Monday, November 30, 2009

Red Scarf Project

I'm not gonna mince words, here. For a lot of us this year (myself included) has more or less sucked balls. People lost jobs, loved ones. Shit happened. A lot of shit. And just when you thought you couldn't take one more ounce of crap--it poured buckets from the sky.

And yet, I had family and friends to bolster me, and vice versa. What it would be like not to have that scaffolding of love and acceptance, I do not want to know.

So, this holiday season, in the spirit of combating A Lot of Things Sucking Really, Really Bad, I am donating to this charity, The Red Scarf Project.

The charity benefits orphaned teens and young adults who have grown out of the foster care system, but still need support as they attend college or vocational school. What's not to like about it, eh?

You don't have to be a knitter to donate a red scarf (unisex please, if you do). You can donate money (duh), but also gift cards from major retail store, or call them up and ask them what they need.

If you do knit, and plan to donate that way, the deadline is December 15, 2009. I went out to my local yarn store (a tempting block away) and bought a skein of superwash and cast on right away in a seed stitch ribbing pattern I can do with my eyes closed.

I'm hoping, whether or not you donate your time and efforts to this particular charity, that you consider donating to one that has meaning for you. I don't mean to get all Preachy and Sanctimonious, or all Cloying "God Bless Us Everyone" Tiny Tim--really, I'm the last person to shove sunshine up anybody's ass, as most of my friends and family will heartily attest to.

I'm just saying, this year has sucked for a lot of the people I care the most about, and one of the more redeeming ways I'm choosing to deal with the Suckitude of Great Magnitude (aside from the usual bitching and spewing doomer magic eight ball predictions, of course) is by giving myself a laudable way to escape my dreaded knitting projects, aka Blanket of Blocking Hell and Man Ski Socks of a Colorless Blah Which Hath Rendered Me Blind... and oh yeah, maybe helping someone who isn't coding and whose ass I don't have to wipe if they make it.