Red Scarf Project

In Memory of Dong Lin (Peter)

2005-11-22T23:12:00.000-05:00

Dong Lin made my heart sing.

Knit Unto Others and Call for Suggestions

2005-11-20T09:52:00.000-05:00

I'm knitting like a knitting maniac so that I can complete as many items as possible during these 2 weeks of the Knit Unto Others knitalong. Join in -- see the cool button in my sidebar!

Hope is a fellow knitter and she emailed with a very good point and question, "Do you know what materials would be best for making warm things for the kids? I have noticed in the past many people who collect for institutions don't want things made from pure wool or anything difficult to wash." My response: I'll pose this question to other knitters. :-) So send in your suggestions! I will also research on some charity knitting sites and let you know what I find. I am currently using Lion's Wool-ease, which is combines wool for warmth and acrylic for washability. I will also double-strand with Lion's Homespun. I bought one of the red scarves that was double-knitted with it and boy is it warm and soft!

URGENT Need for Knitted Items for Children in Shunyi and Shan Xi

2005-11-15T00:58:00.000-05:00

Hello! from the estranged RSP knitter (um, that's me, Lisa Miller).

I received an email from an RSP friend in Beijing. She has an urgent request for winter items for children. Please read her message below. Please mail items to me and I will get them to Amy ASAP! My address: 1205 E. 35th St., Charlotte, NC 28205.

Amy's message:

"I volunteer every week at the China Care Children's home in Shunyi, which is close to the Hope Foster home. China Care has in Shunyi, about 30 babies to toddlers and now some school aged kids. When I was there last week the Chinese office manager and I were talking about the school aged kids and shetold me the new 4 year old deaf boy had finally been placed in a school. I thought it was great, howevershe then told me he might not could go any longer asit is starting to get cold here and his school has noheat and he has no warm clothes. So I came home andbegged all my Western neighbours for clothes and Iwent to the market and bought him a coat and then Iknit a hat and scarf. I went back with all the stuffand the same Chinese lady says great, we also have 87school aged kids with the same problem in foster homesin Shan Xi. I knit a lot, but I don't think I canknit for 87 kids!Should you happen to belong to a knitting group andyou all are searching for a project...this could be one! I even have an FPO address which means no international postage fees. If you don't belong to such a group, could you give me any pointers on how toget the word out? Thanks so much, Amy in getting colder by the day Beijing"

and this is her next email:
"Hats, scarves, maybe mittens, even sweaters and vestsfor the kids would be very much appreciated. I sawsome of the toddlers going outside today at the homeand the hat bag was only full of summer caps. Betterthan nothing I guess, but I need to knit up a few. Babies through school aged. And I guess I should add there of course more kidsthan the ones in Shunyi and Shan Xi, China Care haschildren's homes in Batou, Inner Mongolia and Tiuanyi. As well as various other support type projects, Iknow all the other foster home/children's homes in thearea also support other programs through China.Too many kids to keep warm!"

Let's Get Going

2005-10-05T10:23:00.000-04:00

I will start this post with a warning -- I was very sad when I wrote part of this entry. Earlier this week, I read an update on Hope Foster Home's website (www.hopefosterhome.com) and wrote to my friend, the nurse volunteer that I spent a few weeks with this summer. She is an amazing woman who has been volunteering in China for the past 11 years. She and her husband will be moving to Jiaozuo in about a year to run the Special Care Unit (aka Palliative Care Unit -PCU) for HFH and hopefully help develop another one like it in Luoyang. They are heading over to China next week for a 3 week visit. What follows is my email to Lyn and then a summary of her reply.

My message: It is with sadness that I am writing to you. I just read HFH's latest newsletter and I am quite upset. I guess I just need to express a few things to someone who can relate -- you've been in my place many, many times. I hope I don't get you down.
The first heartbreaking part of the newsletter for me was reading that Lucy Fu Zhi Wen died. She was a little girl (5 weeks old) who came in during my last weeks in August. She was such a sweet little thing, she was quiet and smiled softly. It is comforting to know that she was in the PCU during her last month, that she was cared for, cuddled, and loved. But it's so difficult knowing that she was a baby that may not have died in other circumstances. I wanted to take her home with me.
The next part that was very distressing for me was the PCU update. Peter and Amanda (I wanted to take them home with me too) were sent back to the orphanage to make room for sicker babies. The possibility had been raised of sending a couple of the healthier babes back to the orphanage, but I didn't think it would actually happen. Apparently it came to that and now Peter and Amanda are regressing rapidly. My heart broke when I read that. I feel so helpless. What can I do? There must be something. Send money? Adopt more children? Go back to China? And then I get overwhelmed thinking about the vastness of the situation. So many children. I am so concerned about these just because I had a chance to know them. There are thousands of others whom I'm sure I would be attached to if I'd met them. Amanda and Peter were fortunate to spend months in PCU and regain their strength to a point of relative healthiness. But will they eventually be back at PCU due to neglect and declining health? Would they have been better off never to know that such a clean, caring, comfortable world exists? Would they be eligible for HFH's new long-term unit if it was up and running? If they were at one time, will they be again?
I must say there were many uplifting notes in the newsletter. It is encouraging to hear about life-saving surgeries, life-changing cleft repairs, Fu Si Yu (another infant who came in during my last weeks in August) being healthy and moving to HFH Beijing, and comforting of babies during their last hours. There is a lot of amazing work being done for these babies, but it still hurts so much to think about individual babies (and the thousands of babies like them) who don't have such positive outcomes. It helps to know that even when things don't go perfectly, there is someone there to care and help (e.g., David rushed back to Singapore).
Thank you for listening. I thank you for going back to China. People like you give me hope.

My friend replied with words of comfort. That's not to say that this is easy for her; I'm sure she has gone through many ups and downs through the years of helping these children. Although she is aware that Amanda and Peter will regress a bit, she is optimistic because there is another team going to the orphanage and maybe 2 full time workers from an assistance team type organization. She will check on Amanda and Peter during her 3 week visit. She also imagines Peter will be a candidate for HFH's long-term unit as soon as it is completed.

So why am I sharing all of this in the RSP blog? I want all of the RSP supporters to know what's going on. Although as I said in my email I am overwhelmed by the vastness of the situation, I will continue contributing via the RSP. I got a message from Abby, a RSP reader, asking if the RSP is continuing. I've decided that since the market for red scarves is pretty much saturated around here, I think I will move online to eBay charity auctions and send 100% of sales to Love Without Boundaries (LWB) , which is partnering with Hope Foster Home to build a new special care unit (http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/hopefosterhome.cfm).

I'm still in the brainstorming phase so I'm not sure of the logistics. Next week, I will bring out the remaining RSP inventory and start posting the items under charity auctions for LWB. One idea that I have is to cut myself out as a middleman -- maybe some knitters and crocheters who are eBay savvy will post their own items and ship them directly to the buyer. I am definitely open to ideas.

The way I see it, there is one more thing I can do -- help educate about the precious children's need for forever families. With that said, I will direct you to a video clip I saw on a couple's adoption announcement page. It's a short video that has an uplifting message about Chinese children joining their forever families. Check it out at http://www.bringmehope.org/index.html. I will ask Jacob and the BMH organization if there is a way to embed the clip on this page.

Thank you for reading!
Lisa

Red Scarf Project Revisited . . .

2005-09-11T11:44:00.000-04:00

Hello RSP supporters!

I am back and finally will get off my previously jet-lagged butt to update my site. Thanks to Princess Knits and Eboni in a Pear Tree, I will get started. I had a beautiful scarf from Princess awaiting me upon my return from China, and I received a lovely scarf from Eboni last week.

Revisit soon -- I will be back to give details about my adventure. Slideshow anyone?

Thank you to every single one of you!

Lisa

Journey's End, Journey Begins

2005-06-19T20:55:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for China. All the arrangements with the Hope Foster Home are made, my bags are packed, zero flight and all that. Thanks to everyone who either knitted or purchased or both, we donated $6,000 to the home, possibly with more to come. To call this project a success would be an understatement.

This site will go dorment for a while. The Red Scarf Project itself has been winding down for some time now, but this will be the last update this site at least until fall. In the meantime, hubby will be posting news about me on his blog at www.lisaandjacob.com.

Thanks again to everyone!

Red Scarf Spring Inventory

2005-04-21T22:20:00.000-04:00

Wow -- I just did an updated inventory, and boy howdy have we moved some scarves. We're down to the 10 pictured below plus a handful of new arrivals that I'll post this weekend. (And did I mention contributions are now closing in on $5,000?)

Oh, OK, fine -- I'll update the site now. (I don't know why Jacob likes bugging me about stuff like this.) These are some amazing new contributions, all of which are looking for a good home.

Spring Break

2005-03-28T11:58:00.000-05:00

First day of spring break . . .

The Red Scarf Inventory

2005-03-26T21:39:00.000-05:00

It's hard to overstate how well this project has gone. Starting with a simple idea to knit and sell a few scarves to friends, we've raised close to $4,000, most of which will go to the Hope Foster Home, made friends around the world, and seen some amazing works of art from generous knitters. Another round of thanks to everyone involved!

We are still holding about 50 of these beauties, all of whom would like to find good homes. Please drop me a line at gremlinperson@carolina.rr.com if you would like to adopt one (for a small contribution to the cause, of course).

2005-03-11T23:52:00.001-05:00

Polly of England's famous www.alltangledup.com sent in this shawl and the scarf that follows. Thanks a million!

2005-03-11T23:52:00.000-05:00

Once again -- a scarf from the amazing Polly of www.alltangledup.com. Cheers!

2005-03-06T23:08:00.000-05:00

Shirley models Big Orange (still available) with optional accent brooch.

2005-03-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

Brenda shows off Fluffy (which she bought) -- a fur contribution from Deborah.

2005-03-06T23:04:00.000-05:00

A visit to the Pendletons' turned into an impromptu scarf party with the neighbors. Here, Sheila and Randa pick out a brooch for Waves (still available).

The Room that Scarves Built (Well, Not Really...)

2005-03-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

Apparently Christina and our friends at Hope Foster Home got the first check. They hung this sign on the staff bathroom (the room we sponsored) and sent us the pic.

Red Scarf Project 12: The Check is in the Mail

2005-03-01T21:59:00.000-05:00

Monday was a great day for the RSP because we finally sat down and wrote the first big check -- $1,500 as planned. The only question left to answer was whether we actually write a physical, isn't-that-quaint check and send it via snail mail OR whether we go online and transfer funds electronically. Tradition won out, mainly because we couldn't determine the last name on the receiving account in question and because I wanted to put my name on an actual check.

All those scarves, all the publicity, all that time and now the Hope Foster Home has something to show for it. Yay!

Red Scarf Project 11: Overwhelming Generosity

2005-02-27T01:21:00.000-05:00

They keep coming and coming -- and I'm so happy. It seems like every day our poor postal delivery person arrives burdened down with even more packages than the day before. But he's young, so don't worry about it.

I'm trying to acknowledge everyone who takes time out of their busy lives, but I'm afraid I'm getting overwhelmed and I don't want to get anyone's contribution wrong. Following this post will be a bunch of pictures, but I won't be labeling who made what for fear of making a mistake. Instead, watch your email or blog comments or good ol' fashioned mailbox for a personal thanks from Jacob and me.

Scarf sales and monetary contributions are also rising. We will mail a check for about $1500 to Hope Foster Home next week, and then they can apply for it to be matched dollar for dollar. We have "adopted" a room, a very special room, at the Special Care Unit. Check it out. Look for Red Scarf USA on the floorplan. I will ask them to change the name so that it will reflect that the Red Scarf Project is a worldwide effort. FYI -- the funds for sponsoring the room will actually go where they deem most needed.

Keep those scarves coming and I'll keep them going.

2005-02-27T01:17:00.000-05:00

Part of Friday's loot

2005-02-27T01:12:00.000-05:00

Piedmont Open Middle friends and family members keep coming through

2005-02-27T01:11:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhh... Ruffles!

2005-02-27T01:10:00.000-05:00

Jacob just LOVES showing off this intricate scallop pattern piece which I'm sure took a lot of patience to knit

2005-02-27T00:55:00.000-05:00

Detail shot of the scallop pattern piece

2005-02-27T00:43:00.000-05:00

Look at this gorgeous seed stitch

2005-02-27T00:28:00.000-05:00

Another stunning piece

2005-02-27T00:21:00.000-05:00

A curvy creation