Dear Ann,
Lots of knitters are concerned about the disaster and suffering in the Philippines. Here are some ways to help. The best way, of course, is to contribute cash to reliable organizations that are in a position to be of immediate help. Our friends at Mercy Corps have people on the ground, working with local organizations as they always do, and there are many other great organizations.
But there are also people we already know, knitters in fact, in the Philippines. While the knitters of Ricefield Collective were not in the path of the storm, they are in the Philippines. Ricefield Collective has organized a weekend (and more) of Internet shopping, with 10 percent of proceeds benefiting Nafcon, a grassroots Philippines aid organization. It’s kind of amazing that Ricefield is doing this, since the whole Ricefield project is itself a nonprofit dedicated to keeping workers on their land in the Philippines, by giving them sustainable employment. A few other great knitting and crafting online businesses, including those purveyors of beauty, Quince & Co., A Verb For Keeping Warm, and Feel Good Yarn Company, are dedicating a portion of their own sales to Ricefield’s effort. Inspired by their beautiful gesture (and beautiful products), I’m checking a bunch of people off my holiday shopping list, about 6 weeks earlier than I usually even make my holiday shopping list. (Spoiler alert: there will be hats, people. Handknit hats.)
Another way you can help, and also pick up three blanket patterns that are CLASSIC (meaning, not new, but you know, AWESOME), is to make an online donation to Mercy Corps of $20.00 or more, and forward your receipt to me at kay DOT gardiner AT gmail.com. In that email, tell me your Ravelry username. I’ll then put three blanket patterns–the Cornerstone Blanket (pictured above being enjoyed by 6 year old twins), the Mitered Crosses blanket, or our most recent effort, A Light in the Window–into your Ravelry library. I will do this for all emails I receive through next Sunday, November 24. So: 20 bucks, 3 blankets, help Mercy Corps. It’s not a bad deal. It will keep you knitting for a while, I’ll tell you what.
Sorry for the spottiness of the links and photos in this post, but let’s just say I am facing a few challenges driving the new blog. So many new buttons, and when you push them you end up in some peculiar places. Good for the brain.
Thank you everyone, for everything, and especially patience and generosity.
Love,
Kay
Thanks so much for your timely and heartfelt response in helping the people of the Philippines.
LoveDiane
I can’t remember if I heard of Ricefield first from you both to others, but what a great idea. As I already have the patterns it is just a great reminder of another way to help.
Thank you so much for your support Kay and Ann, and so happy that we’re all in this together, doing our best to help as much as we can. It will take many years for the region to fully recover from the storm, and we were already working with some silk growers in the area to possibly develop a silk-based yarn with them. But I think that in the future, as Ricefield hopefully grows, we would love to expand our efforts into the Eastern Visayas region to do whatever we can to help with the recovery efforts there.
Very cool, and I’m always glad to see knitters get behind cash donations to charity projects. Too often we want to knit something and send it off to help, but the truth is, cash is better for a lot of reasons.
What Erika said! I do charity knitting ONLY when knitting is requested, but contribute financially otherwise. At times, even a couple of dollars can be far more useful than the most perfect handknit.