Expressing Myself Through Craft

Lovecraft.com prompts this question; How do I express myself with craft? Oh, boy...

I make small things to express wonder and whimsy,

I make big things to feel connected to the big world I live in,

I make Art to celebrate my surroundings,

Sometimes I can use craft to make the day feel a little brighter,

And I love to help people,

My local community and all across the world!

This is just some of the work I have done at my studio, at home, and out in the community as part of my Indie creative business and as an Artist. If you'd like to read more and see more, please check out the rest of my creative blog, my Instagram, and www.KyleLefort.com

200 Items For Charity; My Big Charity Knitting and Craftivism Personal Challenge!

I went into 2019 with two loom knitting goals; Make at least one item to donate to every cause/organization I donated to in the previous year (if they were still accepting donations, of course), and push past last year's count of 176 to try for a whopping 200 items to be given away this year.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know all about my slow start, but surprisingly productive end of the year. Didn't think it was going to pan out really, but then I realized how close I had gotten to my goal by December, and the realization that this was in fact my last challenge of the decade motivated me to buckle down and basically make toys and dolls for a solid week (knowing you're doing nice things for kids really helps too) - All of this resulting in *boom* 200 by the first week of 2020! (Well, actually I ended up counting out 201 total,...So even better)

The pics in this post are everything donated this year. If you'd like to see every single item in detail, please head over to Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/kylelefortcreative/

Charities and positive initiative programs donated to this year include;

  St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Centers of Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY; https://www.buffalodiocese.org/st-gianna-molla-center

 Lockport Care Net Pregnancy Center in Lockport NY;
 https://www.facebook.com/Lockport-Care-Net-Pregnancy-Center-476881162376546/

CLICKforbabies, NCSBS HQ located in Utah, with programs across the U.S.;
https://www.clickforbabies.org/index.php

Welcome Blanket, the Fuller Craft Museum exhibit in Brockton, MA; https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

Mother Bear Project, HQ located in Minneapolis MN, most bears are sent to countries throughout Africa; http://motherbearproject.org/

Knit and Crochet for Charity, Warren Michigan; http://www.knitandcrochet4charity.org/

Tiny Hats For Tiny Babies/Warm Up America, sent to Texas, tiny hats to be used by doctors in countries across Africa; https://tinyhatsfortinybabies.org/ , blanket sections for WUA's box of 500 program http://warmupamerica.org/ , and also Hats to be given to Veterans through B Hooked's 2019 challenge; https://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2019/01/31/crochet-challenge-for-warm-up-america-2019/

SCM Medical Missions, based in Seattle WA, items shipped to refugee camps in Jordan; https://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/

Little Hats Big Hearts, for Buffalo NY babies; https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/little-hats-big-hearts
   

Knitting4Peace, located in Denver Colorado, but items go all over the World; https://www.knitting4peace.org/

Here we go!

11 red newborn hats

6 purple newborn hats 
2 misc. newborn hats

1 46X45" Welcome Blanket

4 adult sized hats
5 child sized hats

1 39x34" baby blanket

55 assorted preemie baby hats 
22 Peace Pals/comfort dolls (shipped)
13 blanket sections
6 cat plushies

And not shipped/ongoing projects, but finished so far;

3 Mother Bear bears

40 Peace Pals/comfort dolls
32 misc. dolls, puppets, and plushies

Oh my goodness this was a doozy of a project! We're well into 2020 with this post now and I still have a few boxes that I'm working to ship out, but I am glad I pushed myself to do this. I don't think I'm going to do a count for 2020, not officially like the past couple years anyway, but my goals are more bears for kids, more tiny hats for babies, and we'll see whatever else comes my way!