HAPPILY HOOKED ON CROCHET CHAPTER CHRISTMAS PARTY

Hi Everyone,

Its been a while since I posted and every
time I go away from it, it takes me a while
to figure things out again.

Our Happily Hooked on Crochet group had the most wonderful meeting yesterday. It was our Christmas Party and our members showed up laden with gifts and food. There was so much to choose
from that we all went home stuffed.
Two of our members have been
newly published - Congratulations Nancy and Chava.

My friend, Frances F., from Pawling, donated a huge bag of yarn
for the members. Grace (our president) decided the fairest way
to distribute the yarn was to raffle it off. There were 3 happy campers.
Grace gave us all a surprise package with a bar of soap, some yarn and
instructions on how to make a back scrubbie. Lots of fun, practical too
and a great, easy gift.

All in all a great meeting.

Enjoy the rest of the day.

Margaret





























































Nancy and Ruth enjoying their grab bag
gifts.







Everyone is having a grand time, busy talking and working away on their projects.


































































Nancy showing us her first published design - hooray Nancy!

Hi Everyone,

A few weeks ago I received a very nice e-mail from a knitting Guild asking my permission to use my free sweater pattern for charity work. They also asked if they could download the pattern, copy and distribute it to their guild members. This letter was special for a number of reasons. Designers usually put free patterns on their site to encourage people to visit and hopefully buy some of their future designs. Unfortunately it is an uphill battle trying to fight copy right infringement, so it was very refreshing to get an e-mail requesting permission. Not only were they asking me, but they also were going to do such good works with the pattern. I was so impressed, I not only gave my permission, but asked them to send me photos of their work.

Here's their letter and photo that I just received this afternoon.

Thank you again for allowing our knitting guild to use your Very Easy Child's Sweater pattern for a Guild KAL to support the Salvation Army. Last Thursday evening was our donation to the Salvation Army and there were lots of these little sweaters. The ladies loved knitting them and I believe will be making even more to donate. I am attaching a photo of the ladies who were present on Thursday evening who had finished sweaters or sweaters still on the needles from your wonderful pattern.

We are the Woolgatherer's Knitting Guild of Plymouth, Michigan. We meet in the Salvation Army building in Plymouth. While many of us knit for multiple charitable endeavors, the main charity knitting focus of our Guild is the Salvation Army. We knit to support many of their activities. These sweaters will go to their holiday distribution, where they allow pre-screened needy families come to "shop" for their families for the holidays. The sweaters and hats from your pattern will warm the bodies and hearts of many children this winter.

Thank you for sharing your pattern.

Mary Dixon

The Happily Hooked on Crochet Chapter of CGOA, the guild that I am a member
of, also does a lot of charity work, and we are collecting items right now to be
donated to the Salvation Army.

Great work all, I love it!

Margaret

HAPPILY HOOKED ON CROCHET CHAPTER NOV MEETING

Hi Everyone,

I had the fun and pleasure of hosting the Happily Hooked on Crochet Chapter's
November meeting.

I love having everyone at my house, and as usual, we had a great time. We were making
items to sell at our annual fundraiser.




Everyone is so busy working on their
items.





































Here's Nancy modeling her
beautiful shawlette.











We had fun, got a lot done too.

Have a great day!

Margaret

Scarves for charity etc

Hi again,

I managed to get some photos in. One may be a duplicate, but I am afraid to delete anything.
I don't want to have to start all over again.

Every day Marie receives scarves from people wanting to help the needy.
The fleece scarves
were made by students wanting to do their share.











Marie tells me that this is only some of the scarves donated, there are several more cartons full all packed up and ready to go.

Truly amazing and heartwarming.







Have a great day!

Margaret

Scroll down to read a little more about the scarf project.

Scarves for charity etc

Hi Everyone.

I don't know why I am having a problem with the new blog, but I am. Every time that
I manage to get an entry in, it takes me forever to figure out how to do it again.
Google keeps telling me that I am submitting the wrong information, so I have
to start all over again. So frustrating!

I am having the monthly meeting of our group - Happily Hooked on Crochet, at my house on Sunday, perhaps Dee crochetwithdee.com
will be able to help me out. Dee is one of my "go to people" when I have computer
problems.

A few months ago, my local yarn shop THE YARN AND CRAFT BOX, in Pawling, N.Y. started a drive to collect scarves to hand out to needy during the cold winter months. Marie, owner of the shop, put out the call to all her customers and told them that she had hoped to collect 500 scarves by December 1st.

I was in the shop on Monday, and the piles of scarves had grown to 727 and still
coming in. Marie has each donor sign their name on a little tag and attaches them
to the scarves.

Word has spread about the program and Marie is collecting scarves from all over.
Some people make just one, others make many. This is a small town and the response has been overwhelming, it is very heart warming to see how much people care.

I have been trying to add photos, but its not working for me now.

Have a great day!

Margaret

THE PINK PROJECT

Hi Everyone,

While we were in New Zealand we helped Prudence make some scrumbles
for the Pink Project. For those of you who do not know, Prudence Mapstone
knotjustknitting.com
Has been collecting scrumbles (small pieces of crochet/knit, each a work of art in themselves) from people all over the world and assembling them
into beautiful Free Form items. The items will soon be auctioned off, all the money going to
cancer research. Such a great cause, and the items are truly works of art.

The shawl is just about completed and you can see how many more scrumbles we made to add to Prudences' ever growing amount.


Have a great evening

Margaret

New Blog Woes

Good Morning Everyone,

I am still experiencing difficulty with the new blog, but I am working on it.
Not sure how to do much here yet, just trying out posting for now.

I have started working on another new book. Way too early to talk about
it yet, but as usual, I am excited about another new project in the works.

I hop that you are enjoying the fall weather we are having in the North East right
now. Quite cool this morning, but a beautiful sun shiny day. Have a great one!

Margaret

Hi Everyone,.

I think that we have the problem solved and I am able to post to the new blog.
If this works, I will start posting tomorrow.

Have a great evening

Margaret

NZ final days

Good Morning Everyone,

I am going to make this the final entry on New Zealand, then
I am going to try to move my blog.  I do not know yet what
this means and how you can find me again.  Dee tells me
that the title, MY HOOKS AND NEEDLES is taken already, so I am
going to try for MARGARET'S HOOKS AND NEEDLES.

I will post on various lists when the move is complete. You
can always write to me at MHDesigner1@aol.com

Our days in NZ are coming to an end, but we still have
some fun in store. 

We visited the Te Puia thermal village which is located
close to central Rotorua.  In addition we attended a
Maori Cultural Show.

Soon we will board the coach for our final journey to
Aukland, via Tauranga, and our final chance to shop.
We take a short ferry trip across to Auckland's North
Shore to visit the historical maritime village of
Devonport.  Time to get that last ball of merino
at Wild & Wooly, check out the vintage bookshops, have
lunch.  We are all tired and happy, ready for our journey
home, but sad to leave New Zealand and all our new
friends.



All the yellow color that you see in the rocks is sulphur.
At certain times, the sulphur smell is very strong.



This is the Maori king welcoming us to his village.
We had to have someone from our group volunteer
to represent us and be our "king" in order to take
part in the welcoming ceremony.  It is taken very
seriously, and we are cautioned not to talk or laugh
during the ceremony.



The Maori are great weavers and carvers



Enjoying the sunshine and working on the Pink
Project, trying to finish up the last scrumbles.



What's a girl to do when she forgets her knitting
needles?  Why knit with her pens of course.



Our last trip as a group, a tour of Auckland and
visit to Devonport.


Geraldine, me and Tom


Me, Jane, Phyllis and Prudence



Judy, me, Lynn and Sheryl

Hope to see everyone on my new blog.

Margaret

Two More great stops in NZ

Hi Everyone,

On this day we visited the Agrodome to watch their
famous sheep and sheep dog show. 


I was amazed at how big the sheep were and how
calm they were.

All the different sheep and the grade of their wool.
The finest merino being the top of the group.




That's my friend Phyllis up center stage.  She
volunteered to feed a baby lamb.


Sheryl, trying out the spinning wheel.




The next day we visited the town of Tauranga and Majacraft,
 spinning wheel manufacturers.  We met with a group of local
knitters and spinners, who greeted us with a lovely
morning tea, and made us feel like visiting royalty.


Some of the Knitters and Spinners who hosted us.

That's all for now,  Enjoy the rest of the day.

Margaret