'Carols in the Cathedral' a new Ta - Dah! and also Squares and News from the UK!

Good Evening Everyone!

I am so excited today because I have a new Ta - Dah! for you! This one is SIBOL 117!  This one has travelled to SIBOL HQ all the way from Scotland. A very kind SIBOLETTE over on Ravelry 'jenniferanne' has very kindly designed, made and donated this beautiful, beautiful Blanket to SIBOL! Such a lot of thought has gone into it and I have asked jenniferanne to give us some details, I'm sure you will want to know.  Let's first of all have a look at the finished Blanket.

'Carols in the Cathedral'.

I am so in love with this one!

jenniferanne explained how she thought of the Blanket.

The idea for the blanket grew out of itself and my love of the windows and stonework in old cathedrals. I have turned my lovely local wool shop into a builders’ merchants haha. I’ve been in for “stonework grey”, “wood” for the front door, “concrete grey” for the “pointing” and “lichen green” embroidery thread for the old stones. (I took the half sewn up blanket to show them, and they were thrilled with it. My craft group want to post a picture of it on their website too.)


The squares I used were designed by Jan Eaton (bobbles triangles); Priscilla  Hewitt (Velvet & lace for the Rose window, Antique pearls for the door, Gothic square for the black & white windows,and Maze for the “granny style” blocks); Melanie Stiles (Window Pane for the granny style with a single cross) and the rest were just dc squares from my head. The edging is supposed to represent stone tracery or Bishops Mitres (?)


I chose the yarn for colour; most is “Special” by Stylecraft; the concrete grey is James C. Brett Top Value; the white for the Gothic is James C. Brett Twinkle; and the best find of all, I’m sure you’ll agree, Robin Double Knit “Print” for the multicoloured windows.
 
Jan Eaton (bobbles triangles) suggest roofs, the one over the 'front door' is a porch roof. The starry night Squares are at the 2 top corners.
 
Thank you for giving us details about the Squares used and indeed information about the yarn too! I am always very touched with the kindness shown to our SIBOL project and when someone goes out of their way to make a special Blanket for our Elderly folk it really is such a kind gesture. Thank you so much jenniferanne.

I am very pleased to be showcasing your SIBOL 'Carols in the Cathedral'. Thank You!.









Created with flickr slideshow.


As you know during the past few weeks I have been delivering our Sunshine Blankets to the Elderly folk in Nursing Homes local to me. All but 17 of our Blankets have left me and I am very pleased to be telling you that the remaining Blankets including jenniferannes will be leaving me during the week beginning  5th December to travel down to Dorset County Council to a Lady called Tracy. Tracy is a Social Worker and works in the Community with the Older Persons Team in Dorset.

Tracy very kindly emailed me during the week and congratulated us on our work with the Elderly in Nursing Homes. She also brought to my attention that there are many Elderly folk out in the rural areas of the UK who desperately need help keeping warm.

I'm sure she won't mind me taking an extract from her email.


"The last couple of years has been bad for winter, especially for the elderly people that live rural (our area has a high population) they struggle to access basic services. It really is true Sue that people who live in the community do not put fires on as they are frightened of bills they sit in the cold for hours and hours, it is tragic, heart-breaking and sad. We never ever get used to loosing the people we work with, it is especially difficult when they die alone.

Sue, in the community there is a genuine need for your blankets, a genuine need that will help keep people warm and as they wrap it around themselves I am sure they would not feel so isolated."

I really appreciated this email and after chatting to some of our SIBOLETTES,  I am extremely pleased to be sending the remaining Blankets to her. The whole purpose of SIBOL is to help the Elderly and the vunerable. Our 'Sunshine Blankets' are given to the Elderly in  Nursing homes  but I think we can also help these people who 'desperately' need them. So this is what I shall be doing. When the Members of her team visit these vunerable people with food supplies they will be distributing our Blankets to them.  I'm sure our Blankets will go a long way to helping them keep warm! Thank you Tracy for contacting me.

These are the Blankets that will be leaving for Dorset very soon.

I would also very much like to thank Pamela (UK) who very kindly sent me two Knitted Squares today. They are both really nice. The one an 'Olympic Square' shows 'Archery'. I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw the Square. We are busy collecting for the Olympic Challenge which ends March 12th and hopefully we will be able to sell the Blanket on Ebay to raise money for Alzheimers here in the UK. If  you are interested in making Squares for this particular Challenge please pop over to our Challenge Blog.

I love your Squares Pamela, thank you so much for sending them to SIBOL.

Let's have a look now.

jenniferanne, Pamela and Tracy thank you all so much!
I do hope you have enjoyed reading the latest on SIBOL. Have a good weekend everyone!

Thanks for visiting.

x Sue x