The third shawl donated at our last meeting was a beautiful one knitted by Marie, using a variegated yarn of cool purples, pinks, gold and green with a simple textured pattern:
Marie is among the knitters hard at work. Here she is, second from right, with Ethel (one of our new members), Evelyn and Elayne:
At the other end of the table, Elizabeth (creator of the blue and cream shawls in our last post) is with Debbie (center) and Marion right). Debbie is another new member, just learning to knit, and proudly displays her first rows of bright purple knitting after Marion showed her the basics!
We discussed several charities that we will be contributing to this year. In addition to our shawls, we are once again working on hats and scarves for the Seaman's Institute Christmas at Sea Program. A newsletter describing the program (and including a knit and a crochet pattern for using scrap yarn) is available on the website.
Another organization we are supporting is the Orphan Foundation of America (OFA). The Foundation has been active since 1981 in helping children move from foster care into successful careers. It provides foster youth with scholarships, internships, mentoring and care packages. An important part of this is Red Scarf Project. As the website states, it is "a great charitable knitting intiative" providing warmth and encouragement to foster youths. Beginning in 2005, the OFA began taking donations of handmade red scarves to put into Valentine's Day Care Packages. This year red scarves can be submitted between September 1 and December 15th, so we will have guidelines and patterns available at our next meeting (August 15).
Our meeting concluded with three beautiful shawls. A pale blue knitted shawl and a creamy crocheted lace were made by Elizabeth, who had also contributed a shawl at the July 18th meeting. Photos of the two from this meeting are below, while a photo and description of Marie's shawl will appear in our next post!
