Monday, February 18, 2013

Out of Africa

These bright and happy squares:

Berties Blanket sock squares: Stacey and Marsha

Were contributed by these lovely ladies:

The lovely Beach Beauties

With a little help from some friends:

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Stacey and Marsha recently returned from a medical mission trip to Rwanda, where they spent time at an orphanage. Yes, they really are some of the loveliest people you will meet. :)

There are soo many things about this that bring me joy, aside from the obvious 'good people doing good things':
  • Bertie's Blankets is reaching far and wide with contributions from: America, Europe, Australia and now Africa... how cool is this! 
  • The 'stories' that a blanket like this could tell.  (These particular squares have even been on safari!)
  • That folks from all walks of life, despite their own difficult situations, are contributing to this effort
  • That this also brings joy to those taking part... case in point with the next photo:
Knitting Joy

Oh, yes, and not least that my dear friends were willing to humor my request to take Bertie's Blanket square pictures while they were on such an important trip.  Thank you for taking these, and for letting me share them here  :) 

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures that captured my heart:

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blankets Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Thank you ladies xxx

Knitting Bertie's Blanket Squares

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Feb 1 Progress

We are making a great start on the 3 hospice blankets, thank you!

I've been trying to figure out how many squares we'll need for each of the 3 blankets to get a sense of the progress we've made so far.  It looks like a single blanket size in the UK is approximately 39" x 76". 

For the Coastal Aran Blanket, we'd need 45 of the 9" squares to make a blanket this size. As of 1 Feb, we've created 12 beautiful squares, leaving us 33 more to go. I've heard from a number of you that additional squares are on the way.  Thank you :)

For the Scrappy Sock Blanket we'll need 91 of the 6" squares. As of 1 Feb we've created 31 fabulous squares leaving us 60 more to go.

Most recently I received these lovely 5 squares from Judy at Fiber Experiences.  Thanks soo much Judy, I love these colours and that you were able to contribute so many.

Bertie's Sock: Judy P @ Fiber Experiences

The sock squares are my favourite to work on - I find them quite addicting and love being able to use up leftover odds and ends of sock yarn.  I've also been able to complete a few more since the last post:

Bertie's sock: Sam


Berties Blanket: sam

And last but not least is the wonky log cabin quilt.  We'll need 45 of the 9" squares. I've received 6 so far, leaving 39 to create.   Most recently I received these 3 beauties from Sharon, all the way from Australia!  How cool is that!  (And touched my heart).

Bertie's Blankets: Sharon M

As a reminder, here are the guidelines for the 3 blankets we are working on.

Thanks for your continued support of this project.
Much love,
Sam
xxx