Stitch for a Cause

Visit to Kentucky Humane Society

2008-03-19T17:20:00.018-04:00

Today we took a field trip to the Kentucky Humane Society to deliver our donations and see the facility. We were able to donate about 20 handmade pet beds or blankets. Thanks to "Aunt Tessie" from New York for sending us the pet afghans! They will make such a difference!

The beds and blankets in the cages help the animals feel less stressed and their calmer demeanor makes them more adoptable. Along with the beds, we also dropped off supplies of paper towels, peanut butter, and a variety of pet supplies. We were able to make a monetary donation of over $280, raised during our Dance Dance Revolution Tournament and a Dress Down for a Cause day. Thanks to everyone who helped us help the animals.

Below are some pictures from our day. After we arrived, we listened to a brief presentation from the education director, Valerie Merrifield. We then toured the facility and interacted with the adult dogs and cats and kittens. Since the puppy room was closed for "deep cleaning," we were given the special treat of having a puppy to play with in the conference room and KHS t-shirts to take home. All in all, we had a wonderful time and felt good about our small contribution to this worthy cause.

We first toured the adult dog area. We were given treats to feed the dogs
and encouraged to ask them to "sit" first before rewarding them with the treat.

"Sit!" "Good boy!"

Many of the dogs were very excited and eager to interact.

More sitting...

Next we visited the cat area.
We were allowed to take out and hold the kittens.

This kitten's name was "Clueless."

Cuddling the kittens... We had to use hand sanitizer before touching
each animal to prevent the spread of germs between the animals.

The adult cats were not allowed out of the cage, but we could
open the doors and pet them if they acted interested.

Back in the conference room we got to meet "Cody."
He was a young 8 week old puppy.

The students formed a tight circle so Cody couldn't "escape."
He was allowed to run around the circle and be petted
by whomever happened to be close.

We had a great time at the Kentucky Humane Society and will continue to make projects to help the pets. The education director had a recipe for dog treats that we could have made, but we ran out of time and had to come back to school...darn!

Dancing for a Cause

2008-03-12T15:03:00.017-04:00

The Dance Dance Revolution Tournament was a big success and a lot of fun! Over 30 competitors came out to dance to help the Kentucky Humane Society. Qualifying Rounds were held after school on Tuesday, February 25th through Thursday, February 27th.

Competitors entered in one of three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. We used Dance Dance Revolution Superonova on all stations (we had three set up). Qualifiers could choose the song they wanted for their "official" score.

Two "expert" players practice against each other in my classroom.

Students completed their qualifying rounds after school.

A few teachers got in on the fun!

Some players did really well, even though they had never played DDR.

On Friday, February 29th, the Finals Tournament was held in the Commons Room. The top eight qualifiers in each level competed in an elimination bracket that ended with just one winner! Song selection was set on "random," so students did not know what song they would get.

The crowd cheered on their favorite dancers!

In the Expert level, there were just three competitors, so they went first in a round robin schedule. In the first head-to-head round, our talented dancers amazingly received EXACTLY the same score. The tie game had to be decided by the number of "perfects" scored.

The game was projected on a big screen on the stage.
Lights were dim for a great atmosphere!

With single elimination looming, competitors were intensely focused.

Parents and teachers stayed to watch the fun.

By the end of the competition, many people were really dancing up a sweat!

Everyone did great and had a lot of fun. The three winners each won a $20 gift card to GameStop (video game store) and a ribbon.

Beginner Level Winner - Aleckxis

Intermediate Level Winner - Sydney

Expert Level Winner - Michael

Over the course of the week, we raised $110 from entry fees and another $169 for a Dress Down day, for a total of about $280 for the Kentucky Humane Society! We'll be delivering that along with donations and pet beds on our field trip there next week. A lot of fun for a great cause!

Help for Homeless Animals

2008-02-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

We are starting another project shortly to support the Kentucky Humane Society. We will be raising money through a Dance Dance Revolution Tournament and collecting items from their wish list as well. I'm hoping we can raise at least $300 through the tournament and collect lots of donated items as well.

As for us, we will be making pet beds and pet-ghans to donate. It has been noted that animals that have some sort of comfort item in their cages are more calm and thus more likely to be adopted. See my earlier post on how we make the pet beds. We have about 5 done already and hopefully can make at least 5 more before the middle of March when we'll drop off our items.

Below is a video I recently made to share during a middle school assembly about the problem of animal homelessness. We will also have a speaker from the Humane Society visit in March to share more information about their work. I hope we educate a lot of students and help the animals as well.

Spy A Guy Knitting

2008-01-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

So our first project for the New Year is to get some guys knitting with our group. In past years, we have always had a few boys who were interested in learning to knit. Many find it interesting from a technical point of view (how does knitting "work", how do you get the yarn to turn into something). For some reason, we've had NO boys this year so far.

Well on Monday, we introduced a challenge to the middle school, "Spy A Guy Knitting" Week. I shared this neat video with the kids which raised quite a few eyebrows and got a few laughs....

For the challenge, next week, if another teacher sees a boy knitting in public (during his free time, like recess, or in a class if allowed by the teacher), they will send me an email with the name. Every day, each boy "sighted" gets one entry into a drawing which will be held at the end of the week. The prize will be an iTunes gift card (definitely motivating for guys and girls!).

This week they were supposed to see me to pick up knitting needles and yarn and get a lesson if needed. After a day of silence, finally one brave fifth grade boy came in to get supplies. That same day, I had a few more boys ask for needles and yarn. From then it has snowballed! As of today, over FORTY sets of needles and yarn have been given out. We have two advisee groups whose boys have joined in, and today we gave them and one male advisor a knitting lesson. I am really excited by the momentum that's started and can't wait to see if they'll keep it up next week.

The project they are working on is a 4" garter stitch square. I tried to give out size 7 needles and cast on from 16-20 stitches (depending on the needle size given). I also knit two rows for them to help them focus on just learning the knit stitch. They are making good progress so far and I'm eager to see how many squares are finished. We will use the squares to make bean bags, which we will donate to the local children's hospital.

Here is the bulletin board I created for the project. I tried to put up as many pictures of men or boys knitting that I could find, some serious and some humorous, like the artist Mark Newport knitting his Spiderman costume. I also found some easy patterns boys might like to make if they choose to continue knitting.

Lastly, I searched for info on celebrity male knitters just to show them cool guys knit too! So far, it seems to be working. Go guys!

Giving from the Hand and Heart

2007-12-19T14:42:00.001-05:00

It has been a LONG silence, but we have been very busy over the last few months! Our main project has been to knit and crochet scarves for The Center for Women and Families, a local domestic violence and rape crisis center here in Louisville.

We had about 60 scarves left over from Bearcat Carnival in September, so I talked to a representative at the Center and found they had approximate 70 women in residence at the downtown shelter and at least 30 more in some of the satellite facilities in our area. Our goal was to put together at least 100 gift bags containing a handmade scarf and some travel-sized toiletry items. I started soliciting help from other adults in our school community and got lots of help from teachers, office staff, and even parents. I also taught a few willing co-workers to knit so they could help out as well!

In November, we invited Joann Rowan, one of the education coordinators to speak to our group. She shared many sobering statistics with the girls, one of which was that 1 in 3 women will be a victim of domestic abuse in her lifetime. After hearing that, the girls looked around at each other and one asked, "You mean that of the three of us at this table, one of us will probably be a victim of abuse?" and Ms. Rowan nodded and said, "Unfortunately, yes." After the presentation, a few girls put together a Powerpoint that shared what they learned and asked for support of a bake sale we were planning. The money from the bake sale would be used by the Center for a new holiday program. They asked for donations of $25 gift cards. The cards will be used by mothers at the Center for holiday shopping and allow them the dignity of being able to buy gifts directly for their own children.

Our bake sale raised over $200. With that money and additional funds, Stitch for a Cause was able to purchase twelve $25 gift cards.

Today, was the culmination of our efforts this fall. Parent volunteers drove nine students to the main office of the Center for Women and Families on S. 2nd Street and we dropped off 111 gift bags. It was very rewarding and the students were excited to be giving away something they had worked hard on and that would make someone happy.

Bearcat Carnival Success!

2007-10-02T08:39:00.000-04:00

Here's to an awesomely successful Bearcat Carnival this past Friday! Our booth had a record year and we sold more than $800! Great job to everyone that helped taking shifts at the booth, made items to sell, or donated yarn or other items. Stitch for a Cause would not be as successful without the hard work of many, many people. Thanks!

As many of you know, this is the only fund-raiser we do all year (We receive no additional money from the school). We use our funds to purchase tools and materials (I just had to buy 5 packs of darning needles last week), as well as to fund special projects. Right now we are planning to make gift bags for the Center for Women and Families in Louisville. We had a number of beautiful scarves left over that we hope can be enjoyed by someone now that we are entering the fall. Check out pictures from the Carnival below!

Stitch for a Cause member busy staffing our table--we had LOTS for sale

Me giving a finger knitting lesson--

we sold a lesson and ball of practice yarn for $1

A customer getting the hang of finger knitting

Another customer getting a finger knitting lesson

Our teddy bear table was extremely busy!
Many people asked us to stuff the bears for them.

More teddy bear making...
customers got a birth certificate and handmade scarves for their bears.

Even more teddy bears--we had a few bears left over which we will donate
to Kosair Children's Hospital here in Louisville.

Some of the beautiful scarves we had for sale!
Stitch for a Cause members made scarves, as well as several KCD teachers.
Thanks to all our internet friends who mailed us novelty yarns to knit with!

Learning to Knit

2007-09-08T20:30:00.000-04:00

We had another great meeting this week! More beginners showed up and almost everyone has gotten their own knitting needles and supplies so they can practice at home. I was very grateful to have one of my colleagues drop in to help. She helped some of the beginners with their slip knots and casting on.

We watched more of The Complete Beginner's Guide to KnittingDVD to help learn the knit stitch. It was nice that it covered both English and Continental knitting on the video. I knit English style (pick and throw), but I had a left-handed student that I encouraged to look at both ways and do what was most comfortable for her. I think she ended up doing a little of both styles! Whatever works... *smile*

We talked more about the upcoming Bearcat Carnival fundraiser. We will be selling handmade scarves again, so that's what many of the returning kids worked on. We actually have many left over from last year, so I think we'll be o.k. on that front. We found that small items that children could buy on their own with their tickets did well last year, so one of my students came up with the idea to make pom-pom pens. She is going to wrap pens with yarn and top them with a pom-pom. I was really impressed by her initiative! She said her mom would get the pens, she just needed yarn from me and she would work on them at home. I can't wait to see them!
Our new activity at the carnival will be the "Teddy Bear Factory." I found a website that offers wholesale unstuffed animal kits. I ordered 40 bears for our booth. For $10, children can stuff their own bear and complete a birth certificate. When done, they can select a handmade scarf for their bear (that we will make). We'll also will give families the option to make a bear for charity and donate it to Kosair Children's Hospital here in Louisville. I think it will be a fun activity and I'm eager to see if it does well!

And we're off...

2007-09-03T08:31:00.000-04:00

Stitch for a Cause is off to a great start this year! There was a great turn out on Wednesday at our table at the school's Extra-curricular Fair and about 35 kids signed up.

Our first meeting was Friday and about 18 kids were there. Our meeting time conflicts with some sports practices, so we should have more joining as we get closer to the end of the season.

At our first meeting I always try to impress on the everyone WHY we are here. We have a lot of fun, but sometimes it's nice to remind ourselves that we are a community service group and our whole purpose it to help and make others feel better through the skills of our hands. Having been a NICU parent, I feel this deeply and shared my thoughts with the kids. It doesn't matter if their little preemie hat is slightly misshapen or has one or two (or three) dropped stitches. Someone will receive it and know that someone else was thinking of them and wishing them well. That's why we do this.

After my sermon, we split up and the people that could already knit, got working on some scarves for Bearcat Carnival. I tried something new this year with my beginners.

I bought a DVD called The Complete Beginner's Guide to Knitting. I gave all my beginners a light colored ball of yarn and some knitting needles and sat them down in front of the SmartBoard to watch the lesson on Casting On. Several experienced students were scattered with them, to one of whom I gave the remote control. I told the group that we were going to try this and that I thought the instruction of the DVD was very clear and the nice thing was that it could be paused and replayed as many times as necessary.

It worked o.k., but I may need to tweak things a little. The group was a little big and I probably need to assign more kids as helpers. Overall, it was good and I am glad we have an extra teaching tool. The DVD covers knitting, purling, increases, decreases, binding off, and finishing too, so I think the kids will have lots to learn this year!

Knitting for Harry

2007-07-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

We had a great turn out at the Charmed Knits for Charity event today at Sophie's. About 20 people knit Hogwarts hats for charity and many heads will be warmed by our efforts. Check out some of the photos on this Flickr photo set, Charmed Knits for Charity.

My favorite picture is the one above. I brought a lot of Harry Potter themed candy for door prizes and a few students were daring each other to try different flavors of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. This is the result of someone getting a "booger" flavored bean... Ugh! All for a good cause... *smile*

Charmed Knits Is Coming!

2007-07-19T09:59:00.000-04:00

Two more days before the Charmed Knits for Charity event here in Louisville! Can you tell I'm excited? I've been working on decorations and props for the shop and ran over some extra copies of the hat pattern to Sophie's yesterday. Tomorrow I'll be picking up yarn to get some hats started for Stitch for a Cause students that are coming.

I've also ordered loads of Harry Potter candy for giveaways, so if you love Fizzing Whisbees, Bertie Pott's Every Flavored Beans, and Acid Pops, make sure you come!

Getting Ready for the Knit-along

2007-07-04T12:36:00.000-04:00

I ran across a neat post and this picture yesterday on the Charmed Knits blog and it mentioned our upcoming event in Louisville and even has our flyer in the background! I was really pleased!

I have been busy with several projects lately, but have been feeling the urgency to get my costume ready for the knit-along coming up later this month.

Being on a teacher's budget, I went to Ebay, of course! My 8-year-old is coming with me, so I have to outfit both of us. Since we've both decided we're in Gryffindor, I bought two Gryffindor ties. I looked at all the "official" costumes, but didn't like the prices or the quality, so I'm leaning toward a seller who's got a ton of graduation robes at a pretty good price. I found this neat site that displays the house badges and I plan to print out the Gryffindor crest on fabric and glue it to our robes. Another site lists directions for making a cool wand and other accessories, so I'm going stick hunting later today to find a couple that will work. Between those things, I think we'll be nicely attired! I hope this inspires a few of you to come dressed as well!

I have one Gryffindor hat finished and have started my second. I'm making this one with a twisted cable rib (made that up). I'll post pictures soon!

Sorting Things Out

2007-06-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

I started sorting out the finished and unfinished projects left behind in our room. There's a pile of finished baby hats to go to the hospital, a pile of hats that need a little attention (ends woven in, bad seaming, etc...), and some miscellaneous knitted items that will find a good home soon.

We started a little late in the year on our pet bed project for the Kentucky Humane Society. We have only 3 completely finished beds done and I counted 9 beds in various stages of completion. Fortunately, we wised up this year and all the unfinished beds are neatly folded in gallon sized storage bags with the name of the person who was working on it. I put all of those in a box and brought them home with me along with my sewing machine, which has been living at school since April. I'm going to start with the beds that are furthest along and see what I can get finished. Anything I don't get to, I will know who to talk to about it in the fall at least.

These beds are our own design and I plan to write up the pattern nicely at some point, but here it is in a nutshell. Basically, we used semi-circular cardboard for templates that we placed on a folded piece of fabric (straight edge on the fold). The template is 1/2 the size of the finished bed. You need to cut out two pieces of fabric for the outside and a third piece of something for the filler. Batting could work, but we liked towels or old blankets. They are soft and give it a little more weight. You then stack the outer fabrics right sides together and put the towel on the bottom of the stack. Sew around the outside edge leaving a two to three inch opening along EACH side (for turning and also to add stuffing later. After turning the bed inside out, sew a line around the center about 4 inches from the edge. Now, stuff the outside ring and sew the holes shut. Pretty simple! My parent helper came up with this and it has worked great and is easy for the kids to do.

More Yarn for Charmed Knits!

2007-06-18T00:49:00.000-04:00

I bought some more yarn today for the Charmed Knits KAL (ignore the striped yarn, that's for me *smile*). I have been eager to start a Gryffindor hat, but could not find the right colors until today. Lucky me! I'm finishing up a Hufflepuff hat (hat number 8) and will start the Gryffindor ASAP. I hope some of you are doing some knitting too...

Remember SFC members, if you got my mailing and are interested in coming to the knit-along event next month, please email me. I am planning to order yarn and needles for us and need to have some idea on how many people are coming. You don't have to dress up in a costume, but I'm going to (come on, it'll be fun!). Start looking for your wizard's robes now!

Finally, I've been thinking about making this a Team Blog open to those of you in the group (sorry other blog readers--you are certainly welcome to comment). Let me know what you think. That would give you the chance to post directly about what you are working on and ask questions or make comments. The jury is still out on this idea, but I'll take your feedback into consideration.

Louisville Charmed Knit Event Scheduled

2007-06-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

I've met a few times with my friend who owns Sophie's Fine Yarn Shoppe and we were able to schedule a Louisville area Charmed Knit event in July! If you're local and would like to come, click here for the details. Please pass the word to other knitting friends. We'd love to see a big crowd of Muggle knitters!

Big mailing going out today to Stitch for a Cause members, so check the mail this week for details on the knit-along and other stuff. I will have information about what to bring. Start planning your costumes too! I'll have some prizes for my best dressed members!

In addition to being busy with this, I've been knitting a few more Ravenclaw and Slytherin hats this week. I've been listening to the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as I work and have now finished six hats. I've read all of the books previously, but have never listened to them and it's very entertaining. I finally ran out of yarn, but since I couldn't find any Gryffindor colors, my next batch with be for Hufflepuff.

First Knit-along Hats Finished!

2007-06-04T18:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I've finished my first two hats for the Charmed Knits Knit-along! I did a medium Ravenclaw hat and a small Slytherin hat.

The Ravenclaw was my first and since I'm so used to knitting preemie hats, it seemed like it took a really LONG time to complete (not really though!). I had it done by the last day of school and one of my advisees insisted on wearing it for most of the day, so at least I know it'll fit a child.

I realized that the official beanie pattern uses a multiple of twelve stitches, so for the hat I'm working on now I only started with 72 stitches. I'll try another larger hat soon though. The knit-along folks have said it's ok to make modifications to the pattern, so one of my completed hats has a different decrease and an i-cord on the top.

I have a meeting this week to help plan a Louisville area Charmed Knits Knit-along in July. Look for details soon!

Cleaning up

2007-06-02T14:07:00.000-04:00

The school year is over and my classroom looks like a knitting bag exploded. Kids had gotten into the habit of leaving their knitting in the cubbies in the back of my room and sometimes never picking it up again, resulting in many orphan who-knows-whats, dusty balls of yarn, and mismatched pairs of needles.

These cubbies were originally intended for book storage (a cast-off from a lower school teacher), but I think I'm going to make it yarn storage (off limits to kids' hands). We received a nice donation of yarn at the end of the year from a knitter who was moving, and I've run out of storage space.

This is what it looks like so far....looks like I'm running a yarn shop!

Under Construction....

2007-06-01T16:12:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our blog! It is still under construction, so check back later! Coming soon, updates on our recent projects and a summer knit-along with Charmed Knits for Charity. In the meantime, visit our newly updated site at http://www.stitchforacause.org.