Help and Advice

I need your advice.
And then I might possibly need your help too, but advice first.
I've talked before about how I have a group that knits for charity.
It is a good group of people, but involvement is sporadic.
Plenty of reasons why, but you know if people willingly want to give of their time, great; I won't demand it.
We've been knitting hats, mittens, and scarves to give to the local school districts for kids in need, most of whom live in an area that is rural with little industry (beyond Wal-Mart, and that's more a company store and a rant for a different time).
There is also a local coat drive that takes place in the area where they collect used (or new) coats and pass them out to those in need.
I said to my friend, Flower, the other day, "Wouldn't it be great if we could have a hat to pass out with each of the coats?"
Ding!
Great idea, right?
I think so, but I'm at a loss as to how to make this bigger than what I have now.
On top of this I read in our church bulletin that there are 30 homeless families in our small town.
These numbers may not seem so terrible if you compare them to the national average, but we have a town of approximately 8,000 where the median family income is $50K.
Could you run your family on that much a year?
And might I remind you that we live in the great white north where the Farmer's Almanac is calling for snow in October.
Brrrr.
So I want to expand my hat, scarf, and mitten contributions, but specifically hats.
Any ideas on who I should approach in the town?
Should I contact the coat drive coordinator, the school social workers, or my pastor?
I've even considered contacting the group that runs the learn to knit program at the local women's prison to see if some of the prisoners might be interested in helping out.
Do you think I should get in touch with the Rochester knitting guild for contributions? They put out a call to the area for these same items and got over 2,000 pieces donated; however, all of those articles are going to the kids in the Rochester City School District.
The urban poor get more attention than the rural poor, that's for sure.
Please let me know how you think I can make this into a bigger project.
I'm not doing this for attention, but because I can't imagine sending a kid out into the winter weather if they are not properly clothed.
There's got to be a way we can help.
Thank you!

Knit Picking

Have you seen the latest KnitPicks catalog?
They are now carrying DK weight tweed yarn!
I'm so excited!
Want to know why?
Because I have this great book, Scottish Highland Knits, that has some great projects in it.

There are things that I can knit. I say "can" because remember I'm not that good of a knitter.
I'm much more trial and major error, then trial and error = success.
What can I say, it's an expensive hobby that I will be working at the rest of my life.
Anyway, all the patterns in the book use Rowan Tweed, some of which I believe is discontinued.
I don't know about you, but I can't afford to knit a blanket that takes 17 skeins (or balls!) of Rowan Tweed.
While I love the patterns, I just haven't taken the time to look for other yarns to use in place of the Rowan, but now KnitPicks has taken care of that for me.
Part of it anyway.
Their tweed yarn is in DK, heavy worsted, and fingering weight.
Now they just need to make some chunky tweed, and we'll be all set.
Oh, and what motivates me even more to want to knit from this books is because I've been watching Monarch of the Glen on Netflix.
Great show!
And it makes me want to go live in the Scottish Highlands.
Oh, and speaking of Netflix, does anyone use the instant watch option on an X-Box?
Does anyone here even use an X-Box?
Well it's not just for games, but you do know that you can play online with friends, right?
With Netflix on the X-Box you can also watch movies with your friends too, but they don't have to be in the same room. You can schedule a date night, or a dinner and a movie with someone, and watch it from your respective living rooms.
Perfect dating practices for agoraphobes!
Life is good!

Lion Brand's Big News

Have you heard the news from Lion Brand?
All of their patterns are now free.
The only ones that cost money are from certain designers.
Here's the quote from Facebook:

Enjoy some inspiration! All Lion Brand patterns are now free! Please note that we do still have a few paid patterns from outside designers.

Pretty cool, don't you think?
They do have a lot of nice patterns that can be modified for different yarns.
You still have to register on their website, but that's not a big deal.
I'm sure you're like me and have registered on 100 different websites just to look at one pattern, and I love free patterns.
Well I just love things that are free.