FaveCrafts

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How FaveCrafts Celebrated Our 10 Year Anniversary

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2019 marks 10 years that FaveCrafts has been online, and what a joy it has been! Over the years we’ve worked with hundreds of bloggers to share wonderful crafts and inspiration for readers like you. To celebrate, we partnered with the Craft Yarn Council‘s charity Warm Up America! to collect gloves and mittens for those in need. Learn a bit more about our celebration below!

FaveCrafts turned 10 in 2019. To celebrate, we partnered with Warm Up America! to run a Gloves and Mittens Charity Drive. This pattern was created for the promotion by Alex Halsey from withalexofficial.com and can be found here.

We Asked the Craft Yarn Council What They Needed

The Craft Yarn Council is a nonprofit that sponsors a wide range of promotional and educational programs, including its highly acclaimed Certified Instructors Program, Discover Knit and Crochet classes, and its popular I Love YARN Day event (the second Friday in October). You can learn more about them at their website, craftyarncouncil.com. Their charity, Warm Up America!, accepts donations of knit and crocheted items year round for those in need. When asked, they said their biggest need at this time is for gloves and mittens!

Easy Peasy Crochet Fingerless Gloves pattern by Shawn Mosch of Crafty Chic's Blog
Easy Peasy Crochet Fingerless Gloves pattern by Shawn Mosch of Crafty Chic’s Blog. View the pattern here.

We opened up the charity drive to include crocheted and knit sections as well, suggesting that after fiber artists finished whipping up a pair of mittens, they could use the leftover yarn to create 7×9″ sections. These sections are later seamed together by WUA! volunteers to make warm afghans.

The FaveCrafts Afghan 7x9" Section by Sarah Zimmerman
This 7×9″ section pattern was designed by Sarah Zimmerman of Repeat Crafter Me.

Sarah Zimmerman of Repeat Crafter Me designed a new crochet pattern that donors could use to make the sections. Not only did she design individual sections, but she created…

The FaveCrafts Afghan

The FaveCrafts Afghan
The FaveCrafts Afghan, by Sarah Zimmerman. You can view this pattern at RepeatCrafterMe.com here, or at FaveCrafts.com here.

We were so fortunate to work with three designers for this promotion. Sarah Zimmerman from Repeat Crafter Me designed The FaveCrafts Afghan, comprised of crocheted 7×9″ sections that can be donated to Warm Up America! Alexandra Halsey of With Alex created a gorgeous beginner-friendly mittens pattern:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxIFLOThJ8L/

And Shawn Mosch of Crafty Chic’s Blog created a lovely fingerless mitts pattern tied off with a ribbon:

Check out more of the lovely Instagram posts about our charity drive at https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/favecraftsturns10/

We Made Sections at the Office

Several of the editors at Prime Publishing crochet and knit, but many of us are beginners, so gloves are a bit beyond our skill level! In order to still participate in the charity drive, we organized an in-office event for editors to learn how to knit or crochet their own sections.

Toby Teaches Morgan How to Knit
AllFreeKnitting Editor Toby teaches FaveCrafts Editor Morgan how to begin the pattern.
RecipeLion Editor Kristin and AllFreeCrochet Editor Laura begin their sections.
Kristi, Rachel, Dana, and Leith Making Sections
AllFreeKnitting Editor Kristi, Managing Editor Rachel, FaveCrafts Editor Dana, and special guest Leith making sections.

You’ll notice the special guest in our photo above—Leith! The day we hosted our party happened to also be Bring Your Child to Work Day, so Leith had the opportunity to learn how to crochet with us.

FaveCrafts 10 Year Anniversary Charity Drive
FaveCrafts Editor Dana teaches Leith how to crochet.

Warm Up America! Collected Over 800 Knit and Crocheted Items

Our Gloves and Mittens Charity Drive ran from May 1-June 30, 2019. We are pleased to announce that Warm Up America! collected:
202 Pairs of Gloves and Mittens
606 Sections

It’s Not Too Late to Get Involved

Did you miss our charity drive? Warm Up America! accepts donations year round. Check out their current needs and follow them on Facebook to see their latest requests! And, if you don’t have time to make something, you can always make a financial donation to Warm Up America!

Crafting For A Cure Donation Drive

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Crafting For A Cure is Looking For Crafting Donations
Crafting For A Cure, who services Hospitals globally, is looking for crafting goodies to give to prenatal units.

Crafting for a Cure , founded by Pamela Beliak, is back with The Crochet Crowd again this spring.

See a video interview with Pamela Beliak. You can see her mission and see her personality thrive at Creativ Festival.
Pamela and The Crochet Crowd are launching their 4th Donation Drive together. Together with The Crochet Crowd crafters, the viewers are asked to donate finished crafting peices of Pre-Natal Units for Crafting For A Cure.
Items they are looking for include:
  • Preemie & Regular Baby Hats
  • Blankets
  • Mittens
  • Sweaters

If you can think of something else to donate to this specific calling, you are most welcome.

Mikey, from The Crochet Crowd, is collecting donations and will be presenting items for display at Creativ Festival on April 27 & 28, 2012. Specific chosen products will be on display at their display at Creativ Festival.

If you would like to have your item auctioned off, they would love your permission to do so. It’s a great way to donate items and have your gift go extra further. One sweater last year was offered $300 but was never auctioned off because permission was not asked from the doner.

Items can be mailed to:

The Crochet Crowd

10 Mullen Drive, PO BOX 473

Walkerton, Ontario, Canada

NoG 2Vo

7 Days ’til Christmas: Crafty Charitable Deeds and a Giveaway

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From now through Christmas day, we’re featuring a project here on the FaveCraftsBlog, along with a question for you to comment on. From those comments, we’ll pick a daily winner and you’ll receive a Gift from Santa’s Sleigh! How’s that for a great way to celebrate all month long?!

I’ve seen over the course of the month that many of you have mentioned on Facebook and on this blog that you’re also making items for charities this Christmas and I think it’s great! My grandmother was a crocheter. In years past, a local yarn manufacturer donated yarn to church folk in the area who were willing to crochet and knit mittens for the kids in need in the area. Each year there was donated yarn, she spent her free time making mittens for the mitten tree. And my Grandpa, practical man that he was, would grumble about her sitting there crocheting mittens for strangers! (He probably would still have grumbled if it was for family, but he would have grumbled less.)  And every year Grammie would remind him that it was one small thing she did for others, it kept her busy, and the yarn was free, after all. (He was a frugal farmer, so FREE would quiet him down every time!) Though I never got to wear Grammie’s mittens, it warms my heart much more to know that kids in need DID. Over the last few years, I’ve made scarves which I donate to whichever charity needs them each year, and in some small way, it feels like Grammie is there crocheting and knitting along with me. I know she’d be proud. So in her honor, here are some mittens!

Chunky Crochet Mittens and Scarf

By: Bernat

This adorable chunky mittens and scarf set is going to be your best friend this winter season. It’s a great free crochet pattern that will be nice to give as a gift or keep for yourself.

Do you craft, knit, crochet, or sew for charity? What’s your favorite cause in need? Leave a comment below – one lucky commenter will receive a Gift from Santa’s Sleigh. Hurry. You only have until Midnight central time to enter. Tomorrow will be another day, another featured project, and another giveaway!

P.S. Since our comments require approval before they are live on the site, your comment will be included as an entry even if you don’t see it on the page. Also, we only include one comment per person, but you can make more than one comment if you want!

[Note: The giveaway is now closed, but feel free to leave your comments if you like! See all of our Christmas Countdown posts here!]

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