Now Norma Knits

Wow. It's October 23, 2015.

I hate to start this post with a bunch of clichés, so I'm just going to jump right into it.

Hi! I see you. Can you see me? Knock-knock. Anybody out there?

I look over at the sidebar of this poor underfed, anemic blog and I see something like 300 readers, down from 5,000 or more back in the day. That is just.....sad. Isn't it?

Annnnd, I did it. That was fairly blogger-cliché, eh? Sorry.

I was prompted to write because last weekend... well, last weekend was the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, aka RHINEBECK! And our fearless foursome -- Leigh, Sandy, Jenn, and I -- met up and roomed together for the 12th year in a row, and had the most wonderful, recreational and restorative time together.

And we selfied....

We walked....

 We talked....

Oh hey, I'm not kidding about OVER the Hudson. This is where those oh-so-tame-looking photos above were taken. I've got some vertigo just looking at this right now:

 We shopped....

(Blimey, the festival is RIDONKULOUSLY crowded now. I believe the figure is something like 54 MILLION PEOPLE PER SQUARE FOOT, or something close to that. We can only stand it for about 30 minutes before we have to leave and get some air. And booze. So we spend a lot of our time and money in the nice little village, just pretending that we are actually at the Sheep & Wool. But I did buy that amazing granny square scarf at the actual festival before we fled to safer ground.)

We ate......

And drank......

 

(That is an apple cider mimosa in the glass.)

(You're welcome.)

 But here's the interesting bit:

We (or at least I) knitted!

For the first time in maybe forever, I was the first one to arrive at our hotel, so I had some time on my hands while I waited for my compatriots to arrive. And just before I left home, I had done a frantic -- and I do mean frantic -- search for some knitting to bring with me. Much to my surprise, I found an already completed Red Scarf:

 

...and another one that was started who-knows-when. So there I was, doing this VERY WEIRD ACTIVITY when Sandy arrived. Upon seeing me, she loudly exclaimed, "WHO ARE you?!"

Fair comment.

(Coincidentally, David just walked in while I was writing this and I said, "I'm blogging," to which he replied, "WHO ARE you?!")

It's been quite a long time since I've engaged in this either of these activityies. But it truly is like riding a bicycle! I remember how! And I even remembered how to execute this pattern, the ever-loved, ever-popular unisex pattern, the Corrugator, by our friend Paula Smith.

I've been knitting a few rows a day since then, and look:

Before I know it, if I'm not careful, I'll be finished.

So now I've been thinking about The Red Scarf Project and learned that they now have a wonderful thing called The Book Club, which is sort of an outcropping of our own Red Scarf Fund with a little bit of a broader mission. I've just signed up. The way I thought of it is this:  I drive a Prius now, and I'm not spending as much on gas for my car as I used to. I figure I can send $20 a month without it hurting a bit, so that's what I just signed up for. Maybe you wouldn't mind spending a couple of cups of coffees' worth per month to help out some students in need, even if you are not a knitter, but just my friend.

One thing I'd like to mention is that Foster Care to Success ranks very high on Charity Navigator. They spend almost ALL of their money on their mission, very little on administrative costs, and have excellent transparency. Plus, I know the people who run it very well, and they are darn good people.

Either way, I'm just wondering how you're doing and how many of you Red Scarf soldiers are carrying on.

Do tell.

 

Breaking: Red Scarf News

Well, hello again everybody. You just never know when I might pop in here and say hi. I hope I didn't startle you.

Things are starting to slow down around here just a little bit, and I'm looking forward to a slower December. You have no idea how twitchy it makes me feel to say that. Being a self-employed person, and now a bona fide one of those much-talked-about-of-late small business job creators (but without all those billions) as well, it deeply goes against my grain to wish for a slow-down, so just forget I even said that.

Moving on....

I received a most wonderful email a couple of days ago, and I wanted to share it with you (with the writer's permission, of course).

It read:

Norma,
   I'm a long-time follower of your blog, and have enjoyed reading it for a number of years. I wanted to share with you a project our library worked on this year. Our knitting group was getting stale, and looking for a good cause to work toward. With my gentle prodding, they chose the Red Scarf Project. The library provided the yarn and good information, and they provided the talent. I've attached a few pictures of the scarves (none of the knitters wanted to be in the pictures), but in our first attempt, we managed to put together 11 scarves that are being sent out tomorrow! Thank you for championing this cause!

-Kevin

 Here are the photos that came attached:

I love the labels they made and attached to the scarves:

Don't they just look cozy and warm and beautifully made?

Bra-VO! Cedarvale Community Library Needlework Group for this gorgeous array of red scarves. I am so very thankful that, in this year when I was unable to be as cheerleaderish about this project as in the past several years, the baton is being carried on by wonderful groups like you!

I'd welcome receipt of any other groups or persons' photos of their red scarves, if you want to send them. I pledge to carve out enough time to post them here, and I'm even going to get my one completed red scarf in the mail by the end of this week.

Mr. Jefferies says he'll help.

P.S. I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.

 

Terrier Tuesday: The Rescue Edition

Dear Readers,

No, wait! Don't click out! You have the right blog!

I know! You're surprised to see me here so soon after my last visit! (and surprised to see me use so many exclamation points!) Me too. Actually, it's like we've entered into some sort of time warp, because believe it or NOT, Alpha has been knitting again! I'm not kidding! Don't believe me? Look here:

Is that....? No, it can't be! Alpha has been soooo busy, how could it be?

But yes, it is! It is a red scarf!

To be perfectly honest, though, that one is a little bit of a cheat. Because Alpha knitted that last winter, and she had carefully put it away in a safe place. And yes, you guessed it -- she then completely forgot about it.

Alpha says there must be some sort of sim-bee-OH-sis going on here (sometimes she uses weird words!), because she ran across it when she was hunting for the pattern for this:

Do you know what that is? Yes, it truly is! It's a new sweater for me! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

We hoped it would be done so that I could model it for you by today, but sadly it's not quite yet.

So instead, we did our own version of this "awwwwww"-worthy photo that Alpha saw on Facebook yesterday:

Here's our version:

I know this is not a fair question, but:  Which one do you think is cuter?

Love,

Mr. Jefferies

 

 

 

Terrier Tuesday: The "Hello, Is This Thing On?" Edition

 

Dear Readers: 

Well, folks, as Hurricane Sandy is breathing down our necks, and already causing major havoc all up the East Coast (we're especially worried about New York City, because that's where our Abigail lives), Alpha and I thought it would be a good time to pop in and say hello. Alpha has been receiving increasingly more emails from folks who are worried about us, so we both figured this would be as good a time as any to break our unintended long silence.

Seriously, where DID all that time go? It's quite amazing that we could even remember how to sign in to Typepad. But of course, now we are finally writing, and many people are without power and won't even be able to read this. We hope everyone stays safe and gets through this with a minimum of trauma. Vermont's wounds from Irene are not yet fully healed, and even we tough Vermonters can't take much more. We feel for the folks in New Jersey who are bearing the brunt of the landfall tonight, and then Pennsylvanians .... Well, we are thinking about you and hoping you're all safe. 

You may remember, I don't particularly like wind. And when I say I don't particularly like it, I mean that I would rather eat a bucket of nails. I like it even less than I like a grooming appointment. A LOT LESS.

Speaking of grooming appointments, though, this is a picture Alpha took of me on Sunday just after I got out of one. I was giving her the cold shoulder and letting her know just how HURT I was about that appointment, even WITH the candy corn bandana they gave me.

Don't EVEN bother to say I look cute, though we all know that goes without saying, because it will NOT make me feel better about that appointment, NOR about the hurricane wind. But these are the crosses I bear. Life is not always easy for a Yorkie like me.

So.... what have we been doing? Well, my life hasn't changed much. I still get my breakfast and my lunch and my dinner, and my Teeny Greenies, and I get my walks and new toys, and treats and bones to bury from time to time. And this summer it seems like we have had a ton of people come over to do stuff like build porches and replace doors and do yard work, and everybody loves to play tug-of-war with me, which is nice.

Alpha has just been busy, busy, busy, BUSY with her work! She keeps saying this phrase: "It's a little bit of be careful what you wish for, but I'm not complaining!" And she's been going to a new gym that she loves. And in her spare time she has painted many of the rooms in the house and cleaned out rooms and closets and corners, and sent lots and lots of boxes of crap stuff to Goodwill and places like that. But we are still tripping over MORE stuff (will it NEVER end?!), not to mention paint cans and other painting paraphernalia, because she keeps on thinking that maybe soon she will paint the dining room, or whatever.

And meanwhile, she is providing CART to two medical students and one veterinary student, as well as CART and captioning for a growing list of other clients, and wishing that that cloning technology would come along soon, very soon. She has new people to help her with all this CART work, because of course until she gets cloned, she can't be in four or five places at once, and that means a whole lot of scheduling work and worries and people-managing headaches that sometimes keep her awake a little bit at night.

And then, you know, don't even get her started about this election season. At least David is not running for office this year, as his term is not up yet. Thank the LORD for that, she says! And she made sure to go in and vote for President Obama last week, just to make sure that some work thing, or, say, a HURRICANE, wouldn't keep her from voting, because, well, for at least 1,000 reasons, but this picture that was being passed around Facebook tells some of the story, right here: 

I know, I know, you don't come to Terrier Tuesday to hear a Yorkie talk about politics. But I'm just sayin': When Mama ain't happy, AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY. And I'm sure that, knowing Alpha as you do, none of this comes as any surprise to you. I've come to love her, even when she swears a lot.

Because even when she's really, really busy, she is the one who buys all my food and my treats and my toys, and she still manages to stay at home, or at least come home at night most of the time, to snuggle with me at bedtime. And that's all I really care about.

Love,

 

Mr. Jefferies

P.S. Alpha has been too busy using her hands for work (and working out) to be able to knit even a stitch. But she hopes you're all working on your red scarves. Just because she hasn't been blogging and haranguing y'all about the red scarves, doesn't mean she has forgotten her favorite cause, and doesn't mean that those foster kids who are going to college should be without their red scarf care package this year. So please send in your red scarves!

 

 

 

A Bit of a Red Scarf Update -- With Photos of the Bounty

This is what the Foster Care To Success mailroom looks like at the moment:

And there is some overflow over the tops of people's cubicles, as well:

There is a "scarf processing operation*" scheduled for this Saturday. As of November 14, after two processings, the scarf tally stood at 1,163 beautiful, high-quality red scarves. Cash and gift card donations to the emergency fund have been coming in also, to the tune of almost $1,500 since September 1st.

I feel much better now. I have not been blogging as much, and therefore not reminding and haranguing people to knit, crochet, or weave more red scarves. And I have only been able to knit one scarf this year, which I have yet to send in (maybe today, so it will arrive in time for Saturday's processing event). I was worried that I had not been doing "my job," but it looks like things are pretty well under control here. Carry on as you were, good soldiers.

Lynn Davis of FC2S (Foster Care To Success) tells me that the quality quotient of the scarves is high. That is perhaps the best news of all. The word has finally been heard that the goal here is for gift-worthy scarves, the kind of gift you'd be proud to give you own college-age upward-bound child, grandchild, niece, or nephew. Way to go, knitters, crocheters, and weavers! 

AND OOH! Almost as soon as I pressed "publish" on this post, I ran across Knitspot's newest Red Scarf offering. A gorgeous scarf, and proceeds of the sale of the pattern between now and December 31 will go to the Red Scarf Fund. It's a win for everyone!

 

-------

*"processing" in the words of Lynn, means, "the act of determining whether a scarf is best for a female, male, or either (unisex). Then refolding the scarf and placing in a bag that will keep it dry and should anything else in the care package break, melt, ooze, or otherwise harm the scarf, it will be protected. The sorted and bagged scarves are then labeled and stored until the are ready to go in the care package." All this work is done by volunteers.

 

 

Terrier Tuesday -- Red Scarf Modeling Edition

Dear Readers,

Well, she did it again.

She put me up on that flippin' daybed and started flashing those lights in my eyes. 

My rates need to go up.

I deserve hazardous-duty pay for this craziness! El primo treats from now on, Alpha! I'm putting you on NOTICE! Sushi-grade salmon's what I'm talking about. No more of those tasteless biscuits. Nuh-uhhhhh.

(P.S. Yorkies are hypo-allergenic, so I won't make someone go all sneezy because I modeled this scarf. And Alpha says she's going to wash it before she sends it off to Foster Care To Success. And also, if by some miracle you are a new reader here and you don't already know all this stuff, there is more info about the Red Scarf Project and FC2Success here. Just click.)

Oh, she did "it" again, too: She knitted another red scarf. This is her first one this year. Hopefully she'll fit in a couple more, at least, before the deadline, but I'm telling you one thing: I'm gettin' outta here before she grabs me to model the next one; that's for darn sure.

She says to tell you she used the Twin Rib pattern for this scarf -- it's her go-to easy-peasy scarf pattern that she can do without thinking, even when she's watching Dexter or Nurse Jackie episodes, or -- amazingly -- even while talking with friends! The yarn is nothing fancy -- Caron Simply Soft -- but the color made her heart sing -- and it makes a nice soft, washable-and-dryable scarf.

How are your red scarves coming along? And if you don't care to, or don't have time to, make a scarf, don't forget you can always donate to the Fund For Foster Youth to cover a student's emergency expenses. Go ahead, make someone's day! Click and pay through Paypal:

Love,

 

Mr. Jefferies

A Quick Catch-Up

1.  May we have a little applause for our wee fundraiser for the Red Scarf Fund/Craft Activism giveaway. Even in this rotten horrible no-good economy, $575 in donations were reported to me from a total of 15 donors/entrants in the contest for my extra copy of Craft Activism.

2.  And the winner is: Michelle P. from Missouri. Her book is in the mail! Thank you to all the donors to the fund!

3.  I had my stress test with echocardiogram yesterday, and according to the nurse, nothing seemed awry. Of course, this is subject to the official word of the cardiologist, but I felt good walking out of there. I was told I'm in GREAT SHAPE. But given that most of the people they have in there are probably over 70 (at least that's all I saw in the waiting room), and all the docs and nurses couldn't therefore stop STARING AT ME, I'm not sure how to take that.

The problem is, I'm still having the symptoms and my blood pressure is still high-ish. And I just plain know that something is not right. So I'm thinking there are more tests in my future. But I will admit that I felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders after that test yesterday. 

4.  Mr. Jefferies says hey. He forgot to blog yesterday. He was busy sleeping, since he had had a weekend visit with dogsitter extraordinaire Jessica, who apparently wears him out to no end. 

5.  I've been BUSY with work! I approve. 

6.  I'd be willing to bet that my weekend was wayyyyyy weirder than yours. In fact, I'd lay 1,000,000-to-1 odds. 

And that's all I'm going to say about that.  

REMINDER: Contest Ends at Midnight ET, Friday Night, October 7

Don't forget to email me at [email protected] to let me know about your donation to the Red Scarf Fund to get your chance to win the wonderful new book Craft Activism. 

The book has a large variety of inspiring stories and ideas about using crafting for good -- not just our red scarf story -- and even a few cool knitting patterns.

Read more about the book and the contest details, including a Paypal donation button, here.  <--------click!

Craft Activism Contest

Welcome to readers new and old who have come here from the Potter Craft free excerpt from Craft Activism! Check it out! Isn't that wonderful?

Seasoned readers here at NNK will understand why, as soon as I heard the news from Gale that the publisher had chosen our humble chapter on the Red Scarf Project as the featured promotional chapter, I knew I had to jump up out of bed and put up a new post so that new readers would not encounter the 2nd word of my last post as their first introduction to this blog. First impressions and all that. Eh?

Anyhoo, this is still September for another few hours, and September is the traditional time for me to shift into high gear with regard to the Red Scarf Project. What better timing for this new book to come out just a few days ago? And look who has an extra copy:

How's about a good old fashioned Red Scarf fundraising contest?

The rules:

1.  For every $5 donation you make to the Red Scarf Fund For Foster Youth, you get one chance at a drawing for my extra copy of Craft Activism.

2.  You are on your honor (I trust my readers) to tell me how many entries you have in the contest. 

3.  Write an email with the subject line "donation" to THIS EMAIL ADDRESS (only):  [email protected], including the following information:

• Your name (first name and last initial are fine, if you prefer) 
• The amount of your donation

4.  Contest will be open until midnight ET next Friday, October 7.

5.  Winner will be announced by the following week.  

 

I've put a Paypal button below for your convenience, but if you would rather send a check to Foster Care To Success (the artist formerly known as the Orphan Foundation of America), you may do that also. The address is: 

Foster Care to Success
21351 Gentry Drive
Suite 130
Sterling, VA 20166

If you would prefer to donate through the Network for Good rather than use Paypal, click on this link.  Scroll to the bottom of that page to find the Network for Good button. 

Craft Activism Available For Preorder

OK, so remember way back when Gale was visiting me? And we were all super-secretive and hinty-hinty? Well, now we have downgraded (or is it "upgraded"?) the situation to only secretive and hinty. 

How about let's just say that the book Craft Activism is now available for preorder from Amazon.

I've had a sneakpeek at one of the pages, and it's so fabulous I can hardly contain myself. Damn, that Gale and Joan do good work! 

The Extreme Long-Time Reader of Now Norma Knits will recall that I first met Gale at a photo shoot for the Red Scarf Project when it was really in its infancy. Those were the days when we really had to beg and scrape and worry that we might not have enough scarves. Now we just have to remind people that quality is more important than quantity, that the designs have to be truly unisex, and that yes, red is the color. The array of gorgeous soft, warm scarves that pile in each year are astounding and wonderful.

I just love the blog for being able to turn back the time machine for things like this. I looked up the post and the date of our meeting was January 26, 2007!!! Can you believe that? I can't. (Look at me with my blonde highlights! Ha!) It's so much fun to look at Gale's album from the photo shoot that day and to think how far we've come from those humble beginnings of the project. 

(Photo taken by one of the students with my camera.)

We had known each other virtually for a short while before that, but it was really the Red Scarf Project that brought us together. We were fast friends, though we met on what was probably the coldest day of the century. 

Didn't matter! We had all that Red Scarf love (and a hot coffee at a patisserie later) to keep us warm. It was the first day I had met any of the Orphan Foundation of America (now renamed Foster Care to Success) students, and if I wasn't already sold, that sealed the deal for me. Such mature, responsible, fun, and appreciative young women I met that day, and I have met several more in the intervening years. They are all amazing. And so are we red scarf knitters, crocheters, and weavers. 

RED SCARF ON, TROOPS! (And go order the book. You will be glad you did -- I promise!)