Crafts For A Cause

Binki Shapiro of Little Joy, one of my favorite bands, has gathered a group of artists/actors/musicians to put together unique, handmade crafts to auction off for Haiti relief. All profits go to Artists for Peace and Justice, an organization founded by Oscar-winning fillmaker Paul Haggis to deliver food, water, and educations to the empoverished children of Haiti. After the devastating January earthquake that left an estimated million people homeless, the kids need our help more than ever.

Please, check out Binki's blog, Crafts For A Cause, to look at the crafts and cool videos of some celeb contributors. Some artists involved are: Vampire Weekend, Natalie Portman, Fleet Foxes, Spike Jonze (the a-ma-zing director), The Strokes, Drew Barrymore, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The auction starts March 15 at 8 a.m. Pacific Time.

The Knitting Neighbors

The other day, my neighbor, Linda, sped into my grocery store for a half gallon of organic Clover fat free milk. We proceeded with the usual over-the-counter banter:

"How was your day?" I asked.

"How's school?" she asked.

"Well, I'm learning to knit," I replied.

She smiled slyly, leaned forward, just slightly, and remarked,

"You know I knit, right?"

Ten minutes later, Linda strolled through my front door wearing a thigh-length, white, pearl-knit coat and a carrying a bag of knitting needles. We spent an hour going over the basics of yarn, the width of needles, the casting on process, and the knit stitch. Linda was amazingly patient as I struggled with the awkward feel of the needles, and she quickly declared that a hat is too complicated for my first knitting project.

Coming from a woman in a pimped out white coat, knitting at the speed of sound, her words were taken seriously. How could I argue?

That night, I sat down to knit in front of the television. I took out the ball of blue alpaca yarn, Linda's loaned needles, and recited the instructions she gave me:

"Needle under and up, cross it to the back,

yarn goes around and between the needles,

right needle down and through..."

But something wasn't right. The stitch looked strange. I resisted the urge to call Linda at 11 p.m. (knitting desaster! help!), and asked her to check my progress during her next milk run to my store. That was the first time I had to start over, and it certainly won't be the last. Thank goodness for good friends.