San Diego Wildfire Blankets

So I have been knitting like a crazy woman. I AM a woman possessed. Possessed with the fact that there are so many people without homes and we want to make blankets and comfort as many as we can. If you have some acrylic around, please knit or crochet some 8" squares and find out what my very good friend GeorgeAnne is doing. She has a new blog just for the San Diego Wildfire Blankets at San Diego Wildfire Blankets

Here are pictures of my squares. I bought Red Heart Soft at Michael's on sale, 2 for $5.00. I am knitting all garter stitch squares and each skein makes 4 1/2 squares. I am using US8 needles and I cast on 32 stitches. They are very soft and washable, which is what we are looking for.

Look at that picture of Matthew. That house was at our second evacuation point in La Jolla. While I was busy gathering my cat and important papers, Matthew was grabbing the laptop and his headset so that he could stay connected. And staying connected he did. He played WOW (World of Warcraft) with his friends, apparently they were also grabbing laptops while running from the fires!! I am glad that he was, as they say, "None the worse for the wear"!!

Things are starting to get back to normal. My kids will all be returning to school on Monday. Actually, Malachy is the only one that is excited, besides me!

BTW: I forgot to mention, in all the excitement, that I am on Ravelry. Woohoo!! What a cool place that is. My name is: craftyloca, of course. If anyone is on there, come visit me or leave me a comment with your Ravelry name, so that I can come and say hi to you :)

Knit-Laugh-Enjoy

Firestorm 2007

Here are pictures from Monday early am. The fires at this point were quite far. When we received the call for mandatory evacuation the smoke was very thick. It almost felt like you needed to push the smoke with your hands. The ash was falling like snow and our eyes were burning. The winds were so very strong from Sunday night and all day on Monday. We evacuated south to Sorrento Valley. We thought that we would stay there the night, but the fires continued west and south. So at 9:30 pm we received the call to evacuate once again. We all left and went south to La Jolla. We were graciously welcomed to the home of, to me, strangers. I brought our cat with us from house to house. I had to leave my bird. I was afraid that just bringing her to the car would have killed her from the smoke.

Tuesday afternoon we were cleared to go back to Sorrento Valley, but not back home to Carmel Valley. The air was clearer there so I decided to go the 5 miles north back home, if just to take a shower and return. The streets were earily quiet and there was still ash falling all around us. The wind was quiet and when we returned there were maybe only 1/3 of our neighborhood home. By Wednesday night some more of our neighbors were returning.

What did I do? I knit and knit and knit. GeorgeAnne is organizing and seaming blankets for those who lost their homes and were and will be displaced for some time. So I knit 8" squares for her. If anyone would love to help go to GeorgeAnne's blog to read details. She has also organized a group on Ravelry for the same purpose.

I hope all of you are home and safe. My prayers and thoughts are with all those still fighting the fires and to those who have lost all. Peace.