So Much Catching Up to Do ....

 and I'll start with the knitting. 

Way back towards the end of December, when we heard we couldn't go to Canada, I started a project I called Practicing Thankfulness, which was basically to remind myself that on the scale of things I am such a lucky person that I should be grateful for all the good things and not dwell too much on the (temporary) disappointment of not being able to visit family abroad. So for several months I picked out some wool from stash and spent 30 minutes a day knitting something for someone else whie reminding myself ow lucky I am. I didn't know who the someone else would be but I knew that if nothing else came up I could send the things to the Shoebox Appeal in December. 

And then came the Ukraine war and the refugee crisis and the local collection for that  so all the Practicing Thankfulness' things went there. And then I started knitting specifically for that since they wanted hats amongst other things. The closing date for receiving donations was set for yesterday so before we went off to Inverness for the ballet (report to come) I took my last contribution. 

These thirteen hats - someone very kindly donated me some yellow wool for the rainbow ones as it was the one colour I didn't have and as there was lots left and I found some turquoise-y blue of the same weight I was very pleased to be able to add these two as well

and I managed to finish a pair of socks at the last minute and pop those in too. 

For once I felt pleased to have a stash of wool that I could just go to and use, although sad for the reason it was needful. 

So fifteen hats plus a par of socks and the stuff I sent previously, It's something isn't it?  A drop in the ocean of need, but  I decided at the beginning of the year to take on board that saying about how it's 'better to light a candle than to rage at the darkness'. These are some of my little candles.