OK, everybody, get your needles warmed up—it’s kick off time for our annual Red Scarf Fundraiser and KAL!

when these samples skeins arrived the other day from yarn hollow, barb and i cast on right away at knit night—her snow flies scarf in progress (above) and my small stripey cowl (below) are just the beginning.

this first one took no time at all; it was done within 24 hours. i love me a quick holiday knit. but the nice thing is that this festive stripey version also has a nice vintage look that carries on well once the holidays are over.

now that this cowl is finished i plan to cast on this evening for a larger one in solid red.

i couldn’t be more excited to be releasing the latest red scarf pattern and yarn—this is what makes christmas a holiday for me. each year the release of our red scarf fundraiser pattern brings the true meaning of the holidays to our community—when we devote december sales from this pattern and yarn, then knit along together to raise money for our knitspot scholarship, which goes to one student who participates in foster care to success programs. Our previous student brandy, has graduated and gone on to study further. our current student is jelissa, who attend the fashion institute of technology in new york city—the organization even found a student who plans a career in our industry; how much do we love that??

foster care to success is an amazing organization with all sorts of programs to assist young adults who are aging out of foster care to navigate a journey to college and beyond. if you can imagine your own kids getting through the challenges of college AND taking care of their own housing, groceries, cooking, paperwork, doctor and dentist visits, car payments and maintenance, insurances, PLUS negotiating the complexities of adult decision making, relationships, interviews, important meetings, and interior life without you you as a safety net, then you can grasp how urgent it is to provide whatever support we can.

For me, it started in 2008 with knitting scarves for the scarf drive that year. the next couple of years, i sent along a little cash as well to help with mailing, to pay forward the good fortune this community has provided me. then in 2011, i had the idea of increasing those funds by designing a pattern to raise money . . . and we raised enough to put the knitspot name on a scholarship. the next year we raised even more with the 2012 red scarf pattern, fall line and the scholarship drive became an annual event.

a couple of years ago we expanded our fundraising by having one of our yarns dyed an exclusive shade of red—it is available only at this time and only in very limited quantities.

the first part of our shipment arrived today; doug and erica got the listings ready for purchasers and they are live right now!

lillian labelled them all before she left the office and is excited to get to work monday to pack and ship your orders.

we would LOVE to exceed last year’s amount of $4500—can we get to $5000 this year??

want to be part of it? you can participate in several ways:

and with that, i’m going to sign off and go cast on for my big cowl while dinner heats up on the stove. thank you all so much in advance; let’s make 2016 our biggest year yet!