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Crafting Creates Communities

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I love when communities come together and no one is holding fire torches or pitch forks. It reminds me how amazing our Facebook groups are at The Crochet Crowd and AllFreeCrochet.

Today, I happened to notice a comment that suggested to me that a woman writing a comment sounded a bit lonely and was needing a friend. I sat back and thought.

“If my hunch is right, what can I do to help her?”

The woman is a great crocheter and she’s in a group of amazing other crocheters… maybe she just needs someone to connect with.

So this thought pattern led me to post a comment about making new friends. I am still in disbelief about how many people were interested in creating friendships. Some people got so excited they made so many friends they got a locked out from making more Facebook friends for 48 hours. I never thought Facebook had a spam protector like YouTube.

This is a strong reminder to me that “we need each other”. I love when flukes like this happen. Many people had a great day today over a very simple idea. It’s amazing how little it takes to make a difference.

Crochet Charities Provide the Opportunity to Create a Finer World, One Thread at a Time

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Not everybody can be gifted at everything. I, for instance, am a terrible baker, a worse juggler, and downright dangerous if I try to combine the two. But people have unique talents too, and today we’re pleased to share a few organizations where crocheters and knitters of all skill levels are using their abilities to make a difference in the world.

The Warm Up America Foundation has been around for more than two decades, and helps people work together in creating afghans and clothes for people in need.  They’re involved in every stage of the process from training would-be-crocheters, to coordinating their efforts, collecting their finished products, and distributing these products to different charitable organizations, which means there are a lot of ways that kind-hearted crafters can pitch in.

More details on how groups and individuals can get involved are found here.

Nobody is ever too old to appreciate the effort that goes into a handmade gift.  That’s why Foster Care to Success, an organization that helps foster kids get the financial, emotional, and advisory help they need to attend college and transition into successful adults, started the Red Scarf project.

Each year they collect upwards of 10,000 red scarves to distribute to former foster kids away at universities or vocational schools.  You can learn more about how to help them here.

 

Winters in New York City can be bad.  This is doubly so if you don’t have a roof over your head or a way to come in out of the cold.  Hats For The Homeless is trying to do their part by collecting warm winter accessories to give to the less fortunate at Christmas. If you can make hats, gloves, or scarves, then Hats for the Homeless thinks you can also make a difference.

The CureCaps Hat project is a grassroots movement to fight against neurological diseases.  It starts with concerned crafters making and donating all kinds of hats, which the project then sells to raise money which is donated to leading researchers in neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases.

 

They have already distributed 15,000 dollars in research grants, and are making a difference in millions of lives.  This is a great project for those who want to feel that their efforts are helping to end diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and you can learn more about it here.

 

Do you craft for charity? How do all of you use your talents to help out, and what do you make?

 

Crochet @ Cama: A Forward Kind of Retreat

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The Crochet Liberation Front(CLF) is proud to announce that registration is open for the Crochet@Cama retreat, October 17 thru October 21, 2010 at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island, in Washington State.

For two years members of the CLF have plotted and schemed to come up with a “dream” retreat that focuses solely on their chosen craft. The retreat is scheduled to have morning classes with a star studded cast of crochet instructors covering subjects as varied as “Fair Isle” crochet, Beginning Lace, Yarn and Fiber for crocheters, Hook Carving, Free Form Crochet, Photographing finished objects, and how to crochet without a pattern and make projects work.

The retreat has more to offer than classes however, afternoon crochet alongs, creative discoveries, evening guest speakers, sing a longs, crochet games, and a fabulous “Yarn Tasting” will make the event something that participants will remember for a lifetime.

Community and crochet is the theme of the event, and so the CLF is partnered with The Center for Wooden Boats (Lake Union, Seattle).  Participants are invited to crochet squares (yarn and charts will be provided) during the event to create a unique afghan that will be an item at the 2011 Center for Wooden Boats annual charity auction. Proceeds are used to help fund their youth programming in Seattle and on Camano Island. Local Crochet Guild, Evergreen Chat n Chain of Everett, WA  is also a partner in the event offering up expertise and volunteers to help make this unique event even more memorable.

The retreat venue, Cama Beach State Park, is a renovated 1930’s auto-court and fishing resort, with recently restored rustic cabins that have a beautiful view of Puget Sound, Whidbey Island and on a clear day, The Olympic Mtns.  Affectionately known as Cama by locals, Cama Beach State Park has been featured multiple times as the perfect get away by travel magazines and Sunset Magazine.

To find out more about the retreat, how to register, and to get booking information for the cabins go to http://www.crochetliberationfront.com or email Laurie Wheeler  at Camanomade@earthlink.net.

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