Knitting for Charity

It is that time of year where I am sewing and knitting for charity.  The company that I work for participates in the American Cancer Society, Relay For Life event each year.  We start fundraising in October, leading up to the event in April.

The way I have chosen to raise money is to do clothing mending, sewing challenges and knitting coffee cup cozies (or bottle cozies), however you want to use them.

I wrote previously about the coffee cup cozies in these posts:

• Coffee Cup Cozies
• More Coffee Cup Cozies

I have knitted up about 20 or more of them and sold about 15 of them!  I started out knitting them sort of plain, with the self-striping yarns, to keep it simple.  Well, if you know me at all, then you know I can never keep something simple.  I started making cables and making them in sport team colors with horizontal stripes.

If you would like you very own, custom knitted cozy, please email me at moxiebrown25@yahoo.com.  The price of the cozies are $5, but if you are out-of-town, then $6 (to cover the cost of shipping).  You choose your color(s), style & size!

If you would like to donate to a great cause, please go to my Relay Homepage! 

Tampa Bay Rays

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Seattle Seahawks & Denver Broncos

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Pink & White Stripes

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Zebra for Carcinoid Cancer

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Ministripes for Small Cups

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Mini Cables in a Solid Color

 

I'm having a great time knitting these up.  They are great on your coffee cup, water bottle or glass bottle!  Let me know what you like!!  Help support a great cause!

 

Thank you to those that have supported me and bought a cozy already! :-)



More Coffee Cup Cozies

I have knitted a total of 7 coffee cup cozies for the Relay for Life Charity I spoke about in an earlier post:

• Coffee Cup Cozies

Here are some of the other finished ones:

I thought this one was going to look a bit dated, 1980's or something, but I really like it.  I has a nice stretch to it.  I held two different strands together.

 

I tried doing a horizontal cable and the cable pattern was too elongated for my liking.  Eh, not so much on this one.  I can definitely can improve this design.

This is my second attempt at cables and I really like it!  This is actually a cable made without a cable needle.  Very clever, I will not reveal the secret stitch just yet.  This is one of my favorites.  Since it is cabled, I can charge a little more for it.

I have made a few of this style already.  This one is cotton self-striping yarn that I had in my stash.  Each one will stripe a bit different.  It has an ombre look to it.  Very chic.

I had a yard sale a few weeks ago and here is me modeling my coffee cup cozie:

I was totally working it!

 

I bought one ball of yarn to knit more with (I will use the rest of the yarn from my stash).  It was Bernat Mosaic in Psychadelic (100% acrylic):

 

 

How cool is that?!  I think they were emulating Noro yarns, which have extremely vivid, saturated colors.  I made one with this and each one will end up looking completely different due so the vast color differences in the skein.

 

 

I made two cozies from the rainbow yarn and here is the other one:

So, they will have completely different colors.  Neat-o!

A fellow Relay for Life crafter let be use some of her Red Heart Super Saver to knit some up.  At first I poo-pooed the Red Heart, but they came out really neat.

This one is also Red Heart.  Excellent elastic memory, I do have to admit.  How fun!:

The last one I have made, then I will see how they sell, is a another cabled one:

I'm taking orders!  Let me know what idea you have for my next Relay for Life craft project!

Coffee Cup Cozies

At work we are a sponsor of the American Heart Association's charity Relay For Life, Westshore chapter in Tampa, FL.  Last year a group of us created a committee to form Team Xcelience, and we must fundraise leading up to the event, which will be in April of 2014. 

 

One of the fundraising ideas we had was to create the Xcelience Yellow Pages, which employees with a skill or talent can "sell" their skill or expertise for a fee and donate the fee to the charity.  It was a big hit.  I had an "ad" which was Sewing by Nancy  or something like that and I was able to earn over $70 just mending people's pants and repurposing t-shirts and all other sewing-related tasks.  Not too shabby, if you ask me!

 

I will do the same this year and also have a second "ad" with a few coworkers to make crafts to sell.  I wanted to come up with an idea that was easy, fast and cheap.  I came up with Coffee Cup Cozies.  I will knit them in a ribbed pattern.  I plan on making a few and see how well they do, then consider making more.  I have made a few already:

Well, not exactly a coffee cup, it is basically a sleeve that will go on a hot cup of take-out coffee, instead of using the cardboard sleeve they offer you at the café.  This is a greener way to drink coffee!

 

I have made a few in a variegated cotton yarn and one in Lion Brand Homespun.  The Homespun is the pink one in the pic.  It was my prototype and came out cute!

I am working on another one now that I am holding two yarns together to give a confetti look.  I'm not sure I am crazy about the colors I chose to go together, sort of 1980's looking, with the neon green-yellow yarn, but I will continue it.  you never know who will like it.

Here are the balls that I am currently using:

I have a TON of yarn that I will use up.  I really do not want buy new yarn, only because I really can't charge too much for them.  Each one takes roughly an hour and I was going to charge either $3 or $5.  How much is too much??  And will anyone even buy them??

 

Right now, I am only doing a k2, p2 ribbing in the round, but I do plan on changing it up.  Stayed tuned.

Hair Donation

Surprise!  I have always had long hair.  When I was a kid and early teenager, it was really long and hit below my waistline.  Then I decided to trim it back a bit and then I have settled with below shoulder length for a good part of my life.  Once I did get it cut just below my shoulders, maybe brushing the tops, that has been the absolute shortest I have had it since a child when my sister and I would get the same thick bangs, bowl-like hair cut.

My friend Kj and my sister Kathy have both donated their hair to charities and I have been wanting to do that too.  But that means cutting my hair really short or growing it forever to get it long enough where I won't miss the long length.

As you can see from these two pics, my hair was getting pretty long:

January 2013

May 2013

I chose the charity that Kj used which was Pantene Beautiful Lengths.  This charity was started in 2006 and it is Pantene partnered with the American Cancer Society to bring real-hair wigs to women fighting cancer.

I made my appointment and then rescheduled it because I had not made up my mind about the style.  I finally went on July 3 to get the snip!

Here is me preparing for the cut:

The hair must be freshly washed and dried.  So she pinned up my shorter layers that were on the top and blew dried the bottom layer, which was the longest.  She placed it in rubber bands and then cut right above where the top band was.

It may be hard to see the ruler on the left, but I was able to cut off and so therefor donate 11 inches!!!  They only require a minimum of 8 inches!  

Here is the after:

Wow, huh?  I almost don't even recognize myself!  She has styled my hair kind of funny, where it curled under into a big mushroom.  Ugh...not helping!  I was feeling a bit strange as it was, then to have a mushroom on my head!?  In addition to it raining outside, the style took a dive anyway.

After dinner, I went home and flat ironed it so the ends were straighter, since I was looking for a flatter style, not a bushy one.  I like the side-swept bangs.  I parted it on the opposite side than I am used to, so I need to train the hair to stay over on it's own.  Right now it just wants to be in my face.

Overall, I am liking it!  I did tell a few people that I was growing it to donate, but did not really say when I was doing it.  Surprise, surprise!

Relay For Life - Knitted Donations

Our work is involved in a charity, Relay for Life.  It is an American Cancer Society event and we are putting up a tent and walking a track on April 5th from 6 pm to the next morning.  We are getting excited to do this because this is the first time our company is having their own team there.  We have a monetary goal of $5000.  Which sounds like a lot and we are doing all that we can to raise this money.

If you would like to donate, please follow this link [Relay For Life] and click the orange DONATE button.  Then choose the blue Search For an Individual link.  Type in Nancy Victorino.  Any donation is greatly appreciated!

One of the fundraising events we are having is called a Silent Auction.  We asked the employees to donate a new or gently used item and on a designated day, they will be displayed for everyone to go around and place a bid by recording your bid on a sheet of paper for that item.  At the end of the bidding (We gave 2 days), the person with the last and highest bid wins.

So, I have donated a few items and two of the items are knitted items that I never got around to finishing them in time for the baby there were originally intended for.  I won't mention who they were supposed to be for (I feel too bad about it).

First up is a baby sweater knit in Berroco Touche (50% cotton, 50% rayon) in a raspberry pink.  The yarn has since been discontinued.  

All I needed to do was sew up the side and arm and weave in ends.  This was a UFO, so I am happy to be completing it and giving it to charity. 

I don't even remember what size I was making.  Probably a 6 month old or 1 year.  I can't tell!  I don't have kids, so I really have no clue how big or small babies are.  I know, for shame!!

Next up is a pair of baby booties knit in Berroco Suede (100% nylon) in a tan color they called Butch Cassidy.   This yarn has also been discontinued.  The name was cute, so I remembered it all these years.  I would consider this yarn a novelty yarn.

These were actually already complete, just sitting in my yarn stash and UFO bin.  They have little fringe going around the top edge.  So cute!

I am glad to have brought these two out so that some baby may enjoy them.  I've been wanting to knit for charity, so since I have not yet, here is my chance.

The auction is coming up on March 12th and 13th.  I'll update everyone if they sell!