The Peace Fleece Corps

Last night I spent some wee hours at ComfortGertrude's house with three wonderful fellow wool addicts,  winding our newly arrived Peace Fleece, sipping honey mead from Kangaroo Island, hearing about sightings of whales out of kitchen windows, and generally revelling in the company of colour, fibre and friends!
The colours are all divine, and it will be so fun to watch it slowly (in my case) and quickly (in the case of FlickaFish!!) transform into garments, and toys! The Chickie Masla is so deliciously yolkish, softer than in the photo actually. The Seamoss is also much, much more dreamily green and divine in real life.

Kamchatka Seamoss and Chickie Masla

Ukrainian Red, Patience Blue, Zarya Fog, Antarctica White

Purl101's Violet Vyehchyeerom and FlickaFish's Lena's Meadow

Stack of Lauren's Coral- yum!

super winding action shot

My own knitting has been on the back-burner a bit, amidst the excitement of the Orphfund craft stall...slowly getting through the yoke of my Garter Yoke Cardi...

ALSO...The supremely talented and ever-creative FlickaFish contributed some divine little skirts for the upcoming Orphfund stall this Saturday at Ceres. Thank you!!

the table glowed with handmade love

We had our first fundraising stall for Orphfund today!

The sun shone,

the table glowed with handmade love






the children busked,



Anna sewed, Katie smiled,


the baby slept,



A wonderful, stupendously enjoyable, and successful good-vibes time was had by all.
Thanks everyone!

Handmade for Orphans

Handmade for Orphans
My friend Moya has just been to Uganda with an organisation called Orphfund, building a children's village for orphans. the situation they found there was desperate and heartbreaking. Desperately poor children completely uncared for, sleeping in deserted buildings, foraging for food, 11 year old children caring for their 3 year old siblings.
This email was sent from Steve Argent of Orphund from Uganda a couple of weeks ago, along with the photo above.


"Right now we are working on our latest project for orphans in Western Uganda.
Over the past 2 weeks we have been deep in the remote hillside villages near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, interviewing hundreds of orphaned and abandoned children.
Sadly the circumstances we find the children in are far worse than we expected with HIV, conflict, and disease leaving children to grow up completely neglected and unsupported.
Since Orphfund began i have spoken to nearly a thousand orphans but over the past few days have heard some of the most saddening stories yet. We have found children as young as 11 who are carers for their younger siblings living with absolutely nothing.
No family, no home, no adult support, they just roam, searching for empty buildings to sleep in, rubbish tips to find food in, and all they own are scraps of filthy clothing on their bodies.
In other cases 13 year old girls are becoming prostitutes to get money to help feed themselves and their younger brothers and sisters; and with each $2 they make they risk becoming infected by HIV. (attached are a couple of pictures from one of our registration outings.)

Our goal was to help 35 children, but sadly the need is just too great. We have identified 60 children suffering in conditions we cannot and do not want to ignore. Most of our team are close to tears when we have seen and heard how they have been living.
Right now WE have a chance to change things and do something that can improve the fortunes of many kids who are suffering severely.

A new sponsor will literally pull an additional child out of such hardship.
Please....anyone reading this who feels they can spare $22 (£12 a month) let us know now if you can help, so we can welcome 1 more child into our project.
1 extra life will change with every extra donor we get!!!
Its hard to stress the impact we can have and also to describe how these children live, but i can guarantee if you could be here right now you wouldn't hesitate to help.

Help us give them the chance to live again.

100% will go to feeding, providing health care, care, clothing, and education.

For Australian online donations https://www.givenow.com.au/orphfund/regulardonation?execution=e2s1
For Australian bank transfers (preferred method) our details are Commonwealth Bank, Account No 10272571, BSB 063104, Account name Orphfund"


My marvellous friend Anna and I were moved to hold some handmade stall at Ceres over the Spring to raise some money for this project. The plan is to have the first one this coming Saturday if the weather isn't terrible. Below are samples of what will be for sale, thansk to some crafty souls.

Yolk

Milo Vest in Pear Tree Yolk. I love love love this colour, and the cabling is stirring my recently brushed off Celtic heart...

This winter has been a true Melbourne winter, where one wears overcoats and kidney warmers, and there is drizzle and rain, and actual puddles to jump in quite often!
Sitting in the sun today with baby boy and feeling actually warm was sooo delicious.
It really made me appreciate having four seasons just to savour the contrasts.

Earthy Rainbow on my Back

Now that's better...

and immediately started on a miniature version for baby boy with the leftover yarn...oh no, it's too SMALL!! Do newborns have heads the size of grapefruits? I think they do...so this one is destined for a friends new baby due in 4 weeks! It will still be cold in Melbourne then...
Having loads of time wasting fun perusing the wonderful world of Ravelry. God it is the best website in the world!
knitting

FROGGED!

The Christmas Tree Hat in the divine Evoke Banksia organic wool came off the needles last night at 12.30! Not a time I would usually knit until, with me clocking up an enormous sleep debt right now with Chicken 3! Yet, I had to finish...I have been getting a funny feeling that this hat was looking rather roomy...but you never can tell, I kept telling myself!
Well...it turned out so beautifully...HAD my daughter been a giantess...
We toyed with the idea of a hot wash to make it all better...I couldn't risk it! FROGGED! back into a lovely little ball of wool: and I will start again.
It was always going to be a risk, knitting on 4mm instead of 3.25mm, to up the size from 4-6 to size 10!!
This time I'll try knitting it up as if for a 2 year old, and see how it looks!