Yarnbombing at the Helsinki Cathedral

In 2011, the Martha Association and the Textile Teachers Association attempted to set a record and gather one thousand blankets which would be donated to the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters.
They met their goal and then immediately surpassed it by gathering 7,800 blankets. Three thousand eight hundred of these afghans were then spread across the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral and photographed.

The bag ladies

Do you have any plastic bags floating around your home? Many of us use them as garbage bags, doggie bags or extra lunch bags.

Janice Akin says she and her friends are using them to make mats for homeless people to sleep on. She says they've already sent a bunch down to families in Louisiana who lost their homes in last month's flood.

"It's addictive," says Akin. "It gets to the point that you do two or three and you see, 'Hey I'm actually making a difference in someone's life,' and you want to do more."

They call themselves the Bag Ladies. Patty Arnold says they met as a group for the first time in January 2015 at Second Baptist Church in Union City, Tennessee. Since then, she says they group has doubled in size.
"It's wonderful that it's growing, that others what to help all these people," says Arnold.

Arnold says the mats aren't that hard to make; they just take a lot of time. She says they cut the bags into strips, tie the strips together, roll them into a ball and crochet the plastic like it's yarn. Arnold says it takes 600 to 700 plastic bags to make one 3 foot by 6 foot mat.

So far this year, Akin says the Bag Ladies have made 88 mats, which means they've recycled more than 52,000 plastic bags.
"This is not young ladies doing this," says Akin. "This is older ladies with arthritis. And believe me, I have it. It hurts."

Akin says it doesn't stop them, the Bag Ladies can work through the pain, especially if it's for a good cause.

You can be a Bag Lady too. The group meets from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. every Thursday at Second Baptist Church in Union City, right across from the Discovery Park of America. They're also accepting donations of plastic bags.

Contact the Bag Ladies by emailing Second Baptist Church at secondbaptist@bellsouth.net.

Source and photos: www.wpsdlocal6.com

Caps for good!The meeting!

Yesterday we met at Kangaroo craft store and made caps for the «Caps for Good» charity campaign. We had a wonderful time! Drinking coffee and chatting, we made cute little caps for the newborn babies of the third world. Sofie from Kangaroo was a fantastic hostess! She offered us coffee, tea, cookies, donated the yarns for knitting... and gave us everything we needed... needles, tools, scisors... Thank you so much Sofie!You rock!

Needles in action!

The respond to the invitation of our team was awesome! We gathered about 20 persons, but many ladies who couldn't come to the meeting brought the caps that they made at home... At the end of the meeting I counted about 57 caps!!
But I'm still expecting more, from the ladies who will make some at home and also the caps that our team members made at Thessaloniki, when they met at Matas place and knit together:

 

and the caps that were made from students and mothers, at the meeting Eleni organized at Poros :

A big thank you first of all to Sofie who gave us the space and organized everything, all the ladies who participated, spending their Sunday afternoon with us and to my good friend Vangelis, who lasted a whole afternoon with 20 chatty ladies and took such marvelous pictures of the event!!  
And to Mata and Eleni who organized events too and made caps for our lovely cause!!

Also no to forget to mention, that our charity event is still running till the 15th of February and many shops of the EGST team are donating  a percentage of their sales to «Caps for Good»! If you want to participate and donate to this lovely cause too, but can't knit or crochet, you can, by purchasing something of these lovely shops! You can see here the shops that are participating to the campaign!

Thank you girlz :) and boy ;)

Let's knit some baby caps!!

The (EGST) members are grabbing their needles and hooks on Sunday 30th January and are inviting other knitters at Kangaroo craft store to make caps for the "Caps for Good” campaign!

Additionally the team is having a fund-raising for the Children's Newborn and Child Survival Programs of "Save the Children" organization: from the 15th January to the 15th February, team members are donating money, or percentage of the sales from their shops!

Go browse the team's shops and contribute to this lovely cause!

Please visit these lovely shops which are donating a percentage of the sales:
Psyboom, Antigoni, Creationsbyeve,ERGANIweaving, Stephmel, FishesmakeWishes,Blueroompottery, Blueroombijoux, Feelwhatifelt, Nafsika, Awitch, LepetitFoyer, Giftforever, Sivylla,
and have donated money: WeirdTales, AtelierTAMI, Pergamondo,
to this noble cause!

"Caps for Good” is a grassroots initiative of the global humanitarian organization Save the Children and the "Warm Up America Foundation". The project seeks to engage knitters and crocheters to take action for the 4 million babies who die each year within the first month of life in poor countries.

Research shows that 50 percent of the 4 million newborn deaths that occur each year could be prevented if mothers and children in poor countries had access to a simple package of health measures। This package includes antibiotics to fight infections, immunizations, training for skilled birth attendants, education on breastfeeding and hygiene, and basic care such as keeping a baby warm by covering the head and carrying the baby skin-to-skin. America’s leaders could save millions of newborns by increasing international assistance for programs that offer these inexpensive life-saving tools.

These are the first three caps I finished: