Soldier Boy, Socks for Soldiers

Often times when I see things for knitting for our troops, it touches me more deeply than some. You see, my husband is a nurse in the Army Nurse Reserve, and my youngest stepdaughter (Hi Sweetie!) is married to a Sergeant in the Air Force.

Our local newspaper, the Journal Gazette, had an article about a youngster who organized sending socks to our troops in Afghanistan. This girl is 12 years old, and she has collected at least 4,000 pair thus far. Her original stop date was December the 15th, but she is continuing to collect socks until the 24th. You can read about this here. Note that they are still taking donations, according to my web search.

f you’d like to donate wool socks for troops serving in Afghanistan, mail them to: D. Mansfield, 7136 Pine Lake Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46814, where they will be packaged for shipment. Cash donations to defray shipping costs are appreciated.

Now on to other news. My husband will be serving stateside at Fort Knox in Kentucky. He has to report for duty on January 3rd, and he will be serving for a year. Thankfully, Fort Knox is 6 hours away by car. He couldn’t have been stationed any closer to home, and I am thankful that he will be there. It was a bit up in the air for awhile there, where exactly he was going to be. First it was Washington DC, then it was Fort Bliss, Texas. We were at Fort Benjamin Harris yesterday so he could finish up his paperwork with his unit and get it faxed over to whomever needed it, and literally an hour later we got the word.

Please remember to keep him, and our other men and women in service, in your thoughts and prayers. No matter how we personally feel in our own politics and where we are at in this world, our men and women who selflessly serve not only this country but those in their own countries, deserve a debt of gratitude for their selfless sacrifice of time, commitment, and lives.

We all have much to be thankful for, and they often don’t have many things we take for granted. I have to tell you I would love to see where 12 year old Alison is, in another 2o years. If you have not read the article, please take time to read it. It is a fascinating story. This is not the first thing she has done with humanitarian efforts towards our military people.

Alison, I know you don’t know me from Adam and likely will never read this, but I salute you. In a world where people are absorbed with many material things, your contributions are making a HUGE impact in the lives of others.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace

Christmas is Coming, My Stash is Getting Phat

As many of you know already, I don’t knit gifts for Christmas. I know my limitations in getting gifts done in a timely manner. It just doesn’t get done.

What is on my needles at the moment are swatches. As usual. Not that I need to knit more of them. If I were to not knit another swatch for the next 10 years, I would still have plenty of designs rolling out. This is not an exaggeration. I know, I sat and counted them all and organized that stuff this week. I have over 60 that I want to work into designs. This does not include the “rejects”.

But you know, there would be no fun in that. I love the process of designing. And importantly, I love getting new yarn. I find the Yarn Harlot’s choice of name to be frankly inspired, and one many of us relate to on a visceral level.

Some of the newest things I am playing with right now are from The Unique Sheep. I found them on Ravelry, as they were looking for designs for their yarn. What I got from The Unique Sheep is Tinsel Toes, a superwash Merino and Tencel yarn that is a fingering weight. The color that I bought was Sangria, and it is a lovely handpaint. I love it because the color variations are subtle, and the kind of knitting I like to do shows up well in it. There are colorways with more contrast as well, but I tend to go for the subtle ones.

I already have a swatch done for a design that I want to do with it.

Also in the box with the Tinsel Toes is Sashimi, a sport weight Merino and Bamboo combination in Nature’s Gold; House Blend, a DK weight Alpaca, Merino, & Silk blend in Sinful; and Eos, a lace weight Tussah Silk & Merino Blend in Mermaid.

The same week, I received yarn from Trendsetter Yarns. The Association of Knitwear Designers (I am a professional member and also the PR Chair) joins with Trendsetter for an annual event at the TNNA trade shows every year. For those of you in retail who have gone to these and seen The Great Wall of Yarn, many of the swatches that were knit are from members of our organization.

Barry sends out a message and they coordinate yarns from different companies and send them out to the designers who have volunteered to knit swatches. I have only participated one other time, and this time when I replied that I would be able to do two, I also told them what kinds of yarns I do my best with.

I received two lovely lace weight yarns. Classic Elite has long been a favorite of mine, and they have a luscious lace weight Alpaca and Silk. I have that swatch almost done and will probably do another. Silky Alpaca Lace (the link shows it on Webs) is the name of the new yarn. I simply love it. I want more. Lots more. Now. Yesterday, even. I think it will be one of my favorites. It has a wonderful hand and drape and is a pleasure to knit with.

I will also be playing with some of the yarns here at some point, too, as soon as I get to talk to them more. I have made my list, and I’m checkin it twice.

Peace and Knitting, JoLene Treace