cottageknits.com Blog

Charities benefit from your generosity:
Last week we sent dozens of baby hats to CRH that you have knitted and crocheted for the Birthing Center!
Nearly $900 was raised for the Haiti Relief Effort (and that dollar amount will be matched by Knitting Fever International)!
Thanks to all of you for constantly sharing your talents and resources….you are awesome!

There are so many needs out there that it truly is overwhelming….understanding that i simply share a couple more ideas with you…these are the current projects we are working on:
A Cat on A Matt~patterns for Kira Casevane’s senior project is available at Cottage Knits. Calling all animal lovers! This is a fast and easy project…and uses up some of your stash!

Baby Blankets for Haiti~a local church is assembling medical boxes to be sent to Haiti…the pattern is simple …if you can knit a dishcloth…you can knit this blanket! Patterns available upon request. Knit these blankets in cotton or acrylics. They will be collected and shipped Feb 5.

Resolutions…we love to make them and are so quick to break them. Before year 2010 even began i broke the agenda i had planned for months. Like many of you i have knitted for years and have very little to show for it as i gift most of my knitting…so i decided this year i would knit only for me…my grandchildren to be my only accepted exception…then something happened that would cause me to pause and re-evaluate and this is where my story begins.
With only a week before Christmas i was barely keeping up with the demands, eating on the run, trying to keep up with paperwork and helping my customers with last minute problems and purchases. Let’s face it…i was having a grumpy evening when one of the knitters in the “Peanut Gallery” (knitting area) called me to come in and take a seat.
“Sorry, no time for fun and games for me…too much to do.” They were relentless, so after some coaxing i agreed. That’s when i gulped a bit of humble pie…you see the room was filled with friends who had gathered to give me something they had been planning and plotting…and knitting since June.
For months over twenty good people had been working on a afghan worked in squares from the Great American Afghan and Great Aran Afghan books. These friends had even custom knitted it just for me. It is a masterpiece! I am so proud many of those who had never even knitted before Cottage Knits opened nearly 4 1/2 years ago! (And they didn’t even come for help!) I can’t even tell you how much i appreciate all the time and efforts that went into this gift….all the hard work and scheming leaves me nearly speechless. A lesson was taught to me with this gesture…i was reminded how much i love to knit for others. I feel like it is giving a little piece of me when i knit for someone else and i makes me happy to do that…so back to my resolution..i decided right then and there that one would be broken. I may knit something for me in 2010..but i have a long list of things i want to knit for others including a little more charity knitting.
So thanks to all of you who keep me grounded and remind me that we are better together and we are all knitted together in so many ways. I’m leaving it in the shop for a couple of weeks so you might have a peek and be inspired to knit one for someone in your life….then it goes home for my family to enjoy and use.
The Cottage Knits story continues…. and you make it a great place to work and play!