KasSnippets - July 2015
REPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
by Ronda Lowrie
Ronda and Wendy and the team have been very busy with distributions and MedLemon Training, but will be catching up with reports very soon.
Ronda did find time to mention that Mandela Day was great – we have a list of 14 activities in which KAS was involved, directly or indirectly.
Spoor & Fisher chose Knit-a-Square for their company's 67 Minutes for
Mandela Day
Sandy and Wilma delivering the contribution from all the staff at Spoor & Fisher
along with a much appreciated collection of R1,000 towards the office rent!
To read the full story please click here
KNIT-A-SQUARE FINANCE
Pay the Office Rent for a Day
PAY THE RENT - JULY MANDELA CELEBRATION
Every year, on July 18, the world celebrates Mandela Day, birthday of Nelson Mandela. We honour him by giving 67 minutes of time to helping a good cause of our choice. This year, we Kasfolk decided to form a team called MANDELA MAMAS to honour him, by donating to our Pay the Rent fund to enable Ronda and her team to carry on our important work.
When we started this team, most days in July, August and September were green (unpaid) on the Pay the Office Rent calendar. We have managed to turn all of July pink (paid) and we've even spilled over a bit into August.
We became a team of 42 MANDELA MAMAs (and a couple of PAPAs) and we have managed to pay for 26 days! On behalf of Ronda, an enormous thank you to everyone who participated.
Did you miss it??? Are you disappointed?
The pressing need to help Ronda and her team goes on.... Don't worry...something BIG is coming...Here's a clue...
We would love for you to join us in giving Ronda a party she will NEVER forget. Become one of Ronda's Revellers!
BLANKET SUPPORT FOR A GOGO
(KAS OPS SUPPORT) US$6
In South Africa, it is often the women of the community who help KAS to assemble squares into beautifully hand-sewn blankets for the children. To help support these women and their families in turn, we like to provide a small, per-blanket payment in appreciation.
These women are a vital part of the KAS team. With the huge volume of squares we are receiving, they are the ones who make it possible for us to wrap ever more children in warm blankets.
We have just heard from Ronda that Blanket Support this month has amounted to R5000 - that's equivalent to $500USD - and represents a lot of blankets assembled and a fairly large outlay of funds from our strained budget.
To purchase a Blanket Support and help Knit-a-Square continue to say thank you to these ladies, please visit the KAS SHOP HERE
SPECIAL NOTE
Members have mentioned that school supplies are on sale right now in the northern hemisphere and it is very tempting to stock-up on pencils, crayons and other goodies to send as slip-ins.
Since these goodies are heavy and expensive to mail, we would just like to remind contributors that the KasShop has items such as Colouring Books & Crayons, Reading Books, Learning Posters and a Ream of Paper, each of which sell for only $5USD. By ordering through the KasShop, members can save themselves the cost of postage and Ronda can make choices and quantities suitable for the needs of the day-care centres she visits.
KNIT-A-SQUARE DELIVERS !
The KASVan is making its way towards the Knit-a-Square Offices. Every 250 squares the Van moves 100 metres(328 feet) on the track.
The real KASVan is much busier than the graph shows:
- Many times during the week it travels to the Post Office to pick up parcels.
- On distribution days, it delivers blankets and other items to the needy crèches in areas surrounding Johannesburg.
- A few weeks ago, the Van took parcels of completed blankets back to the Post Office to be sent to Cape Town. Once there, Ronda’s daughter Sian along with Camille Quine of Little Libraries, distributed the blankets to poor children in the area.
To add your squares to the total : please click here
ZERO TOLERANCE - CUSTOMS TICKETS !
Sadly another 10 parcels had an import tax levelled at a total of $105 for Knit-a-Square because people keep writing values on the customs ticket in the country of origin - as we cannot waste valuable donations, they are returned to South African Revenue & Customs in the hope they will be re-assessed, even so we will still be required to pay something in order to bail them out.
The parcel was valued by the sender at $50 - which received an
import levy charge of $17!
Consequently, these parcels cannot be added to the Received Square Lists until they are returned.
The Post Master at Bryanston Post Office has suggested changing the message on the front of the parcels to :
Please visit the 2015 Revised Packing Slip
to download new slips and mailing label found at the bottom left-hand corner of the discussion.
Also, Sharon B (USA), has outlined how USA members can save 10% off the cost of postage by using the USPS online forms, also to calculate your postage :
please click here and scroll down.
Please note that the over-valuing of parcels is a world-wide issue and we'd appreciate your help in spreading-the-word to anyone you know who is sending parcels to Knit-a-Square that customs tickets must have values of "0" or "1" at the most so that we are not wasting valuable donations paying import taxes that could be better used to pay the brilliant Gogos!
Also, the new message for the front of the parcels. Thank you so much.
WHAT'S GOING ON IN SOUTH AFRICA?
SORTED IN SOUTH AFRICA
- THE OFFICE
BUYE and SONTHO who run 45 daycare centres in Dobsonville -
came to collect 20 more blanket packs and we will join them for distributions in August/Sept.
Ronda commented : Marvellous women
See more pics : here
DISTRIBUTION PHOTOGRAPHS
Link to recent photographs
LITTLE LIBRARIES
Report from Little Libraries Facebook page : On 23rd July, thanks to the generosity of Knit-a-square, we distributed 60 blankets to 3 schools in need. It was an array of colourful squares of love sewn together to counter the wet and cold weather we have been having in Cape Town.
Thank you so much to all who knitted those lovely squares and to
Knit-a-Square who made these blankets a reality
Link to Little Libraries Facebook page
Mama Ntombi Community Projects
Our Breakfast Club is growing!
Solomon is now feeding 235 children every weekday morning from 6.00a.m.until 8.00am. The porridge is sponsored by JAM for which we are so grateful. It is a highly nutritious porridge which takes care of 75% of a child's nutritional requirement for the day. For many of the children this is the only nutritious meal they would be consuming for the rest of the day. We are grateful to all our partners who make it possible for us to continue the work we are doing.
Sandra Pillay commented : We are already seeing the benefits of this nutritious meal. The runny noses has stopped and the hair is no longer a reddish colour which is a sign of malnutrition but is black.
There are several news reports from Mama Ntombi and
Little Libraries to read them please click here
KNIT-A-SQUARE BLOG
by Andrea Palmatier
Time to Celebrate!
July starts out as a festive month in my household, which is half American and half Canadian, as we celebrate both Canada Day on July 1 and Independence Day on July 4. Fireworks, barbecues and warmer weather abound to mark an official start to summer. But it’s also a reminder of how lucky we are to live in a place like North America and be able to give our time and energy to the children of South Africa.
TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
To read the rest of this blog and others by Andrea
SPREADING THE WORD,
MEMBERS & GROUP NEWS
Knit-a-Square UK Big Day Out - July 18th 2015
On Saturday July 18th, nine KAS 'sisters', who had never met each other before, came together in York, in the north of England, to knit and crochet together on Nelson Mandela Day.
Moderator Heather Mensah organised this wonderful get-together for KAS Members - result, enough squares to make a blanket and donations amounted to pay the office rent for a day! Plus a good time was had and more friendships consolidated through commitment to Knit-a-Square.
To read the full report and see lots of photographs
Staff and students of Mairehau High School
Christchurch - New Zealand
have just completed our first blanket - it will be on its way soon. What a wonderful project this has been, and will continue to be. More people are getting involved every day - we couldn't get all the students in one photo but have boys and girls, ages 13 - 18, learning to knit and helping to create squares. Likewise, many of the staff are beginners - there are a few wee mistakes in the squares but they are definitely all made with love.
THE BLANKET ROOM COLLECTION !
Put together by Christine Johnson
A gorgeous mixture of blankets from January onwards!
THEME OF THE MONTH
for July 2015
Hosted by Susan Gillman of New Zealand
and Debbie Posmontier in the USA
CHRISTMAS:
Glorious Greens and Reds
As usual members must have been secretly planning their contributions, as right from the 1st of July, the Christmas squares started being posted on the photo tab in abundance!
Here are some of the other goodies and much needed PJ's
AUGUST - "Flags - the international KAS community" - Heather Mensah
SEPTEMBER - Fabulous Faces - Smiley faces, Animal & People faces - Robin Monsees
OCTOBER - Grannies & Garters - Susan Donaldson
NOVEMBER - Oceans/Land/Sky/Space - Valerie Zalewski supported by Linda Maltby
DECEMBER - Year End UFOs, Stash Busters, Plain Janes, Easy Peezies and other Favorites - Susan Haines
TALLY or ITEM COUNT NEWS
by Linda Maltby
The June Squares List is available.
Visit www.knit-a-square.com Click on “Received Squares”
Updated Graphs are available HERE.
In June, 18 239 squares were unpacked, sorted and made into blanket packs of 35 squares each. This is an enormous job for the volunteers. One way we can help is to bundle our squares in packs of 5 or 10.
The volunteers are working very hard to make their way through the mountain of mail. The Van goes to the Post Office at least twice a week to pick up the wonderful parcels arriving from around the world.
[See photos in Sorted In South Africa]
Squares: 18 239 (521 blankets)
AUGUST PATTERN OF THE MONTH
by Linda Maltby
Framed Stripes square
A knit pattern by Anne Connor (Canada)
This is a lovely pattern for knitters because of the interesting
and attractive centre.
For anyone new to Intarsia knitting, the easiest way to cross the yarn and ensure that there are no holes when changing colours, is to take the strand you're knitting with, hold it firmly under the thumb of your left hand & bring the new colour up over it.
Here is a YouTube demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtJdamqXlAU
The video also explains the use of bobbins. Bobbins are helpful with Intarsia knitting, but not necessary.
The Framed Stripes square pattern
is available in
The KAS Pattern Book
SQUARE HEART OF THE MONTH AWARD
edited this month by Gloria Grandy
THE JULY 2015
SQUARE HEART AWARD
IS FOR
ARLENE G. - CANADA
In January 2012, Arlene's gorgeous work (and her artistic way of photographing it) began to brighten up the pages of our monthly themes.
Her work is designed to provide the children with warmth and a bit of pleasure.
This adorable little zebra found its way into a child's arms and put a huge smile on a tiny face!
To read the full report please click here
KAS FACEBOOK PAGE
A number of Knit-a-Square members are not receiving group notices sent via the forum email system. We have attempted to rectify this problem but it is not possible. The change must be made by the members not the Ning system.
Mass mailings tend to be caught by spam filter programs. If the forum messages have been caught in your spam folder, and you wish to receive emails from Knit-a-Square in the future, please do the following:
- Mark Knit--a-Square emails as not spam.
- Add the Knit-a-square email address to your contact list. [mail@forum.knit-a-square.com]
If the Spam filter is not the problem please change the settings on your profile page.
- Click on ‘Settings’ on the top right side of the forum page.
- Go to ‘Email’ and tick all the boxes under ‘Square Circle Forum Messages’.
FINAL THOUGHTS
TOUR de FRANCE stage 14 win on 18th July for
NELSON MANDELA
Brilliant timing by Britain’s Steve Cummings, wearing an orange helmet to mark Nelson Mandela’s birthday, celebrates the stage 14 win. Cummings was riding for MTN-Qhubeka, which is a Professional Continental cycling team based in South Africa. The team made history as the first African registered team to take part.
The MTN-Qhubeka rider Daniel Teklehaimanot wore the King of the Mountains' polka-dot jersey during the 2015 Tour de France
Now the pundits are saying, that they expect more talented cyclists from Africa to be standing on the podiums at the end of the stages of future Tour de France!
Replies
I understand, Pam. These are new pictures I took of my first 20 squares before were shipped. There are not a new pile - I have 4 new ones ready, though - If this won't be confusing for KAS members I will change the setting.
Thanks,
diana
Great report Pam thank you.
We have to have an office Sharon, where the goods can be stored, a safe environment for Ronda and the volunteers to not only work in, but a relatively short safe driving distance. Wandi & Lindi come quite a distance from township areas. South Africa can be very volatile and dangerous at times. Ronda, used to work from her living room, but the parcels are arriving a rate that would fill her whole house. Not wishing to depress members, but without financial support we may have to consider running things down. Our lease finishes in February. We are likely to have to ask our kind-hearted members to consider taking a sabbatical from purchasing yarn to help keep things going. Sadly, one reads about donors giving thousands of dollars to charity and it gets wasted, yet Knit-a-Square which takes direct action and does make a difference struggles. Everyone is doing their best!
Thanks Pam - totally agree KAS needs an office.It is very frustrating when you see how much money other charities get and as you say the way they waste it. I think that is why Knit a Square is so special as it does make a difference. I will certainly not be buying any yarn for the next month or so and will contributing towards the office space.
Thanks, Pam, for another great issue!
Thanks Pam! A very informative piece.
Did you like the new pictures of my first 20 squares, right? Thanks!
diana
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