25 Things for Charity

Socks for Soldiers

2012-01-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

I joined Socks for Soldiers just before Christmas Day and started right away. My first pair of regulation olive drab socks is almost done. I plan to make at least a pair a month, along with two beanies a month (from the leftover yarns).

Updates and photos to follow.

We need 3,000 more comfort scarves to make our 2011 goal

2011-11-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

OCTOBER NEWSLETTEROctober 30, 2011
Today’s topics:

 We delivered 1,000 comfort scarves this month

 We have almost 2,500 comfort scarves wrapped and ready for Holiday delivery

 Making another 2,500 + scarves by Christmas will be a lot of work by all of us. We can do it

 Handmade’s dedicated volunteers are the greatest

 The generous contributions from yarn companies and individuals continue

 Shelters for abused women APPRECIATE receiving our comfort scarves

 Affiliates throughout the county are donating many scarves in their own areas

 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

 Handmade needs cash donations

And now for the details:

In addition to our October delivery of 1,000 comfort scarves, we have at least another 2,000 scarves wrapped and ready for shipping in November. We plan to distribute them before Thanksgiving because every room in my house is filled with scarves and my entire family is coming for the holiday. They will need a place to sleep! Joking aside, I am very proud of all of us who are working so hard to achieve our goal of delivering 15,000 comfort scarves in 2011. Honestly, as much as I hoped for such a result, I thought it might be too big to achieve. But we’ve almost made it. No slacking off now. We’re so close. Please keep scarfing. By the way, adding our October delivery of 1,000 to our YTD, we have now delivered 10,000 comfort scarves, the same as what we donated in all of 2010.

We had so many scarves to prepare, we held two wrapping parties in October. They were lots of fun. We went through a lot of ribbon and the enormous piles of brightly wrapped scarves looked very festive. I am sure they will have a strong, positive impact. Anita Stevens, Ann Nye, Barbara Klein, Chris Needham, Cindy Blausey, Evelyn Dow, Kathy Allen, Marie Cortez, Mary Barton, Nancy English, Sharon McCann, and Yumi Wu rolled and tied scarves at one or both of the parties until there were no more to roll. It was a huge job. Many thanks to you all.

Kit making has become a more streamlined due to more participants. Barbara Klein and Mary Gravlin made them at first. Once we moved to our workshop (thanks to Sheri Schrier, founder of Happy Hats), Linda Friege, Marie Cortez, Sharon McCann, and Yumi Wu joined them. Now, as word spreads about how much fun kit making is, Ann Nye and Nancy English participate as well. They’re making lots of kits, maybe almost enough to last through the end of the year. They have done a wonderful job. The scarves we knit from the kits they make are very beautiful.

Most of the participants in these two groups are members of our Wednesday Evening Knitting Club, sponsored by June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn. June has supported Handmade since its inception. Her sponsorship has helped Handmade to become the success it is today. The Knitting Club meets every Wednesday, for as much of 5-8 p.m. as the members want to attend. The group is very welcoming. June prominently displays a bin for kits that need to be knitted and another bin for finished scarves. If you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by. Her shop is a gold mine for really great yarn.

Our enthusiastic group of kit makers goes through miles of yarn every time they make kits. They make them as a group at least once a week, sometimes twice, and sometimes working at home as well. They couldn’t make so many kits without the generosity of yarn companies. Donations in September were substantial and put us in good shape for making lots of scarves for the holidays. I thought we wouldn’t receive any donations in October, but events proved me wrong. Susan Druding, Crystal Palace Yarns, sent a big box to the workshop (our first to arrive there!). Then much to my surprise, amazement, and delight, Becky Moss, Skacel Collection, sent 21 boxes (2,850 balls of yarn) of their Luana yarn. It is so soft and comes in such beautiful colors that it is perfect for making comfort scarves. An added benefit: the boxes the yarn arrived in are an excellent size for shipping our holiday scarves. Thank you, Susan and Becky. I think we’ve filled the workshop now, as well as my house.

Westminster Fibers also sent a box of yarn. Thank you Jessica! Again, much to my amazement, Nandini Rajagopalan, a member of the Handmade group on Ravelry, saw my request for fun fur. She found a good deal on it and donated 300 balls, 150 red and 150 blue. Incredible! Barbara says we’ll be making a lot of patriotic scarves in 2012. We appreciate.

Every month, thank you letters pour in from the shelters to which we donate comfort scarves. We receive too many to mention them all, but here is a typical example. Luciann Maulhardt, Executive Director of Casa Youth Shelter in Los Alamitos CA, wrote: “Thanks for all you do for Casa’s Kids… . Casa provides 235 or more kids with 2,500 days and nights of safe off the streets shelter in a family-like setting… On behalf of … OUR KIDS, we are sending you a great big “THANK YOU… We just couldn’t do what we do without your wonderful help.”

Ann Nye and I recently visited the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles. Allison Bamberg, Volunteer Associate, showed us around. We were very impressed by the new facility, which provides permanent housing to 71 women, as well as 200 + meals and 77 showers to other women who drop in to their facility on a daily basis. The building was bright and clean. Computers were available for the women to use for job hunting and resume writing. Allison told us the Center plans to give 275 rolling backpacks to its women for Christmas and hopes to have one of our scarves in each backpack. Of course, we will supply the scarves!

New groups and people are contributing scarves to Handmade. Kathy Allen is a volunteer reading teacher at the Presentation Learning Center in Los Angeles. She learned that the attendees knit items for charity so she asked for 25 kits to take there. Sister Jane Bonar, leader of the Center, is very happy with our kits and we are happy with the beautiful job her group does making them into comfort scarves. You can see a photo of them with some of their finished scarves on our website.

Word of our comfort scarf project continues to spread. Erika Collins, from Sydney Australia, found us on Facebook and immediately sent 3 scarves. Christine Werth, Human Resources Rep of the Hays KS branch of N.E.W. Corp., requested kits for their company-wide volunteer week. Her group finished the kits in a week’s time and she returned the scarves to me the next week. That was fast! She says she will ask for more kits next year because making comfort scarves was so popular this year.

Renee Hoffman, leader of our Long Beach CA group, donated 20 scarves to Interval House. Vicki Ringer, leader of our San Fernando Valley CA group, delivered scarves to Haven Hills. Susan Van Winkle, organizer of our North County, San Diego CA affiliate, reports they donated 66 scarves to Rachel’s Women’s Center.

Dr. Laura Guertin, founder of the Delaware County PA affiliate, told me her group delivered 100 scarves to the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County PA. She says that brings her YTD to 300 and that she has more new knitters and crocheters and hopes to see a lot more scarves coming in.

Barbara Kochuba, in Pittsburgh PA, continues moving ahead full steam. She now has a website for Comfort Scarves, her group, and continues to distribute at least 80 scarves each month to shelters in Southwestern PA.

I hope you remember that last month I met Bonnie Jacobs, who comes from NJ, in Los Angeles where she was attending the dedication of a stained glass window she made for the Hollywood United Methodist Church. She showed a photo of it to my husband and me when we were having brunch. I loved the theme of the window (It takes a village) and her workmanship impressed me. When I excused myself to go to the ladies’ room, my husband conspired with Bonnie. He sent her a photo of his hand making the sign language sign for “I love you” and she made a small stained glass picture of that. She shipped it to arrive just in time for my birthday. I was thrilled. We hung it in a window where the morning sun comes in. It is really beautiful! You can see a photo of it on our website.

Finally, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is not usually a topic of conversation, but I have seen articles about it, heard news reports on radio and TV, this month more than any other time. First of all, there was the incident in Topeka KS where the City Council voted to de-criminalize domestic violence because they could not afford to enforce the law (they experienced a 10% cut to their budget). They even released from jail 18 suspected abusers awaiting trial. Reportage went on for several days until the Shawnee County DA was forced, by public outcry, to reverse his decision to pass on such prosecutions from his office to the City’s. The idea that the DA and the City Council both treated prosecution of domestic violence offenses as something that could be played with in a political fight goes to illustrate just how little political clout abused women have. Was domestic violence “legal” in Topeka? What happened to the women when the 18 abusers were set free?

Here are a few domestic violence facts gathered by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime

About 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year

85% of domestic violence victims are women; 25% to 45% are battered during pregnancy

Women age 15-44 are at greatest risk

Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police

Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners when they become adults

The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year; $4.1 billion is for medical and mental health services

About 20% of the people who experience intimate partner violence obtain civil protection orders; 50% of these orders are violated

There are 1,500 shelters for abused women in the US; there are 3,800 shelters for animals

Domestic violence occurs among people of all races, ages, socio-economic classes, religious affiliations, occupations, and educational backgrounds

In 2010, the LAPD received 48,042 domestic violence-related calls and reported 20,467 domestic violence-related crimes

Comfort scarves, even 15,000 of them, cannot combat these statistics or cure the harm done by abuse to the women and children who experience it. But comfort scarves are a START to overcoming the effects of domestic violence. Comfort scarves help a woman feel remembered, important, and valuable. Even if for just a moment, receiving a comfort scarf raises a woman’s self-esteem. The feelings a woman experiences when she receives a comfort scarf make her open to beginning the therapy and education that will help her change her life.

We who make comfort scarves have a big responsibility to keep making them, to continue helping abused women break out of the mental state that allows them to think abuse is “normal.”

To do this, we need you. We need you to make scarves for the women, enough scarves so that we reach our 15,000 goal this year.

We also need your financial support. Contribute $10, $25, $50, or even more. The cost for making comfort scarves is low. All Handmade’s participants are volunteers. We have no employees. We pay no salaries. All the yarn we use has been donated by yarn companies or by individuals. We have ongoing daily expenses such as paper, toner, boxes, packing tape, etc. but SHIPPING is our biggest expense. It takes almost $500 each month to send kits to volunteers and scarves to our shelters. In November and December, this will be higher because we will be sending out 2,500 scarves (not our usual 1,000) each month.

Double your donation by asking your company to match it. Cynthia Newkirk, one of our supporters almost since Handmade started, works for Verizon Wireless. When she donated, she asked Verizon to match her donation and they did. That doubled the impact of her contribution.

Handmade Especially for You is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit charity, so any donation you make will be tax-deductible. We provide appropriate receipts for all donations. 100% of your donation goes toward helping abused women.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$, which we need to pay for the huge holiday shipping bill we anticipate, you can mail a check to the above address, or contribute via PayPal. There is a link on our website.

Thanks for supporting Handmade Especially for You. I appreciate, and so do all the abused women.

Leslye Borden, Founder
www.handmadeespecially.org

Handmade needs 6,000 comfort scarves by the end of the year/September Newsletter

2011-10-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

September 30, 2011

Today’s topics:

 We distributed 9,000 comfort scarves so far this year; just 6,000 more to go to reach our goal of 15,000 by the end of the year. WE CAN DO IT!

 Our success is due to a huge team of volunteers

 Shelters are very grateful for our beautiful comfort scarves

 Yarn companies and individuals have donated generously to our cause

 Attending Vogue Knitting Live was good for Handmade

 Our affiliated groups are making and donating scarves

 Scarves are coming in from all over Los Angeles, California, the USA, and the world

 Looking ahead

And now for the details:

We distributed 1,000 comfort scarves again this month! That means all of you did a lot of kit making, knitting, crocheting, adding fringe, wrapping scarves, packing boxes, and shipping. There’s a lot that goes into the making and distributing of our comfort scarves. It used to be that just a few dedicated participants did it all, but our network of participants is growing and running fast to keep up with the demand for scarves. Thanks to June Grossberg’s support, we meet every Wednesday evening at her shop, Concepts in Yarn. Thanks to Sheri Schrier’s generosity, our kit makers meet at least once a week, if not twice, at the Happy Hats warehouse. To process all the scarves, we have two wrapping parties each month. By way of comparison, the 1,000 scarves we shipped this month doubles the 500 we delivered in September, 2010. The 9,000 scarves we’ve delivered so far in 2011 almost equals the 10,000 we shipped during the entire year of 2010. In October, we will equal 2010’s total. Wow. Thank you all who spend so much of your valuable time to make and distribute the scarves. You’re the greatest!

You’d almost think that after so long a time (Handmade began in October 2008) and after so many comfort scarves, that shelters might tire of them. But not at all. Shelters continue to appreciate, need, and want our scarves. In a handwritten note, Gina Galindo of the Fred Jordan Missions, expressed her desire for MORE scarves. “What a wonderful blessing it was to receive these scarves. We would love to have more.” Rest assured, Gina, more will be on their way soon.

Tracy Halstead, Director of Haven House, a shelter supported by Jewish Family Services, indicated her thanks: “Thank you for your generous donation of 20 handmade scarves. Your commitment to help abused women and children in our community is sincerely appreciated.”

Margaret Bayston, CEO/Executive Director of Laura’s House, described the two-fold impact of comfort scarves: “Not only does Laura’s House value your contribution, but (also) your community support which helps broaden awareness about domestic violence. . . “

Shannon Fors, Executive Director of The Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, puts her thanks in the context of our difficult economy. “The 25 comfort scarves will be greatly appreciated by the women in our center. In our current unstable economy, we rely heavily on private donations to support our cause. . . .We realize there are many charities that you may choose to support. Thank you for choosing ours.”

Ditto from Heather Finlay, Chief Executive Officer of YWCA of San Diego County. “We can’t thank you enough for your commitment to those we help. . . We are especially grateful for your commitment to us during these challenging economic times.”

Ben Schirmer, Executive Director of Rainbow Services, the very first shelter to which we donated comfort scarves, wrote: “Your gift of 30 beautiful comfort scarves helps the women and children recovering from lives of trauma.”

Carol Adelkoff, CEO and Executive Director of 1736 Family Crisis Center, the second shelter to which we gave comfort scarves, said it again: “Your gift of 30 handmade comfort scarves makes such a difference to those most in need. . . Your thoughtful gift provides comfort to the women and children who are working hard to reach a better tomorrow, and your continued support is truly appreciated.”

We, of course, could not make so many scarves or such beautiful ones, without the generous support of yarn companies who agree with our the value of our project. September began with my coming home one afternoon to find 4 huge cases of yarn on my front porch. They came from Susan Druding of Crystal Palace Yarns. Susan knows just what we like and sends us regular shipments. But this was outstanding—106 pounds of yarn! When I wrote a thank you letter to Susan, I mentioned we needed size 17 knitting needles. Wouldn’t you know it. Susan packed up another box with size 17 needles and filled up the empty space in the carton with more yarn. It was waiting for me one afternoon the next week when I returned home.

Coats & Clark and Skacel Knitting both sent three boxes of solid colored yarn, which we’re always running out of. Knitting Fever, Lion Brand Yarn, Plymouth Yarn, and Trendsetter Yarns each sent a big case of yarn. I can’t tell you all how much I love it when I come home to find a box of yarn on my front porch. I feel like it is manna, dropping magically from the heavens, to fill Handmade’s insatiable hunger for yarn. Thank you, Susan Druding, Teresa Johnson, Becky Moss, Sion Elalouf, Jack Blumenthal, Pattie Tereskun, and Barry Klein. Please, keep that manna coming.

Karen Ing, a longtime supporter of Handmade, decided to whittle down her stash again. This time she found 350 skeins of yarn to donate. She must have some stash! Jeff Stemler gathered his deceased wife’s stash—3 cases and 2 huge trash bags worth-- and donated it to Handmade. He lives in San Diego and so does my son, Mitch. He gave the yarn to Mitch and then my husband and I used the opportunity of Mitch’s birthday to pick it up. What a treat! Meredith Zelaya, Founder of Knits for Needs, saw Handmade’s request for yarn on Ravelry. She sent a huge box of yarn. Manna—I’m not kidding.

I attended Vogue Knitting Live’s first event held in Los Angeles, at the Hyatt Regency in Century City. There were many classes and vendors. I took a class on Yarn Substitution because I wanted to learn how to adjust the amount of yarn we put into our kits when the weights of the yarns vary. I didn’t learn that, but the class was interesting. I learned a lot about many different varieties of yarns and confirmed some things I suspected about yarn, most notably that yarn manufacturers sometimes make a yarn look thicker by spinning a lot of air into the threads.

I visited every vendor in the Marketplace. Virginia Gibbs of Tootsie Yarns was displaying her fancy yarns. I met her several times previously at Concepts in Yarn. It was nice to see her again, especially since she filled up a bag with novelty yarn and gave it to me on the spot!

I made many other contacts who said they would ship yarn once they returned home from the show. One was Steve Be, owner of the Yarn Garage in Minneapolis MN. I told him we had a lot of volunteers in MN. He said he wanted to support Handmade, but didn’t want to ship yarn from MN to CA only for me to ship it back again. He offered instead to donate yarn directly to MN Handmade volunteers. I already have emailed them and they are very excited about this prospect. What a nice outcome.

Linda Friege, a dedicated local volunteer, has a sister in Philadelphia PA who had a lot of yarn to donate but, like Steve in MN, didn’t want to pay the shipping to send it to CA. I told Linda that Dr. Laura Guertin, organizer of a Handmade affiliate in Philadelphia might like it. Linda gave her sister the info and Dr. Laura is thrilled with the donation.

That tells us that the Philly affiliate is doing well. And so are others. I ran into Renee Hoffman at VKL. She was with several members from her local Knitting Guild. They all contribute to her affiliate in Long Beach CA. In my yarn class at VKL, I met a woman who wants to join our San Fernando Valley CA affiliate, headed by Vicki Ringer. She and Vicki have already touched base. Vicki is going strong. She has all the scarves she needs through the end of this year wrapped and tagged! Ann Miller, in Pueblo CO continues to deliver scarves to her local YWCA. Barb Kochuba’s group, Comfort Scarves, is growing. She now delivers 80 scarves each month to shelters in Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA.

Comfort scarves arrive every day from everywhere. Marsha Parkhill brought 185 scarves she collected from members of All Crafts for Charity. ACFC picks a charity each month and their members do the craft that charity specializes in. I was amazed when Marsha handed me the address labels she saved from the packages of scarves that came to her. ACFC has lots of members and the members come from at least as many places as Handmade’s contributors do. Luckily, Marsha said I could write one big thank you letter and she would distribute it to the membership.

Bonnie Jacobs (from Burlington NJ) hand delivered scarves to me. You may remember Bonnie. Last year, she wrote a pattern for an indoor crocheted Frisbee for Handmade. And she taught her daughter’s Girl Scout troop to knit so they could make comfort scarves. A multi-talented craftswoman, Bonnie was in LA to attend the dedication of a stained glass window she made for the Hollywood United Methodist Church (http://www.bonniejdesign.com/creations.htm). She knows how much Handmade needs comfort scarves so she stuffed 7 into her suitcase and gave them to me when we met for brunch. We were happy to meet in person. And aren’t her scarves beautiful! By the way, Bonnie is tall and I am short. In the photo, I am standing on the curb. You can see the photo of us on the Handmade website www.handmadeespecially.org

While we’re mentioning usual ways of getting comfort scarves to Handmade, I must mention Carmen Giovanna Saborio who shipped us 26 absolutely beautiful comfort scarves all the way from Heredia Costa Rica. When I thanked her profusely for her contribution, she told me it was her “honor” to participate in our cause. I was very touched!

We are back in touch with Peggy Bomba, the woman who teaches crochet to female inmates at the Craig County Jail in Craig CO. Every so often, I send a big box of crochet kits to Peggy. Whenever she gets a new group of girls, she teaches them crochet, which she says “keeps down the fighting.” When they learn it well enough, she allows them to do one of our kits. The girls are very proud of their accomplishment when the finish a kit and have made a lovely scarf. Some of them have been abused themselves and want to learn more about what they can do to change their lives. Peggy and I once talked on the phone for an hour, trying to find shelters for them once they left jail. The nearest shelter was in Reno NV. I love that making scarves helps the inmates and that receiving scarves helps the abuse victims. We never know the impact of what we do. Making comfort scarves has certainly turned out to have broader implications than I ever could have imagined.

Annette and Alexander Maass, our “knitting couple” from Leutenbach GERMANY have been regular contributors to Handmade ever since we started promoting Handmade on Ravelry. They sent so many scarves and yarn I thought they must own a yarn shop. But they don’t. In fact, for a long time, Annette wasn’t working. Last month she told me she got a job and would now make a monthly cash contribution to Handmade. I was astounded. And she has. I am so grateful. I appreciate her commitment to our cause, even from so far away.

I mentioned a while ago that Cindy Hanson made a generous donation. Ameriprise Financial, the company she works for, doubled it. Their check arrived this month. It covers one month’s shipping. Talk about manna. Please, if your company matches charitable donations, please consider donating to Handmade so they will too.

Needing actual $$$$ and trying to raise money is a whole new world for me. Luckily, I have received suggestions from our volunteers that I would like to share with you. Julie Billings, for instance, was making her Christmas list for her family. She thought: “Since I have so much, I am thinking about asking family to donate to Handmade Especially for You as a gift idea.” Julie asked me to tell her idea in the Newsletter in case any of you would like to do the same. And, if you would like to make a donation in honor of someone, I can do that too. Our Newsletter goes out far and wide so the mention would be meaningful.

Looking ahead. We have a lot to do before the end of the year. When we ship our 1,000 scarves in October, we will have only 5,000 to go to reach 15,000. The point isn’t 15,000 as a number. The point is that the shelters have holiday parties in December with lots of attendees. We hope to send 2,500 in November and finish up with another 2,500 in early December. We already have on hand more than 1,000 for October. We have piles of narrow scarves set aside for teens. We have hats saved for children. But we still need more than 4,000 new scarves. So that means we hope you will keep knitting/crocheting comfort like mad. Last year we needed 3,000 for the holidays but last year we served only 33 shelters. This year we serve 43 so we need that many more. The women and children who come to the shelters arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They arrive in trauma, having just escaped from their abusive environment. Our scarves mean so much to them. Please, please keep your scarves coming.

In each Newsletter, I always try to thank everyone who has contributed during that month. I know I miss someone, but never on purpose. If you are one who was not mentioned, please don’t be insulted. I feel grateful to all Handmade’s participants, volunteers, scarfers, donors, and sponsors.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail them to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$, mail your check to the above address or make a donation through PayPal. You can access it on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org

Many thanks,

Leslye Borden, Founder
Handmade Especially for You
501(c)3

Handmade Especially for You donated 1,000 comfort scarves to abused women

2011-09-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

September 7, 2011

We’re so busy the Newsletter is LATE. Here’s the reasons:

 We distributed more than 8,000 comfort scarves so far this year

 Articles about Handmade Especially for You appeared in Knitting Paradise, Knits for Needs, and The Daily Breeze

 Macy’s Shop for a Cause was very successful for Handmade

 Shelters appreciate comfort scarves

 It takes a village of yarn donors to make 8,000 comfort scarves

 Our affiliates are busy too

 The story of the “traveling scarf”

 Please volunteer for Handmade even if you can’t knit or crochet

 We’re starting our big push to reach our goal of delivering 15,000 (total for the year) comfort scarves to our 43 shelters for abused women by the END OF NOVEMBER or BEGINNING OF DECEMBER

And now for the details:

In August, Handmade donated 1,000 comfort scarves to 33 + shelters throughout S. CA. This is amazing! We couldn’t have done this without your willingness to donate your time and creativity. It took all our kit makers, all our knitters/crocheters, all our wrappers to make and deliver all these scarves. Thank you all so much. By comparison, when I wrote the August Newsletter last year, we were cheering about shipping 420 scarves. We’ve come a long way in just one year. So far this year, we have made and distributed at least 8,000 comfort scarves (compared to 5,000 last year)! Good job everyone!

Positive publicity has helped us a lot. The Daily Breeze, a local So CA newspaper, featured Handmade in their Calendar. We received many inquiries about volunteering and quite a number of newcomers started attending our Wednesday evening get-togethers at Concepts in Yarn. Thanks to June Grossberg, the owner, who supports Handmade by providing space for us to meet and bins for kits and finished scarves. Remember to come early if you want a seat around the big table. Actually, it’s also lots of fun when the table is so crowded we all have to squeeze in next to each other.

Knitting Paradise, an online knitting magazine with many good tips and helpful articles, featured Handmade. We had a good response from their readers, which means a lot when we need so many scarves.

Knits for Needs, an Atlanta based charity, donates to anyone who needs “warm stuff.” Meridith Zelaya, its Founder, heard about Handmade on Ravelry or Twitter, where I had posted an SOS for yarn donations. Not only did she send us a box of yarn, but she also posted info about Handmade on her blog. Fabulous publicity for Handmade. We appreciate!

Our best publicity in August came from our participation in Macy’s Shop for a Cause event on August 27. Macy’s gave us an excellent location, right on the main floor between Cosmetics and the escalator. We had a steady stream of potential volunteers all afternoon. We brought lots of kits with us and distributed almost all we had with us. Some of the people we met at Macy’s have already joined us on Wednesday evenings at Concepts in Yarn. One called to get her daughter’s Girl Scout troop involved in Handmade. Another wants to form a group at her local Temple. By generating excitement like this, I think we will be able to achieve our goal for 2011.

Shelters love our comfort scarves. Way back in October, 2008, when I made our first delivery to Rainbow Services in San Pedro, I didn’t imagine the impact of handmade scarves on abused women. Of course, I hoped they would love the scarves, that having a scarf would be a comfort to them. But I didn’t imagine the way receiving a handmade comfort scarf would lift an abused woman’s self-esteem so she could begin to transform her life. I see this pattern again and again as we send our scarves to new shelters. The directors all say what Rainbow’s director said when I first started delivering comfort scarves to her.

Jody Winger, for instance, at WINGS in Covina, sent a note saying, “The women here at WINGS love the scarves you all make. It’s funny to see them pick them out to go with their outfits. The women are very appreciative for everything, since most come with nothing. . . . We . . . appreciate you all for taking the time to make them. It does make the women feel good. . . “

Marti DeLaO at Interface Children & Family Services in Camarillo, wrote: “Thank you so much for your gift of 15 handmade comfort scarves. We at Interface work every day to . . . heal the effects of the abuse, neglect, and abandonment of children, domestic violence, and many similar issues. . . . You make a real difference.”

Ronnie Root, at St. Clare’s Home in San Diego, continues the above themes. “Thank you for your generous donation of comfort scarves to assist us in serving abused women and children. Generosity such as yours allows us to continue our mission. . . . We. . . hope you continue to help us restore hope in these delicate lives. Thank you for showing these fragile community members that you care!”

Honestly, after reading notes like these, and I read many of them every month, I wish we could reach every shelter everywhere!

Our kit makers—Barbara Klein, Linda Friege, Marie Cortez, Sharon McCann and Yumi Wu—are enjoying the new workshop. They have plenty of room to spread out the bins of yarn so they can see which yarns coordinate best. It’s incredible to walk in while they are working and see bin after bin of color-sorted yarn and piles and piles of new kits. Their kits are so beautiful. They do a great job. Thank you, ladies!

We couldn’t make these beautiful kits without the contributions of so many generous yarn companies and people. Postings on Ravelry and Twitter brought in many yarn donations. Skacel sent a big box of yarn. The Schaefer Yarn Co also contributed. Crystal Palace, Lion Brand, Knitting Fever, Coats & Clark, Trendsetter Yarns and Plymouth Yarns all said they would send yarn. Looks like our warehouse will be full in September. These companies are really wonderful. They have supported Handmade continually since spring, 2009 and have never let us down. One of the things I have learned is that no one company can provide all the yarn we need. It takes a whole village of yarn companies. We make a typical scarf with Fun Fur from Lion Brand, main color from Knitting Fever, and contrasting color from Crystal Palace.

Just as easily, we could start with Whisper from Crystal Palace, main color from Coats & Clark, and contrasting color from Schaefer. Or novelty yarn from Skacel, main color from Plymouth, and contrasting color from Trendsetter. The variations are infinite. But it takes the donations from all these companies (and more not mentioned today) to achieve our desired effect: an absolutely beautiful and individual personal gift for an abused woman who has escaped her abusive environment.

Good news from Handmade’s affiliates. Renee Hoffman (Long Beach CA) reports she donated 20 more comfort scarves to Interval House. Vicki Ringer (San Fernando Valley CA) delivered more scarves to Haven Hills. Vicki says she has deliveries all wrapped and ready through the beginning of next year. Barb Kochuba (PA) now donates at least 80 scarves per month to shelters throughout Southwestern PA. She’s adding washcloths, fleecy blankets, hats, etc. for the holidays. Ann Miller (Pueblo, CO) continues to deliver 10 scarves each month. We never add the deliveries of our affiliates into our deliveries. If we did, I wonder what the new total would be. I’m sure we’d be amazed! I’m impressed just thinking about what number would be.

Bonnie Jacobs, a long time supporter of Handmade, sent us a “traveling scarf.” Bonnie started it in NJ, where she lives, and sent it on to friends throughout the country. Each friend added a few rows. Bonnie finished it and sent it on to Handmade. Everyone who worked on the scarf signed the gift tag. Quite a nice scarf with a very warm story behind it. Bonnie makes the fringe by chaining 10 stitches down, 10 stitches up, attaching to the main scarf, and then down an up again. We all love Bonnie’s scarves and her enthusiasm for Handmade.

This time of year is crunch time for Handmade. We need so much yarn. We need so many kits. We need to send the kits to our volunteers. We need more volunteers to knit/crochet more scarves. But even if you can’t knit or crochet, you can still participate in Handmade. We need someone to punch holes in the gift tags so we can attach them to the scarves. We need people to add novelty yarn when the scarves arrive without it. We need more people to wrap the scarves before we ship them. (We’re already having 2 wrapping parties each month. We may need to have 3 in November and December.) We need more people to pack the boxes. We need more money to pay for the shipping. It’s all so interrelated. Every time we add more shelters, we need more of everything else. Our team works very hard. Many contribute in several different ways—they make kits and then knit scarves. Or they knit scarves and then wrap them. I know how much work it took to ship 2,000 scarves for Mother’s Day. I’m trying to plan ahead so none of our dedicated volunteers burn out when we distribute 2,500 scarves in November and then 2,500 again in December. Please do what you can to support our project.

As usual, I have so many people to thank, I never can get them all into one Newsletter, no matter how hard I try. But please be assured, I feel grateful to all of you. Distributing comfort scarves to abused women is a really great thing that we all have done together. Your support and participation makes Handmade all the more meaningful to me and especially to all the women who receive our scarves. Thank you all so much.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$, you can send your check to the above address. You can also donate through PayPal. There is a link on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org.

Thanks again.

Leslye Borden, Founder
Handmade Especially for You
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

PS You'll find the photos that illustrate this Newsletter on our website www.handmadeespecially.org

Handmade Especially for You has a new work shop/July Newsletter

2011-08-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

July Newsletter

July 31, 2011

So much exciting news I hardly know where to begin:

 Thanks to Happy Hats for Kids in Hospitals, Handmade has a work shop where we can store our yarn and make kits

 We have over 1,000 comfort scarves ready to ship to our 43 shelters.

 Yarn companies and others continue their generous support.

 We’re fund-raising by selling discount tickets to Macy’s Shop for a Cause, August 27.

 Several special people deserve mention

 Shelters for abused women appreciate comfort scarves.

And now for the details.

Thanks to Supervisor Don Knabe and Rebekah Kim in his office for putting us in touch with Sheri Schrier. Sheri founded Happy Hats for Kids in Hospitals 20 years ago. Our history parallels hers. In fact, she and I found so much in common between our two non-profits, that Sheri invited Handmade to use her warehouse to store our yarn and use as a workshop to make our kits. We spent the last few weeks getting everything organized, buying liability insurance, moving the yarn from my house, and now we are actually making kits there. Sheri’s generosity to us is incredible. We do not have to pay any rent, and while we have to put away all our tools, yarn, kits, etc. after every work session, we have so much space to operate that our kit making is much faster and easier. Sheri herself does a lot of good in the community through Happy Hats. Inmates at prisons make the hats. Volunteers decorate them. Disabled adults from Easter Seals put the hats in bags with coloring books and crayons. I’m sure there’s a lot more Sheri does that I don’t know about yet, but I will tell you as I find out. She is an excellent role model for me. I have already learned a lot from her that will benefit Handmade as much, I hope, as the works space she has provided. Thank you, Sheri!

Due to the crush of moving and the demands of my family (we have many birthdays in July), we did not ship scarves in July. But we have them ready to go and will send them out as soon as I return from celebrating our granddaughter’s 13th birthday. In last month’s Newsletter, I reported we had distributed 7,000 so far in 2011. Our July shipping will bring that to 8,000. That means we have only 7,000 more to go to reach our 2011 goal of 15,000 comfort scarves. We have reached shelters in most of the counties in S. CA. Once we contact San Bernardino, I feel we will have reached them all.

Of course, we could not do all this without the hard work of many people. First and foremost, our kit makers—Barbara Klein, Linda Friege, Marie Cortez, Sharon McCann, and Yumi Wu. They are a really great team. They know the goal ahead and are trying to make enough kits so reaching that goal will not be overly wild and crazy in November.

Again in July we had two wrapping parties. That’s the reason we have so many scarves ready to ship. Thanks as well to this dedicated group—Anita Stevens, Ann and Jessica Nye, Barbara Klein, Chris Needham, Enid Malm, Evelyn Dow, Kathy Allen, Linda Friege, Maria Cesca, Marie Cortez, Mary Gravelin, Nancy English, Sharon McCann, Teresa Copley, Therese Shaefer, and Yumi Wu. Not everyone comes to both parties, but the parties are lots of fun, lunch is good, and all the scarves get wrapped!

We wouldn’t have so many scarves to wrap without our core group of knitters at Concepts in Yarn. And we have many dedicated volunteers throughout the country who participate. We ship our kits (knit or crochet, so please specify which you want) to many; we ship boxes of yarn to the really big scarfers; and many contributors send scarves made entirely from their own stash. Groups associated with senior centers, such as the one in Culver City, make a lot (you can see them with their finished scarves on our website). As do church groups. Thank you all for making it possible for Handmade to distribute comfort scarves to so many shelters. We really couldn’t do it without you. Handmade is a big national community. We appreciate every participant!

Needing 7,000 more scarves means we need a lot more kits. Needing more kits means we need lots more yarn. Luckily, yarn donations were excellent in July. Susan Druding, Crystal Palace Yarns, came through for us again. Her Labrador and Whisper yarns make great kits. She sent us a sample scarf made from Glitter Ribbon and Whisper. It was inspirational and now we make kits like that. She’s the greatest. Tymon Warda, Knitting Fever, sent another huge box containing many of our favorites, especially Ella Rae. Westminster Fibers Canada sent a box (from Canada!) containing On Your Toes and Tiara. We mix sock yarn such as On Your Toes with solid colored knitting worsted such as Ella Rae to make exceptionally beautiful comfort scarves. One company’s donation works with another company’s. That’s the reason we call our kits “magic balls.” It’s magic how we put them together and magic how volunteers make them into beautiful comfort scarves. We use every donation. Thank you so much.

Individuals donated yarn as well. Anne Podlesak sent 3 boxes of really beautiful, soft yarn. Sue Welsh’s friend, Jackie Glid, who sold yarn at Knitter’s Guild meetings, decided to move and didn’t want to take all her yarn with her, so Sue donated 5 huge 55-gallon trash bags of yarn to Handmade. Annette and Alexander Maass, our knitting couple from Leutenbach, Germany shipped 2 boxes of yarn. I asked them if they own a yarn shop. But they don’t. They want to do everything they can to support Handmade because they like what we do. I am so moved by the outpouring of generosity from all our donors. Handmade’s participants are an incredible group! Even though lots and lots of yarn arrived in July, and lots and lots of yarn did arrive, it isn’t enough to make 7,000 more scarves this year. Please continue to donate. We will continue to appreciate.

One of the best things, in addition to getting the work shop, that happened in July is that we received a check from Macy’s for our participation in Community Shopping Day last May 8. This check was our share of Macy’s ticket sales for that event. We worked hard, and we got a lot from that event thanks to all of you who bought/sold tickets for it. Now we are participating in Macy’s Shop for a Cause event on August 27. It is different from the May 8 event in that the tickets cost only $5 each and you can use them at every Macy’s throughout the country. As before, Handmade receives 100% of the purchase price of the ticket. The benefit to you when you buy a ticket is that you get 25% off your purchases on August 27 as well as a chance to win a $500 Macy’s gift card. Now that Handmade ships kits to so many more volunteers and scarves to so many more shelters, we really need more money. We hope that you will buy a ticket (you can download the coupon from our website when you donate through PayPal) or you can send me $5 and I will mail you a ticket. Or if you don’t want to go to Macy’s on the 27th, you can send me $5, and I will enter your name in the drawing. You can even use the coupon for online shopping. Directions are on the coupon.

What would be even better for Handmade than your buying a $5 ticket (but please do that!) is if you would share this event with your email contacts. If you need more info, a blurb, etc. I am glad to supply it. We need to broaden our base so that we are not asking the same generous donors over and over to donate. And we might recruit new scarfers this way as well.

I must also take time to mention the support and patience of my husband, Phil. Since October, 2008 he has accepted the increased amount of yarn coming into our house. He didn’t complain (too much) as Handmade used our guest bedroom to store finished scarves, our front and back halls to keep boxes of yarn. He carried huge boxes out to the garage when our children and grandchildren came to visit. And then he carried them back in once the kids left. He believes in Handmade. Like me, he didn’t realize the power of our scarves to help abused women change their lives. And like me, he didn’t anticipate the outpouring of community support for our project. Once Sheri donated her warehouse space, ironically, as soon as he moved all the yarn from the garage, back hall, and guest room to Happy Hats, wouldn’t you know it, all the new yarn, mentioned above, arrived. It filled the guest room, the back hall and the front hall. It took me more than a week to go through the new yarn, send thank you letters, etc. before he could load it into the “yarnmobile” so I could take it to the work shop. But I know there was a moment when he was afraid he had just made room for more yarn in the house. Every time he sees me overwhelmed by yarn in my yarn room, he comes up with a solution. Over winter vacation, he built cubbies so I could sort yarn by color. When we moved the boxes and bags of yarn keeping the yarn in the cubbies from falling out, he saw how hard it was for me to see the yarn in the cubbies, so he went out and bought 40 clear plastic containers that fit in the cubbies. He helps me so much. He’s a big secret behind Handmade’s success. Thank you so much, Phil.

Annette and Alexander Maass are the only knitting couple (that I know about) in Handmade. Bonnie and Danya Jacobs and Ann and Jessica Nye are two mother/daughters knitters in our group. Bonnie and Danya (her teen daughter), are in NJ; Ann and Jessica are local. They come to Concepts in Yarn for our Wednesday evening knitting circles and to our wrapping parties. Jessica is only 11 but she knits a beautiful scarf! Maria Denzel’s two granddaughters visited her this summer. The 10-year old knits and the 9-year old crochets. Maria kept them busy making comfort scarves. I love the idea of couples knitting together, girls knitting/crocheting with their mothers and grandmothers. If you are scarfing with a family member, loved one, significant other, please let me know. Broadening our base and sharing your experiences are very important.

Now that we send comfort scarves to 43 shelters for abused women, we receive many letters of appreciation from them. I am so happy every time I receive one of these letters. I am glad we are on the right track making and distributing comfort scarves. These letters are meant for all of you who knit, crochet, wind, wrap, donate and work hard for Handmade Especially for You! You can see them on our website.

I thank you all, too. Over and over.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$ or buy a discount coupon for Macy’s Shop for a Cause, visit our website www.handmadeespecially.org and use PayPal. Or send a check to the address above.

Thanks for everything,

Leslye Borden, Founder
Handmade Especially for You
501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

Handmade Especially for You has donated more than 7,000 comfort scarves already this year/June Newsletter

2011-07-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

JUNE NEWSLETTER
June 30, 2011
Today’s topics:
 We distributed just over 1,000 comfort scarves this month; more than 7,000 scarves already this year

 Thanks to all our volunteers

 Ongoing support of Concepts in Yarn and June Grossberg

 Shelters appreciate our scarves

 Yarn companies continue to be very generous

 Delta Sigma Pi fraternity made over 100 scarves

 News from our affiliated groups

 We need $$$$ for shipping and for a workshop

 We appreciate the support of all our participants

And now for the details.

Another astounding month. We delivered just over 1,000 comfort scarves to 40 shelters for abused women throughout S CA. Many people worked hard to prepare all these scarves for delivery. We had two wrap parties where Ann Nye, Chris Needham, Barbara Klein, Pat (Barbara’s friend visiting from Ohio), Enid Malm, Evelyn Dow, Kathy Allen, Linda Friege, Maria Cesca, Maria Denzel, Marie Cortez, Mary Barton, Nancy English, Sharon McCann, and Yumi Wu all wrapped, tied, packaged and taped the 40 boxes of scarves. We had lots of fun even though my family room looked like a warehouse until UPS picked up the packages.

Many of the volunteers who participate in wrapping parties and kit making sessions come from our core group of volunteers who meet at Concepts in Yarn on Wednesday evenings. Thanks to the generosity and dedication of June Grossberg, owner, who encouraged me to go forward with Handmade and start the knitting club under her auspices. June provides two bins: one for kits that need to be knitted and another for finished scarves. When one is full, the other is empty. Our group has grown so much that we crowd around a dining room table with all its leaves in and a card table as well. Many participants come early, just to get a place at the table. Sometimes, we have two seatings. It is a warm, friendly experience. June’s sponsorship and support have been so valuable to the growth and success of Handmade. I must mention my thanks to her again and again.

The directors of the shelters acknowledge the value of receiving comfort scarves in breaking the cycle of low self-esteem/acceptance of domestic violence of their clients. Here are snippets from thank you letters they sent to Handmade:

Luciann Maulhardt, Executive Director of Casa Youth Shelter (Los Alamitos) writes: “we send out deepest appreciation for your most welcome donation of 25 comfort scarves. . . .we consider ourselves truly blessed to have such good friends as you.”

Heather Frizzell at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission writes: “this letter expresses our sincere gratitude for the comfort scarves. The women and little girls here . . . were extremely happy to receive the scarves. They are blessed to know women donated their precious time to make them a special handmade gift. They have been put to use and cherished by many.”

Wanda Carter at Corona Norco Rescue Mission says: “The beautiful scarves arrived yesterday and they are just gorgeous. I know the ladies who received them just love them.”

Annette Kosker, Volunteer Coordinator at YWCA of Glendale, tells us: “thank you for your recent donation of 25 hand made scarves. The work you do brings such joy and warmth to those you touch. It is due to collaboration with generous people like you that we can continue to operate our core programs. . . .to empower women who are victims of domestic violence to move forward and start their lives anew. . . . last year we provided services to 797 women and their children.

We all understand that we couldn’t make 1,000 scarves each month without the generosity of many yarn companies. This month, our regulars (not that we take them for granted)—Susan Druding at Crystal Palace Yarns, Becky Moss at Skacel Collection, and Tymon Warda at Knitting Fever—were joined by Emir Koc from Feza Yarns and Mara Buttarazzi at Westminster Fibres Canada. Incredible, isn’t it. And still not enough. We can’t sit back comfortably, thinking we have enough, not when we need at least enough yarn for 5,000 scarves in November/December. We appreciate the ongoing support of all these companies and hope more will join them making huge contributions. Even though I “complain” that boxes of yarn fill several rooms in my house, I am not really complaining. I am thrilled that Handmade receives so many donations. I appreciate every ball of yarn.

For the past few months, we have been working with Kelly Phan, President of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity at Cal State University, Long Beach. Kelly picked up more than 100 kits so members of her group could make comfort scarves as their community service activity. She brought the finished scarves the night before our second wrapping party. We really needed them to reach our shipping requirements the next day. Thank you so much, Kelly and members of your group. We hope you will continue supporting our project. We need lots and lots of knitters and crocheters.

News from our affiliated groups throughout the US and Canada. Renee Hoffman delivered 20 scarves to Interval House in Long Beach; Ann Miller brought 13 scarves to Family Crisis Service in Canon City and 12 more to the Pueblo YWCA; Barb Kochuba delivered around 80 scarves to shelters throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. She and Marg Grieve (in Nelson BC Canada) both are recovering from carpel tunnel surgery. They’re both slowly getting back to knitting. Vicki Ringer delivered another 15 scarves to Haven Hills in Canoga Park. Members of Vicki’s church expanded their involvement to more than knitting comfort scarves. They help the shelter by adopting families, donating food, and making sure everyone has what they need for special occasions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are so many ways to do good; I’m impressed that Handmade’s volunteers donate in so many ways.

The economic slowdown has even affected Handmade. Many would-be volunteers cannot afford to make a donation to cover the shipping of kits to them. Many ask if we can make an exception in their cases because they have lost their jobs, are looking for work, live on a fixed income, etc. I would love to help them, but as it is, at least 30% of people to whom I send yarn do not repay the cost of the shipping. I think it would be great if we had a buddy system, so those who can afford to do so would donate double the amount of the cost of shipping yarn to them so I could use the extra to pay the shipping of someone who can’t afford to pay their own.

In addition, the cost of shipping itself has skyrocketed, both because Handmade sends comfort scarves so many more shelters and because gasoline prices have increased. This month alone, Handmade spent almost $300 on sending scarves to shelters. Every time we hear that the price of oil has gone up, I shudder, knowing that the cost of sending the scarves out will go up too. If any of you have any contacts at UPS, FedEx, USPS, please tell them about Handmade. We need a better deal on shipping in order to reach our goals.

We are trying to find a space where we can consolidate receiving yarn, yarn storage, kit making, shipping kits, receiving scarves, and shipping scarves to shelters. Having a workshop has been our dream for a long time. Now it is a really urgent need. It has been hard to find a spot. Since all our cash goes to paying for shipping the scarves to shelters, we don’t have cash to pay for rent; so we are limited by searching for a free space. So far, no such luck.

Maybe all this will change, due of course to the generosity and support of our volunteers. This month, Chris Needham and Cindy Hanson each made donations of over $200. Cindy’s employer, Ameriprise Financial, will double the amount she donated. Julie Billings volunteered over 50 hours of knitting last year, so Toyota Financial, her employer, donated $250 to Handmade. These donations are like manna to me. Please check out your company’s donations policies. If they match cash donations and/or reward volunteerism, I hope you will consider Handmade as a recipient. These donations and matching grants have made me more optimistic about our raising enough money to pay rent. If we can do that, we will have a much broader selection of possible workshops. Handmade’s volunteers make everything possible.

We depend on each one of you for Handmade’s continued growth and success. We couldn’t donate so many scarves to so many shelters without your participation. Whatever you do, whether you knit or crochet scarves, share patterns, make kits, donate yarn, money, equipment, spend time winding or wrapping, all are important. Many, many thanks.

Remember, if you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$, please send a check to the above address or use the PayPal link on our website www.handmadeespecially.org

Thanks in advance.

Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

Handmade donated almost 2,000 comfort scarves for Mother's Day and 1,000 more in May

2011-06-02T13:45:00.001-07:00

MAY NEWSLETTER

May 31, 2011

Today’s topics:

With the help of many volunteers, we delivered just under 2,000 comfort scarves in April and just over 1000 in May

We now supply shelters in Ventura and Riverside counties; 43 shelters in all
Shelters love our comfort scarves

Yarn companies continue generously supporting Handmade

Individual donors contribute a lot

Macy’s Community Shopping Day

Welcome to the Culver City Senior Center’s knitting group

Still looking for a site where we can coordinate all our activities under one roof

One year anniversary of my surgery; I have recovered

Remember, there is too much domestic violence and too few comfort scarves

And now for the details:

In April, we just about met our goal of delivering 2,000 comfort scarves in time for Mother’s Day. We were only 70 scarves short, but no shelter complained. All of you worked so hard to achieve this goal. Boxes arrived on my doorstep every day. It was incredible. I guess I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t make it all the way to 2,000, but we really outdid ourselves in May by donating 1,025 scarves. So now I feel much better.

We couldn’t have done this without the crucial help of many volunteers, and not just our wonderful scarf and kit makers. It took us almost 4 weeks to prepare the scarves for Mother’s Day. On the final day of that huge effort, three of us – Enid Malm, Evelyn Dow and I – worked until 6 p.m. to get everything ready. From that we could see we needed to increase our wrapping parties to twice a month, which we have done. It’s twice as much fun, not just twice as much work. This month’s volunteers included: Barbara Klein, Chris Needham, Enid Malm, Kathy Allen, Linda Friege, Marie Cortez, Mary Gravlin, Myra Kumagae, Nancy English, Sharon McCann, Teresa Copley, and Yumi Wu. It’s hard to imagine what it will take to get all the scarves ready for Christmas, but we know we will have to plan ahead. Wrapping this many scarves takes tremendous care and effort. Thanks to all of you – yarn donors, kit makers, knitters/crocheters, wrappers, schleppers, and shippers -- who participated. You are a dedicated group of volunteers. Handmade certainly would not be where it is today without each and every one of you.

In April, we added 6 new shelters to our growing list of those receiving comfort scarves. They are: Domestic Violence Shelters in Lompoc, Santa Barbara, and Santa Maria, East Los Angeles Women’s Center, Peace Over Violence, and WINGS (YWCA) Covina. In May, because we had so many scarves available (some arrived too late for Mother’s Day), we added 7 more. They are: Casas Shelter, Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, Coalition to End Family Violence, Corona Norco Rescue Mission, Genesis Center, Interface Children & Family Services, and Valley Restart. Now I just have to hope that our volume of incoming scarves will keep up with the number of shelters we want to supply. Keep scarfing. Please!

Shelters love our scarves. Here are a few excerpts from the pile of thank you letters I receive from them. Kitty Glass, Community Outreach Coordinator at Family Violence Project, writes:

I walked into my office today and was welcomed by another box of your beautiful handiwork. Thank you so very much and the women will be thrilled as always. Since we have so many folks in and out of our shelters along with our counseling center clients, your beautiful offerings are enjoyed by so many. . .

Marti DeLaO, Director of Fund Development at Interface Children & Family Services, writes: “Thank you so much for your gift of 15 comfort scarves. . . . The scarves are lovely. Your support makes a real difference.”

Heather Masterton, Director of Development, at Peace Over Violence, writes: “We are honored that you chose our agency to be a recipient of such beautiful and time intensive individual creations. Two women who each received a scarf had this to share:

Wow! I really appreciate this gift. It’s nice to know that someone out there cares.

Thank you for this scarf. I can tell that a lot of time and craftsmanship went into making it. This really makes my day!

One of the clients at St. Clare’s Home sent a hand printed card: “Thank you so very much for sending the scarves. They are beautiful. We truly appreciate you all for making these for us. This is an amazing gift.”

Annette Kosker, Volunteer Coordinator at YWCA of Glendale, writes:

Thank you for your recent donation of hand knit scarves. . . . The work you do brings such joy and warmth to those you touch. It is due to collaboration with generous people like you that we can continue to operate. . . .Domestic Violence Project – empowering women who are victims of domestic violence to move forward and start their lives anew.

Appreciations such as these keep us going. We are thrilled that our work continues to be so meaningful for its recipients.

Our yarn donors have been very generous. Crystal Palace Yarns, Knitting Fever, Coats & Clark, and Skacell Knitting all sent huge cases of yarn in April. What would we do without them! In addition, we received yarn from Brown Sheep and Cheryl Oberle Designs. Denise Interchangeable Needles and Skacell sent circular needles so we can make horizontal scarves that use up our scraps. However, that was in April. We made 3,000 scarves using these donations. Right now, we’re pretty wiped out of yarn. We need more donations. We’re like the “Hungry Caterpillar.” We always need more. Without yarn, we cannot make scarves.

Individuals have contributed as well. Some people hand me a box of plastic bags every time they see me. Others buy Fun Fur and other novelty yarn any time they see it. Some of the kit makers purchase yarn they need to make perfect kits. Many do not tell me what they have donated but I know these anonymous and other contributions occur all the time and I appreciate them, even if I cannot thank you all personally in this Newsletter.

On May 14, we participated in Macy’s Community Shopping Day. This was our first experience with such an event and I think it was pretty successful for us. We sold discount tickets to our friends and family ($10 each). These tickets allowed the purchaser to shop at Macy’s and receive discounts on what they bought. Handmade could keep 100% of the $10 fee. We sold almost 130 tickets so we earned $1,300. I think we spent most of this on shipping scarves to our 43 shelters. But it was great to have this money so we could do so. Macy’s is having another such event in September. This time the tickets will be only $5, but they can be used at every Macy’s, so I hope we will participate again.

Our affiliates continue doing well.

Renee Hoffman donated 20 comfort scarves to Interval House in Long Beach CA

Vicki Ringer donated 20 comfort scarves to Haven Hills in Canoga Park CA

Tammy Peters donated 8 comfort scarves to Services to Abused Families in Culpeper VA

Barb Kochuba’s group, Comfort Scarves, has expanded its reach from Pittsburgh to all of Southeastern PA.

I am always thrilled to receive scarves from people around the country. When I receive them from Germany, England, Scotland, Singapore, etc., as I do from time to time, I am really excited. This month I receive a box of 26 scarves from Carmen Giovanna in Costa Rica. I was very impressed. Thank you, Carmen.

We have several other very prolific scarf donors who never get mentioned because they are local. Emma, who lives near Barbara and Mary, sometimes knits as many as 30 scarves per week. Joanne Garlick, in Sunnyvale, crochets huge numbers of scarves. So does Janet Deininger. And Elizabeth O’Connell. We depend on you to keep scarfing. We’re so glad you’re dedicated to our cause.

Happily for Handmade, we have another source of scarf makers. Women in the knitting class at the Culver City Senior Center make 60 or so scarves each month. Vivian Brown leads the group. Sometimes her class is so popular that she runs out of places for everyone to sit.

So far we have many irons in the fire as far as finding space for a workshop, but no space. Everyone we talk to is very supportive, but despite the fact that there are empty spaces all over, no one yet has come forward to donate one to Handmade. We have received some lovely letters of refusal, however. So please keep your eyes open. If you see a space, hear of a space, know a generous landlord, please make contact on behalf of Handmade and advise me so I can follow up asap. We really need a space. It is so inconvenient for us to have our yarn divided between 4 homes. And to have some of the kits at one house and some at another. We have done well so far using this method, but as we need more and more kits and scarves, we need to become more efficient. Here’s hoping we get our break this month.

I have just celebrated the one year anniversary of my big surgery. And I am happy to report after zillions of medical tests that the doctors can’t find any place on my aorta where there might be another dissection. That is a big relief. And although I am pretty much back to normal as far as capacity for work, I still have to rest when I overdo, like when we shipped 2,000 comfort scarves. As you have seen from this Newsletter, Handmade has lots of volunteers, so I do not overdo too often.

Finally, as I have said many times, we should be crying that there is such demand for our comfort scarves, not cheering that we are making and delivering so many. I wish that statistics showed a lessening in the demand, but domestic violence is increasing. In Annette Kosker’s thank you letter, she wrote: “Unfortunately, the need for our Domestic Violence Service increases every year.” Incredible, isn’t it. It seems there is too much domestic violence and too few scarves, no matter how many we make. That doesn’t mean our work is fruitless; it just means that every scarf we contribute is important, that we need to keep on making comfort scarves.

I am thrilled with Handmade’s progress and success. As a reminder, here’s how I ended last year’s May Newsletter: “At the end of 2008, we delivered 300comfort scarves to 3 shelters. By the end of 2009, we delivered 6,500 comfort scarves to 22 shelters. Now (May, 2010) we’re working toward distributing more than 10,000 comfort scarves to well more than 25 shelters.”

Looking forward from May 2011, I expect we’ll make and distribute at least 15,000 scarves in 2011. So we’ve come a long way. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you. You make it all possible. Thanks so much.

Remember, if you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden

30065 Grandpoint Lane

Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$, please send a check to the above address or use the PayPal link on our website www.handmadeespecially.org

Thanks in advance.

Leslye

www.handmadeespecially.org

501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

We still need several hundred more comfort scarves in time for Mother's Day distribution

2011-04-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much. Yesterday I checked in 450 comfort scarves. That leaves us just a few hundred to go. We have a lot packed in boxes ready to ship; more waiting to be wrapped and then those I just checked in.

There’s still time to send comfort scarves.

And if your contributions arrive after April 28, our Mother’s Day cut off, don’t worry. We need 800 every month and then about 5,000 for Christmas.

It’s exciting to have our scarves in so much demand. It’s also very discouraging that there are so many abused women who need them.

Thanks for whatever you send.

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

Ask me about free yarn if you need it.

Leslye

Handmade donated 815 comfort scarves in March

2011-04-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

March Newsletter from Handmade Especially for You

March 31, 2011

I am very excited. I have so much good news to share. Here are the highlights:

We distributed 815 comfort scarves AGAIN this month

The positive response of shelters to our scarves is heartwarming for us

Yarn donors continue their generosity

Our affiliates are busy, busy, busy

The Craig’s List Foundation has asked us to share our story on LikeMinded

We have been invited to participate in &You, an online tool that connects individuals and organizations to the causes they care about.

Macy’s invited Handmade to participate in Community Shopping Day, May 14

Mother’s Day is on May 8, just around the corner

And now for the details:

Thanks to all of you kit makers, knitters, crocheters, and wrappers we were able to distribute 815 comfort scarves in March. Wow!

As usual, our wrapping party was great fun. Our team included Chris Needham, Enid Malm, Evelyn Dow, June Wisner, Linda Friege, Maria Cesna, Marie Cortez, Mary Barton and her friend visiting from China, Liying Yu, Sandi Brown, Therese Shafer, and Yumi Wu. Barbara Klein was recovering from surgery and I was at the Macy’s CSD kickoff meeting so everyone else had to step up to cover for us. Chris and Marie packed all the boxes. What a group. You did a great job! Many thanks.

At the end of the afternoon, we were short 54 scarves, but luckily we had unopened boxes of scarves in the front hall. We ripped open boxes from Joanne Garlick and Elizabeth O’Connell, wrapped them, and quickly closed the box to the last shelter. Again, I was amazed. I don’t know how we got it all done, but we did. If you ever wonder if your scarf counts, you no longer have to think about it. Every scarf matters. We reach our goal one scarf at a time. We value every contribution.

Directors at our shelters have sent us numerous letters of appreciation. The following excerpts are typical of what the directors say about the value of our comfort scarves at their shelters.

Carol Adelkoff, CEO and Executive Director of 1736, wrote: “Your continued friendship and support are so much appreciated.” 1736 was one of the first shelters to which we delivered comfort scarves.

Shannon Fors, Executive Director of Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, wrote: “The women in our shelter and center appreciate your wonderful hand-crafted scarves more than I can say.”

Kitty Glass, Community Outreach Coordinator at Family Violence Project (Jewish Family Service of LA), wrote: “Thank you so much for the scarves you sent. They are gorgeous and have already been distributed to the shelter residents. They were thrilled. . . “

Tracy Halstead, Director of Haven House, wrote: “Your commitment to helping abused women and children in our community is sincerely appreciated.”

Melissa Pitts, Director of Community Services at House of Ruth, wrote: “Your donation of comfort scarves. . . . .will help the women and children at House of Ruth have an enjoyable stay. Without people like you there is no way this could be possible.”

Karen Earl, Executive Director of Jenesse Center, wrote: “Your donation of comfort scarves . . . ensures that the women and children who are survivors of domestic violence will continue to receive safe and culturally relevant services that will empower them on the road to self-sufficiency and independence.”

Ben Schirmer, Executive director of Rainbow Services (the very first shelter to which we donated comfort scarves), wrote: “Your generous donation of comfort scarves . . . helps women and children recovering from lives of trauma. . . .The support of the community brings a sense of belonging and aids their healing.”

Yes, the comments are similar, but I never get tired of reading them. Each month, I am so glad to know that our comfort scarves are still doing their job. I am sorry only that there is such an endless line of women and children who need them.

As you must realize, Handmade wouldn’t be able to supply yarn to all those who knit and crochet the scarves if it wasn’t for generosity of our yarn donors. March has been an excellent month for donations. Crystal Palace Yarns, Knitting Fever, Lion Brand and Skacel Knitting all contributed huge cases of yarn. Skacel also sent a huge case of needles. What we would do without the generosity of these companies.

We do need everyone. We really appreciate the donations from Cheryl Oberle Designs, Classic Elite Yarns, Mountain Colors, and the Schaefer Yarn Co. I always say, “without yarn, we cannot make scarves” and I see how true that is every day. I divide the yarn so Barbara Klein has plenty for knit kits and I have plenty for crochet kits. The new yarn goes out almost as fast as it comes in. All the scarf makers love the infinite variety of the colors, textures, and combinations. Due to all the donations, we never give two scarves the same to any shelter. Each recipient really receives an individual and personal gift. However, if you are impressed by the long list of donors, don’t think we don’t need more yarn or that we have enough. We need a constant supply and we never have enough. Thanks to all yarn donors. You make comfort scarves a reality.

Our affiliates have been busy, busy, busy. All of their scarf deliveries are independent of those we make here in Los Angeles. They are in addition to, not part of, our 815. Renee Hoffman, leader of the Long Beach, CA group, donates 20 scarves to Interval House each month. At first, she made all 20 herself. Now she reports that Slipt Stitches of El Segundo and the charity knitters at Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. are contributing to the scarves she delivers each month.

Susan VanWinkle, leader of the San Rafael Yarn Ministry in San Diego, sent 17 scarves to the Center for Community Solutions and another 47 to Rachel’s Women‘s Center, both in San Diego.

Lois Anderson, in Madison WI, is celebrating her group’s one-year anniversary. She has started writing her own newsletter as well. During her first year, she donated 110 scarves to her local shelter and has gotten 4 yarn shops, friends, church members, and neighbors involved. She spoke at the Madison Knitters’ Guild and hopes to receive scarves from them as well. Go Lois.

Barb Kochuba, founder of Comfort Scarves in Pittsburgh, PA, celebrated her first anniversary last month. Her group serves 4 counties and 5 shelters in southwestern PA. She has involved other charities to participate with her and sponsors many special events to promote her cause. She is doing a great job.

I am pleased to welcome the Ruth Mailbag Group, founded and headed by Joy Coetzee, as our newest affiliate. Joy is in Ladysmith in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, but she found Handmade on Ravelry. You see how the internet connects us all. Her group sponsors a different project each month. In August, she will turn their attention to Victory Haven, a shelter for abused women. In the meantime, she needs items for babies and children. You can find out more about Ruth Mailbag at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheRuthMailbagGroup/

Last month, Arthur Coddington from the Craig’s List Foundation contacted me. He wanted me to tell how Handmade donated 10,000 comfort scarves in 2010. The Foundation is starting a story-sharing platform called LikeMinded. Its goal is to highlight people's locally-focused work and help stories travel from city to city so people can build on one another's work. We’re at the point now of preparing material for their beta site. I have great hopes for this kind of exposure. I still have my sights set on establishing an independent work space for Handmade. Exposure on a site like this one should help us.

Johnson & Johnson and four other leading philanthropic service providers, Guidestar®, Network for Good, Idealist and Do Something have created another online tool that I hope will benefit Handmade. &You, the name of their community service network, will connect individuals and organizations to the causes they care about. The final practice session will be April 6 and then the whole thing will go live. Again, I am full of hope for what this will mean to Handmade in terms of exposure, donations, and participants.

Linda Friege, one of our very active volunteers, found an ad in one of our local newspapers, calling for 501(c)3s to participate in Macy’s Community Shopping Day May 14. I went online and filled out the application immediately. And just as immediately Handmade was accepted to participate in this event. On our part, we “sell” tickets for $10 each. Handmade keeps 100% of the ticket sales. That’s a great fund raiser for sure. In addition, Macy’s will start selling tickets and Handmade will receive a share of their ticket sales as well. Even better for Handmade.

The purchaser of the ticket receives a coupon for $10 to use on the first purchase over $25 (instant return of the ticket price) and another coupon for 10-20% off purchases made throughout the day. The third benefit for the purchaser is that she can enter her ticket into a drawing for a $500 shopping spree. There are many ways to shop before May 14 and pick up purchases after, so there’s almost no reason not to buy a $10 ticket to support Handmade. Enid Malm is handling all this for Handmade. If you’re interested, contact her: enidmalm@verizon.net Again, I feel so hopeful about this opportunity. I hope we can raise enough money to offset some of our shipping costs and especially to help pay the shipping of yarn to those who cannot pay it themselves. And, if we’re really wildly successful, we can put a down payment on a workshop independent of all our homes, a goal you know I’ve had for a long time.

Finally, Mother’s Day is just around the corner, on May 8. We need around 2000 scarves for Mother’s Day. Some shelters want scarves every month; some want them for special occasions. All want them for Mother’s Day and Christmas. As I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, we were a bit short for March and had to cut in to our supply for April. Even though I know you’re all working as hard as you can, I hope you will put out a little more so we can get a comfort scarf for every abused mother who has sought protection in a shelter. You read the notes from the directors. You know they want the scarves for their women. They appreciate what we do. So we need a big push to get them scarves enough for Mother’s Day. The time is short, but we’re fast scarfers!

Every time I look back at where Handmade started in October, 2008 and see how far we’ve come in such a short time, I’m floored. I know we couldn’t have achieved all this without all of you. We had a lot of other support along the way-- June Grossberg, the owner of Concepts in Yarn where our core group meets every Wednesday evening, all the yarn donors, all the cash donors, everyone. Your dedication and support are phenomenal and I never forget it. Thank you so much.

So if you want to donate yarn or scarves, please send your contributions to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden

30065 Grandpoint Lane

Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate cash, please send a check to the above address or donate through PayPal. You can access PayPal on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org

Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Leslye

www.handmadeespecially.org

501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

more hats

2011-03-11T18:40:00.001-08:00

more hats a photo by rubylulu on Flickr.

hats for 2 of my charities..It was a joy knitting these..

Handmade Especially for You donated 800+ comfort scarves to shelters for abused women

2011-03-06T12:24:00.001-08:00

February Newsletter

February 28, 2011

Today’s topics:

 We delivered 815 comfort scarves again this month

 Shelters really appreciate what we contribute

 The wrapping party gets bigger and bigger

 Stitches West was an incredible experience

 Yarn companies, yarn shops, and individuals continue their generosity

 Affiliated groups throughout the US are making and delivering comfort scarves in their own locales

 Some scarf makers were abused women themselves at some point in their lives

 More tips on making comfort scarves

And now for the details:

In February, so many participants contributed scarves made both from our kits and from their own stash that again we were able to deliver 815 scarves to 22 shelters for abused women in S CA. Considering we were wiped out of our stock of scarves at the end of the year, I am thrilled that we have made so many scarves both in January and February that we could deliver 815 in each month. That is a lot of dedication, knitting and crocheting, on your part. When you realize that it takes about 3 hours to make one scarf, not including getting the yarn and wrapping the finished scarves, 815 scarves represents 2,445 hours of your work! Wow! I hope we can keep up this level of intensity because the demand for our scarves is growing.

I personally appreciate what you do and so do the shelters. Su Casa sent us a Certificate of Appreciation. In the accompanying letter, Christina Satki, Director of Community Outreach, wrote: “We thank you and all the wonderful people at Handmade Especially for You. Your donation. . . was wonderful. Your generosity towards our families championed that seed of hope and boosted the families’ spirits to amazing heights.”

Taking the time to acknowledge our contribution keeps us motivated. Shannon Fors, Executive Director of Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, also wrote a very moving letter. “Thank you so very much for the scarves you provided for the women in our shelter. I wish you could see their faces. . . . They are SO excited. Some of these women can barely afford to feed their families so you can well imagine what a beautiful scarf means to them. . . . They feel ‘pulled together’ with such a wonderful accessory. When self-esteem is at an all-time low, improving appearance can be just what a woman needs.”

Joanne David, Director of Development at Haven Hills, wrote in a similar vein of thought. “I wish you could have seen the faces of the women in our shelters and counseling clinic when they received the scarves you so generously donated. They were so fabulous! We appreciate your support. . . “

Donna Miller, Director of Operations at OPCC, wrote: “Please extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped make and donate the comfort scarves we received. They were beautiful and given to the women at Sojourn’s emergency and transitional shelters.”

Heather Finlay, CEO of the YWCA of San Diego County wrote: We are especially grateful for your commitment to us during these hard economic times. . . . Thank you for helping to improve the lives of thousands of women, children, and families in San Diego.”

I have received many more letters, all expressing similar heartfelt gratitude. When I started Handmade in October, 2008, I had no idea that a comfort scarf would be so powerful. I also didn’t realize that there was power in the knitting needles, crochet hooks and the hands that wielded these tools.

It takes a lot of people to process all the scarves that we distribute. In February, we had a huge wrapping party. Twelve people helped wrap and pack all the scarves for shipping. Of course, we had a lot of fun. We worked HARD too. Thanks to Barbara Klein, Chris Needham, Evelyn Dow, June Wisner, Kathy Allen, Linda Freige, Maria Cesca, Maria Denzel, Marie Cortez, Mary Gravlin, and Yumi Wu wrapped and wrapped. We want every scarf to look like a personal gift so the wrapping is really important. Thank you wrappers!

In addition to wrapping, kit making is essential to Handmade’s success. The kit makers meet on Mondays at Barbara Klein’s house. This group includes Barbara, Linda, Marie, Mary and Yumi. Others participate when they can. Kit making means that anyone who wants to make a scarf can do so whether or not she has her own yarn. They have made well more than 500 kits this year. Knitters can pick them up at Concepts in Yarn. June Grossberg, the owner, has supported Handmade right from its start. June keeps a bin for kits and another bin for finished scarves at a prominent place in the shop. We mail kits to those who can’t get to Concepts in Yarn. Kit makers are really busy. The demand for kits is a big as the demand for scarves. Thank you kit makers! Thank you June!

Stitches West (in Santa Clara CA) was an incredible experience. Hilary Cohen, Handmade’s lawyer, and I drove together. We set up a good schedule so we both got to knit on the way. We both took lots of classes, none the same, and learned a lot. I took several classes from Barry Klein, owner of Trendsetter Yarns, one of our most generous donors. From him, I learned ways to combine stitches I already know to make patterns that are new to me. I expect our knitters will like them. We all enjoy something new.

Stitches West, unlike TNNA, is geared to the retail yarn shopper. The frenzy of yarn shopping there reminded me of shopping at Filene’s Basement. It was a madhouse. The air crackled with excitement. Happily for Handmade, many of the vendors were generous with their products. Becoming Art, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Brooks Farm, Creatively Dyed Yarns, DJ International, Ellen’s ½ Pint Farm, Fiesta Yarns, Helen Hamann Yarns, Interlacements Yarns, Judy’s Novelty Wool, Sunshine Yarns, Tess Designer Yarns, Twisted Sunshine, and A Verb for Keeping Warm all donated yarn on the spot. They liked knowing that we really make their yarn into comfort scarves that we really give to shelters for abused women. Many other vendors promised to donate yarn once they returned to their studios.

Yarn companies have been particularly generous, especially after TNNA. Berroco sent a huge case filled with absolutely beautiful novelty yarns. Trendsetter did the same. These decorative yarns are key to individualizing each scarf. Brown Sheep sent a case of soft turquoise wool. Skacel sent 2 cases of big yarn. Luckily I have lots of their size 19 needles to distribute with this yarn. Crystal Palace sent a case of multicolored cotton ribbon yarn. Susan pointed me to several of their patterns for using this yarn. As I’ve mentioned many times, without yarn, we cannot make kits. Without kits, we cannot make scarves. Every part of what we do is connected with every other part. Thanks to the generosity of these yarn companies Handmade can make comfort scarves for abused women.

Individual donors have contributed a lot as well. Barbara Klein again donated $50 toward shipping scarves to shelters. Her business handles all the shipping for us, which is a huge help. Barbara’s son, Jason, does the actual shipping. He complained that I didn’t use enough tape on the packages so Barbara bought shipping tape and donated it to Handmade. I guess the word about tape got around because Marie Cortez also bought shipping tape. Believe me, we use a lot of tape. Yumi Wu, Lydia Ornelas, and Karen Ing also donated yarn. Given our voracious appetite for yarn, I am sure we will never have enough. Thank you all so much.

Our affiliates are going strong too. Vicki Ringer, leader of the San Fernando Valley group, reports that her group donated 280 comfort scarves to Haven House in 2010. Good work, Vicki!

Renee Hoffman, leader of the Long Beach group, donates 20 comfort scarves each month to Interval House. She is a hard worker and dedicated knitter. Some months she makes all 20 scarves herself.

Ann Miller, leader of our newly started affiliate in Pueblo CO, reports that she donated 12 scarves to the YMCA of Pueblo. Loretta Masterson, Program Manager of the Pueblo YMCA, wrote me: “I wanted to personally thank you for the beautiful scarves that Ann provided to our domestic violence shelter. Your project is amazing. We at the Family Crisis Shelter appreciate donations from the community to help victims of domestic violence.”

Karen Walborn started an affiliate in Carlisle PA. She reports that she delivered 22 scarves to her local domestic violence shelter and the women there LOVE them.

PA is one of the most active states. The Delaware County group, headed by Dr. Laura Guertin, told me they donated 100 scarves (making their total 200) to the Domestic Abuse Project there. One of the staff shared with her that ‘each woman receives her scarf in a basket when they arrive. They really appreciate and enjoy the scarves.’

Barb Kochuba, in Pittsburgh, founded Comfort Scarves. Her group of scarfers and list of shelters to which she donates is growing so quickly, she is now helping others form their own groups. Really. Handmade is now a real movement!

In Burlington VT, Sarah Barlett has started VT Handmade. Sarah is Director of Women Writing for Change. She contacted Women Helping Battered Women, a group of 12 shelters in VT to provide comfort scarves. She is starting with the shelter in Burlington, and then will add other shelters as she grows. Keep us posted, Sarah.

While I have been involved with Handmade, I have met many wonderful, generous, artistic and creative people. I have heard many stories about why they want to make comfort scarves for abused women. The most moving (to me) stories come from women who had been abused at some time earlier in their lives, somehow escaped their abusive situation, and went on to enjoy happy and productive lives. Some, such as Judy, say “when I was being abused, a scarf made by someone who cares would have helped me feel that it all wasn’t my fault!”

A new friend on Ravelry, wrote: “Thinking about when I was stuck in a abusive marriage, I would have loved to have . . . .a comfort scarf. It would have given me strength to do what I had to do—leave the marriage. . . .It still annoys me that there needs to be women’s shelters when there’s a perfectly good place to put abusive me, called JAIL.”

Natalie told me: I am very happy to say that my Mom did leave and get counseling. . . and I am even happier to say that we broke the cycle together. My kids have never been exposed to a violent or insecure home life.” All these women make comfort scarves for abused women. They all want to give back to the community and help others change their lives for the better.

Finally, a few comments about the scarves themselves. We really want them to be at least 4-inches wide, but not wider than 5-inches. We hope they will be at least 60-inches long. Theoretically a scarf should be as long as the wearer is tall. I am 60-inches tall. I know not all women are 60-inches tall, and most are taller, but our scarves should be at least 60-inches if not longer. Some scarfers using our kits say the yarn is too short. Often we find they are making scarves 15 stitches wide, instead of the 10 or 12 we suggest. Whether you are knitting or crocheting, the 3-stitch differential makes a big difference. When I was trying out one of the new patterns I learned at Stitches, I had to keep track of each row I knit. From that, I found it took me 192 rows to make a scarf on size 15 needles, not counting the decoration at both ends of the scarves. Now think about this. I was knitting 12 stitches. 192 x 3 (the number of extra stitches on some of the ‘short” scarves) is 576. Divide that by 12 (the number of stitches per row I was knitting) and it turns out 48 more rows are possible. If the scarf had been made using 12 instead of 15 stitches, the finished scarf would have been the desired length. We measure out all the yarn in the kits. All a scarfer has to do is follow the directions and the scarf should come out perfectly.

Of course, if you are a loose scarfer, you can use a smaller needle or hook; in like manner, if you are a tight scarfer, you may have to use a bigger needle or hook. If you use a bigger needle or hook, you may also want to use fewer stitches. Adjustments such as these are not in the directions that come with the kits. But we have assumed that most of our participants are so experienced that they know how to make these adjustments.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. We need everyone. We need scarf makers, especially as we are now distributing 800 (not 400 like last year) comfort scarves each month. We need yarn winders. We need postage patrons. Many people who want to make scarves cannot afford to mail back their finished scarves. We need cash donors. Now that we are shipping to so many shelters, the cost is around $150 per month. Barbara Klein pays $50 each month; I pay the rest. We still don’t have a workshop where we can consolidate our activities. There’s room for all of you to do whatever you can.

Thanks in advance for whatever you contribute. Keep up your good work. I count on your dedication. Thank you for making a difference!

So, if you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to send a check, please send it to the above address or donate through PayPal, which you can access on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org.

Thanks in advance, Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-9359292

New Look

2011-02-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

Thought it was time for a change! I've changed the background and set up two information pages for new visitors to the site.

Afghans for Afghans 2011 Winter Distribution

2011-02-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Afghans for Afghans has posted some pictures of the 2011 Winter distribution of items. You can view them here. In addition, a video can be viewed here (not translated but you get the gist).

You can get details of their next campaign here. Please, please, please read their guidelines carefully (wool or animal fibers only - no acrylic).

Thanks everyone!
Cindy

You May Have Been Removed

2011-02-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

We reached the limit of allowed participants (according to Blogger). So, I've removed some people from the roll in order to make room for new people. I did this in a RANDOM fashion, just went down the roll and removed. I'm sure there are people on the roll who have not participated in awhile and probably won't notice.

If you were removed (and noticed) and want back on just email me.

Thanks,
Cindy

In Jan, Handmade Especially for You made and distributed more than 800 comfort scarves to shelters for abused women

2011-01-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

January 28, 2011
Today’s topics:
 We’re riding on high on our success in 2010

 2011 starts with a burst of energy and the delivery of 815 comfort scarves

 We received many donations at TNNA

 Shelters are so grateful

 Chapter development continues

 We need every participant

 A few tips for scarfers

And now for the details:

With lots of hard work throughout the year and intense end-of-the-year scarfing, we reached our goal of distributing 10,000 comfort scarves on December 6, 2010. We provided scarves to every shelter for abused women in Los Angeles County, 4 shelters in Orange County, and 4 shelters in San Diego County. It was a great achievement. We couldn’t have reached it without the contributions of every volunteer, donor, and yarn company who participated in our project.

Building on the successes of 2010, we have started 2011 with a huge burst of energy. We had so many scarves to process that we had to have two wrapping parties to get them all ready. They were great fun for all of us (Chris Needham, Barbara Klein, Mary Gravlin, Teresa Copley, June Wisner, Evelyn Dow, Myra Kumagae, and Yumi Wu), but we had a lot of scarves to prepare for distribution, so we did a lot of work too. In January, we donated 815 comfort scarves to 22 shelters. By way of comparison, in January, 2009 we distributed 97 scarves; in January, 2010 we sent 300.

Thanks to our sponsor, June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn, I was able to attend The National NeedleArts Association Trade Show at the Convention Center in Long Beach CA. There, I took the opportunity to thank the many, many yarn companies who donated to Handmade in 2010, tell them what we had accomplished, and request support for our project in 2011. Many companies were well aware of Handmade. Most complimented Handmade for its accomplishments in 2010. Many promised support in 2011 and some even donated on the spot. I returned at the end of show with a big suitcase. Paul Meznarich of Plymouth Yarn filled one suitcase. I walked it back to the car and went back with another empty suitcase. Knitting Fever filled that one. Sion Elalouf, President of the company, introduced me to Debbie Bliss, one of their designers, who donated several big bags of yarn. Tymon Warda, my longtime email friend at Knitting Fever, helped me to the car; it was too much for me to handle alone. June reminded me to stop by Textured Yarn Co, where also on Monday Mary Doscher donated a bag of her colorful yarn. Bjorn and Rex Tannahill of Hand Painted Knitting Yarns donated a skein of their beautiful yarn. I visited the Lion Brand booth, and met Jack Blumenthal, who donated so much fun fur last year. I met Karen Skacel, of Skacel Knitting, who donated so many knitting needles to groups such as the kids at Narbonne High and the Girl Scout troop in NJ who wanted to knit comfort scarves for abused women. All in all, TNNA was a very heady experience for me. I think/I hope the yarn companies will continue to support our project.

The shelters continue to appreciate our comfort scarves. Lorraine Hines, at Valley Oasis, wrote: “thank you so much for the scarves. I know you folks put your heart and soul into the work. I pray God’s blessing on you and your team.”

Today I delivered scarves to Rainbow Services. The reception area was so full of women I could hardly enter. I mentioned this to the young woman at the desk. She said this was a new group just coming to the shelter. I said, “I hope you give them these scarves!” She replied, “We always do. They love them!” I was very touched.

We added the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown Los Angeles, to our list of shelters. Elaine Busby, leader of the knitting group at Rolling Hills Covenant Church, called asking me to pick up some extra yarn they had. It turns out they were knitting for an event at the Fred Jordan Mission and the deadline was Jan. 22. So they gave Handmade 5 huge bags of Splash. I attended their meeting and realized that they didn’t make as many scarves as they hoped, so Handmade donated 100 scarves to them. Here’s what they wrote to me about the event. “I loved watching people receive the scarves. They put them on right away. . . . Thank you for helping bless the people on Skid Row.”

In general, Handmade hasn’t donated to shelters for the homeless, but due to budget problems in CA, funds for shelters for abused women have been cut and some shelters offer their services to fewer women. Some women end up in shelters for homeless instead. And, many homeless women who live on the street, are subject to abuse there, so I think it is not inconsistent with our mission to also supply homeless shelters with comfort scarves. We already donate to the Downtown Women’s Center and the Chicana Services Action Center. There are at least 40,000 homeless in Los Angeles County. I hope the 300 comfort scarves we provide 3 shelters give some women warmth and comfort.

Luckily for Handmade, Sharon Greenberg moved and had to get rid of her stash. She donated 8 huge storage boxes of yarn. Thank you Sharon! Cathy McConville was cleaning out her closets. She donated a huge bag of yarn from her stash. Thank you Cathy! **Handmade’s** growth depends on donations such as these. We appreciate.

Our kit makers are busier than ever (as you can see from the fact that we delivered 815 scarves in January). Just as I used to do when I was making the kits, they have burned through their yarn meters. I ordered more from Nancy’s Knit Knacks. Bob Schroyer, who convinced me I needed the electric yarn winder/yarn meter set up, sold Handmade 4 Super Meter Plus and 4 meter replacements at wholesale prices instead of retail. That is an important donation to Handmade. Thank you, Bob.

Alyson Cline, leader of our AZ affiliate, Pins & Needles, reports that they sent 45 comfort scarves to the Women’s Shelter in Chinle AZ. They plan to donate 40 scarves each quarter. Composed of 35 women of all ages and skill levels, Pins & Needles also mentors a teen group who also will be making comfort scarves. Glad to learn we are helping in AZ.

Tammy Peters, in Culpeper VA started her affiliate because she herself was a victim of abuse and sought safety for herself and her two small sons at a shelter in Joshua Tree CA. “I feel this is a wonderful way for me to use my talents and give back.” In August and September 2010, she sent scarves to the shelter in CA where she found safety. In October, November and December 2010 she delivered 57 comfort scarves to SAFE, a shelter in Culpeper, where she now lives.

Marg Grieve, leader of our first and only (so far) Canadian affiliate, Giving Hands, says she is off to a big start in 2011 too. Her group has met twice already and she says her basket of ready to donate is overflowing. The shelters in her area are very grateful for what Giving Hands does. “all of our donations were very gratefully and happily accepted. Some of them were just overjoyed at the love and care that were expressed by the joint effort of all the helpers at GIVING HANDS. The smiles on their faces will be cemented in my memory for a very, very long time... and so the work carries on.”

Barb Kochuba, leader of our Pittsburgh affiliate, Comfort Scarves, also reports a great start in 2011. In fact, she beat me to the punch, publishing her Newsletter two days ago. Barb donates to several shelters in her area and already has her February quota ready to deliver! She has taken advantage of football fever in her area and uses Ravelry to best advantage. “Steeler Nation has 'adopted' us via Ravelry with a challenge to the Packers fans to see who makes the most black and gold or green and gold items by the game. Comfort Scarves - Pittsburgh will be the recipient of the Steeler donations. There's a link on the FB page to the Steelers/Packers Charity Challenge. I've committed that any items I receive by next Wed I will get to our shelters by the game.” Maybe Los Angeles does need a football team!

The people who participate in Handmade Especially for You are dedicated, hard working, creative, and generous. They have interesting stories behind their drive to make comfort scarves. Co-workers Victoria Blake and Celia Velasco, for instance, wrote me that they heard about Handmade last summer. They wanted to participate but didn’t know how to knit or crochet. So they spent the next 6 months teaching themselves. “We’ve taken apart more scarves than we would like to admit, and have probably ruined even more yarn, but we are happy to give you 8 scarves.” They worried that their scarves were not the “prettiest,” but assure me that they made them with the hope that “whoever gets one . . . will know she is not alone and that every day brings hope.” Victoria and Celia, even the most proficient scarfers rip and start over again and again. So glad you contributed 8 scarves. We need every participant and every scarf.

Finally, a few tips to all our scarfers. We need scarves that are at least 4-inches wide, but not wider than 5-inches, and at least 60-inches long. We’d love it if you would decorate both ends of your scarves with fun fur or other novelty yarn. If you don’t have such yarn, please ask and we will send you some.

Please attach your gift tags with a piece of yarn, not a safety pin. Please sign your first name only to the gift tag. Of course, if you want to add a message, that is fine.

Please do not use stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row). It makes the sides curl. Garter stitch (knit every row) is fine.

Please no keyhole scarves.

Yes, Handmade Especially for You enjoyed a lot of success last year. We made and distributed a huge number of comfort scarves. If January is any indication, we expect to make and donate even more than 10,000 scarves this year. To do that, we need many participants, scarfers, kit makers, wrappers, donors, volunteers, cash donations, and a workshop. We have big goals--we’d like to add the shelters in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to our list of recipients—and need to keep our momentum going to achieve these goals. We need and appreciate whatever you can and want to contribute.

So, if you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail them to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to send a check, please send it to the above address or donate through PayPal, which you can access on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org.

Thanks in advance, Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-9359292

Yes, We are Still Active

2011-01-26T13:17:00.001-08:00

I don't post as often, however, I am still adding people as they send me emails. So, if you are interested in joining our group please do.

Thanks,
Cindy

In 2010 Handmade Especially for You made 10,000 comfort scarves and donated them to all the shelters for abused women in Los Angeles County

2010-12-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

December 20, 2010
Today’s topics:
 We delivered 650 comfort scarves in December which made our total 10,000 for 2010

 We reached all the shelters in Los Angeles County and a few more

 Our core group is outstanding

 We sent thank you letters to 347 individual contributors throughout the country

 The shelters appreciate comfort scarves

 More news from our affiliates

 The generous contributions from yarn companies and individuals continue

 Ideas for making comfort scarves from “scraps” of yarn

 Looking back on 2010 and getting started on 2011

And now for the details:

We delivered 650 comfort scarves in December. The last scarves arrived on my front porch on Monday, Dec. 6 and they were wrapped and in their boxes the next day. **Barbara Klein** drove over and crammed the 7 huge boxes into her car to ship the next day from her business. It really took all of us to get this done. Honestly, I wondered if we would be able to achieve our goal of 10,000 scarves made and delivered in 2010 given that we were out of scarves at the end of November, but with all of you working so hard, we did it. Your output and dedication to reaching the goal were amazing. You really care about helping abused women change their lives. This shows in the beauty of your work, your attention to detail, and your determination to get your completed scarves to Handmade by the deadline.

We achieved another goal in 2010. We delivered comfort scarves to every one of the 27 shelters for abused women in Los Angeles County, as well as 4 shelters in Orange County, and 2 shelters in San Diego County. That indicates there are a lot of abused women who need protection. You’d think that during happy times celebrating the holidays, abuse would abate, but contrary to common sense, abuse increases during the holidays. That’s the reason we make and deliver our comfort scarves all year long, starting in January.

We couldn’t do this without the contributions of all of you, but I must mention our core group which meets every Wednesday evening at **Concepts in Yarn** in Torrance. Many in this group not only make scarves, but also make the kits, wrap scarves, and support Handmade in all kinds of ways that don’t show in the finished scarf. The photo below shows us at our holiday party at **Il Toscano**, an Italian restaurant near **Concepts in Yarn**. I know you can’t see us very well, but you can see we are having a good time. 10,000 comfort scarves! We had a lot to celebrate.

Many people ask how many people actually participate in Handmade. I know there are a lot and that people from all over volunteer in our project. Before our holiday party, I alphabetized and then counted all the thank you letters I sent this year to individual donors. 347 different people received letters. That doesn’t count people who participate as part of groups. 347 is a huge number. I appreciate each and every one of you!

More shelters sent warm notes of appreciation. **Luis Nagel**, at **The Good Shepherd**, writes: “A thousand thank you’s for all the beautiful scarves sent to us and handmade by your group. What a joy they were for our moms. . . I knit a little so I know how special a gift this was.”

In like manner, **Christina Sathi**, Outreach Manager at **Su Casa**, sent a card: “Dear Leslye and all our friends at Handmade Especially for You! Thank you so much for sharing your talents and kindness with our families.”

Executive Director of **Jenesse Center**, **Karen Earl**, sent a letter saying: “I would like to thank you for your continuous support of our program with your donation of comfort scarves. . . . the ladies in our shelter are very excited and appreciative to have the beautiful and colorful scarves that you and your organization have consistently donated to our emergency and transitional facilities.”

**Shelly Ross**, Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator at the South Bay offices of **1736 Family Crisis Center**, wrote that **The Housewives of Beverly Hills** is one of their major celebrity supporters. While they all were setting up their holiday “store,” **Taylor Armstrong**, one of the housewives, saw our scarves and loved them. She picked one to wear for a photo op which will be used to promote 1736. Great for 1736and great for Handmade. Here she is:

The slogan on the wall behind Taylor says: “It takes a community to heal an individual." Really! I believe it takes a really big community to make 10,000 comfort scarves.

Our affiliates are going strong too. **Marg Grieve**, founder and organizer of **Giving Hands**, our affiliate in **Nelson, BC**, reports that her group donated 334 items to 4 different shelters in Nelson. Marg reports that “one of the great things I have experienced being the leader of the group is how we help and encourage each other in situations unrelated to our common goal. I . . think that ‘giving to those in need’ is very applicable in our case.” I agree. Over and over I see that the makers of the scarves get as much from making them as the recipients do from receiving them. A win/win situation for both.

**Renee Hoffman** donated another 50 scarves to **Interval House** in **Long Beach CA**.

**Merrilyn Mancini**, in **Monterey CA**, donated 100 scarves to **SOP (Shelter Outreach Plus).**

In **San Diego CA**, **Susan VanWinkle’s** group donated comfort scarves to **Rachel’s Women’s Center** and **Women’s Resource Center** (in **Oceanside**). Susan prefers to deliver personally and not ship scarves, so her group supplies these 2 shelters and our group takes care of 2 other San Diego shelters.

In **Clarkston MI**, **Marie Woodman** reports that her small group has donated 15 scarves in December, which gives them a total of 30 for the year.

**Kathy Amiott** in **Cincinnati OH**, received more press for her work with students at **Mt Healthy High School**. Kathy set a goal of providing 200 comfort scarves to the local **YWCA** shelters for abused women, and with the support of **Connie Willliams** and **Stamp Your Art Out**, Kathy collected 400 scarves and donated them to **6 YWCA** shelters in the Cincinnati area. Here are the teens and Kathy with some of the scarves they made:

**PA** has the most affiliates outside of CA. **Karen Walborn** organized a group that donated 12 comfort scarves to the **Domestic Violence Shelter** in **Cumberland and Perry Counties**. Sheri, the Resident Coordinator of the shelter, was thrilled with the donation and told Karen she looks forward to distributing them to the women.

**Dr. Laura Guertin**, **Penn State University**, organized a group that donated 100 comfort scarves to the **Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County**. This shelter provides services to 5,000 victims of domestic violence each year, just in Delaware County. Laura expects her group to make and donate 100 scarves per month. What a great goal!

**Chris Polamalu** started a group in **Norristown PA**. She is very excited to make her first delivery of 15 comfort scarves to **Laurel House**.

Founder of **Comfort Scarves**, **Barb Kochuba** in **Pittsburgh**, donated 300 comfort scarves to 4 shelters there. In addition to comfort scarves, her group also made 90 fleece scarves which they gave to children in their 4 shelters. She plans to add more shelters in 2011.

Participating in **Handmade Especially for You** is contagious. Scarfers throughout the US (and Canada) are “catching” the Handmade bug. I have not counted the scarves made and distributed by the affiliates in the 10,000 distributed by our Torrance CA based group. We do receive scarves from people throughout the US; but we distribute them here in S. CA so they count in our 10,000. I know that’s confusing but really, it doesn’t matter. Women throughout the US are making comfort scarves and the scarves are being donated to shelters for abused women here in S CA and the rest of the country.

**Peggy Bomba**, in **Craig CO**, sent another box of scarves made by the female inmates at **Moffet County Jail**. So I did the only thing possible and sent her another box of kits for her “girls” to crochet. Peggy marvels at the calming effect making scarves has on her girls. Another example of how scarfing helps the scarfers. The men at the jail saw the women crocheting scarves so they wanted to make scarves too. Peggy taught them to make fleece scarves. Even more moving, she provided enough fleece for the inmates to make scarves so they could give handmade gifts to members of their families. To me, Peggy illustrates how one good deed leads to another. What a wonderful way for inmates to keep in touch with their families.

Lucky for Handmade, we have so many yarn companies who donate yarn. This month, we received 2 more cases of yarn from **Knitting Fever**, one of our most generous and consistent donors. Thank you so much, **Tymon**. **Schaefer Yarn** also donated some skeins. We will use them all immediately when we get started again in January. We definitely understand that we couldn’t make our beautiful scarves if we didn’t have beautiful yarn.

As the year ends, I see we are overwhelmed with pieces of good yarn too small to make a scarf. And so are many of the affiliates. Everyone want to know what to do with all these pieces. Here are some of the ideas. If you have other suggestions, we’d love to have them so we can share them with other scarfers. The patterns will be on the website soon.

**COMFORT SCARF MADE WITH 2 DIFFERENT YARNS**
If you have pieces of yarn 60 or 70 yards long, you can make a scarf by knitting 2 rows with one yarn, and then without cutting the first yarn, knit 2 rows with the second. You can use any stitch so long as you carry the yarn along the side.

**AS EASY AS 1-2-3 COMFORT SCARF**
This is a good scarf to make if you have 3 pieces of yarn each around 50 yards long. Like the knit-2-rows pattern, the trick is to carry the yarns along the side. But unlike the 2-rows pattern, you knit just one row with each yarn and then change yarns. You have to take the time to move each ball of yarn as you knit it, or you end up with a terrible tangle.

**VERTICAL COMFORT SCARF MADE FROM SCRAPS**
**Susan VanWinkle** sent us a suggestion for a vertical scrap scarf. She says you could make it knitting only garter stitch, where you knit two rows with A and two rows with B, no increasing or decreasing. But she thinks it looks better on the diagonal, increasing one stitch at the beginning and decreasing one at the end of each alternate row. I like that too. I do the diagonal differently, but take your pick.

**HORIZONTAL COMFORT SCARF MADE FROM SCRAPS**
I really like making horizontal scrap scarves. We have several versions, going from very planned to more or less unplanned. This scarf uses 10-yard pieces of yarn. **Mary Gravlin’s scarf** (black and blue) is most planned. She uses a firm yarn on the outside edges to keep the shape of the scarf. I also like the planned scarf (yellow and orange), but I use bigger needles which means fewer rows. Mary casts on 180 stitches on size 11 circular needles; I cast on 160 on size 13 circulars.

**Hilary Cohen** uses size 11 needles also. But where Mary and I always knit at least 2 rows, Hilary knits one row, sometimes 2, sometimes 3. If she runs out of yarn in the middle of a row, she just attaches another yarn and keeps going. And, instead of weaving in all the ends, she makes fringe. Of course, it is much faster to make scarves from new yarn, not worry about matching weights, coordinating colors, etc. However, it feels so thrifty to use up scraps. Luckily, we have plenty of scraps to share if you want them; and we have beautiful, new yarn for those who prefer it.

We accomplished a lot in 2010. We made 10,000 comfort scarves and delivered them to more than 30 shelters in S CA, and more if you count the donations of our affiliates in the rest of the US and Canada. Our operation has grown as well. We have more kit makers, more scarfers and more volunteers. Our growing community did a lot.

Many people have asked me if we’re going to expand to making and delivering 20,000 comfort scarves in 2011. I know they’re kidding. We’re not ready to double again (as we did from 2009 to 2010). We want to grow, have more affiliates, reach more shelters, but we cannot do so without a workshop.

Last year at this time, we were hoping for a **501(c)3**; and happily, with the help of **Hilary Cohen**, our lawyer, we got it (**EIN: 26-3529292**). This year, we need a workshop that is independent of my house or the homes of all the people who support Handmade. We need to consolidate our kit making, wrapping, shipping scarves to shelters and receiving scarves from donors. I don’t know who will step forward and help us move to this next level, but I am confident someone will.

**June Grossberg**, owner of **Concepts in Yarn**, and constant advisor and supporter of Handmade, suggests we have a big fund raiser. It’s true if we had more money, we could pay rent. To have a big event, we would need more volunteers and people with experience in planning such occasions. If you are such a person, we need you.

I love the success of Handmade. I am thrilled that we have made and delivered so many comfort scarves. At the same time, I feel very sorry that there are so many abused women need them. I look forward to another big year, working with good people in all walks of life. There are many ways to help in the community. I’m glad that so many of you have chosen to support Handmade as your way to do good. I depend on you. Many thanks.

As usual, if you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

**Handmade Especially for You** c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate money, please mail a check to the above address or use **PayPal**. There is a link on the Handmade website. **www.handmadeespecially.org**

Thanks in advance.

Leslye

PS There should be many photos in this Newsletter but I don't know how to insert them here. Please check our website for the full Newsletter.

Handmade Especially for You donated 2,850 comfort scarves in November

2010-12-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

December 7, 2010
Today’s topics:

 Only 650 more comfort scarves to deliver to reach our goal of 10,000

 The dedication of Handmade’s volunteers is outstanding

 The shelters are so appreciative

 Handmade’s affiliates are delivering lots of comfort scarves

 The generous contributions from yarn companies and individuals continue

 Abuse affects women in all racial, religious, and ethnic groups; combating abuse also comes from all racial, religious, and ethnic groups

And now for the details:

We had two wrapping parties in November to accommodate all the scarves we had to prepare for delivery. We did so much wrapping, we didn’t even take time to eat lunch. It was incredible. As fast as everyone wrapped, I packed boxes for shipping and delivery. In the end, we shipped or delivered 2,850 comfort scarves. It was a heady experience. Just ask Evelyn Dow, Myra Kumagae, Kathy Allen, Barbara Klein, Marie Cortez, Carol Maldonado, and Sharon McCann, who tied all the ribbons. The array of brightly colored scarves tied with cute, curly ribbons was the biggest pile of holiday gifts I have ever seen. It really warmed our hearts. We should have photographed the pile, of course, but we were so focused on the count and packing the boxes that we forgot. Thanks especially to these dedicated volunteers.

As you might expect, the shelters are sending appreciative notes. Tobi Quintiliani, Senior Director of Community Response and Relations at 1736, sent us a very moving note:

Every year 1736 Family Crisis Center staff waits happily for the arrival of beautiful hand-crafted scarves and every year they appear like clockwork. . . .These scarves are the most coveted gift that our clients receive each year because each scarf is made with such love and attention to detail. Our clients always feel both warm and loved when they receive these scarves; this love is something that many of them have not felt for a long time because of their abusive households. Many times just knowing that someone has taken the time to knit a beautiful expression of love is the best therapy a client could receive after experiencing such trauma and distress in their lives. It is with our sincere pleasure to thank you for another year of receiving these strikingly beautiful symbols of your love and commitment to serve our clients. Together with you we will continue to heal their broken lives and make them feel loved again.

Patima Komolamit, our contact at Center for the Pacific Asian Family, wrote: “We received your beautiful scarves! Thank you so much for your continued generosity and thoughtfulness for our women and children survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.”

In like manner, Shannon Fors, Interim Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley, wrote: “Thank you very much for the wonderful fifty scarves that you donated to the women in our shelter. . . .There is nothing more appreciated than a gift made by hand. . . . Your kindness and consideration is deeply appreciated. We realize that there are many charities that you may choose to support. Thank you for choosing ours.”

Annah Mason, Donations Associate at the Downtown Women’s Center, told us: “I just wanted to reach out and thank you for the scarves you’ve been sending to our Center. . . . I can tell you that the ladies enjoy (the scarves) both for practical reasons and for the fact that they’re handmade and heartfelt.” This Center is opening a new facility in December and will distribute our scarves as part of their inaugural celebration.

Kitty Glass, Community Outreach Coordinator of Family Violence Project (part of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles), sent a very enthusiastic appreciation: “Thank you so very much for the gorgeous scarves we just received. They truly are beautiful and will be wonderful holiday gifts for our counseling center clients and shelter residents. . . . You continue to provide our special folks with such joy. . . they are always amazed by the kindness of strangers.”

The above are just a sample of the notes I receive from the shelters. I will share more in the December Newsletter.

The number and success of our affiliates is growing. There are so many, all doing such good work, that Lori Jeskey, our webmaster, has even made a page on our website listing many of them. It’s hard to keep the list up to date, but we’re doing our best. I know many prospective scarfers use the info because the local leaders tell me their groups are expanding. Here’s what’s going on with Handmade affiliates throughout the country:

Kathleen Amiott, in Cincinnati OH, has been participating with Connie Williams of Stamp Your Art Out. She thought her project would be a one time effort, but the response has been so enthusiastic, that she plans to continue throughout the year. She collected 242 scarves and distributed them to 3 local YWCA women’s shelters and transitional living centers. These efforts made the Cincinnati Examiner.

Tammy Peters, in Culpeper VA, reported that she made another delivery to SAFE. The director told her: “The women were surprised that anyone would make something so special and beautiful just for them. The ladies put on the scarves as soon as they received them! A handmade gift made them feel special.”

Helen Susko, in Doylestown PA and her group, Stitching Angels (from Redeemer Lutheran Church), donated 39 scarves to A Woman’s Place. And they’re just getting started.

Renee Hoffman, leader of our affiliated group in Long Beach CA, donated 50 scarves to Interval House. Renee donates every month. The staff and clients at Interval House are thrilled.

Alyson Cline, in Surprise (near Phoenix) AZ, brought 25 scarves to A Place for Eve. There are 15-20 enthusiastic scarfers in Alyson’s group. They plan on making lots of scarves so they are looking for more shelters.

Barb Kochuba, an avid Handmade supporter, formed Comfort Scarves in Pittsburgh PA area. She keeps a tapestry posted on her dining room wall filled with photos of all the scarves she has collected—200 so far.

Julie Bailey’s group in Portland OR donated 25 scarves, 25 hat and scarf sets, and 25 sets for kids to the Family Shelter. She hinted at an apology for not being able to come up with 25 afghans, but I told her I understand why she couldn’t make 25 afghans. That’s the reason we stick to scarves.

Ann Miller in Pueblo CO is working with the YWCA there. She learned that CO has 3 times the number of domestic violence cases as the national norm. She will be busy supplying her local shelters with scarves.

Ellen Coppell, in Central VA, donated 25 more comfort scarves to the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence. She told me they are very pleased with her continuing donations of comfort scarves.

D’Ann Gayler, leader of our affiliate in the Salt Lake City UT area, delivered 17 scarves to a shelter in West Jordan. Her group plans to meet once a month. Each member has taken on a task. D’Ann says “We’re getting organized. It’s a long slow process. But we are doing better each month.”

Finally (for this month), Vicki Ringer, organizer of our San Fernando Valley CA affiliate, reported that she delivered 60 scarves to Haven Hills. Vicki keeps a 3-month supply of scarves on hand at all times. Refugio Sanchez, her contact there, loves receiving the scarves.

Several of you have asked about Bonnie Jacob’s Girl Scout troop. Bonnie reports that they all have finished their scarves, including the two special needs Scouts. A few of the girls have really gotten into knitting and are even making other items besides scarves. A box with their scarves will be on its way soon.

We received more scarves from Annette and Alexander Maas, our knitting couple from Germany. Beverly Thomson, from High Wycombe, Bucks, England sent a few too. News of our scarf project is really spreading.

Izzy November, leader of the Orange County Knitting Meetup Group, has taken on Handmade as one of the group’s projects. He picked up 30 kits at the beginning of the month; he’ll be dropping off scarves at the end of this week.

That we receive support from so many places, near and far, really warms my heart. And I haven’t even come to the point in the Newsletter where I thank our donors!
Susan Druding, owner of Crystal Palace Yarns, donated 2 more cases of her beautiful yarn, from which we make many, many of our comfort scarves. Susan expressed surprise when she heard that we had made and delivered almost 10,000 scarves this year. “Susan,” I replied. “Look how much yarn you’ve donated! That is how we used it.” Thank you, Susan.

We’ve been shipping boxes of scarves all over S. CA. And not just a few boxes. 150 scarves to Valley Oasis; 100 scarves to Sojourn; 100 to CPAF; 100 to the Good Shepherd, to name a few. It is hard enough to wrap all the scarves and pack them into boxes. But if I had to take them to UPS for shipping, it would be really difficult. Luckily for Handmade, Barbara Klein has offered the UPS services of her business to us. She takes the boxes and ships them from her business. She has been doing this every month; but this month deserves special notice since we are sending 3-4 cases to each shelter. Thank you so much, Barbara.

Also due special mention is June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn. June has supported Handmade right from its start. She has given us a place to meet, a place to store kits so people can pick them up, and a place where scarfers can drop off their finished scarves. Our group has grown a lot since October, 2008. Now we fill up one huge table with a card table and eight extra chairs. We appreciate what June has done and continues to do for Handmade. Thank you so much, June.

As I was writing this Newsletter, I had plenty of time to reflect, long as it is. I am impressed that there are so many shelters geared to special groups: CPAF to Asian women; Su Casa and Chicana Service Action Center for Latinas; the Good Shepherd for Catholic women; Jenessee Center for Black women; Jewish Family Service sponsors a shelter; YWCA sponsors many shelters. All racial, religious, and ethnic groups are affected by domestic violence; all racial, religious, and ethnic groups work hard to prevent it. We all feel it’s terrible to have so much domestic violence, but there’s something really great about a community wide effort to lessen its impact. I’m proud that Handmade Especially for You, a group which also represents racial, religious, and ethnic diversity, plays its part in combating this social disease.

We still have 650 scarves to go to reach our goal of making and distributing 10,000 comfort scarves in 2010. I think we’ll do it. We’re so close to reaching the goal that I can taste success. Thank you all for everything you have done to make this possible.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate cash, please send a check to the above address or donate through PayPal. You can use the link on our website.

Thanks in advance.
Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN:26-3529292

October Newsletter from Handmade Especially for You

2010-11-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

November 3, 2010
Today’s topics:
 We have at least 2,000 comfort scarves wrapped and ready for Holiday delivery

 Making another 750 – 1,000 scarves by Christmas will be a lot of work by all of us. We can do it

 Handmade’s dedicated volunteers are the greatest.

 The generous contributions from yarn companies and individuals continue.

 Shelters for abused women APPRECIATE receiving our comfort scarves

 Affiliates throughout the county and in Canada are donating many scarves in their own areas

 October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month

And now for the details:

In addition to our October delivery of 480 comfort scarves, we have at least 2,000 scarves wrapped and ready for delivery. I hope we can distribute them before Thanksgiving because every room in my house is filled with scarves and my entire family is coming for Thanksgiving. They will need a place to sleep! Joking aside, I am very proud of all of us who are working so hard to achieve our goal of delivering 10,000 comfort scarves in 2010. Honestly, as much as I hoped for such a result, I thought it might be too big to achieve. But we’ve almost made it. No slacking off now. We’re so close. Just keep scarfing.

October’s wrapping party was lots of fun. We had so many scarves to wrap we hardly had time for lunch. We went through a lot of ribbon and the whole group of brightly wrapped scarves look very festive. I am sure they will have a strong, positive impact. Barbara Klein, Carol Maldonado, Chris Needham, Donna Bybee, Evelyn Dow, Marie Cortez, Myra Kumagae, and Sharon McCann rolled and tied scarves until there were no more to roll. It was a huge job. Many thanks to you all.

In like manner, as I have written many times, the job of making kits for everyone who wants them is enormous. At first, Barbara Klein and Mary Gravlin made them. Word spread about how much fun kit making was and Sharon McCann joined them. Then Marie Cortez. Last week, Carol Maldonado came to the party. They’ve made a lot of kits, maybe even enough to last through the end of the year. I heard they think I’ll expropriate them and distribute them to more groups, which I probably will, but that’s the purpose, isn’t it. They have done a wonderful job. The scarves volunteers knit from the kits they make are really beautiful.

Most of the participants in this spectacular group are members of our Wednesday Evening Knitting Club, sponsored by June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn. June has supported Handmade since its inception. Her sponsorship has helped Handmade to become the success it is today. The Knitting Club meets every Wednesday, for as much of 5-8 p.m. as the members want to attend. The group is very welcoming. June prominently displays our bin of kits that need to be knitted and another bin of finished scarves. If you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by. The shop is a gold mine for really great yarn.

Our enthusiastic group of kit makers goes through miles of yarn every time they make kits. They make them as a group at least once a week, and then individually at their own homes throughout the week. They couldn’t make so many kits without the generosity of yarn companies. Donations in September were substantial and put us in good shape for making lots of scarves for the holidays. Knitting Fever wasn’t content to stop with their donation in September. This month they donated two more huge cases of absolutely perfect yarn for comfort scarves. Thank you so much Tymon and Jeff.

Karen Ing, one of our very dedicated San Fernando Valley participants, decided to stop making scarves for sale (she will continue to knit comfort scarves). She donated 400 skeins of fabulous yarn from her leftover stash to Handmade. Vicki Ringer, leader of our Valley group, has already shared a lot of that yarn with scarfers in her group. I look forward to seeing the scarves made from Karen’s yarn. Thank you, Karen!

Carol Maldonado, whose name you must recognize as a wrapper and kit maker, donates bags and boxes of yarn to us every week. She has access to a lot of solid colored yarn which we have found extremely valuable for making horizontal comfort scarves and for scarves we make from scraps. Carol’s mother untangles the yarn and winds it into balls for us. Another example of team effort which pervades Handmade. Thanks to Carol and her mother!

Shelters continue to love and appreciate our scarves. On October 15, I drove to Lancaster, CA to receive a Community Hero award from (Antelope) Valley Oasis Shelter on behalf of all of us at Handmade. It was a lovely occasion. Culinary students at University of Antelope Valley prepared and served a buffet luncheon. Almost all the 100 or so people attending had in some way contributed to Valley Oasis. Valley Oasis honored all their donors, those who contributed cash and groups like ours who make items for the abused women. Lorraine Hines, Chief of Residential Services, thanked Handmade, saying: What a blessing you and your team of knitters are. We can’t thank you enough here at Valley Oasis. You have a powerful ministry going on.”

Heather Finlay, CEO of the YWCA of San Diego County, wrote that our contribution of comfort scarves “helps (them) provide comprehensive programs and services for women.” Cathy Meader, Manager of Becky’s House Programs (sponsored by the YWCA of San Diego), wrote how much the women there “LOVE the comfort scarves (we) have been sending.” She took the time to share some of their comments: “They’re wonderful. I love them.” “Thank you for keeping us warm.” “I feel special.” “Thanks so much for taking your time to create beautiful scarves.”

Our comfort scarf project continues to spread throughout the US. Now that some of the affiliates have had time to organize, they actually are making scarf donations in their own areas. Susan Van Winkle, leader of our San Diego affiliate, has broadened her scope from St. Clare’s and the Women’s Resource Center to add Rachel’s Women’s Center. At the beginning of the month, her group donated 48 scarves to them.

Mary Gingery, in Columbus OH, donated 10 comfort scarves to the Turning Point shelter in Marion OH. She also brought kits to a local prison where she will help the inmates make scarves for abused women. More news on that once the inmates finish knitting the scarves.

Tammy Peters, in Culpeper VA, made her first delivery of 15 comfort scarves to SAFE Services to Abused Families. She met with the outreach coordinator and plans to make monthly deliveries of 15 scarves. She says they are “excited and thrilled about what we are doing.”

Barbara Kochuba, in Pittsburgh PA, is moving ahead full steam. Last month she was looking for scarfers. This month she delivered scarves to Womansplace in McKeesport and New Beginnings in Homewood. What happened? She posted an SOS on Ravelry, organized her group, wrote a newsletter, and is working on getting her own 501(c)3. Go, Barbara!

Bonnie Jacobs, who designed a pattern for a crocheted Frisbee at no cost to Handmade, taught her daughter’s Girl Scout troop to knit comfort scarves. As I mentioned last month, Skacel Knitting donated size 19 needles for the troop and the appropriate yarn with which they can knit scarves. Apparently the girls caught on quickly. You can see them with their scarves on our website www.handmadeespecially.org

Bonnie and her daughter Danya as far as I knew were the only mother/teen daughter team making comfort scarves. You can see a photo of them draped with comfort scarves they have made for Handmade also on our website. Now Shawn Crane and her daughter, Emily, in our San Fernando Valley group, are another mother/teen-daughter team making comfort scarves. What a great way to connect!

Lyn Almustafa, Biology teacher at Narbonne High School, Harbor City CA, sponsors an afterschool knitting group. We teach the students to knit so they can make comfort scarves. Part of the students’ incentive is that completing three comfort scarves fulfills their community service requirement necessary for graduation. A win – win situation for all of us. The teens are very enthusiastic and do a great job. We received 15 scarves from them last week.

Sally Koch is the new Vincentian Service Corps volunteer at Villa Caridad in Santa Barbara. Working as the activities director, she encourages a knitting group at the retirement facility. I sent a box of kits. The residents are working on them. When they finish, we will donate them to a shelter in Santa Barbara. I love that Handmade’s participants include every age group.

Finally, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is not usually a topic of conversation, but I have seen articles about it, heard news reports on radio and TV, this month more than any other time. At the luncheon at Valley Oasis, Carol Crabson, CEO, spoke about a new kind of abuse they are seeing. They call it “first time abuse.” Typically, the man has lost his job, the family is going through foreclosure, and the stress of all of these terrible experiences happening at once causes the man to lash out against his family. This devastates the family even more than the loss of the man’s job and their home. The man doesn’t know how to handle what he has done. He is embarrassed and even more guilty. The staff at Valley Oasis has been overwhelmed by women coming to their shelter as a result of this first time abuse and are developing programs for the man, for the woman, and for the rest of the family to cope with it. They say our scarves are very important in helping the woman feel better about her life when she arrives at the shelter. When we hear that the recent economic recession has had a big impact on people’s lives we understand that the impact is more than simply economic. I feel very lucky that Handmade can do something to make a positive difference to help ameliorate a very bad situation.

We still need a lot of scarves to reach our goal for 2010. We reach that goal one scarf at a time. Every scarf counts in the total. Your scarf is important!

If you want to donate scarves or yarn check, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

If you want to donate $$$$, which we need to pay for the huge holiday shipping bill we anticipate, you can mail a check to the above address, or contribute via PayPal. There is a link on our website.

Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org

September Newsletter from Handmade Especially for You

2010-10-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

September 30, 2010

Today’s topics:

 We distributed 6,500 comfort scarves so far this year; just 3,500 to go to reach our end of the year goal of 10,000. WE CAN DO IT!

 We have many new knitters/crocheters from all different sources/Crystal Palace Yarns featured Handmade Especially for You in its Newsletter

 Shelters are very grateful for our beautiful comfort scarves

 The generous contributions from yarn companies are key to our growth and success

 Our affiliated groups are making and donating scarves

 We’ve begun writing grant proposals to support setting up a workshop

 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

And now for the details:

We distributed almost 500 comfort scarves again this month! That means all of you did a lot of kit making, knitting, crocheting, weaving in ends, wrapping scarves, packing boxes, and shipping. There’s a lot that goes into the making and distributing of our comfort scarves. It used to be that just a few dedicated participants did it all, but our network of participants is growing and happily keeping up with the demand for scarves. The 500 scarves we shipped this month is double the number we delivered in September, 2009. The 6,500 scarves we’ve delivered so far in 2010 is the same as our 2009 total for the entire year. Wow. Thank you all who do so much to make and distribute the scarves. You’re the greatest!

More participants are joining Handmade all the time. A group of students at Scripps College in Claremont, CA who call themselves Babes and Blankets donated a big box of scarves. Now that school has started, teens at Narbonne High (in the Health and Community Service Academy) are learning to knit after school so they can make comfort scarves for abused women and fulfill their community service requirement, necessary for graduation. Danya Jacobs’ Girl Scout troop is knitting comfort scarves to earn merit badges. Getting young people involved in making comfort scarves is really important. It indicates that Handmade really is a community organization. I love that we involve so many different groups.

NEW Corp., whose headquarters are in Sterling, VA, found Handmade on the Internet and decided to include making comfort scarves in its company wide volunteer week program. They requested 115 (you read it right, 115) kits. We shipped the kits to 5 of their centers nationwide and now their employees are making comfort scarves.

Skacell Knitting made three of these projects possible. Becky Moss, Skacell’s person in charge of donations, sent knitting needles and yarn to Narbonne High and the NJ Girl Scout troop. And she even sent 115 sets of needles to the 5 centers of NEW Corp. where I sent the kits. It’s incredible, isn’t it, how one good turn knits/crochets its way into many, many good turns. And the good is just starting because we haven’t received back the finished scarves yet. When we do, the good will spread even wider.

As I have mentioned in previous Newsletters, we have participants in England, Scotland and Germany. We just received our first donation from Singapore! The good publicity we receive helps us spread the word about our scarf project and increases the number of people who want to participate. Crystal Palace Yarns just featured Handmade in its Newsletter, which goes to their 80,000 clients. The Newsletter itself is very interesting, has lots of good tips, patterns, and features with Crystal Palace’s newest yarns. You’ll like reading it even if you feel you’re well familiar with everything relating to Handmade. Here’s the link to the Newsletter. http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=hrltytcab&v=001M1I81bNGpIB8HsS90zfh4i35R5P8ngywCqxtF8xU8myi3Ryv5KKAwzDUJeFNNQKQWP5sGamA1MtOa07dHogQh7MNE1aUlflMWtzFqwbYrQ3J11rfDWlwBUWQxmmgQjYHl9a6x_edxw0%3D#LETTER.BLOCK15

The shelters we serve continue to appreciate comfort scarves. Antoinette Fallon, Director of Rachel’s Women’s Center (served by our San Diego affiliate) writes: The women we see . . . rarely get new things for their own personal use. We would be happy to distribute as many scarves as you can send us.”

Vicki Doolittle, Executive Director of Su Casa, reports: “These beautiful (scarves) were so loved by our families. They brought a comfortable sense of warmth and healing to their wounded hearts.” Just what we want our scarves to do. How gratifying! Creating inner warmth, healing, improving self-esteem are the main purposes of Handmade’s comfort scarves.

Obviously, we couldn’t make and distribute so many beautiful scarves without the generous support of the yarn companies. September began with my coming home one afternoon to find 5 huge cases of yarn on my front porch. They came from Berroco, Inc. Each case contained 120 skeins of non-colorfast red yarn. A tragedy, no doubt, for Berroco, but a lucky break for Handmade. Big thanks to Caroline Wheelock.

In addition to featuring Handmade in her newsletter, Susan Druding of Crystal Palace Yarns, sent two huge cases of yarn. Susan knows just what we like and sends us regular shipments. I do not take them for granted. Now that I am not the only one making kits, I divide the new yarn and give it to our kit makers as soon as it comes in. Thank you, Susan.

Pattie Tereskun, the person in charge of donations at Plymouth Yarn Co, was so impressed by the good work Handmade does, that she made an exception to PYC’s once a year donation policy, and sent a big case of Encore, a really great yarn for making comfort scarves. Thank you, Pattie.

The month ended much as it began. I came home yesterday from Narbonne High and found six (yes, count them, six!) enormous cases of yarn from Knitting Fever/Euro Yarns. I was dumbfounded. I didn’t even know they were coming. They arrived like manna from heaven. I’ve opened three boxes (they are stacked in the front hall so I can get to only the ones on top) and found beautiful, wonderful yarn, perfect for making all the scarves we have to finish by the end of the year. Thank you, Tymon and Jeff.

Our affiliates are also doing well. Marg Grieve, head of our group in Nelson, BC, Canada, has added another shelter to the several she already serves: The Nelson & District Women’s Centre. Marg is a real hustler. She plans to attend Christmas Fairs in her area to publicize her group and pull in more scarf makers.

Susan Van Winkle, head of our San Diego affiliate, delivered 45 scarves to the Women’s Resource Center in Oceanside and 17 to Hidden Valley House. Her group also serves Rachel’s Women’s Center, the shelter that wants all the scarves her group can make. Susan has her hands full. Her main problem isn’t yarn or scarfers. She doesn’t drive so she needs volunteers to help her get the scarves to the shelters. Another excellent way for non-scarfers to participate.

Barb Kochuba, leader of our Pittsburgh, PA affiliate, unites her group by sending out her own Newsletter. She is very active also. Her problem is almost the exact opposite of Susan’s: she is willing to drive almost anywhere, but she needs scarves desperately.

Kathleen Amiott in Cincinnati, OH is participating in “Make a Difference Day Cincinnati.” Her goal is to organize interested scarfers to make as many scarves as they can so they can donate them for Christmas. She’s a blogger. I can provide her contact info.

We donate our scarves to really wonderful shelters. Many of them are experiencing cutbacks due to the budgetary deadlock in CA. But they all are carrying on as best as they can, doing creative fund raisers just to keep going. You receive notices from me time to time asking for support for their projects. They all do excellent work, especially under such stringent circumstances, but I must mention Interval House in Long Beach, served by our Long Beach affiliate headed by Renee Hoffman. Interval House started the nation’s first and largest comprehensive Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, Slavic and African American interfaith programs for victims of domestic violence. For their good work, they just received a “Public Health Excellence Award” from Centro C.H.A. Over the last 30 years, Interval House has been recognized with over 400 local, regional and national awards, including three Presidential Awards, two Governor’s Awards, and the U.S. Department of Justice Award citing Interval House as a “model” program to the nation. Why am I sharing this info with you? Because I want you to know that our scarves, the products of your hard work, go to outstanding organizations that really do what they say. I am proud to be associated with this shelter and all the others to which we donate our scarves.

Receiving all the yarn donations is really wonderful. Without yarn, we couldn’t make scarves. But we are running into a storage and especially a retrieval problem that can’t be solved so long as Handmade remains in my home (and in the homes of our three other kit makers). I mentioned in the last Newsletter that Wendy Baumring researched the funding scene and identified several foundations that might give us grants so we can set up a shop. To date, she has applied to one and I to three, with two other proposals in process. If you know of an empty warehouse or other space that would be good for a workshop, if you hear about potential donors, if you want to write a grant, we need to hear from you. Handmade Especially for You is a tax-exempt 501(c)3. I hope the chance for a tax write off will be an inducement to any prospective landlords you may know.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Given that we spend a lot of time making comfort scarves for abused women, we don’t need a special month to sharpen our awareness of domestic violence. On the other hand, when you realize that in the US, someone is physically abused by an intimate partner EVERY 9 SECONDS, you understand we cannot do enough. Our contributions, helpful as they are in improving the victims’ self-esteem, barely scratch the surface of what needs to be done. We donate to all 25 shelters in Los Angeles County, 4 shelters in Orange County, and 5 shelters in San Diego County. In California alone there are hundreds of shelters that receive nothing from us. We serve shelters throughout the nation, but just a few, certainly not as many as there are. We need to do more.

October is also my birthday month. What I would love more than anything is even more support for Handmade Especially for You. We need donations of yarn and scarves, of course, but our most pressing goal is to set up an independent workshop so we can make kits, wrap and ship comfort scarves, and store yarn. You can help make this happen by contributing your financial support, your grant writing skills, or by sharing contacts in your network. We’ve accomplished a lot in our current locations, but think of how much more we could do if we consolidated our operations under one roof. Thank you so much for whatever you can do to help us reach this goal.

In the meantime, the end of the year is approaching. We need to keep scarfing. In next month’s Newsletter, I’ll provide a progress report so you’ll know how many scarves we have on hand and how many we have yet to make. Thank you in advance for all your contributions.

Finally, I must thank June Grossberg, owner of Concepts in Yarn, for hosting our Wednesday Night Knitting Club every week at her shop. We meet from 5-8. A lovely group of women (many of whom are Handmade’s most active volunteers) comes every week for some or all of the time. June, or one of her professional staff members, helps us with knitting or crocheting questions. June keeps a bin filled with our kits at the front of the shop (with another bin right next to it for finished scarves). If you’re anywhere near Torrance CA on Wednesday evenings, drop by. We love new members and you’ll love June’s selection of yarns and other yarn related items. Thank you, June.

I always try to thank everyone who has contributed in each Newsletter. Once in a while, I miss someone. If you are one who was not mentioned, please don’t be insulted. I didn’t omit you on purpose. I feel grateful to all Handmade’s participants, volunteers, scarfers, donors, and sponsors.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn or if you want to send a check, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

Or you can make a donation through PayPal. You can access it on our website: www.handmadeespecially.org
Leslye

baby hat

2010-09-24T21:46:00.001-07:00

baby hat
Originally uploaded by rubylulu

this is my first knitted baby hat..I always wanted to learn to knit so i could do baby hats, well, iam on my way now..
This one is going with the other hats i have knitted so far to a charity..dont know where yet...

Question

2010-09-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

When I joined this blog in 2009 I was so excited that I would be part of a large group of people that all have a heart to craft for charity in many different ways. Some knitting, some crocheting, some quilting and needlepoint and etc. I was impressed at the response at the beginning of this blog and the excitement that others felt as I read through many of the old posts and saw all the great pictures.
I have gone through the contributor list and many are no longer active but many are but no longer posting to this site. My big question is.....why?

August Newsletter from Handmade Especially for You

2010-09-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

September 7, 2010

Today’s topics:

 We distributed more than 5,000 comfort scarves so far this year

 Articles about Handmade Especially for You appeared in Knit Circus and The Daily Breeze

 High school students want to participate by making comfort scarves

 Shelters appreciate our contributions

 Handmade participants donated en masse and now we are using the electronic yarn/meter-yarn winder system from Nancy’s Knit Knacks

 Individual donors help pay for ongoing expenses; volunteers keeps the process moving

 The generous contributions from yarn companies are key to our growth and success

 Affiliated groups throughout the US are gathering steam

 Handmade is reaching people in Canada, Scotland, Germany, and even South Africa

 Writing and winning grants to support a Handmade workshop is our next major goal

And now for the details:

We have reached one of our first goals—to donate comfort scarves to every shelter for abused women in Los Angeles County. We have already expanded our giving to 4 shelters in Orange County and 3 in San Diego County. Our scarf making capacity is very large and we can start sending comfort scarves to shelters in Northern CA as well. Your willingness to donate your time and creativity makes this expansion possible. It is really great to see. When I wrote the August Newsletter last year, we were cheering about having donated 2,000 scarves. We’ve come a long way in just one year. In August, we donated at least 420 scarves, which vaults our total so far this year well over 5,000!

Positive publicity has helped us a lot. At the beginning of August, Knit Circus, an online knitting magazine with many good tips and helpful articles, featured Handmade. You can find the article at http://www.knitcircus.com/index.php when you turn to page 37. We received an excellent response from Knit Circus readers.

The Daily Breeze, a local So CA newspaper, did a feature article on the students at Narbonne High learning to knit so they could make comfort scarves. Follow this link to see the photos. http://dailybreeze.mycapture.com/mycapture/emailfriend.asp?images=30884969&eventid=1053111 The kids had a wonderful time making the scarves. They were very proud that they could learn to knit and to complete a scarf. You can see their pride in the photo below.

Making the scarves had some unexpected results for the students. Lyn Almustafa, the teacher who invited me to her class, summed up the experience in a letter she wrote to Becky Moss, our contact at Skacell Knitting, who donated the knitting needles that made the project possible:

The publicity Handmade received in the Daily Breeze inspired other local high schools to establish a similar project in their schools. Christine Choi, for instance, a student at Palos Verdes Peninsula High, contacted me about starting a program there. She has taken on the entire job of organizing such a program, getting authorization from the school, advertising for members, teaching students to knit, getting needles and yarn, and bringing the finished scarves to Handmade. Her motivation is helping students achieve their service hours. Good job Christine!

Bonnie Jacobs, a new friend on Ravelry, also was inspired by seeing the Narbonne kids involved in knitting. She and her daughter, Danya, started making scarves for Handmade and came up with a big boxful in no time. Bonnie is a designer and her scarves are exceptional. What is exceptional to me, however, is that Bonnie saw the opportunity to involve Danya and Danya wanted to be involved. Now that school is starting, Bonnie wants to starts a program with Danya’s Girl Scout troop so they can make comfort scarves for abused women. Here are a few of Bonnie and Danya’s scarves:

Our comfort scarves are very important to the shelters which receive them. In August alone we received thank you letters, letters of appreciation, and certificates from Valley Oasis, House of Ruth, Haven House, Su Casa, Women’s and Children’s Crisis Center, Rainbow Services, 1736, and the Downtown Women’s Center. Here are a few examples:

Christina Satki, Director of Community Outreach at Su Casa, writes: Thank you for continuing to send those lovely scarves for the women in our shelter. They are so beautiful and each so different that it sometimes takes our women several minutes before they can decide on one for herself.

In like manner, Lorraine Hines, at Valley Oasis, says: I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your lades for taking the time to nurture the spirits of the women and children that come to Valley Oasis for healing. It takes special people to do what you do. We are blessed to have donors like yourselves. You are the answer to many prayers.

Sabrina Almaraz, Case Manager and Donation Coordinator at House of Ruth, sent a letter explaining the mission of her shelter, ending on this positive note: The services provided by House of Ruth are too important, too necessary, to let falter. I cannot begin to convey to you how grateful the women and children we serve are for your support. I thank you as well.

How do we do it? How can we make this many scarves? How can we wrap and ship them all? It certainly takes a village, and a big one at that. As you know from the previous Newsletter and our recent fundraising, the job of making the kits was becoming overwhelming. I found an electronic yarn meter/yarn winder at Nancy’s Knit Knacks. The cost was high, but the tool important, so I asked all of you to donate $10 so we could buy it. The response was huge! I mean it, Handmade’s participants are the greatest.

First and foremost, my son Mitch, went online and bought the entire system faster than I could send the last email asking for donations. It was my turn to be amazed. It was my turn to have my spirits lifted. What a fabulous thing for him to do. I was and still am very touched. But the cat was out of the bag. I had already sent out the request for donations and they started pouring in, too. At least 65 people responded. As a result, we have enough to buy a second system as soon as I get really good at using the first. In addition to our major, major donor, Mitchell Borden, Annette & Alexander Maass (our knitting couple from Germany), Betty Watts, Sandra M. Nelson, Karen Ing, Carol Summer, and Renee Hoffman made exceptionally generous donations. Donations arrived from all across the country, Germany, and England. PayPal was a big help in keeping track of the donations and making foreign donations possible. Everything worked!

Also in answer to the need of making more and more kits, Barbara Klein, Mary Gravlin, and Sharon McMann, using hand powered yarn meters and ball winders that they bought themselves, learned how to make kits. They do a wonderful job. I used to say I wound a million yards of yarn each day; they do the same—times 3. Their dedication inspires me. The more kits they make, the more scarves we receive, which requires more wrapping. Beth Phillips has joined Chris Needham in doing the wrapping to prepare scarves for delivery. In August, we had so many scarves to wrap that we had another wrapping party. Kathy Allen, Therese Shafer, Teresa Copley, Barbara Klein, Sharon McMann, Carol Maldonado, Evelyn Dow, Marie Cortez, and Chris Needham wrapped the scarves and I packed them into boxes so Barbara could ship the boxes to the shelters. What a group! What teamwork! What dedication to our cause! I love that our “village” gets bigger every month.

Yes, we make a lot of kits. We seem to have that problem tamped down for the moment. But we couldn’t make kits without the contributions of so many generous yarn companies and people. The Daily Breeze article inspired a lot of donations. Tymon Warda and Jeff Denecke from Knitting Fever, separately sent huge cases of yarn. Heidi Berger, from Trendsetter Yarns, sent a huge case. Susan Druding, from Crystal Palace Yarns, sent another huge case of yarn. They all asked what Handmade needed. I said solid colored and decorative yarns and they all sent both. Perfect. They are really wonderful. They have supported Handmade continually since spring, 2009 and have never let us down.

Betty Watts, another long time Handmade participant, recently came into a small inheritance. I don’t know what she did with all of what she received, but I know she shared some with Handmade, searching out and buying yarn bargains, ribbon, and other items Handmade needs on a daily basis. Betty also knits scarves and does whatever is needed. She checks with me often about what Handmade needs. Her generosity is really outstanding.

Good news from Handmade’s affiliates. Dr. Laura Guertin, at Penn State University, formed a group on Penn State’s campus. They call themselves the Knittany Lion Needleworks. They’ve invited members from on and off campus, including a local retirement community, and as a result have 250 comfort scarves ready to donate to The Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County. They have received donations from Penn State and its alumni and even have a group of students in an Advanced Business Writing course helping them create materials to promote and advertise their project.

Ellen Coppell, organizer of our affiliate in Virginia, at last has made her first delivery to the Rappahannock Council on Domestic Violence. In a previous Newsletter, I said she had delivered scarves and she wrote me back immediately telling me that she hadn’t yet. Now she’s made an honest woman of me by really delivering comfort scarves. Here’s an example of the scarves she donated:

Finally, here’s the situation at Handmade today. We have a lot of yarn, but we need a lot of yarn. We need to make a lot of kits. We are making kits at 4 different locations—my house, Barbara’s house, Mary’s house, and Sharon’s house. This inconvenient set up requires a lot of coordination, making sure the right yarn is at the right location to get mixed with the right other yarn to make a color coordinated scarf which in turn makes up into a beautiful scarf. I feel we need to find a bigger location, one where we can see the yarn we have so we can make the best and most beautiful kits possible, a place where we can have shipping and receiving, even when we’re on vacation, a place where everything is under one roof, where we all can work together.

Wendy Baumring, a participant who drops by every month to pick up yarn/kits so she can crochet comfort scarves, has seen the changes at my house. She suggested Handmade start applying for grants to cover rent, overhead, shipping, etc. and she even went as far as doing the research to find which organizations might be most likely to award Handmade a grant. We met last weekend and set our next big goal—applying for and winning grants so Handmade can set up a workshop. This project also will take a village, so if you have any grant writing contacts, skills, insights, or if you want to help, we need you.

I have so many people to thank, I never can get them all into one Newsletter. But please be assured, I feel grateful to all of you. I never imagined when I started Handmade that it would be anything more than a local group who liked to knit and wanted to make scarves for abused women. I didn’t realize what an impact the scarves would have on the women and how the directors and counselors would use them as a tool to help the women begin to change their lives. The unexpected impact of comfort scarves made me want to increase their distribution. It made me want to involve more of you, more yarn companies, more knitters, more crocheters, more retirement homes, more religious groups. This is a really great thing that we all have done together. Your support and participation makes Handmade all the more meaningful to me. Thank you all so much.

If you want to donate scarves or yarn or if you want to send a check, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

You can also make a donation directly on PayPal.

Thanks in advance.
Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

July Newsletter from Handmade Especially for You

2010-07-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

July 30, 2010
Today’s topics:
 We distributed 520 comfort scarves in July; to almost every shelter in LA County.
 Yarn companies and others continue their generous support.
 Some scarf makers are abuse survivors themselves.
 Several associated groups throughout the country are really taking off.
 A beautiful thought about why we make and give comfort scarves

And now for the details.

We distributed 520 scarves this month, almost 5,000 since the beginning of 2010. I compared this number to July, 2009 when we distributed just over 200 scarves, and over 1,700 since the beginning of 2009. I’m trying to avoid the Beat Yesterday point of view, but really, Handmade has grown a lot. We make and distribute many more scarves than just a year ago. We have reached every shelter for abused women in Los Angeles County and 4 shelters in Orange County. These totals and destinations don’t include those of groups associated with us in San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, San Diego, and elsewhere in the US.

We feel the impact of this in preparing the scarves for shipping, and in the shipping itself. Last year, Chris Needham was able to do almost all the wrapping herself. This year, she still does a lot, but we need to have wrapping parties to get all the scarves ready. The wrapping parties are lots of fun, and we appreciate the support of all the wrappers: Chris Needham, Mary Gravlin, Barbara Klein, Kathy Allen, Myra Kumagae, Teresa Copley, and Sharon McCann participated. And we had a fun lunch afterwards.

While everyone wrapped, I packed the boxes for each shelter so Barbara Klein could ship them. When she first offered to take care of the shipping, we weren’t servicing as many shelters as we are now. By May, she realized she had taken on more than she could afford. “What happened?” she asked. “We didn’t used to ship so much.” The answer is the same as with the wrapping. We’re making and distributing so many more scarves than previously, no one person can do any of the jobs by herself.

The same is true of kit making. While I was recovering from my April surgery, Hilary Cohen took over kit making for me. As I returned more and more to 100% recovery (I’m still not quite there), Hilary wanted to knit more and make kits less. That was fine because I could take up the slack. But we needed so many more kits. I couldn’t keep up and neither could she. Luckily, Mary, Barbara and Sharon want to make kits too. They have bought the swift, yarn meter and ball winder and are setting up in Mary’s garage. We really do need a workshop! We are expanding slowing, even though it feels very fast, and have many volunteers who support this growth. Thanks to you all.

More scarves mean more kits. More kits mean more yarn. And luckily, we have donors keeping us supplied with yarn. Susan Druding, Crystal Palace Yarns, comes through for us every month. Her Labrador and Whisper yarns allowed me to make kits when I could hardly turn the ball winder. She’s the greatest. Carol Maldonado, Marie Cortez, and Lucy Ford personally donated many boxes and bags of yarn that we used up almost as fast as they brought them to me.

Lyn Almustafa, Biology teacher at Narbonne High School, contacted me about doing another knitting unit with her students in the Health and Community Service Academy. I contacted Becky Moss at Skacel Knitting about donating knitting needles for this project. Becky donated 100 sets of wooden needles! I did a class with the students yesterday and they are thrilled to have the needles and to learn to knit. I talked with them about abuse, comfort scarves, and how they can help the victims of domestic violence. They were very interested and really wanted to make a difference. They spent a lot of time learning the cable cast on and then how to knit. I have kits ready to give them once they master these skills. But we couldn’t have this program without the generosity of Skacel who supplied the needles and everyone who supplied the yarn. Thank you so much.

Tina Gettings wrote me about a similar experience. I sent her a box of 4 kits and she worked on them with her 2 daughters. She told me “it was great for my daughters to see that even as teenagers/young adults they can make a difference in someone’s life!” Of course, her next box contained 8 kits.

Peggy Bomba sent a box of scarves made by some of the female inmates at Craig County Jail in CO. I have written about them in previous newsletters. I am thrilled to have the scarves made by these inmates and they are proud that they are contributing to society in a positive way. Making comfort scarves raises their self esteem just as receiving them raises the self esteem of the abuse victims. I am happy to be in touch with Peggy again and look forward to receiving more scarves from her group. She asked me send more cardboard rulers, since her first group of scarf makers graduated and now she is working with an entirely different group.

Another wonderful experience for me this past month was opening a box from Catherine Linton. She wrote:

I am sending this scarf to donate to your organization. It is my first knitting project. . . .I made it with love and starting knitting as therapy from child abuse

I felt badly that Catherine was an abuse victim. From her handwriting, I thought she must be a young teen. I also felt very happy that she was using knitting a comfort scarf for another abuse victim as therapy to cure her own scars. The more I participate in the making of comfort scarves, the more I see that knitting/crocheting them helps the makers maybe even as much as the recipients.

Occasionally I receive thank you notes from the recipients. The recipients often address their notes to the name the maker signed on the gift tag. Sometimes I know who that person is, especially if the name is the only one in our group. When I can attach a thank you to the maker, I send the actual note to the maker. I just sent one of these thank you notes to Lorraine Lary. She wrote back a very moving note to me:

I have been donating to Handmade for about a year now. It is very close to my heart as I was a victim of abuse for 13 years, but was able to get myself and 2 children out, not easy, it took 3 jobs (I always joked it was one job for each of us) The BEST thing I ever did was leave. . . my children are grown with kids of their own. I have 4 wonderful grandchildren, and the cycle was truly broken. . . I recently received a thank you letter from one of the ladies who got one of my scarves. I treasure it. . . it is on my fridge for all to see and every time I see it it inspires me even more.

Every month I have a lot of these moving experiences. I cannot share all of them but I feel I must share some.

Several of the groups making comfort scarves for abused women in their own neighborhoods are really taking off. Barbara Swanson, in Carrollton GA formed a small group with 4 women. So far they made 80 scarves and gave them to the Carroll County Emergency Shelter. Martha Boyce, Executive Director, appreciated their contribution:

Thank you for the beautiful assortment of scarves. Each one is so unique and special. I am deeply grateful for the time, effort and talent used to create these treasures and brighten the lives of those less fortunate.

Sue Sager in Barre, VT found a local shelter eager for comfort scarves. She just needed knitters/crocheters so she contacted her local newspapers who will run a story about her project. Good going, Sue.

Barb Kochuba in Pittsburgh has had a busy and successful start to providing comfort scarves to PA shelters. She says response to her request for scarf makers has been overwhelming. She is currently working with Womansplace in McKeesport and New Beginnings in Monewood and plans to add 5 shelters, some of which serve male abuse victims as well as women. In addition to making comfort scarves, she plans for her group to make items for children who have sought refuge in these shelters. Good luck, Barb. You’ll definitely be busy!

Finally, Ingrid Carfagno, a knitter who found Handmade as a result of the Lion Brand article, wrote the following to the women for whom we make our comfort scarves. I think it says a lot about what we all do when we make and give comfort scarves:
My love and best wishes are knitted into every stitch! Remember to love yourself as you fully deserve. . . I am your Granny, your mom and your sister and I care about your well being. . . All good to you!

If you want to donate scarves or yarn or if you want to send a check, please mail to:

Handmade Especially for You c/o Leslye Borden
30065 Grandpoint Lane
Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275

Thanks for everything,
Leslye
www.handmadeespecially.org
501(c)3 EIN: 26-3529292

Cables

2010-07-14T08:22:00.001-07:00