Spring is around the corner and some orphaned animals might need a new place to call home???

It took awhile- but, I'm finally finished with a small project.   I used some scrap/left over yarns and crocheted some little 'orphan baby animal' nests.  I'm going to mail them to a wildlife rescue group for them to use this spring when all the little orphan wild animals tend to be found.   I made 2 small sized about 4-5 inches across and one really big one for larger sized animals.   I just used 3 different yarns together to make the little bowl nests more sturdy.  IT also made them faster to make too.

I've known how to crochet since I was a child- but, I prefer to knit.  However, for this project 'crocheting' was a great choice.  

I decided to include these 'felted too small' slippers.   Maybe, they'll make a great temporary home for some baby animals?   To read the details about how on earth these items came to be read the story of fuzzy feet here.

No time to do charity knitting-- so, I am doing 'donations' of materials instead...

For years I have knitted hats/etc. and donated these items to various charities or people gathering knitted squares to sew together for knitted afghans for various reasons.   I've knitted hats for cancer patients, warm wool hats for Afghanistan, baby hats, etc.   However, things are just too busy now- so, I found an address for a hospital in Oklahoma (my home state) that took donations of fabric and yarns (among other items) to then donate to their own volunteers to sew or knit items.   So, during the winter break-- I went through my fabrics and I found anything that would work for infants/etc.   The fabrics are all soft 100% cotton.   The dolphin fabric I had purchased (12 yards!) to make curtains for my on base classroom in Seoul, South Korea.  My classroom had a wall of windows that faced the west.   It would be hot and the sun was blinding in the afternoons.   However, our school put in some window blinds during spring break before I could sew up the curtains.   So, I have hauled this fabric around for several years now.   *Our school mascot was the dolphins.   The rest of the fabrics are either 1-3 yards in length.

I also found some 'baby appropriate colors' of yarn and put those in the box with the yarn.

Last summer, I was an 'in-patient' in a rehab hospital after my knee surgery.  I brought my knitting along-- of course.  Once I felt better I did start knitting.  As long as I was using the wheel chair I was able to manage my knitting- but, once I was using the 'walker'... it wasn't easy to carry anything around.   Later on, after each patient reached a mobility milestone-- they were given one of the aprons that carpenters put nails in - the kind that you can get for free from most hardware stores.   That was handy to tie onto the front of the walker or to carry along with you in the wheelchair.  HOWEVER, it just didn't have enough pockets- so, I had noticed a door in the hallway (going to the physical therapy department) open one day and I saw a sewing machine sitting on a table.  I asked the PT department -- if there would be anyway that I could sew more pockets onto my 'walker apron' and they did have some fabric scraps and let me use the sewing machine.  I did have to sew some of the small fabric pieces together to get pieces big enough to make my various pockets/etc.  I used the original 'carpenter nail bag' as the backside and sewed my created pocket front to the front of this carpenter's bag.   This enabled me to have a very large open pocket and this became the stashing area for my sweater that I was knitting as it got bigger and bigger.

I've been sewing since I was a child so I didn't need any assistance or supervision.  I was able to make myself a handy dandy pocket-filled new apron to tie on my walker and also to use with my wheelchair.  It also stayed tied to my hospital bed always ready.   It became my entertainment bag.  I kept my Kindle Fire in it along with my knitting, etc.

I sent the fabric in the above photo to this rehab place so that other 'future patients' could make their own bag full of pockets if they wanted to do so.

I gathered up some fabric that would be useful for other patients to sew up special bags for their walkers to help them carry things.