And a really grand yard sale: our biggest ever! Thanks very much to everyone for the amazing donations and extremely helpful helping.  We have built quite a yard sale reputation – at least one couple told me “We come to this yard sale every year!”  Usually we have trouble selling books, but somehow the book hounds found us this time, and it was a win for everyone.  The annual food dehydrator made its appearance (different one every year), and the annual garlic baker also made its appearance (same one every year).  My personal favorites were the Elvis Barbie, the record album of Charles & Diana’s wedding, and the Box of Tiny Things.


Highlights from the birthday party included bug-shaped cake, a decorative owl made of sea-shells, and from my own point of view, a very beautiful (and very useful) knitting basket, which has quickly become my new best friend. (Thank you!)

We’re taking a year off from Centerfest and looking forward to a Dye Day in September!

I opened the door, and in came a stranger
An eerie cold look she had in her eye
“I can see by your outfit that you are a knitter,”
the stranger said to me, “and today you must die.

“Oh, once I could slip stitch and purl at the movies
I could knit two together while drinking a beer
But now when I cable I feel stitches dropping
and the rattling sound in my chest makes it clear:

“I’ve no penicillin and look at what’s killin’ me:
a cute streptococcus, adorable flu
sixteen salmonella in soft lovely handspun
and cholera made from self-striping bamboo.”

“Get six jolly spinners to carry my sweaters,
Get six pretty crocheters to sing a sad song.
Put bunches of roving all over my coffin,
For I’m a young knitter and I know I’ve done wrong.

“Go bring me a cup, a cup of hot coffee –
It might still revive me”, the knitter then said.
Before I returned, her soul had departed,
She’d cast off her stitches – the knitter was dead.

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,
And made such a racket they asked us to leave
But just one moment later I started coughing…
And soon I’m afraid that my family will grieve.

For here in my mailbox… TWO tuberculosis!
A common cold virus and beaded swine flu
Oh, knit me a cure, just one penicillin,
Ah, AHhhh, OH NO! ATCHOOO!

Kate went on an epic battle-spree, knitting (how many???) germ-microbes and killing pretty much everybody.

Photo of germs goes here…

Most tragic death: Monique, whose penicillin was delivered to her moments after the fatal microbes arrived.

Here’s the pattern we were using.

I bet there’s people knitting and they don’t care if it’s silly
They’re probably knitting sweaters ’cause the train’s a little chilly
My fingers start a-twitchin’, and I know I’ve got to go
That train keeps rolling’
On down to Greensboro

Well if I could get a ticket,
Hell, if that railroad train was mine…
I’d add a coffee-car with couches, and that’s where we’d spend our time
We’d just ride the knitting train, that’s where I want to stay
And I’d let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away…..

(video coming soon)

Hello Strings!

Here’s the Things:

We meet at Tanya’s
house this week; directions are
at the email’s end.

Also good to note:
The Beaver Queen Pagent is
Saturday June 5th.

Saturday June 12:
World-Wide Knit in Public Day!
Knit with Rollergirls!

And Saturday June
26th is Stitch-N-Pitch!
Come to a Bull’s Game.

The next knit-along:
June Entrelac!  Which sounds like
A Swiss vacation.

Stringthings lend support
to each other by helping
everyone de-stash:
A support group forms;
we will not buy any yarn.
(unless we need it)

Hey!  We can de-stash
by knitting some entrelac:
good one-skein projects.

Isn’t it great when
different goals all coincide?
Seems like destiny.

Also glad to say:
Stringthing.org is now free
of hacker malware.

(And who in the hell
Would hack a knitting website?
Conspiracy list:

• Homeland Security
• Masons
• some knitting group in Raleigh (!)
• Aliens from Space)

But indeed, we had a blast:  we met some very nice vendors with amazing yarns, we ate some seriously delicious fried food, and our very own Kay organized a big Ravelry meet-up (with door prizes!)   We also learned all about Indigo:

And of course, there had to be Knitting in Odd Places:

hee hee hee

We had a welcome-baby party for the newest little member of StringThing:

And at the end of April, StringThing held down the Spinning and Weaving fort at the Makers’ Faire!  A 12-hour marathon of demos and lessons… check out the video!

survey results

So what are we doing?

1. This very Sunday (3/14) several people will be working on making PURPLE baby hats, and Shannon will be collecting them.  The purple hats will be given to babies as part of a parent education initiative to prevent shaken-baby syndrome.  PURPLE is an acronym to help parents identify and cope with the normal phase of really frustrating crying that newborns go through.

2. For people interested in supporting P/Hop, Often Awesome, or working more directly with cancer patients, we can get you connected.

3. For people who want to sell crafts at MomArt (Genesis Home benefit) or make items for a raffle table (animal shelter benefit), smaller interest groups will form.

4. We’ll try a Habitat Work Day this summer (and/or a fence building day). We will need an organizer to help get this rolling.

5. We’ll do another project for a children’s charity this summer. This might-could be connected to a Haiti benefit, or it might not. I’d love to have a couple of people organize this by choosing a project and coming up with some specific suggestions for ways to kick it off.

That was FUN! Can’t wait to see the ST photo booth photo. Whoever has one of the prints, can you scan it and send it out?

This was a fun event! And it was great to see the knitters from Carrboro, too…

I think we should try getting all of Stringthing into a photobooth….
I’m game!
Or! And why didn’t I think of this sooner… ? We could try getting all of ST into a chocolate fountain.
Name the date and time and I’m THERE!
We’d promptly be eaten by duke undergrads!
Not if we fend them off with our pointy sticks!
It didn’t work so well last time!
You obviously did not use enough fire *nods sagely*
How about tomorrow at Saladelia? I bet they have the equipment for it. We could ask.

Sorry I missed it!
We got arrested.
Oh, I am so sorry. My experience has always been that it is jail is infinitely less pleasant when one is covered in any kind of goo. I hope you’ve recovered, my friend.

It did not help at all that I probably got way too… flamboyant… with the fire part >.>

The showers weren’t that bad.
But we did think it might be prudent to skip a week over at Saladelia…that’s why we’re meeting at Julie’s next time. Hopefully by the following week, they’ll have forgiven us… After all, we did take the llamas back where they belonged.

Obviously I left too early Sunday.

Fair Isle Projects….

Send more pictures!!!

This spring I was kind of thinking of a light-hearted, fun activity to support a cheerful sort of charity. Lots of us have new puppies and kittens; I thought it might be fun to do something for the local pet shelter. And then there was that earthquake. Yeah.

So! Here’s the official plan for spring, with some details still to be worked out – hopefully via an awesome survey on SurveyMonkey, which Katherine and I will make.

1. PLAN: Yarn Swap Redirected

I would like to ask everyone with yarn-swapping energy to consider offering a skein or two on the p/hop site on Ravelry. The person who claims your yarn will make a contribution to Doctors without Borders, working hard in Haiti.

If you offer yarn, you post on the site, and then you mail it to the person who claims it. So you commit to putting your yarn in the mail – not too bad. StringThing will subsidize postage if necessary.

If you claim yarn, you donate an amount (you decide) to Doctors without Borders. They have the connection all set up. You also donate a second time, when you’re done knitting, to represent the “hours of pleasure” you had knitting (that’s the hop in p/hop.)

We could rock the house if a lot of us jumped in on this. (We could even post all together if you think that would be fun.) We’ll have plenty of other chances to swap yarn and play gift-giving games later on. (Christmas in July again?)

We’ll also talk about a longer-range project to benefit Haiti later, since the needs will be ongoing.

2. PLAN: Often Awesome

Maya asked for help for the group Often Awesome, which supports a local person with ALS. They are going to send us their logo, and several people have already offered to work out a knitting pattern for armwarmers based on the image. More details soon.

3. ALMOST A PLAN: I’m still thinking about kittens and puppies.

During our service-work-planning-day, I suggested A, but have since spoken to the lady at the local shelter and she mentioned B and C.

A. On Valentine’s Day, instead of a yarn/gift swap, have a donation “potluck” of items from the shelter’s wish list. It’s mostly stuff like peanut butter and bleach. Their big Adopt A Pet Day is the 13th, which is why I thought of this. This would not involve any actual knitting.

B. March 20th is the Gala (and Auction!!!), one of their major fundraisers. A blanket or other big item like that will often bring in a heap of cash at a well-run auction.

C. May 22nd they have another fundraiser with a Raffle-Table, which would be very appropriate for misc. smaller items. The lady at the shelter suggested dog sweaters, cat toys, etc., but that it could also be regular things for people – anything that would be appealing in a raffle.

4. STILL PONDERING: Genesis House / Habitat for Humanity

One of my hopes is that we could do a service project where we are actively involved with others, rather than just handing over an object. For those of you who’ve done this kind of service, you know it can be exhausting, and it’s harder to organize. But it’s also very rewarding.

Habitat for Humanity would love a group to come and work on a house – they show you what to do; it’s usually an all-day Saturday kind of thing. We could also make another afghan for the family moving in. It’s an awesome combination.

Genesis House is another local group with a great reputation for keeping families from falling into homelessness. They also have an “adopt a room” kind of thing for families moving into their own place, which would work well for us.

And they ask for volunteers to lead group activities on a monthly-meeting basis. If folks at Genesis House wanted to join a knitting group, and folks at StringThing could commit once a month, we could pursue this. It would be ambitious.

We’ll ask you more about these ideas – and others – in the upcoming SURVEYMONKEY SURVEY! You will love it. There will be things you can click.

There are many good causes out there, and many different ways that the kind of thing we enjoy (ex., knitting) can be turned to a purpose that helps others. We all find ways to help the causes that are close to our hearts, whether it’s knitting related or not, whether it’s a group thing or not, and whether we’re helping a neighbor here in town or a person across the globe. It’s all good.

So what do we pick?

Group projects work more efficiently when the charity or organization is something the group has a connection with.

We’ve done some work for local groups, like Carolina Outreach and our nearest Habitat neighborhood (we made blankets).

We’ve also done some work for organizations where someone in our group had a personal connection, like the chemo hat drive. (The hats went to a hospital where one of our group members knew a patient.)

I usually avoid suggestions to “make a whatever and then auction it for some charity” unless there is actually an auction that actually wants our contribution. I wouldn’t waste your time.

I also think it’s worthwhile spending a few extra minutes to find the most sensible way to meet the needs in question. So, for example, the folks in Haiti will not be needing hand-made wool hats. First we find out from the organization what they actually need, and then see if there’s a way to connect.

Personally, I tend to think local first, but there are times when everyplace is local, and everybody is your neighbor.

Does everybody participate?

StringThing, the group, is committed to doing at least a couple of service projects each year, but there’s no reason everybody should feel like they have to participate in everything. We do try to pick projects that interest a lot of us, or that are close to the hearts of a specific member. But it’s strictly a no-pressure thing. (Unlike the aggressive kill-you-with-a-hat games, which pretty much run on peer pressure and smack talk.)

That’s enough soap-box!