Derailing Myself

Me, Approaching Fall:  You are through Stash Dash, you have some specific holiday knitting you'd like to complete, let's make a very neat plan to arrange Loopy Graduate Academy so you aren't overwhelmed. 

Me, Mid-Fall: Planned holiday knitting? What's that? Let's be ENTIRELY DERAILED by an email that is asking for hats/scarves/etc for children at a school in the region. Also let's MAIL things to people.

I should not perhaps make knitting decisions while entirely trying to overdo everything at work and also home and also and also...

Such is to say, hey look a few new projects!

A colleague at work who does more donation knitting than I do sent out an appeal for a K-8 program. Hats and scarves were listed, though I'm going to broadly interpret that cowls will be acceptable as well.  Normally I don't do a lot of donation knitting, I'm much more on the gift knitting side.  But this appealed at just the right moment, and into the stash like a slightly crazed ferret I went. 

First up was this set of two Barley hats. One skein of wool out of the stash and either children have large heads of my gauge is running oddly large, this is the child size from TCK and yet it fits me pretty comfortably. 

I also pulled out all of the Anthem that I bought last year -- it's 100% acrylic yarn that I've been trying to sort out an appropriate use for.  Everything I'm sending along for this is machine washable but this yarn in particular is child/drop it in a puddle and run it through the dryer.  First off I made a Luuk (also the child size, also easily big enough for me...) 

And I made a triangle scarf that should work nicely for a smaller child.  It will fit on middle schoolers too but my guess is mid-elementary would be best sized for this.  

My goal is at least 10 items to send along. Having also rummaged through some finished objects that have been lingering around Chez Hedgehog without a specific recipient in mind, I'm currently at 8.  I'm going to give it another week of knitting time and mojo and then drop things off with my colleague at work.  Don't worry, I'm still overly optimistic. This is the pile of yarn I believe I can get through this week for these projects: 

  

Oh and I spent an hour rummaging through stash leftovers to pack up BMFA STR light and medium weight odds and ends to send along for a Ravelry friend who is doing a large project of said ends. She's running low on her stash of leftovers; I mailed an overstuffed gallon bag on Saturday to give her a few more options. 

But there's Christmas knitting to get started and some other overdue projects to complete.