Monday, November 09, 2009

bit of red

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I can hardly comment on the collections I found at my aunt's home on Friday. She had a thirty year headstart on me. I'm no slouch. The next generation will have plenty to work with here.

Speaking of red & the work of another generation (smooth segue, no?)...
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photo courtesy of Rita Zucker
My mom sent me this shot of scarves she & her friend Claire knit for the Red Scarf Project of the OFA. Deadline's December 15th to donate a handknit scarf for a former foster kid now in college. If you start one soon, surely you can finish it in time for this very worthy cause. It means more than you think. And, go check out the contest Norma's running for contributors.

My mom's been a supporter of the Red Scarf project ever since we learned about it, in 2006. She's helped out when I've done photo shoots for them in the DC area. The first year she had a college student run up & hug her to thank her and say how much it meant, and she saw "red scarf kids" volunteering as packers get all excited picking out scarfs. She's been knitting, spreading the word & recruiting knitters ever since. Like her senior center gym buddy Claire. Claire's scarf is on the left (pattern unknown). In the center, is my mom's Luna Lace Scarf from Shear Spirit, (yeah, nepotistic choice, nothing wrong with that, right?). She modified for DKish weight yarn, knitting it over 35 stitches. On the right, she knit a checkerboard textured pattern (generic pattern here). I saw that one in person, it looks...dare I say? very smart.

Funny, yet awful, story: Claire had knit a fourth red scarf, she'd blocked it, folded it carefully and put it in a box on a shelf by her front door to bring to the gym to hand off to my mom. Her husband, being a helpful sorta guy, thought it was a trash box and took it out. Not to a garbage can. He threw it down an incinerator chute in their building.

Can you feel her pain? Claire didn't talk to him for almost 2 days.
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8 comments:

  1. Bullwinkle5:05 AM

    I'm not sure it was "didn't talk to him for two days" so much as "was completely stunned and speechless". You know, the time when you open and close your mouth - several times - or a thousand - and no words comes out.

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  2. Cathy R10:02 AM

    Oh, dear. What a tragic end to a well-knit scarf.

    I recognized the Luna Lace Scarf modified for DK.

    Good Luck to the Red Scarf-ers.

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  3. Jodi10:05 AM

    What a lovely effort! And oh no... what a way to tick off your wife. Then again, he also takes out garbage without prompting, so perhaps you can't get too upset.

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  4. Ellen Bloom10:50 AM

    Mom's and Claire's scarves are beautiful!!! Nice work, Ladies.
    Sad about Claire's other scarf. At least her husband takes out the trash and cleans up without nagging!!!!

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  5. Anonymous1:19 PM

    oh boy... that is so not cool.

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  6. Nutella Nutterson2:58 PM

    On the plus side - a lifetime of "red scarf yarn" credit with her husband?

    Thanks for the reminder to get crackin' on my red scarves! I'm almost done with one I was working on way back at Sock Summit, and I have yarn all lined up for one last one before the deadline!

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  7. Natalie7:50 PM

    I like to think that the scarf was just an offering and its goodwill and love was spread out upon the neighborhood and beyond to those who needed it.

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  8. jcoop4:34 PM

    I had to silently swallow a BIG lump of upset when I thought my well-meaning mother had just tossed out a sock in Claudia's Handpainted 2 years ago, along with post xmas trash. So it was such a thrill when she located the missing sock a year later when she unpacked the christmas ornaments! I'm hoping to get the 2nd sock done by the 1st sock's 3rd christmas. :)

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