Happy New Year!!

First I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! May you all receive many blessings in the coming New Year. Thank you to all who keep coming back to check on the progress of our little group, we appreciate it! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, but aside from the usual holiday busy-ness, I have had so many other things added to that, that I have been unable to get to this. I am hoping the new year brings some quiet time so that I can keep up with my BLOG on a more regular basis!

I have enjoyed this year with the Hugs & Stitches group tremendously and while almost all of our original members are still coming faithfully each week, we have also been blessed with several new members to add to the amount of hand crocheted or knitted items that we can donate to those in need! We have also been very fortunate in receiving quite a few donations of really good yarn this year as well, especially in the last few months! That is always a most welcome thing - a donation of good, usable acrylic yarn!

Now - let me add our last and final totals of the year. I know my last post said that the final totals were in - and in a way they were. We have a specific project that we work on each year, which is the "Call for Coats" project of a local charity organization (Shepherd's Staff). They donate a coat, hat, scarf and mittens to anyone in need in our county (Carroll County, MD), and Hugs & Stitches has tried to donate as many of the scarves, hats and mittens that a small group can make. Most people are usually amazed when they hear how many of these items we make and how small our group actually is! There are only about a dozen of us, and most Tuesdays, there are usually between 5 and 8 of us.

So now, for the final totals for the year 2006!! Afghans: 175 Scarves: 725 Hats: 265 Mittens: 145 pair! After the Call for Coats ended in October, the remainder of scarves, hats and mittens were divided between two shelters in town and another local annual charity drive called "Neighbors in Need". As usual, the afghans were given to the Women and Children's Shelter or Project Linus.

I want to take this time to thank each and every one of the wonderful ladies that comes to group each week and when they can't they still keep working hard on their projects in between! They are the best group of women around and I am so blessed to get to share time with them each week and work on things to help those in need. One of these days I will get some pictures posted on this BLOG, I have taken some, now I am just waiting to get them onto my computer! Even though a dear friend helped me to get this BLOG going, I am not the most computer saavy person around, so I will be needing some further assistance from my dear Marilyn once I get my disc of pictures back from the photo lab. So I guess I should really be thanking Marilyn too - for without her - this BLOG would not even exist!! THANK YOU MARILYN!!

Well - HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone reading this - I hope you have enjoyed our group and what we do - and we hope you will continue to come back to see what we're up to once in a while.

Thanks for stopping by - see you in the Tea Room!