Thank You Clover

The Purl Foundation would like to thank Clover for their generous donation of high quality bamboo knitting needles. Their needles will be put to excellent use by Purl volunteers. Thanks Clover and thanks to Karen at The Knitting Patch for coordinating this donation!

Fruits of Your Labor

Thanks to everyone who donated and knitted this year for The Purl Foundation. All these beautiful handmade items are being distributed to the homeless by the Met Council through their Crisis Services and Family Violence programs. Thank you for everything you have done in 2008 - We can't wait to see what we all can accomplish in 2009.

Try this at home

Last week we had the pleasure of teaching Morgan Stanley junior analysts how to knit for their community service project of the month. As a double treat, Lion Brand graciously allowed us to host this event in their utterly gorgeous brand new Yarn Studio.

Normally when we are teaching a group how to knit their first project, the default is to make scarfs. We decided to mix it up a little this time and do hats instead - the hat is knit flat and then seamed up the side. If you want to make your own (or one to donate), here is the pattern:

Materials:
1 skein Lion Brand Jiffy in the color of your choice
One long set of size 10 needles
One darning needle
one pompom maker

Instructions:
Cast on 60 stitches and work in garter stitch (knitting on both sides) until it is about 5 inches
At the beginning of the next row, knit one stitch then knit the next two stitches together. Knit the rest of the row. You will have decreased one stitch. Repeat the decrease row, for the next 9 rows, decreasing by 10 stitches. After these ten rows, you should have 50 stitches remaining. On the next row, knit one stitch, knit two together then knit the rest of the row until there are three stitches remaining in the row. Knit the next two stitches together then knit the final remaining stitch. Repeat this row for the next nine rows so that you decreased an additional 20 stitches. You should now have 30 stitches remaining.

Finishing:
Cut the tail of the yarn, leaving a few feet to work with. Thread the needle and run it through the 30 live stitches remaining on the needle and drop the stitches from the needle. Pull the yarn tail taut like a drawstring and make a few stitches at the top to secure. Seam down from the top, bringing the sides together and forming the tube of the hat. You can use a very simple seam stitch, pulling the needle through the end loop on one side and then the end loop on the other side. Check the bottoms as you go along to make sure it remains even. Once you get to the bottom, weave in the ends.

Pompom:
Create a pompom using the instructions on the pompom maker and attach to the top. Weave in the ends.

Once you're all done, it should look more or less like mine. Then it's up to you if you want to keep it or donate. Happy knitting!

We are New Yorkers who care

Yesterday we traded in our needles for paint brushes to work on murals at PS 203K for New York Cares Day. Washington Crossing the Delaware never looked so good!

Join Purl for New York Cares Day

The Purl Foundation has formed a New York Cares Day team and want YOU to join. What is New York Cares Day, you ask? It is Saturday, October 18 and according to their website:

New York Cares is looking for 8,000 volunteers to help paint a brighter future for thousands of New York City school children. Join us for a day of good, clean fun -- painting murals and classrooms, adding bright new line games to playgrounds, organizing libraries, and planting flowers -- to help create great learning environments at over 100 public schools throughout the five boroughs.

Go to Purl's team page where you can sign up to join the crew. If you can't join, but would still like to participate, you can sponsor the team. We love NY Cares over here at the Purl Foundation and your donations will help them keep their countless amazing programs up and running.

See you in October

Our next two NY Cares events at the JCC in Manhattan are already filled, but don't fret - sign up for the two October events will be up before you know it. If you didn't make it in time this month and are itching to contribute something, feel free to send us your work. Hope to see you at one of our knitting events!

Spare a Square?

In addition to completed winter items (hats, scarves, etc), we are also accepting squares at this time, which we will piece together to make blankets. Our NY Cares volunteers have already been working on these, but we could always use more. We're accepting squares of any color and fiber in both 6 inch and 8 inch square dimensions. As always, submit your work to:

The Purl Foundation
c/o Dana Kapp
4303 13th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11219

I'll post pictures here once we have the first few done

Our Kick-Off Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone who made Spin With a Grin, Purl's kick-off fundraiser, such a success. I think I can safely say that fun was had by all. You can see for yourself at the slideshow on the side of this page.

Purl Shout-Out on the Philly Daily News website

Thanks, Flavia Monteiro Colgan, for your kind words on the Citizen Hunter Blog on the Philly Daily News website. You can read it here.

Spin with a Grin - The Purl Foundation's Kick-Off Fundraiser

That was quick!

I've just been informed that we are at capacity for the August 17th charity knitting event. Not to worry, the next one will be Tuesday, September 9. And those of you who have not attended a New York Cares orientation will now have plenty of time to get that done.

Stay tuned here for a heads up on when sign up for the Sep. 9 event will begin.

Announcing our new, ongoing New York Cares project

Starting August 17, The Purl Foundation will be hosting knitting for charity events twice a month at the JCC in Manhattan, co-hosted by New York Cares. The event will occur on the second Tuesday and third Sunday of every month. In order to participate, you must attend a New York Cares orientation (sign up here). If you have attended an orientation, you can sign up for the project here. Don't worry if this project is already filled - you can just go to the next one!

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Welcome!

We have a few big exciting projects coming up. Stay tuned for news and details.