Kiva

From the Kiva website -

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva has been in several publications, including - Forbe's, Inc., CNN, Time, Fox News, and many more. Read about Kiva's work.

I just made my second loan through Kiva and will continue to roll the money back into more loans as they are repaid. I hope some of you will think about loans through Kiva as well. This is a great way to give a little, but have a huge impact through the help of others on the Kiva site.

Baby Afghan

I finished this baby afghan for the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society. They give new parents a "baby's first sea bag" with all sorts of products including a hand knit or crocheted afghan or sweater set. This is a filet crochet afghan. I still need to buy some flannel to back the afghan, sew the afghan on in several places to keep little toes and fingers from getting caught in the holes.

Poet's top

I finished the top for one of the guard members for the Carmen show. We went with a "poet's top" with the same fabric on the yoke and cuffs as the girls' tunics. It was a major pain to gather all the fabric into the yoke but it's done and from the field it will look good. I hope they will be happy when it arrives!

Closing flags...

If you are familiar with the story of Carmen you know that in the end Jose` kills Carmen by stabbing her in the heart. Work with me here folks... this set of flags represents this killing. The brick color to the left is the heart, the lame` fabric represents the dagger and the background colors coordinate with the other set of flags to keep the color scheme going. I hope they are happy with the flags when they get them!

First set of flags...

Okay, so the show is Carmen. So, for the first set of flags they wanted something simple and yet gave the "flamenco" feel using colors other than red and black. It's a small guard and to make a larger impact the flags are a solid color with lace along the top edge. Using various colors forces the eye to scan the entire field to see the other flags, rather than flags being all the same and taken in in one glance. Color restrictions due to the band uniforms moved me into the gold/brown color range. It actually gives a rather rich look to the flags. These colors are repeated in the closing flags.

Got Silk?

Sure have! LOL The silk and lame` arrived for me to work on color guard flags for a high school in Maine. They are doing Carmen and I designed 2 sets of flags for them. I have one set of flags almost finished and hope to finish them tomorrow, and the other set should be done withing the next few days as well. Once that is done I have to pick up fabric to make a top for one member of the guard. Hope to post photos soon!

Socks!

I love knitting socks. Seems I always have one or more pairs on the needles at any given time. LOL This was a pair done for a custom order for my Etsy store. I sure hope Katesy likes them when they arrive. She wanted chunky socks that were roomy enough to allow for some shrinkage as they felted.