Doing Good: The Mitten Commitment
I received an email from the Simplicty Creative Group today and was delighted to read among their sales listings that they are helping to support a group dedicated to collecting handmade mittens for the indigent. The group is called “The Mitten Commitment“. The website reads:
Handmade Difference
Every year, millions of Americans face cold winter weather without sufficiently warm clothing. Simplicity Creative Group and OttLite have joined together to sponsor the Mitten Commitment – an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate by providing handmade mittens. All mittens will be donated to the Salvation Army for distribution in mid-December, 2011. Handmade mittens are special, unique, and especially warm!
What is the Mitten Commitment?
The Mitten Commitment is a call-to-action for crafters all over the country. We challenge you to knit, crochet, or sew one pair of mittens to donate. They can be any size, as traditional or as creative as you want! Some fabulous designers have donated mitten patterns, and there are more to come – see below. Use the patterns as a base for shape or style, or come up with your own pattern!
Why Mittens?
Excellent Question! Mittens are easy projects to sew, crochet, or knit, and there are endless embellishment possibilities.
How can I commit?
It’s easy as 1-2-3:
- Make a pair of mittens.
- Send your mittens to: OttLite / The Mitten Commmitment
220 West 7th Avenue,
Tampa, FL 33602
If you would like to start making a difference by crafting mittens to keep someone less fortunate warm this winter, you can choose a sewing pattern from the Simplicty website (there are two) or knitting pattern from the OttLite website.
Filed under DIY, Doing Good, Product, Tutorial | Tags: crochet, donate, handmade, homeless, indigent, knit, mittens, OttLite, poor, sew, Simplicity, The Mitten Commitment | Comment (0)
Yarn Bombing: Getting Cozy with Street Art
I’ve always loved street art. Graffiti, pasteups, sculpture. I’ve always admired the brave soul who climbed a water tower, jumped a train or crawled under a dark overpass in the wee hours. I enjoyed watching living artisitic expression growing on walls at music festivals like Starscape here in Baltimore. I admire the interesting perspective that these artists share with us making socio-political statements and random acts of beauty. However, I don’t agree with the personal property destruction and the permanence of these acts. I’ve always wanted to participate, but I’ve always been more of the law abiding type. I’d just feel bad writing on walls with a Sharpie or painting the side of someone’s fence. Then I saw this, Yarn Bombing. I stumbled across the phenomenon of “guerilla knitting” and was instantly intrigued. This was something I could get behind, something I wouldn’t feel bad about doing. It’s really making the world a warmer, fuzzier, more beautiful place to live. Unfortunatly though, when I found out about the knit graffiti movement that was growing around the world I didn’t have any idea how to slip a single stitch. Now, however I can knit and crochet. I’ve been feeling particularly inspired recently and was reading about it more. Then, last night I finally got around to watching Exit Through the Gift Shop
Get to knittin’!
Filed under DIY | Tags: art, Baltimore City, Banksy, beauty, crafts, crochet, DIY, graffiti, guerrila knitting, knit, street art, tagging, yarn bomb | Comments (3)No Trash Wrap Christmas
Now that halloween is behind us, I’m skipping Thanksgiving temporarily and moving right to Christmas. Yes, I agree that it’s annoying when retailers do this and we should all slow down and enjoy the holidays. Ordinarily I would agree whole-heartedly, but this year, as in previous year, I’m making Christmas presents for friends and family again. I’m stepping up my game this year though and putting my newly found skill for knitting and crochet to work and cranking out gifts for the whole family. Some of these gifts are rather ambitious (omg how long will it take me to crochet 4 balls of yarn for one gift?!?) and we’ve only a few crafting weeks left until the big day. So for this reason, I am already 3 balls of yarn down and in the background of every football game you can hear the needles clicking away I’ll try to post up photos of my achievements as I go.
Unfortunately, all this time spent on gifts means that I can’t spend as much time on my Etsy store. I will however be sure to list some festive christmas gift bags (from recycled fabrics of course) that can be reused and passed among the family members in addition to my recycled paper bows. I hope to have time to list some other goodies, but I think I’d better focus on one task at a time for now. In order to celebrate the concept of a cleaner, greener holiday I am promoting the no trash wrap holiday tradition, which means don’t use throwaway packaging if you can help it; and if you must be sure it’s at least made from recycled materials. Here’s the promotion that I’ll be running in my shop through the end of the year.
SerendipiT’s Shop Announcement
Did You Know? In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags. Through the end of January 31, 2011 I will include either one (1) free refashioned t-shirt shopping tote bag or three (3) recycled paper bows with every purchase. Please let me know your preference by sending me a convo at checkout.
The individual members of the Fashion:Remix Team are committed to help fight the trash by offering promotional items tagged “notrashwrap”. Search for each of our unique solutions for a greener holiday season.
SerendipiT sources fabrics from previously loved clothing and recycles these textiles into hand-crafted EcoChic fashion. This eco-friendly process reduces our consumption of raw materials and precious resources. Refashioned clothing and accessories are true sustainable fashion that helps you to reduce your environmental impact on the Earth. I will donate 10% of all proceeds to The Conservation Fund, America’s Partner in Conservation. For the past 25 years, The Conservation Fund has been America’s partner in conservation, protecting more than 6.5 million acres. www.conservationfund.org – $15 donated so far in 2010
*Proud Member of the Fashion: Remix Team (tag: fashionremixteam)
*Proud member of the Recyclers Team Guild (tag: wastenot)
Proud Member of the Etsy Recyclers Guild Team
Visit us at http://www.EtsyRecyclersGuild.blogspot.com
Knit Wit
I really enjoy recycling clothes and its true that with a little assistance that I can make darn near anything out of an old T-shirt, but I’ve always been drawn to knitting and crochet. The trouble is that I don’t actually know anyone who does it and everyone who has tried it complained that they couldn’t sort it out. Luckily, a friend of mine is currently happily knitting away at wash cloths and some very elaborate squares (I think to be used in a blanket). So I figured, it’s now or never… I’ve ordered a video from Amazon entitled The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Knitting
