Mikknit

Last month, as many of you already know, southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin were hit by devastating floods. In addition to the general loss of life and property, many farms were hit quite badly, losing crops, equipment, and livestock.

The Sow the Seeds Fund is working in conjunction with co-ops, farmers markets, local food retailers, restaurants, and individuals to raise money for flood relief. You can make your donations at a number of food co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus co-ops in Michigan, Iowa, and Texas, and also at Whole Foods stores in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. You can also donate online or by mail - the information to do that is available on the Sow the Seeds page linked above.

My good friend Knittymama is running a contest to help raise money for this effort. You go and make your donation before September 29 and then let her know about it (her email is posted on the contest page), make a link on your blog back to her contest page (provided you have a blog), and you’ll have your name entered in the drawing for some great yarn! She’s got some Fleece Artist and Spunky Eclectic sock yarns, as well as some prizes for non-knitters who enter the contest. I’m throwing in some stuff to pad the prize pool as well:

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Dusk

And…

Isn’t it pretty? What? You’d like a closeup? Sure thing…

Nice and sparkly, isn’t it?

The handspun is from a Crazy Diamond batt I got from PippiKneeSocks - it’s wool, nylon “tinkle” (the sparkly stuff), and recycled sari silk. The skein weighs 3oz and is approximately 180 yards. It’s very soft and I’m having a hard time giving it up, but it’s for a good cause.

So go and donate generously, then go let Knittymama know that you did so. If you want to tell her how much you gave, she’s keeping track of the donations a la Knitters Without Borders. She’s hoping for $500, let’s blow past that and surprise her!

My cousin gave birth to a little girl on Thursday, about 3 months early. Thankfully, both mother and baby are doing well and baby’s prognosis seems good. My cousin developed preeclampsia and they did a c-section, thankfully now her blood pressure has come down and she was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital today. Baby weighed 1lb 11oz and was 13″ long at birth and she will be in the NICU for quite a while, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she was staying there until her due date. I am very pleased to hear that the hospital has a milk bank, so the baby has been getting donor milk while my cousin is waiting for the milk fairy to arrive.

In an effort to feel like I’m doing something, I knit up some teeny tiny preemie hats.

So incredibly tiny…

I used Cotton Ease in the Lime color, on size 7 DPNs. Pattern here. The front two are the size she says will fit a 2# baby, the back one is the size that should fit a 3-4# baby. I can’t fathom how tiny a baby’s head must be to fit these hats.

I don’t know if there’s a need for these hats at the hospital where the baby is, I haven’t had a chance to call and talk to the NICU nurses yet. If they don’t need them, I know there are several other programs that are collecting them.

There’s more stuff too, but I thought this needed its own post.

Still alive. Chained to kitchen stove canning produce. Send more wide-mouth jar lids.

The winner of the vacation story contest is Nia, of Knot Knitting! I’ll repost her story here, it was pretty funny!

Last month my husband Jim and I went on vacation to my parents house on Lake Superior in Michigan, my brother, his wife and my friend Michelle all joined us up there. The second purpose of the trip was to buy my grandma’s 1997 Buick and get the license and registration. Once that was done we were cruising in the Buick to Tahquamenon Falls.

At the falls my family said: “I’ve had enough nature. Is it time for beer?” and the phrase “beer:30″ was answered when someone asked the time.
So after nature and beer we are cruising back home in the Buick and my husband finds a cassette tape in the glove box and pops it in the player. He says he will take it out if someone can guess what the horrible music is. We guess a couple of things, then try to forcibly remove it from the player. After a couple minutes of pushing and grabbing and I believe the people in the backseat held him down I got the tape to eject all while still driving. Jim then yells “NO CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE FOR YOU” and throws it out the window. So somewhere up there is Captain and Tennille Sing the Hits if anyone wants to find it.

Thanks for entering, everyone!

Real knitting content to follow tomorrow.