Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2013, Angels!!  Oh, Angels!  I have been very bad!  I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have posted an update to our blog, but with the holiday busy-ness and then getting back into the normal post-holiday routine (believe it or not, I do not dedicate my entire life to crocheting!!), it's now the end of January and I'm just now getting around to this. 

So...what's been happening?  Well, LOTS!!  On Saturday, December 1st, a group from Edgebrook Covenant served at A Just Harvest, a soup kitchen in East Rogers Park.  Sandy and I went along, loaded with plenty of your hat and scarf sets to distribute to the folks who are served by this wonderful ministry.  We distributed about 125 sets of adult-sized hats and scarves, letting the folks pick what they wanted.  We also distributed about 20 youth-sized sets for the younger patrons.  The recipients of your gifts were very grateful for the warmth you provided.  Here are some pictures from the evening...

Then, on December 2nd, we held a Crafty Angel Holiday Sale following our church service.  Special thanks to Jeannine Patt, Gail Shaw, Pam Gantzer, and Lisa Kowar who helped Sandy and me with setting up for the sale the day before and/or clean-up at the end of the sale.  Turns out Gail and Jeannine are display mavens extraordinaire!  We held the sale in Fellowship Hall at Edgebrook Covenant, which gave us a lot more room to spread out.  We had a raffle and the lucky winner got this stunning hand-knit afghan made by super-stitcher, Debbie Kreusch.  Debbie, you continue to amaze us!  Just look at the detail on this beauty!!





The holiday sale was a HUGE success thanks to all of your hard work.  The purpose of the sale is to raise funds to cover our expenses for the year (yarn to stock our bins and to send to Angels who are not local, shipping expenses, etc.).  We raised a total of $1,451!!  $112 of that was raised through the raffle for the afghan, the rest through the sale of a selection of your beautiful hand-made items.  Here are some photos from the sale...

 

 

What was left over from the sale, along with all of the rest of the yarny goodness we had collected throughout the year, was bagged and distributed to the various ministries supported by Crafty Angels.  In addition, this year we provided some baby items to The Women's Center where Jeannine Patt is a volunteer.  Seventeen large garbage bags (yard size), filled with a variety of your love gifts (hats, scarves, afghans, sweaters, socks, mittens, etc.), were given to Cornerstone Community Outreach; three large bags filled with the same sorts of gifts were taken to North Park Friendship Center; and seven large bags of baby items were taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital.  On top of this, we were able to assemble 730 spa bags in 2012.  120 spa bags were given to Swedish Covenant for the new moms there, 30 spa bags were given to Leland House, and the rest went to Cornerstone Community Outreach.  We have received Thank You notes from both Swedish Covenant and North Park Friendship Center expressing their gratitude for the love and generosity you have shown them with your gifts.  Sandy and I also want to extend our personal thanks for the work that you do.  You are touching so many lives, in such a positive way, with your generosity.

 

After the flurry of activity around the holidays, we held our first meeting of 2013 on Saturday, January 19th.  While attendance was low for this meeting (there were only nine of us there), it allowed us an opportunity to get everything opened, displayed, and photographed, and still have plenty of time to just sit around and visit.  That being said, we really missed those of you who couldn't be there.  Here are the goodies that we received to kick off the new year...

Carol Flowers came with her standard HUGE bundle of love!  She was also nice enough to take some of the purchased hats for A Just Harvest after our November meeting and make scarves to match them.  Great job, Carol!  Carol, who is veteran crocheter, is now learning how to knit.  We can't wait to see your new creations!

We received these gorgeous baby/kids hats from two lovely young women from Atlanta, GA - Eva Steinberg and Elizabeth Snyderman.  I believe this is the first time we've received a donation from Eva and Elizabeth - THANK YOU, ladies!  You do beautiful work!

Jeannine Patt has tackled and conquered the ruffled scarf made from Sashay yarn.  Love the colors here!

The Indiana Klickers have been hard at work again.  Just look at all of this loveliness!  Thanks, ladies, for your hard work and faithfulness to the Crafty Angels ministry.

Peg Kingsley came bearing all of this yarny goodness - hand-made by her friend Jo S.  Jo, thanks for your beautiful stitchery and, Peggy, thanks for inspiring Jo!

Here are the gorgeous varigated scarves that are the trademark of Phyllis Snodgrass.  Phyllis, your heart is filled with the same kind of warmth these scarves will provide to "the least of these."

Somebody was busy!!  Linda Faubel, were DID you find the time to put together all of

the yarny goodness shown above and below?  Three afghans plus everything else??  That's amazing!

 

 

I made an attempt at a crocheted version of the Sashay yarn scarf (shown here), but it definitely is not as pretty as the knit variety.  The floral motif scarf was from a pattern I used for my second ever crochet project when I was just learning.  It was fun to revisit.

 

Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, March 16th, 10:30 a.m. in the chapel at Edgebrook Covenant.  We hope you'll be able to join us!