Share A Square 2010- Ready for another Round?

Okay, so, it's a little pun, "another round" which only crocheters would understand, but the title says it all, Share a Square 2010 is on. This time, the goal is 150 afghans to Camp Discovery in Texas for summer, 2011. Shelly mentioned doing this again a couple of months ago and a phone call to her last month convinced me to help out more than last time. Shelly's the organizer, the donation depot and the spirit, while I am the tag along, motivator and consultant. (Always liked the consultant title) After the last Share a Square, I did join another charity group, but the communication that Shelly provided throughout was lacking in this second group. For 2010, we are using what Shelly learned last time and what I have learned from Ravelry, to get a larger group of enthusiastic crocheters within a short time.

As of today, there are 98 members on the Ravelry Share a Square 2010 group and 191 on the Facebook group. Now there are some shared members between the groups, but still, like I said to Shelly last week, it's gives me Goosebumps that there are so many involved so early in the project.

Speaking of Bumps- here's a great square pattern from Rachel Shammy, Purpleiguana on Ravelry, called Bumpy Square. There are a couple of variations of where to "bump", but I did the 20 chain one with a Size G hook to get a six inch square. Enjoy!

Bumpy Square Pattern
Using Red Heart Super Saver WW yarn, ch 20.
Special stitch: bump (2 DC cluster--yo, insert hook at stitch indicated, yo, pull loop through, yo, pull through two loops; repeat once more, yo, pull loop through all three loops on hook)
Row 1. SC in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across. Ch 1, turn.
Row 2. SC into first SC, * bump in next stitch, SC * rep from * to * to end of row. Ch 1, turn.
Row 3. SC straight across. Ch 1, turn.
Row 4. SC into first two SC, * bump in next stitch, SC * rep from * to * to end of row; SC into last two stitches. Ch 1, turn.
Row 5. SC straight across. Ch 1, turn.
Repeat Rows 2-5 until square measures 6 inches. When I do it, there are 9 “bump” rows.

Two More Books, Check out My Library

This past weekend we went up to Maine to spend some time with my Aunt. It's a 2.5 ride up there for us through the lake region of New Hampshire. Did I enjoy the sights? Heck no, I went to the library on Saturday for a refill. While there, I got into a debate about Eat, Pray, Love which I hated and the two librarians loved. I actually came up with an analogy for the book, bitchy, rich woman does the modified Siddhartha thing.

Anyway, got my chick lit books and a couple of heavier books. Of course I brought the two chick lit books along for the weekend since they both turned out to be light reading. The first was Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan and it made me miss my Black Lab. The story was based on an island in the harbor of Portland Maine, and it wasn't really a romance, but more of a story of recovery after a loss. Definitely meets the Beach book criteria for a good light summer read. If you love dogs, you may just enjoy this book even more!

The second book was pure chick lit, Hot Flash Club Strikes again by Nancy Thayer, and it was an enjoyable read of four different women with family issues and how they team up to overcome the issues. Did it make me think? Of course not, but I enjoyed it.

A few weeks ago, someone recommended www. librarything.com to me, I think it was Janeywan. It's a pretty cool site and my plan is to keep track of all the books that I have read this year. I have the past two months listed and there is box on the right of my blog with random covers. If you click on the covers, they are linked to the books at Amazon. I am going to try to get the list of books that I have read from my friendly librarian. My memory is worthless when it comes to remembering books and authors, I work well with visuals. It's tough to get old.

Yesterday was the culmination of a dream for Share a Square for Shelly over This Eclectic Life. Afghans were given out to campers at Camp Sanguinity. It gives me goosebumps to think of all those squares made by so many made into cozy afghans for the kids!

Any good books out there that I need to put on my list???

Share a Square afghan 2 is in the Mail

Share a Square afghan 2.JPG
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

The second afghan is done and on it's way to Texas for the Share a Square project. The squares were a lot of fun to make and the putting the afghan together was interesting. There was variation in the squares, so I needed to determine whether I needed to double or single crochet around the square.

Kudos to Shelly for a job well done. I can't wait to hear about the kids getting the afghans. Just think about it, Shelly had an idea to make 140 afghans made of 48 squares from 48 different people. I worked with squares from all around the world. That's a whole lot of people involved in one project created by one ambitious blogger for 140 children with cancer.

Because there were so many afghans, I made my borders a different color. I figured it would help a child remember which was theirs. It is mind boggling to think that Shelly put so many afghans together, along with coordinating the squares while working and being a mom and wife. Plus, I want to know....how the heck did you keep your cats off? My kittens' eyes would have the gleam of the devil once the yarn and squares came out. Mini loved the yarn and Stash loved snuggling into the squares while I was putting the blanket together. There was one square that he would look for all the time. ( I hope whoever gets the afghans I made aren't allergic to cats!!)

My part is done, but I can't wait to hear about the delivery! Shelly, keep us posted and I hope you have a vacation soon!

What Can Happen When you Blog

Quick stripe hat.JPG
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

I am almost into my first year of blogging frequently. The blog was started in January of 2006, but it wasn't until last March that I really started becoming a regular and "meeting" people through blogging. Shelly Tucker (This Eclectic Life) and I started about the same time and were looking for help in improving our blogs. We had different goals for blogging and like anything else, those goals took on a life of their own.

We hooked up with Teamouse who crochets and knits as a hobby. It was Tea's hobby and her knitted dishclothes that arrived in Texas which struck a creative nerve in Shelly last summer along with a post at Your Mirror or Mine where Phara wrote about her son receiving a quilt at summer camp. It was a Camp for Pediatric Cancer patients where all 60 campers received a handmade quilt, and it was this post that started Shelly off on Share a Square, read her first post here, and check out the update page at it's own website now. Shelly asked for 6720 squares and has surpassed that amount by the generosity of bloggers around the world to make squares for the summer of 2008 campers at Camp Sanguinity in Texas which will be about 140 campers. Shelly is still in need of people to add the black rim around squares and/or sew the squares together to make an afghan.

Because each square comes with a tag from the person who made the afghan, other bloggers have come up with an idea to make bags for kids to save the tags. The first child to receive the afghan really enjoyed going through the tags and the idea of creating special bags evolved for the tags. Purple Moose Gazette and Yellow Rose will be accepting 70 bags each. If you go to Yellow Rose's site, there are directions for different types of bags, from crochet, to knit, to sewing. If you would like to contribute a bag to the project, please check them out.

So how does blogging, an afghan charity project, and the strip hat connect? Well, if it wasn't for blogging, then I wouldn't have learned how to make a granny square which sparked the latent hobby of knitting for me. You see, once upon a time, we didn't have laptop computers or even a desktop computer and I used to knit sweaters for my family. The Share a Square project along with TeaTime Ramblings knitting posts has gotten me crocheting and knitting up a storm. My flikr craft badge has all the "stuff" that I have crocheted/knitted within the past 8 months. The striped hat is the latest and I just loved using the self striping yarn. Once I get this afghan done for Shelly, I have plenty of projects lined up to keep my fingers busy. (Shelly, I can do another one or rim some squares once I send this one off) What has blogging brought out in you this past year? Any creative lightning strikes? A new recipe? A different outlook on life?