So two girls at my school decided to start a knitting and crochet club called Hooks and Needles, meeting every 5:30 on Mondays. (Even though we met today. We decided on Mondays after today.) Four of us came today, plus the teacher who's sponsoring the club, and two more people are supposed to come on Monday. So that'd make seven of us and I am so excited. Everyone's really super nice, and everyone crochets except for me! It's so weird, being in the minority. I know how to do the basics of crochet, and everyone crocheting there made me want to start again. One girl had this pattern book with instructions on how to make all sorts of things out of crochet, and I really want to make these containers. They're made out of kitchen twine, and in the end they look like baskets. Super cool. It really made me think about expanding my textile crafts outwards.
I also taught that same girl to knit. Almost everyone there expresses an interest in knitting, but only Mandy had knitting needles on her, so I taught her how to cast on, knit, and purl. She caught on a lot quicker than other people I've taught, actually, but I suspect that's because she already knows how to crochet. It's basically the same concept, really. Loops through loops.
I was thinking on my way home that I should really start keeping a binder of all of my projects and what I use with each project. Like a knitting journal-scrapbook hybrid. It's a good idea... I'd need a lot of postage tape, though. For laminated pages and whatnot. And glue. But other than that, I'd just need a three-hole punch and some printer paper. A binder would be optimal because then I could put in a table of contents and never have to worry about flipping through pages and pages to find a specific pattern or running out of space in said table of contents.
Now, on to the non-knitting section...
Today is Un Dia sin Zapatos - A Day Without Shoes.
There is a company called TOMS Shoes (TOMS is from tomorrow, ultimately deriving from Shoes for Tomorrow Project). For every pair of shoes you buy from them, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need. There are lots of poor children in Africa and Latin America who cannot afford to have shoes, and the complications that can arise from constantly going barefoot in questionable conditions are serious. They're pricey, but it's because you're essentially paying for two pairs of shoes -- one for yourself, and one for a child.
To raise awareness, every so often TOMS does an event called One Day Without Shoes. The point of the day is to go the entire day, or even just a part of the day, barefoot to raise awareness about what it's like to not have the luxury of shoes. Also, people see you and wonder, "Hey, why are you all barefoot?" and then you get to spread the word about TOMS.
So, the Interact Club from my high school did an event for the Day Without Shoes. Apparently, it's against the health code at our school to go barefoot for the entire day, so we couldn't do that. Instead we hosted a walk to a park about a mile away from the high school and back. Today turned out to be a perfect choice for the day, because today is the one day that the weather was crappy, cold, and rainy! A lot of people were complaining, but I thought that really drove home the purpose of the event. Your feet are supposed to get snagged and hurt and sore. That's the point. People without shoes have to deal with this every day. And since the conditions were crappy, it just made it worse. There are others who have to go through so much more than we do, and the least we can do is sample a little bit of their suffering to really raise awareness. We were pleased. It was a good turn out.
And yes, my feet do hurt. But I'm proud. Help a child in need.
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