I'm going to wax poetic about Kiva, because, well, you'll see.

Kiva partners with microlending organizations in developing countries to make small business loans. "Small business," note, doesn't necessarily mean the same thing everywhere that it does here (like when you think of your LYS). It's often very informal--a woman selling "fast food" out of her home, or peddling clothes door-to-door. There's often no licensing, no staff, no marketing--just one person trying to get ahead.

So, what do we do? We are the lenders! Kiva offers a platform through which lenders can direct funds (they do the leg work--researching partner organizations, collecting funds from lenders, all the bureacratic red tape that seems to accompany trying to do something helpful; and the partner organizations do all the on-the-ground work necessary--identifying recipients, disbursing funds, organizing repayments, etc. ), but we pony up the cash.

And we don't just fling some money in Kiva's direction--this is the best part! We, the lenders, read people's stories and choose where to send our money. Some of the stories are incredibly inspirational--I read many of them as a Kiva translator, and always wish I had more money to lend! You also don't need a lot of cash on hand to lend--each loan is funded by multiple lenders, so you don't bear the entire burden.

And then we get our money back. To stick back in our wallets, or re-lend to someone else deserving. (Yes, there are defaults, but they are rare--both Kiva and the partner organizations work hard to identify reliable recipients and businesses to minimize chances for non-repayment.) This is what really makes our money so much more valuable--the same $25 can be used again and again to help different people.

(More info on how Kiva works here.)

Sooooo, this Christmas, I'm not giving away yarn, or pattern books, or anything knitting-related. I'm giving away a chance to do just a little smidge of good--a $25 Kiva gift certificate.

How can you win? Go to kiva.org right now and read some stories. Then come back here, and leave a comment telling me who you would lend to if you won the gift certificate (By the time the giveaway is finished, your chosen loan request will, hopefully, already be funded--but there are always more to pick from!). A knitter in Cusco? An Avon lady in Ecuador? A sheep herder in Azerbaijan? Whose story spoke to you?

When the winner gets his/her gift certificate, I would invite him/her to do a guest post on the blog to tell us all about who received the $25 and why.

(And of course, once the loan is repaid, you are free to withdraw the $25 and keep it for yourself--though I hope you'll continue to re-lend!)

Giveaway open until December 15. Tell your friends!


*(Actually, we should all do some good, all year round, but, well, Christmas is Christmas!)

Hats off!

I've got to tell you guys, I'm a hat knitting queen this month! Three hats done, and two more on the needles. A quick overview:

Pattern: Snapdragon Tam, Ysolda
Yarn: Shibuiknits Merino Worsted in Mulberry
Is it for me? No :(

Pattern: Porom, Jared Flood
Yarn: Madelinetosh ToshDK in Copper Penny
Is it for me? YES!

Pattern: Frukttradgard, Melissa LaBarre

Yarn: Classic Elite Fresco in, um, green?

Is it for me? No :(

 

Two hats have been sent away to swap recipients, and two hats on the needles aren't for me either, alas. But no matter, I've also finished a sweater that IS for me. I love it. It's warm and soft and pretty. But that's for next time. ;)

Knitting with scissors

Not actually with them, you know, but using them to complete a project. Like EZ's Mitered Mittens. I loved the look of these and it wasn't until I had actually started that I realized they have an afterthought thumb. And not just any afterthought thumb, but the kind where you purposefully snip your yarn and unravel a hole in your knitting.

Some patterns will have you knit across the thumb stitches with waste yarn, then come back and take it out later to reveal live stitches. But EZ is the gutsy type, and she wants you to knit the whole mitten, then go back later and rip a bit out, which frankly leaves a lot of opportunities for disaster. You could snip the yarn in the wrong place, drop a stitch, accidently cut two threads, etc.

But I did as I was told, and it turned out ok:

(I do realize this isn't the best photo, but I'm still figuring out all the bells and whistles on my NEW camera, which will ultimately--hopefully--lead to even better pictures)

The yarn is some Knit Picks WOTA Bulky Handyed, so I can take no credit for the pretty awesome striping pattern that resulted. Since it's a bulky yarn I did make some adjustments in the numbers of stitches for the pattern--I think I cast on 36 stitches. Other than that, it was easy-peasy, quick to memorize and quick to knit up. But as usual, I gave these away, so I'll need to find another mitten pattern for myself.

Speaking of patterns, I am  . . . wait for it . . .

Working on my first pattern design.

And it's nothing fancy, just a scarf.

But it's a lot harder than I anticipated. It's easy to look at a finished pattern and say, 'oh, the designer just plugged stitch patterns in here, here and here, and that's all."  But that's not all. There are a lot of stops and starts as you figure out what works and what doesn't, shrink or expand your stitch patterns, reconfigure what goes where. And that's just for a scarf. I can't imagine what it's like for something as involved as a sweater (though I suppose it may be one of those things that gets easier the more you do it).

But I'm really enjoying it. And hopefully the end result will be a one-of-a-kind scarf for a special someone at Christmas. And then a pattern for you guys. You know, assuming it doesn't wind up looking like a tangle of wool bits that's been runover by Santa's reindeer.

Free time: I haz it again

FINALLY! Two weeks of torturous meeting are complete and I can have a life again. Let me tell you, no one should ever have to be in their office at 11pm.

Of course, now I'm busy trying to convince my Expert group to send me their revised reports, and then correcting their revisions, so it's not exactly paradise here. But still, I leave at 5:30pm, so it's doable.


(With this weekend's time change, I'll now be walking to the subway in the dark--I hate that. I get home and feel like it's time for bed!)


With all of the torture going on, I haven't managed to knit much, but I did finally complete my mom's birthday gift--2.5 months late! Oh well, what was she going to do with a sweater in August anyway??

Pattern: Sienna Cardigan ; On Ravelry

Yarn: Gedifra Shetland Deluxe

Needles: sz 8

Mods: knit at smaller gauge to get something more like 32", as the smallest size given in the pattern was 36"; knit sleeves in the round up to the cap to eliminate seaming.

To be honest, this wasn't the best yarn for this pattern. It's too dark to show off the eyelet/cable detailing on the front, and it's really too drapey for what should be a more structured cardigan. But, once I started, I wasn't going to stop.

It's got some mohair, so it's a little fuzzy, but really turned out quite soft and with a bit of sheen after washing.

I also didn't finish the sleeves, I left a rolled hem on them. I like it.

While I was knitting the collar, I couldn't help thinking that a short-row collar would've looked so much neater--but while I can usually successfully implement short rows these days, I certainly can't come up with them on my own, so I knit the collar as written, which uses a stepped bind off to create the shaping.

And check out these set in sleeves;

Pretty smooth, huh? This is on the second or third garment I've done with set-in sleeves, but this time, instead of panicking and sewing the sleeves in every which way, I sat down with my tools, took my time, and slowly but surely sewed the sleeves in correctly, with some help from Cirilia:

Now that this is done, I'm dying to knit myself a hat. Pattern suggestions?

Psssst!

 . . . today is my 30th birthday!

I'm celebrating with this guy:

And will be wearing this (and a dress, duh) for my surprise evening out, which I'm assured involves champagne:

30 years . . . where does the time go? I'm actually not sure which makes me feel older: being 30, or knowing that my goddaughter, who was born on my 13th birthday, is turning 17.

Introduc-- ahem, intro-- AHEM!! INTRODU-----

I've got picures to show you guys. TWO projects, in fact. Blogger is having none of it. I'll mark this down as day # 11 squillion that I'm having issues with Blogger.

I really should find a new home . . .