More glorious grannies - big and small, teddies and love are winging their way over to Japan.

Snuggly blanket with coordinating teddy

This blanket was super soft

A giant granny square blanket

Another giant granny square blanket

Super cuddly ted

teds and blankets just before being wrapped

Thank you ladies - once again you have made some gorgeous blankets and teddies, keep 'em coming!

Hi Ho off to the post office we go

Squares - courtesy of Angela - thank you 

Light coloured edging and red-ted -thanks to Jak

Dark edging and teddy in waistcoat - thanks to Gillian

Blankets, teddies, yarns and thank yous!

Update - We held Yarnival to help raise funds for postage and yarn and it was successful on both accounts!


So thought I would share some pictures - 

A woolly crochet blankie - warm and heavy

Thank you Gillian!

A snuggly blanket made by Jak (thank you!) with yarns from Fiona (thank you!)

And a cute teddy in the same colours (Jak)

A bobbly teddy - really squishy and cuddly (Jak)

Happy smiley kawai cuddlies for little people to love and hold. (Marta)

A Basket full of yarns (now distributed among the knit and natter ladies to crochet and knit)

Progress photos to follow.

There are more images of blankets and teddies - just need to charge my camera battery then will share :)

Thank you to all of you who've helped, crocheted, knitted, donated 

and spent time sending squares and yarns.

Retrospective posting

Sorry that this is late - life has been rather hectic here and I have finally got round to adding some more photos of beautiful blankets and toys and a rather large bag of yummy squares which arrived yesterday.

These beautiful blankets have been made by Esther from Happy in Red - 

please pop over and say hello 

These two cute characters were kindly donated by a dear friend from across the road,

she felt strongly that a child's need for them far outweighed her own :)

And finally, another dear friend arrived with a large bag of squares 

(other supermarket bags are available!!) 

excuse me, I shall just go and count them........

110.... yes - one hundred and ten

Fantastic!

Thanks ladies yet again.

Sharing across the miles

A quick news update. some of our blankets and toys along with items made by the ladies of Yarn Alive from Shichigahama were distributed to residents who have suffered either from the trauma of the tsuanami or domestic violence which, post the earthquake, seems to be on the increase in Japan.


For the full story Just look here.

Marta's cute amigurumi  elephant, posted about here seems to have found a friend!


Nice one ladies, it's good to see something we can easily do in some small way helps with the lives of these women



Naoko Utsumi, founder of the Mother's home in Kesennuma, Japan.

♡♡ T*H*A*N*K  Y*O*U♡♡

going GOING GONE!

Bye bye - travel well - enjoy your new homes❤❤   (loving the seal's nose just peeping out)

Thank you Amy for responding - I have sent details.
Happy in red - ooh wonderful news about the blankets - looking forward to seeing it - thank you so much!
I love the autumnal colours - beautiful xx





Sorry such a brief posting, will catch up and give more updates soon but work sadly calls!

have a lovely weekend xx

❤❤ Latest to go and a request❤❤

Remember I mentioned in the last post that I'd received some lovely squares from Aileen? 

 I never managed to take photos of her yummy squares before they were whisked away by Marta to turn into a blanket.  After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and discussing how best to use Aileen's squares - just look what gorgeousnous Marta has created from the original squares.................

Lovely!

Another scrummily warm blanket was created by Angela's squares and the dedicated piecing out and sewing by Gillian - the autumnal colours are brilliant - unfortunately the only picture I have does it no favours but trust me it looks wonderful :)

A few more cuddly toys are off too -

The lion is such a cute pudding of a toy he was nearly adopted by my boys, the other two are so tactile and fit nicely in little hands - I am sure they will be loved by who ever adopts them :)

These two characters have already gone, again they nearly missed being posted as my Youngest really fancied them - but bless him, he said that although he loved them he knew they were meant for other children who would need them much more.❤❤ 

Now a request - we have run low of squares and although we as a group are still making squares and blankets we would love❤❤  love❤❤  love❤❤  to have some more - the weather is definitely cooling down and a lot of families are still living in temporary housing and sadly some are still in makeshift shelters - can you imagine living like that and not being able to sleep warmly at night?

Even if you only have a few scraps of yarn left over from your last wip - please think of us and make a square or two!! 

Thank you!!

Our goodies have arrived! **Now with added pictures!!**

Kesennuma Heroes  (Please follow link)

Beautiful photos and touching post - our goodies have arrived - please pop over and have a read - see if you recognise any of your crafting :)

There is a wonderful slide show at the end of the posting, scroll down and have a read. My contact over in Japan - Christina also sent me this wonderful letter - 

I just got back from up north in Kesenuma where we were able to hand out blankets that the ladies here in Shichigahama made (the same ladies that received your blankets months ago and were inspired to create and help others also affected by the tsunami), and the teddy bears that you sent us!

We visited a "mothers house" which is basically a place for young children with autism to come along with their mothers and be taken care of by volunteers.  The story of these volunteer ladies is extraordinary. I will have the whole story written up on the Japan Alive blog later tonight so check it out there.  For today, we gave them the blankets and teddy bears to distribute fairly amongst the young children and mothers. However these same volunteers also lost everything and have their own children that they take care of so we encouraged them to also choose a blanket and teddy bear to take home.

I wanted to send you some pictures. It's really a series of pictures of just one particular girl who caught my eye! When the teddy bears came out she really looked at them all and chose carefully. You will see this in the first few pictures.  She was very quiet and reserved in comparison to the other ladies. She really took this teddy bear picking very seriously.  But take a look at the last couple of pictures . After about 30 mins we finally got to see her smile! And I just love that all the ladies in the last picture are pointing and smiling at the blankets but she is just happy about the teddy bear that she has chosen.  You could really see how much it impacted her

. 

So please encourage your amazing group that they really are making a difference in all generations! 

We will be passing out your blankets and other toys in another area so will forward on those pictures when they come through.

Many thanks again!

Isn't that wonderful!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

It's been a while!

It really has, a combination of school holidays, work, life, kids and injuring my leg all conspired to prevent me getting any blankie blogging going!

Any way, firstly a big thank you 

to Heather C, 

who YET again and sent some lovely squares, this time all blues and blacks and each one an individual pattern - silly me - I forgot to photo them before they were whisked off to be sewn to a blankie,  :)

A quick update - A visit to the post office later this morning will be ensure that this happy group go off today

There are some real characters in there - 

Aren't they cute?

Just in this little gang there are 11 teddies/dollies, 2 mice, 

2 owls, 2 flop eared rabbits and... 

one pig, my boys rather fancied him :)

 thank you

Marta and Carol

Also off today, are this little lot.....

Four delish blankies - thank you 

Marta and Jennifer

I would like to thank all you ladies who have contributed over the months - we have sent a lot of goodies and we are not alone to respond to the need of the victims of the Japanese tsunami. 

My life at the moment is rather full and I am struggling to keep up with all your work, so I would like to say thank you for so much of your time, your wool hunting, your creating and making and for your dedication. Sadly I think I will have to call a halt to our fun but am satisfied that we have made some one smile when they had lost everything.

And in case you had forgotten about those smiles follow this link and here and here

So, all that remains is to say, if you have made already squares and toys, let me have them, I will still send but please send your scarves to Kenta through scarves4japan and not me,
but for now.............

A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU 

and for now 

GOODBYE!!

Heartening news and a basket load of cuddles

Firstly, a snippet of an email from Christina (Japan Alive)  with a little guy called Shunsuke ..................  

Here's a pic of me with Shunsuke in his family's temporary housing and one of the teddy bears you ladies sent over.  He was born 2 weeks after the tsunami.  His name means "he will be a great help to many people".  His family's home was directly opposite the beach and so they lost absolutely everything.

We are hoping to visit an autistic children's home up north next week. Some incredible stories of survival. Will be handing out more teddy bears and blankets there!

How good is that?!

**************************

Now for news a bit closer to home........

A basket load of toys, just waiting to go off to Japan, 

rolls of scarves and woolly hats and a blanket

Just look at this assorted basket of fun!

Teddies, elephants, seals, a monkey, 

an orangutan,seals, lions, 

octopi (plural?), owls, 

a cute little girl, 

a teeny tiny turtle, 

a baby, zebra 

and the cutest Siamese cat 

you have EVER seen!!

Thank you SO MUCH 

Gillian, Marta and Carol

Thanks to Heather C for all the crochet grannies to which I added a rather large anomaly I made a while ago and was flummoxed as to what to do with it! 

Heather's colours just worked beautifully 

with that over ambitious square.

Here are a few more 'mug-shots' of these little wonderful characters

I am sure they will make a little person smile :)

Close up.

If you do make scarves and hats,

please do not 

send them to me 

but post them directly to Kenta  at scarves4japan :

Kenta Shimohira

39-3, Nishikamaike, Ogawa, 

Higashiura-cho, Chita-gun,

Aichi, 470-2102

Japan

I do have other lovely news from Christina - another snippet from a different email - 

.........Also, Teddy wanted me to share with you that her group of women (Yarn Alive) that meet at the community hall in the temporary housing (refugee women) have been inspired by you ladies and are starting to knit blankets in a similar manner.  They have received, and now they want to also give to those in other hard hit areas! So please thank your group that not only have they given physically but also inspired and helped emotionally to these particular women who are now finding purpose once again.

Doesn't it make you smile? :)

All for now, will keep you posted, and remember please make scarves and hats and send them directly to Kenta, he asks if you do, to include a brief written note from yourself.