Warm & Cozy - Inside & Out

There is just something warm, cozy and secure about a hand-crocheted or knitted item. When I was little, my mother taught me to crochet. I started out with a basic granny square. I remember making myself this bright yellow, orange and white giant granny square afghan for my bed when I was in high school. It literally fell apart from use over the years. Now I have afghans or cozy fleece blankets in every room. Over the years I have made them for most of my family members and friends at one time or other.
A few years ago I also started making prayer shawls, praying for the recipient as I made it. Seems like the need for them is always faster than I can keep up with crocheting them, and now I'm getting requests for them as well. There is a prayer shawl group on Yahoo even if you wanted to join it as well. I received a wonderful shawl from a fellow crocheter on there at one point, its so very warm and cozy, and greatly cherished.

My sister and daughter knit hats and baby items for crack babies and infants in need through their knitting groups, and I've participated in afghans and shawls for soldiers projects in the last two years too. One of the best memories is when I received a photo of a soldier in Iraq wearing one of the shawls I had made for him -- I think I felt as warm inside as he did wearing it!

Currently, I'm in two Good Deed swaps through Splitcoaststampers (SCS) right now that have put my crochet skills to good use: one is for newborn baby blankets, and another is to make caps for children with cancer. (You do need to join SCS to participate, but its free and worth joining!) If you crochet or knit (or quilt or sew or even tie fleece), these are great projects to join! The picture above is just one of the caps I had fun making for the caps for children with cancer project. I pray it will bring a smile to its recipient.

Here is a link too with multiple crochet/knit charity projects to join. With the cooler weather coming on, what better way to enjoy an evening that to sit and knit or crochet, being warmed on the outside with a project on your lap, and on the inside with the good deed being done?