A very special Sick Chick who Crafts

Marian is six years old and has been blogging for over a year now (by dictating to her mum, Valerie). From what I’ve seen she so very enthusiastic about crafting which is so great to see in a girl her age.

But there’s something potentially getting in the way of her crafting this year: her bone marrow transplant. Because of the way this transplant will work, she will undergo chemotherapy in March and then go into the hospital for her transplant surgery. Her older sister is her donor, a perfect match, but that’s still a painful operation for both little girls 🙁 Anyway, after her transplant, Marian’s immune system will be so fragile that she will only be able to use brand-new craft supplies that can be easily cleaned.  She will be in hospital for a long time until she is recovered enough to be able to take her new immune system out into the world so will need a lot of supplies!

Not taking this lying down, she’s raising money through the sales of craft kits and other artwork to fund her supplies with leftover money going to a charity called Caitlyn’s Smiles which provides craft kids for children in hospitals. The kits and things are for sale through her mom’s Etsy shop, Purple Petunia which is due to be restocked today.

I don’t know what else can be done for this amazing crafty family, but I’m going to try whatever they ask 🙂  I’ve written to get a t shirt (which features a drawing Marian did of a pop singer with the caption “Project Superstar” which is the codename for the fund raising and Marian-cheering efforts) but I don’t know if they are sold out already.  If I get one though I shall take a photo of me in it in front of major landmarks in London and Paris and email them periodically while Marian is recovering.

So I encourage everyone to go over to the blog and post comments, to go to the shop and buy some of the snowglobe necklace kits made by the girls, and to watch this space as I’ll post if I hear of any other ways to help.  Let’s do what we can to keep this sick chick crafting! 🙂

The Awareness Scarf

Awareness Scarf

This is what I am calling the Awareness Scarf, cince it looks so much to me like an Awareness Ribbon.  It is a skinny keyhole scarf (one end goes through the other to hold it snug on the neck) made on the Knifty Knitter long looms.  This one is made in Colinette Marshmallow yarn in the colourway Jay and was made for a friend who is an ovarian cancer survivor (which had nothing to do with my choice of colour, she just happens to like blue 🙂 ).

I’m thinking about making several of these to sell on Etsy for about US$20 plus shipping, with $2 from each scarf given to a charity relating to one of my diseases.  I’d not really be charging anything for my time but I figure this is craft therapy time for me and the rest of the profit can go to more craft therapy for me.  I found making this was very soothing to my anxiety levels, better than meds 😛   I’d always use Colinette Marshmallow as long as I can still get it and then Colinette Point Five after that, they have a wide range of wonderful colours to choose from.

What do you think?  Is  $20 a reasonable price?  On the one hand it’s too little as it doesn’t pay me much at all for my time, on the other hand skinny scarves are very popular and going for much cheaper when mass produced so I think people will baulk at $20.  All I really care about is the opportunity to raise some money and awareness of some of my diseases, but getting to knit more and more is a very big plus 🙂

Comments very welcome…

I want: Malabrigo Organic Cotton dyed with Cochineal

While listening to Ready, Steady, Knit (the podcast of WEBS yarn store aka yarn.com) they mentioned that Malabrigo is coming out with a very limited edition organic cotton this month, all dyed with natural materials in Peru.

WANT! is all I have to say about it.

Wonder if anyone in the UK will be getting any….else I shall certainly order from WEBS since hey, they put me on to it 🙂

Meanwhile on the topic of organic cotton, I really need a dishcloth rake.  Mope mope.

EDIT on 29 April: order placed!

Photographic Stop-Gap

Well, we stil haven’t completed a light tent to my satisfaction, but t just got a new camera (out of his ten year service bonus) and it does muuuch better with colour than mine. So it will do for now with yarn type things.

But I am really tired, so for now I shall just leave you with this pic of a work in progres that was on my loom earlier today (now finished for Thing-a-Day).

WIP