Tikvah means Hope!

Tikvah Shawl

Here she is, Tikvah Shawl! A charming shawlette knit top down in three triangles with a knitted-on border. Drapey, elegant, and very very pretty. Plus, she's not very difficult to knit. Thanks to Barbara, my test-knitter, for all her hard work.

Here's the best part of this project: all profits will go to the Minnesota chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Why NAMI? The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children with mental illness and their families. NAMI Minnesota offers education, support and advocacy, and vigorously promotes the development of community mental health programs and services, improved access to services, increased opportunities for recovery, reduced stigma and discrimination, and increased public understanding of mental illness. There are NAMI branches all over the country, and the work they do is amazing.

"Tikvah" means "hope", and my hope is that you will buy the pattern and enjoy knitting it. And then I shall donate my profits which are about 80% of the cost of the pattern, to this most-worthwhile organization. And I'll keep you posted on how we are doing with it.

Daisymum - Sure, I'd be glad to help you. The pattern looks far more difficult than it is. The nice thing about it is that all the triangles are alike except for the 2 garter stitched edges at the beginning and end. My test knitter is not very experienced with lace, and she did just fine all on her own. I was pretty impressed with her!

The Yarnarian Presents Tikvah.

Wrap the World in Hope.

Tikvah is the Hebrew word for hope. For every Tikvah Shawl sold, I will donate 80 percent of my profits to a worthy cause.

Tikkun Olam, which I've discussed somewhere in a previous post or two, means repairing the world. In Judaism, we are all supposed to work towards making the world a better place. It doesn't matter if we don't succeed; what matters is that we try. If everyone works towards repairing the ills of the world, something good is bound to happen. I've been trying to think of a way to do Tikkun Olam, and finally came up with this idea:

This spring, from April through June, proceeds from the sale of the Tikvah Shawl will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI is dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children with mental illness and their families. Throughout the country, NAMI provides education, advocacy, and support, striving to eliminate the pervasive stigma of mental illness and increase the public and professional understanding of mental illness. To learn more about NAMI, visit their website at www.nami.org.

Over the last week, I designed and knit up a little fichu of a shawl, Tikvah, and now I have to write up the pattern. I'm hoping to get it ready for test knitting in a couple of weeks and then, when everything is set, I'll donate 80% of my sales directly to NAMI.

Just to tease you a little, here are some pictures of the Tikvah shawl.




Holly - Yep. But you have to wait until I get it written up. I've got two patterns in the works. And you know just how much I love writing patterns.

Scrabblequeen - I do indeed have great new software. I'm still learning it.

The Yarnarian is Heathered.

I have a new shipment of Bambi yarn (70/20/10 merino/bamboo/nylon) and this batch seems to have come with little bits of bamboo fiber hanging out on the surface. I don't know why, I suppose I could have sent it back, but I like the heathery-ness of it. So it stays. I certainly couldn't see it in its undyed stage. Off white is off white, but dyed up, there it is. And I like it. Bamboo doesn't take acid dye. I'm certainly not going to play with fiber reactive dyes just to get it to take color. The fun of the yarn is that it is not totally solid within each color, and this batch is more of that undyed effect.

Here are pics of some very damp yarn. Nope, you can't have it yet; bamboo takes forever to dry, and it's been cool and damp here, so maybe by tonight it will have dried. Maybe. You can however email if you want me to put aside.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com.

Oh, you know the routine. If you really want one, jump on it; we have yarn sharks here, evil laugh, and they are very quick. And they know who they are. And they are a lot of fun, and make me giggle.

Damsel and Allianora:




Gossamer and Sunlight (Sunlight is Alexa and NOT heathered; she sneaked in here)




Tender, Squawk, and Lake:





If you look closely at the darker ones, you'll see those fluffy little bamboo fibers.

Tikkun Olam: Huh? Hebrew for "repairing the world". I don't like the word "charity"; it implies noblesse oblige, which while certainly useful, seems very snobbish to me. I would much rather do something to repair the world than to give charity. It's all semantics. but from now on, it will be Tikkun Olam

So these last couple of months I've been doing a bit of knitting for the folks at the Pine Ridge Reservation, the poorest spot in our very wealthy country. A couple of months ago, I worked on knit squares for the kids in South Africa, and will go back to it again (and yes, they did arrive safely). I just thought that I'd like to help out people in our country this time. So, I'm knitting 6" squares on the diagonal, and amassing them, and will mail out to Pam, a lovely lady who assembles them and then sends on to the Reservation. You can check her out on Ravelry in the Afghan Squares for Pine Ridge Reservation forum. Pam is looking for 6 and 12 inch squares, knitted or crocheted, as warm as you can make them. This is THE perfect travel knitting. You can do it on auto-pilot, it uses up all your knitting worsted leftovers, someone gets a warm blanket, and you do your part to repair the world. What could be better?



Alianora, Gossamer and Tender are spoken for.

KV - I concede! You have THE CITY; we have Newark and Trenton.

Caryn - I have webs growing between my toes. The grass is beautifully green, however.