Nanowrimo and Charity Crafting

It's November, which makes it National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo). I remember reading about this when I was younger. It's been around since 1999. It's a project that encourages people to write a 50,000 word novel from November 1 - November 30. I have about 5,500 words and need to add a few more this evening to stay on track. It's been a personal goal to complete it. Maybe 2017 is my year! I didn't start with an outline so wish me luck. Let me know if any of you would be interested in reading it. It's an alternate reality of my life with a spooky note piece.

I wanted to be a writer when I was kid. I used to type up scary and adventure stories on an old green screen.

On to charity stuff...it was nice to hear from a local representative of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), who is looking for handmade hats, scarves, gloves/mittens for gift bags to go to the homeless in Portland. It sounds like my office is willing to collect items as well so we'll make sure they have lots of stuff.

Whenever I'm making things for charity I try to find nice simple patterns that can work with many types of yarn. My favorite site for inspiration is Purl Soho. They have a ton of great free patterns. I love their hat and scarf patterns. I've made a baby blanket or two from their designs as well.

A buddy, Margaret, is making squares for high risk babies. There is the purple hat campaign for Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness (Twisted Yarn Shop Page). There is also a group that meets regularly to make baby hats in Beaverton (Hands on Greater Portland). There are a lot of charitable crafting opportunities around Portland. You can even ask a local homeless shelter what they would like to have to give to their clients.

One last thing...here's my best Halloween picture of my boys. They had a fun night, and it was awesome to share it with their cousin who is turning one year old soon.

Have a great week! Happy crafting.