A Sort of Give Away

 

EDITED TO ADD: The competition is now closed, as of midnight, UK time on Wednesday 17/8/11. Thankyou so much to those of you who have donated or spread the word about the competition. You can still donate to Riotremedy and please do, as the work of the charities they have chosen to support is absolutely essential. I will be drawing the competition winners tomorrow morning!

It has been a fairly odd week.

I fully intended to write up some crafting I did earlier in the week, a pirate I made for a friend of Orlaith and Esme’s. And then London and other parts of the UK started going batsh*t insane and suddenly it didn’t really seem a priority to document what I’d been working on.

You’ve all seen the photos and heard the stories and I know that everyone has an opinion on what’s been happening here and I don’t want to go into it here. To say that the issues surrounding what’s been going on are compex would be the understatement of the year and I am not a sociologist, nor do I play one on t.v. so I am not going to theorise at you or attempt to convert you to my way of thinking.

What I am going to do is attempt to make the world a little better by having a sort of give away.

As has been well established elsewhere, I have Far Too Much Yarn.

Evidence: Far Too Much Yarn

This photo doesn’t begin to cut it. I have way more than I will ever use and, if we’re brutally honest with ourselves, yarn is a bit of a frivolity.

I don’t knit because I have to to survive. I knit to entertain myself, so I can have a little bit of beauty and  a little slice of time that is just for me. I don’t knit in order to eat. Some of you do it as a living, I don’t. It’s my hobby and whilst I love it and I really don’t want to give it up, if I’m honest and strip away all the knitting culture hyperbole about Vitamin Yarn and so forth, I don’t NEED it in order to survive.

There are a lot of people who don’t have the luxuries I do. And some of them live in my city. Heck, some of them live in my street or just round the corner from me. And some of those people have lost everything they have this week. They could probably use a little brightness right now.

So here’s the deal. I have gone through my stash and picked out 10 skeins of yarn. All of it gorgeous, all of it precious, all of it up for grabs.

If you would like to win a skein, follow these simple instructions:

1. Go here: Riotremedy

2. Pick one of the 8 charities they’ve selected. Or two, or three. As many as you like, really. And send them some cash-ola. I don’t care how much you give. Give whatever you can afford and feel comfortable with. I’d like it if it was more than a fiver but if a fiver is what you can share, a fiver is awesome and very kind of you.

3. Email me: theundercoverowl AT gmail DOT com with your receipt and add a comment here. I’m not interested in your financial details but I do need to keep track of who’s giving stuff and I’d like to keep a tally of how much you guys manage to raise.

4. Each separate donation gets you a ‘ticket’ in the raffle. The more separate donations you make, the more entries you get.

5. Entries are open until Wednesday next week. I will put all the entries into a giant yarn pouch on Thursday and pull ten names out of it. Those ten people will each win one of the skeins up for grabs. Everyone else wins the wonderful glowing feeling of having done something kind and lovely for our fellow human beings.

6. I will post everything out on Friday morning.

Simple and clear, yes? Want to see the prizes? You do? Excellent!

Zazu Hand Paint, Twisted Sisters Extra Fine Merino

Easy Knits, Twinkle

Fyberspates, Unicorn Club

Skein Queen, Lustrous

Knitting Goddess laceweight, semi solid Navy

Fyberspates, Dream Sock

Enchanted Knoll

Sweet Clement, Smitten 2

Knitting Goddess 4 ply sock yarn

Easy Knits, Deeply Wicked

Most of what’s on offer is sock weight, there is one skein of laceweight. If you have a particular preference for one skein over another, feel free to include that in the comment you leave.

I’d really love us to help Riotremedy make something positive come out of what has been a thoroughly appalling week.

EDITED TO ADD: If you’re from outside the UK, you can still enter. I’m happy to post to wherever. You can give to one of the Riotremedy charities or if there’s something similar closer to home that you’d like to support, go ahead. Same deal as UK people, just email me proof of donaton and leave a comment!

Sarah