All that idle knitting

Once upon a time, at the beginning of the pandemic stay-at-home time, I finished some previously half-done knitting; I started knitting things and didn't actually want to keep them; I used up yarn someone gave me and basically knit without knowing what would happen to all the things.

Winter is coming and the pile was growing on my living-room flat surface, and not everyone in the family wants to just look at knitted things. I needed to find a place where they could be used. 

I heard about a group called the Encampment Support Network that is helping people who find themselves living in tents in city parks. They were having a winter clothing drive, so today I took them hats, a few scarves and a couple of hand-me-down fleece vests. 

These hats are called LOSY, or Left-Over Sock Yarn hats. With two strands of sock yarn held together, a hat like this can be knit up in a couple of days. Look how much sock yarn I had lying around the house! Every little amount can be used, adding splashes of colour. 

That green hat above is really too small for an adult head. I asked if they wanted stuff for kids and was relieved when they said they didn't need kids' things. So now I just need to find an 8-year-old. That white one is super warm, using some leftovers and some yarn a friend gave me; the multicolour in the front is scraps of Kureyon. (I showed you another hat of Kureyon last time; that one went to my neighbour.)

You may have seen these scarves and cowl before. If I weren't already awash in nice scarves, I would have kept them, but it's sort of hard to justify having a scarf for every day of the week, and probably almost every day of the month! They'll keep someone else warm. 

Used items were welcome, too, so I finally got around to unpicking my embroidered name from a scarf I wore to my English school in 1972-3. 

This is a perfectly good scarf, but one I haven't really worn for almost 50 years, so let's just pass it on...

All these things had to go in a bag for their trip to the clothing drive. I found this gem in my bag of bags... I believe the last time I was in Loop was 2006. So they get a vintage bag from a cool London yarn shop as well! 

(Added later: I just saw on twitter that they had so many donations today they are not taking any more!)

I got my walk in by taking all these things to a storefront a few kilometres away, met a friend for a coffee and walked home. I came past an old shopping plaza that is halfway torn down. You can see the stylish 1972 arches along this outside wall. Someone has been painting rainbows. 

As I got closer I wondered if this was a really bad paint job or a really good one. 

In each arch the colours move up a bit, but all have the rainbow colours dribbling down into each other. 

I really like it!