Knitters, Crocheters, Crafters, and Hurricane Sandy Relief-- A Resource Guide

Hi Everyone!

Over the last few weeks, we've been watching the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and have been trying to help promote any of the relief efforts that we see come our way. There are so many folks that have gotten involved in so many different ways that it's been tough to keep track of them all! We thought maybe you all felt the same way, so with that in mind I've done a little research and created a list of various efforts being made within the knitting community to make your efforts to help a little easier!

Also, I am sure that I've missed some folks, so please, if you are doing a promotion for Hurricane Sandy Relief (ie. selling one of your patterns and donating the profits or collecting hand knit items to donate) please let us know by leaving a comment on this post with the link to where people can buy your pattern or find more info. We invite you to continue to add to our list as we want this to be a resource! (If you have any issues posting your link, feel free to send me an e-mail with the info and we'll post it for you-- kristen(at)jimmybeanswool(dot)com -Thanks!)

Here are the efforts I found in my research (click on the name to link to the Ravelry page):

1) Lorna's Laces: Feeding America Hurricane Sandy Relief- the pattern you get is a digital download containing 4 different sock patterns! Lorna's will donate 100% of the $5 purchase to Feeding America. They have raised over $2,500 so far!

2) Iris Schreier: From Artyarns (who has been without power herself for 2 weeks now) is donating 100% of the proceeds from the "Wispy Cables Scarf" pattern ($2 each) to the American Red Cross. She's raised almost $500 so far!

3) Diane Edgerly Designs: Diane is one of our customers who designed "Winter Wedding", a lovely capelet earlier this year. She recently contacted us and asked her to help her get the word out that she is donating 100% of the profits of this pattern to the Salvation Army for Hurricane Sandy relief. She and her family have fond memories of vacationing at the Jersey Shore, and she wanted to do what she could to help!

4) Knitting Fever International: Also known as KFI, the US distributor of Debbie Bliss, Noro, Elsebeth Lavold, Euro Yarns, Knitting Fever, Circulo, Sublime yarns, Arucania, Mirasol, and Louisa Harding to name a few, has decided to go a slightly different route in getting involved. They are accepting donations of warm clothing and blankets to distribute to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Hand-knit items are welcome, but not required. They are encouraging LYS's to get involved and have asked them to be a hub for the donations. Once a shop has received all of their donations, Knitting Fever is covering the shipping costs for these items. If you know an LYS owner who might be interested in getting involved, let them know about this program!

5) Brett Bara's Craft-a-long for Hurricane Sandy Relief: In a similar vein to KFI, Brett Bara has organized a craft-a-long to create warm items to donate to Hurricane Sandy Victims. Donations are being accepted until Friday, Nov. 16th, which is a quick turn-around, but if you've already got something you can donate (they are accepting gently used items as well) there is still time to mail it. :)

6) Alexis Winslow: Designer and blogger (Knit Darling) is donating 100% of proceeds from her "Caring Cowl" pattern until the end of the year to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts (to the Red Cross). She's donated $800 so far!

7) Ravelry Groups: A little search on Ravelry turn up several groups dedicated to the efforts of Hurricane Sandy Relief. Sift through and see which one you want to join!

8) NextStitch: A crochet designer on Ravelry who has pledged 50% of all pattern sales through the end of November to Hurricane Sandy Relief for the city of Union Beach, NJ.

9) American Red Cross: If you'd like to donate directly, the Red Cross is always a good bet and is doing tons of relief work for Sandy victims.

10) Salvation Army: Another great place to donate is directly to the Salvation Army Disaster Relief fund.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to get involved! Again, please use this as a reference and let us know if there are other designers out there we should add to this list! I am sure I missed some and we want to make sure to include everyone who is helping in this list! Feel free to leave a comment with a link to more info.

If you were affected by Hurricane Sandy, we at Jimmy Beans wish you all the best and hope that you are warm and safe tonight.

Happy knitting and crocheting everyone!
Kristen