Nis...kayuna! (Sing it to the title track from Oklahoma!)

We're in the new house--new furniture delivered today--boxes and clothes strewn everywhere--but at least my new kitchen is clean and organized (made that my first priority). No knitting at all this week! I'll post pictures soon, as soon as we have internet set up in the house (probably tomorrow, or the next day). If any of you are in the neighborhood I expect you to visit!

Attention to all you interested in Interim House

Stacie is having a contest to collect yarn for Interim House. Click on Stacie's name and check it out. If you're sending yarn to IH already (as I know some of you do) then just go through Stacie's extra steps for a chance to win fun knitting paraphernalia.

Sad Day

Today was Bill's last Sunday preaching at Summit Church. They threw a beautiful party for us following the service, and it was very sad for us. And joyful. Summit has allowed Bill and me to be ourselves. They have loved and accepted pretty much whatever we have to offer. We must be crazy, leaving this place.

Yeah. We're...

Moving.

We made our house so pretty and presentable so we could show it to potential buyers. Its been lovely living in it, all neat and clean and organized all the time. Look see:




Those were official photos for the realtor's website. Wasn't it a pretty home? Now lookatit:

Definitely moving.

Oh and notice in that last picture in the upper right hand corner the little green splotch--that's our Christmas "tree." That's the symbol of what this Christmas has been like. We couldn't unearth our usual fake tree and our ornaments because they were buried in the back of a storage closet behind dozens of boxes already packed to go to Niskayuna. However, our church generously gifted us with this "tree," which the stepchildren said I couldn't call a tree, its really just a kind of decoration, being that someone made it by sticking pine branches into a styrofoam core. Nevertheless, it was the closest thing to a tree we had, so we decorated it with random things we found around the house and at the dollar store, and with some tiny golden balls given to me by a friend when she found out we had no ornaments.

Velvet Jane doesn't like all the packing and things out of their places and especially the strangers in and out. But here is a rare moment of repose:

And here are the pictures of the finished socks for--and on--Bill. Warning: we're a little punch-drunk at the moment.

Aren't they nice? They're made out of Sockotta, knit on size 1 needles. They came out identical twins, and fit him nicely.

Oh...and about Interim House

So many wonderful people have sent yarn, needles and other knitting and crocheting tools to Interim House over the past couple of years. Many of them smuggle the supplies to me; I, in turn, enjoy playing Santa Claus all year round, delivering the supplies to the center. (For those of you who don't know about Interim House, a 6-month Drug and Alcohol treatment center for women in Philadelphia, click on the above link. Prepare to be amazed. You can also look at my archived posts here for more info.)

This continues to amaze me, that all I did was tell a story about Interim House on this blog about a year ago, and some folks read it, and then then told some other folks, and put links on their blogs, and then people just started sending yarn. Boxes and bags, tremendous amounts of yarn. Which is GOOD, because the many ladies of Interim House knit and crochet hours a day, and they NEED lots of yarn. There are so many of them. Like, dozens. Knitting and crocheting pretty much all the time, do you get the picture? They need/want/crave any yarn they can get their hands on.

Oh dear, I didn't mean this to be another evangelistic post, but it does always turn out that way, doesn't it, with the things we truly love?

All I wanted to say was a few simple things.

1. Thank you to everybody who has donated supplies. The churches who hosted yarn drives, put together little gifty packages, the people who went through their closets and stashes and sent yarns they no longer wanted or thought they would use...Thank you to all of you. I can assure you that all your yarn was loved, touched, made into useful things.

2. Even though I am moving from Philadelphia, Interim House will continue to need supplies. For those of you who had their primary connection to IH through me...don't give up on them! You can mail things directly--email Kathy, the Social Worker at IH, at mcduf [at] aol [dot] com and she'll tell you how. Leave a message on the Interim House blog. Stay connected somehow. If you're local to Philadelphia, you can drop yarn off at the Center yourself, just email Kathy so you can work out a time to make the drop.

Okay you beautiful knitters, thanks for everything!