Comfy and Cozy, Caring and Sharing

In my previous blog I said we were going to be making blankets for the Hope Center, which is for unwed mothers. However, this ladies night out event was to make blankets for troubled teens who are part of a program called the Whitington Homes--Transitional Life Skills Program. These are girls 14-21 years old who come from abusive or neglected home environments, or from the Department of Child Services. Some of them are pregnant or already have a baby. They actually live in apartments together (4 to an apartment) and have 24/7 supervision to teach independent life skills, and provide emotional and educational support. The director of the program was there, and told us about the program. I was very impressed with what they do. They have 5 apartments, so they can take up to 20 girls at a time and they are there from 6 months to 2 years, depending on how they progress. SO-O-O, the blankets we made are actually for these girls.

Since I was thinking more about babies, I bought pink fleece for one side and pink blue and white striped for the other. Erin and I worked along with 2 other ladies. We would work on one blanket at a time. I had no previous idea of how these were done. You basically put the 2 pieces of fleece together, wrong sides together. Then you make slits all around the edge, 5 inches long, and 1 inch apart. Then you just tie each of these slits in a knot so it is knotted all around the edge.

Erin and I with our pink/pink striped blanket

It's hard to see here, but you can kind of see the knots around the edge. They really look cute when they are all finished. Many of the ladies had brought really colorful fleece; the other one we worked on had cute cats on one side with plain cream color on the back. We really had fun doing this. Plus I learned a ton of information about taking care of Alpaca's from Erin while we worked. She was very knowledgeable about all of that; probably more than I ever thought I would want to know!

Kr Krystal and Linda

These are the 2 ladies we worked with. You can see the cat pattern on this one. I was very impressed with all the different patterns and how cute they all looked.

The Finished Product

As we finished our blankets, we "packaged" them by folding in thirds and then rolling them into a blanket roll. When we got them about half rolled, we tucked a little piece of paper inside that said something like, "Made especially for you with Love, Woodburn Missionary Church." Then we tied the roll with ribbon. The one Erin and I did is in front--the pink and blue striped.

I'm not sure how many we made but LOTS of ladies participated. Of course, no evening is complete without some snacks--ice cream, pretzels, cookies, coffee or hot chocolate. It was a really fun evening.

Before we left, Erin asked me if I like candles. I said I love them! She said, good, because I make them. Her grandma and grandpa gave her a candle making kit for Christmas when she was about 11-12, and she has made candles ever since. She wanted to know what scents I like, as she also adds scent to them. What a gal. I'm really enjoying getting to know her.