The Knit Before Christmas

Hello everyone,

How’s your Lenten Knitting going? I have been plugging along at my hats. So far, I’ve knit 7, and I plan to complete at least 3 more by Easter.  I have been finding much of my inspiration  for this practice in a discussion group on Ravelry. We have over 100 members in our group and the conversation has been lively and motivating. 

I thought I would share a couple of posts that I found particularly moving: 

• Monday night at Prayer Shawl knitting I was explaining to someone about the 4,000 Hats in 40 Days and why I was working on a hat. I explained that I had decided to make all of my “public/meeting knitting” during Lent to be for  4,000 Hats in 40 Days. Two of the ladies looked at each other and said something about “It’s her TOM.” When asked about this they explained that at the beginning of Lent they had been talking about “Giving Up Something” vs. “Taking On More” at EFM, which has tuned into the shorthand of TOM and GUS. I like those names! (Though since I only changed what I was knitting, instead of taking up knitting in public/meetings altogether, maybe it is my Tom, instead of TOM.)      Barbara

This has been my first time participating in an online Knit Along, and I am loving it. If you are a knitter, and you are not yet a member of Ravelry, I can’t urge you enough to come online and join us. Although Knit4Lent will soon be complete, our group wanted to continue knitting together all year, which really makes me happy! I’ve loved getting to know everyone and I am glad we will stay in touch.

In non-Ravelry Knit 4 Lent news, I was so happy to meet several groups of knitters and crocheters at the NJ Diocesan convention who have been Knitting 4 Lent since they read about the project on Episcopal Life Online.

I can’t wait to see how many knitters are knitting along.  If you send in caps for this project, please label the package so I know that you have been Knitting 4 Lent with us.

Peace

Jeanette

PS This is Chaplain Marge Lindstrom, who not only distributes our handknit gifts to seafarers each Christmas, she makes them too!

Hello knitters,

I would like to introduce you to our Lenten Knitting & Crochet project: 4,000 Hats in 40 Days.

The idea for this project spun out of a wonderful Episcopal knitters community I found on Ravelry. If you aren’t already a member of Ravelry…well, what are you waiting for?!? It is a great resource for knitters and crocheters; and, you’ll be able to join our 4,000 hats in 40 days group.

Many of the knitters I’ve met on the site are Christmas at Sea knitters, and I was asked to lead a Christmas at Sea knit a long. 

That got me dreaming big…I had been wondering how Christmas at Sea could possibly raise an additional 4,000 hats this year to give as gifts to the mariners working in the Gulf. In previous years our gifts to those mariners have been homemade cookies, cards and bandanas. The KAL and the need for hats seemed like a (challenging!) match made in heaven.

So we started a group. As of today we have 77 knitters committed to knitting for this project, and many of those knitters are taking the project to their parish.

I hope you’ll join us too. Here are the participation guidelines:

• Hats should be made in colors appropriate for both men and women.
• Hats should be made from machine washable yarn. If the yarn is not machine washable, please stick a note in it that says "Hand wash only"
• Hats can be made from our Seafarer’s Cap pattern, but can also be made from any pattern appropriate for both men and women.  You can find lots of great (and free!) patterns on the internet. Here are three suggestions that have been submitted by group members:

Stockinette Seamen’s Cap

Marsan Watchcap

Chunky Ribbed Cap

• Hats knitted for this project should be received by March 30

Lent begins on Wednesday, February 6. I hope you will join us! Please let me know if you have any questions at all. And please send any pictures of completed hats that you’d like to share.

Let the knitting begin!

Look what I found under the Christmas at Sea tree: 17,651 gifts for mariners!

Take a look at who received your handmade gifts:

DEAR SEAMENS CHURCH,

THANKS FOR THE CHRISTMAS PKG. AND WONDERFUL PRAYER.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE LADIES THAT DID THE KNITTING.

EVERY ITEM WAS GRACIOUSLY ACCEPTED, IT’S A REALLY NICE THING YOU’RE DOING FOR THE VESSEL CREWS AT CHRISTMAS TIME.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YA’LL AND YOUR FAMILIES HAVE A SAFE AND

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

 
BLESSINGS TO ALL
CREW OF THE WAYNE P. LAGRANGE
A.C. LINES

We in the Christmas Room are literally as busy as Santa’s elves, packing gifts and finishing knits.  So far we have packed 6,730 gifts for seafarers and shipped 4,252 gifts to be distributed to mariners working on the America’s rivers.

Any knitted garments or handmade Christmas cards received by December 19 will be distributed during Christmas 2007.  SCI Chaplains will be delivering gifts through the Epiphany. The first gifts of the year have already made it onto vessels:

That’s SCI Chaplain Deacon Jacques Girard (our Santa Claus) in the middle.

Happy Knitting all!

Hello knitters,

As of today, we have 12,898 gifts in house for mariners! That’s a huge number, but it is 3,602 items short of our goal. If you’ve got the time and yarn to knit one or two more items, we can certainly use them.

All items being received now are immediately packed into gift bags and boxed up  If you are in lower Manhattan please stop by and visit the Christmas room!

Happy Stitching!

Jeanette

Written for The Knit Before Christmas by Whipstick Knitter,  Catalina

The Whipstick Knitters are members of a larger Internet group called The Gunroom which is devoted to discussing the novels of Patrick O’Brian, the era in which they take place, and, as we say, "everything else."

The formation of our litttle group grew out of a lively discussion of knitting in the novels. Casting about for a name which would be both nautical and knitty, the whipstaff of a ship which is a vertical steering stick attached to the tiller a deck below was changed to Whipstick to make us sound handy with our needles. Our motto, "Which it will be ready when it is ready!" is borrowed from Jack Aubrey’s grumpy but devoted manservant, Killick, and is intended to put pressure on no one.

Columbus Day (in honor of another mariner) was chosen as the date to upend our seabags for muster and shake out our finished projects, mailing them to one member located in New York who then made the delivery accompanied by another (non-knitting) Gunroom member seen holding a copy of O’Brian’s HMS Surprise, the third novel in the series in the photo. We had decided on a goal of 21 knitted items, as there are 21 books in the Aubrey/Maturin canon, including an unfinished one. Having met our goal earlier this year, we did a further volley, as it were, or a second read-through with two to spare, submitting 44 items in all.

We currently number 13 Whipsticks from all different states and maintain an internet sub-list for our knitting activities which includes knitting for other charities and our own projects. Most of us have never met one another, only one knitter having actually come face to face with two others but on separate occasions and one of those with a sister in the group. In spite of that, and in the best tradition of Jack Aubrey’s delight in a pun, we are a close-knit group!

The log of our progress (and more photos!) may be more closely followed at the Whipstick Knitters’ Blog.

If you or your knitting group would like to write a guest entry, please do!  

This Sunday, SCI Chaplain Deacon Jacques Girard visited St. John’s Episcopal Church in Cornwall, New York. Knitters from the parish brought their Christmas at Sea knitted contributions to be blessed before sending them to SCI.

A special thank you to St. John’s and Chaplain Girard for sharing these photos.

Why not hold a similar event at your parish? 

Have a happy halloween knitters! And don’t forget about our sock contest! Any knitters submitting socks before November 15 are eligible to win a skein of Socks that Rock.

I am thrilled that Christmas at Sea has been chosen as a service projects for In the Loop, a knitting and crocheting group based in lower Manhattan.  They  "welcome all craftsters with a passion for giving."

Here’s a blurb from their blog:

In the Loop is a knitting and crocheting club composed of crafters from the World Financial Center’s corporate community, residential and working communities of Battery Park City and Manhattan, and the world beyond.

We’ll focus our time, energy and creativity on projects with a purpose, knitting and crocheting garments and gifts to benefit those in need. Free patterns will be posted here each season.

Get out of the office, join our lunchtime and evening socials, and enjoy giving to great causes!

Their first Brown Bag Social will be Friday, October 19 from 12-2pm in the Winter Garden, the World Financial Center’s public atrium.  I’ll be attending. If you’re in the area and would like to join me, please leave a message in the comments and let me know.  More details are available on In the Loop.

I hope to see you there.