For those of you that have not been able to attend our meetings, but are showing your support by being on our mailing list, we are asking for a donation of material or money to make two blankets per person. I will be happy to make those blankets in addition to the ones I am making myself. Rachael has agreed to help. The average blanket material costs $15.00 (on sale), so a total donation would be $30.00 or a trip to JoAnn's to pick out fabric. Whatever is easier for you will work out fine for us. This way, everyone in our group has an opportunity to participate. We have labels to sew in the blankets saying that they were made by Lots of Knots. If you decide to donate material instead of money, I suggest that you go when JoAnn's is having a sale. Otherwise the cost may be more expensive.
I talked to the representative at Star of Hope and they are thrilled that we are doing this. We will make our delivery for 2009 (even though we are a little late) on March 1. Since we got such a late start in the year, we had to wait until we had a substantial amount of blankets to donate. We will continue to donate knitted baby hats and blankets to John Knox Presbyterian Church, and they donate these hats to Hermann Memorial Northwest Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital. Our knitted scarves, fleece scarves, and adult knitted hats will go to the Star of Hope. You can see photos of all of these products on our Homemade Products page.
We also had a great book discussion. It was very relevant to what we are doing, because one of the main characters was homeless for so many years, and the other main characters helped him and ultimately became close friends with him. It was very inspirational and came recommended highly. The book is Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. There is more about it on the Book Blog. Our understanding is that it will be made into a movie soon, and it will be good material for a movie. I wonder who will play the major characters? I understand there is also a sequel out, but I don't know the name of it.
I would like to welcome our newest member, Lovely Washington. She has a great sense of humor, and kept up laughing the whole time she was here. She is extremely interested in making blankets and is coming over at the end of the week for a one-on-one lesson. Anyone interested in that type of lesson just needs to let me know. I will be happy to share my hints to make an easy and cozy blanket. Lovely even laughed when Daisy, my lovebird, flew across the room and landed in her hair. She called me the next day and told me she told that story to everyone she saw Saturday. She is also interested in the book club, so I know she will contribute quite a lot to our night meetings.
I want to thank everyone for contributing to our group. I hope that it makes you feel as good as it makes me feel to be making new friends, becoming closer friends, working on community projects to help others in need, and reading and discussing books. It is great to see all of you and hear your opinions. Thank you so much.