THAT WARM FUZZY FEELING 2018
This discussion aims to give you an up-close and personal look at what happens on opening days at the Knit-a-Square barn. I'm a partially-sighted volunteer who who attends with my guide dog Tango and my driver Bongi, who has also become a keen volunteer. While everyone else opens parcels, sorts squares and packs items ready for distribution, I listen and take mental notes so I can pass on something of the atmosphere on the ground. Enjoy!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leanne Hunt on -
Jude, that is a great idea. I will make a note to contact you next time I go!
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Permalink Reply by Jude Sullivan on -
Please do, did you visit the wool shop in Cirencester? The Ravely one sadly closed down.
xxxx
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Permalink Reply by Leanne Hunt on
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I visited one shop, a tiny space crammed with exciting yarns, and bought two balls of local British wool in forest green. Don't know the name of the shop but it was a couple of doors away from a great pet shop where my daughter bought a gift for her boxer dog back home in SA!
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Permalink Reply by Jude Sullivan on
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Oh yes it is tiny, I wonder how the owner knows where everything is! Every colour of the rainbow in every quality wool everyone should visit it including Cath Riley and Joan Humm! Lol xx
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Permalink Reply by Deborah Anderson Fleming on -
I missed you Leanne! Welcome home and thank you for helping us all be there.
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Permalink Reply by Pam Antink on -
Lovely to have you back Leanne, your blogs always help those of us scattered across the globe to feel very much a part of the team at the Barn! Wish we could all join in with those regular birthday parties - especially the cake!
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Permalink Reply by mary on
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yes love love reading your reports Leanne! I'm doing some handwarmers at the moment and cross paws they arrive in time for the winter distributions!
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Permalink Reply by Leanne Hunt on
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Today's report from KAS won't be long as Tuesday was a really quiet day. April is a strange month in south Africa because there are so many public holidays, and it seems to mess with everyone's timetable. Between Easter and Freedom Day on Friday 27 April, the high number of days off result in people taking leave around the long weekend, and this disrupts school terms and business calendars. The effect is that, even at organisations like Knit-a-Square, attendance by volunteers is irregular. Next week, May 1st, is, of course, Workers' Day, so another public holiday, but the volunteers have decided this time to make up for the missed day and come in on Wednesday instead.
Added to the fact that some volunteers were on leave, Ronda was out of action again as a result of a severe tummy bug. It resulted in her being put on a drip in hospital. While she assures me she is over the worst, the doctor has ordered more bed rest. She will need to take things easy for at least another two weeks, although after that we hope she will recover her strength quickly and return to KAS feeling inspired and motivated.
A good stack of parcels has come in over the past two weeks, keeping everyone busy with sorting and filling bags of blanket packs for the gogo groups. Anne, Estelle, Bongi, Lindi, Nani and Mabel sat spread around the long table, chatting quietly. I talked to our newest volunteer, Melanie, who apparently came for the first time last week. She is a friend of Megan's and is interested in giving a few hours a week to helping out with sorting squares.
Melanie admitted to being a complete novice when it came to matching sizes and coordinating colour schemes, but she is keen to practice. I'm always interested to observe how the different volunteers work when opening parcels as some are quick and intuitive when it comes to matching interesting colour combinations while others work with texture or the intricacies of themes and patterns.
Mabel had asked me to help her with loading photos onto the forum so I had brought along my laptop to show her. She, Lindi and Nani stood around, phones in hand, going through the steps to find the website, navigate to the forum page and sign up. It was quite tricky because I was on the desktop version of the website using earphones to listen to what my text-to-speech-enabled computer was saying to me. They were on the mobile version of the website and it didn't look anything like my screen! Eventually, Mabel switched to the desktop version to follow my instructions and managed to upload some photos onto her page. I'm hoping she will become familiar enough with the process of posting photos that she will be able to show the other volunteers on her phone.
I've been taking home extra-large squares that don't fit into blankets and edging them with a knitted border. The idea is that the resulting enlarged square will be equal to four standard-sized squares and make an attractive central [albeit slightly offset] feature in an otherwise standard blanket. It's one way of preserving the squares contributed by our members which would otherwise be hard to incorporate into blankets. Plus, I think the resulting effect will be distinctive and rather attractive.
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Permalink Reply by joan anthony on -
Thank you for the report Leanne. I always enjoy reading them.
Sorry to hear that Ronda is unwell. I suspect that she is not someone who finds 'taking it easy' very easy. I hope she recovers quickly.
We have the same problem with bank holiday clusters, then long spells without any.
I am always impressed by the efficient running of KAS and it looks as if this improves all the time.
Will look forward to the new photos being posted.
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Permalink Reply by Amy on -
What a wonderful update Leanne. So good to see the ladies willing to learn new things and we so appreciate the volunteers coming in on an off day to sort through all the mail.
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Permalink Reply by Bev Jeffery on -
Thank you for another interesting insight into a day in the life of the KAS Barn.
Thank you, also, for making yourself available to help in other areas,too, like the odd sized squares and sharing your knowledge with others to improve their computer skills....knowledge is power, as they say and I am sure they were very grateful
Sending positive thoughts to Ronda for a speedy recovery.....someone tie her to her bed, as that's the only way she will take time out to recover. :)).
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Permalink Reply by Valerie Zalewski on -
Thank you for another interesting account of life in the KAS barn.
Give our best wishes toRonda for a speedy recovery and try to prevent her from coming back too soon.
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Created by Linda Maltby May 2, 2018 at 8:26am. Last updated by Linda Maltby Jul 1.
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