action

I was reading Minimalist Knitter's (aka Robyn's) site as I often do and came across her newest charity endeavour: participating in Knit a Squillion action by Knit a Square.

Their ambitious plan is to to send 1,2 million squares to South Africa by July 10, 2012.

I mean: wow. 1,2 million squares will make blankets for 36.000 children in need. I thought: I want to participate in this!

Robyn set up a challenge for herself and for her readers: she will make 10 squares a month and challenges everyone reading her blog to make 25 squares. And you know what: I'll take the challenge and pass it on.

Thanks everyone for participating in this action! We managed to get a small sum together to help these girls in need!

Prolonged until 17th October!

There are many issues close to my heart in this world, and FGM (female genital mutilation) is one of the most terrible ones I can think of. That's why I'm starting this little action - I hope you can participate by donating (possible only in Germany / to a German bank account), tweeting or sharing this post in any other way, or educating yourself about FGM.

EDIT 20.01.2010: I got an email from the owner, and the fur has been removed from the shop. As it turns out, the owner is a vegetarian herself, and answered my mail in a nice manner. I have no problem anymore with buying from Wollkontor Erlangen.

I've been a pleased customer of the German online yarn shop Wollkontor Erlangen - they have a really nice selection of yarns and their service is good.

Happy World Vegan Day! It starts the World Vegan Month, a perfect time to critically look at our eating habits and their effects on our health, our fellow earthlings as well as the environment. I will be cooking a great, vegan pumpkin soup tonight. Here's the recepie if you'd like to join me:

1 kg Hokkaido pumpkin
1 biggish onion
1-2 garlic cloves
4 biggish potatoes
A bit of oil (olive, raps... doesn't matter)
Ca. 1 liter water
Black pepper
A chili shoot (you can use less or more depending on how hot you want the soup to be)
Ground nutmeg
100 ml soy cream

The problem with living in Germany and being a patron to the local library, and blogging in English is that I get to read really interesting books - which are available only in German. I usually then just leave them be and blog about something else, but recently I've read two books which I really want to write a review about. Maybe they will one day be translated, or you will get interested in the theme and find some books on the issues in English / your own language.

The first book is called "Kinder auf dem Strich" by Cathrin Schauer. The title translates to "Children on the game" and it talks about child prostitution on the German-Czech border. The author has worked in the region as a social worker for years. The book discusses the views of the different parties involved - the children, the pimps, the adult prostitutes, the buyers, the police and the general public.

The Pencil cases for Sudan -KAL me and the Ravelry Darfur group have been moderating has now come to an end. We had a voting going for the most beautiful pencil case at Flickr , and I counted the votes some days ago. You can see the winners at Ravelry or at Flicr - so beautiful pencil cases!

HelpSudan seems happy with our efforts too. I've asked them if it's ok to keep sending cases, but haven't got an answer yet.

I'll be taking the pencil case pattern links off the side bar for now, and add them into a post under the category "Patterns". The side bar tends to get so long otherwise.

I hope you had a good time making pencil cases, and hopefully we'll get some more action going later on as well!

The Darfur group at Ravelry has been moderating the Pencil cases for Sudan -KAL/CAL since the beginning of the year. The results are great - by the end of January we had about 50 cases done and sent to HELPSudan, I don't even know how many we have now!

But the KAL is not over yet. It will end on the 31st of March, so now's the time for the last push (or better said knit).

To give you all a little extra incentive to finish your pencil cases, or cast on just a few more, there'll be a voting on the most beautiful pencil case in the KAL's Flickr group with some lovely prizes!

The talented crochet designer Donna Childs was nice enough to design a pencil case for the Sudan project I've been running with the Ravelry Darfur group and will be running for a few months still - so please participate

She doesn't have a blog herself, nor a Ravelry shop page, so I offered to post her pattern here. I've uploaded it and you can find it attached into this post, or as direct document in pdf here Please take a look, it's so lovely! The other patterns available you can find on the right hand side navigation.

We have the first crochet pattern available, so please get your hooks and make one for Sudan.

Clara designed it, and you can find it at her blog.

A note to all: please send any cases you have ready to HELPSudan now, as they'd love to have some for their Annual Craft Auction on the 24th January!

Finished pencil cases can be sent directly to HELPSudan at

HELPSudan

5255 N. Ashland Ave.

Chicago, IL 60640

USA

For the KAL/CAL "Pencil Cases for Sudan" which the Ravelry Darfur Group is moderating I finally got my pencil case pattern done as well.

It's great to be able to participate alongside with other generous and talented designers like Wendy or Kieran - see the links to their patterns on the right side navigation bar!

You can get the .pdf version of my pattern here, plus it can be seen here (press "Read more") as a blog entry (and the pattern is even attached here - you should find it!) I wish you all happy knitting and please let me know if you see any mistakes or unclarities in the pattern!

And: don't forget to submit your finished ones to the Flickr group!