Plea for Help: Knitter & Child in Need

My friend Michelle, wacky knitter extraordinaire TextileJunkie, is one of my favorite people on the entire planet… and she and her adorable little boy need help. More help than I can give them on my own, and possibly more help than her church can wrangle up on her behalf.

Many of you who’ve read my blog(s) for a while may remember Michelle. She’s the tall, slightly zany, incredibly kind hearted gal who we don’t get to see nearly enough of. She’s incredibly funny, and some of my best and funniest memories are from conversations we’ve had at our knit night. This is the same knit night that we measure in terms of how old her son is. She’s a knitter, spinner, and all around crafty woman with a singularly unique take on life.

Michelle & Little Man.

Michelle is also a single mom who’s had a rough shake of things for a very long while, but who has stubbornly stuck through it all, on her own, without asking for assistance from anyone. Then her mom got sick, and after a few expensive trips back and forth, her mom ended up in a home. Then her ex-mother-in-law (who she took care of even after) died.* Then her car broke down. Then her work dried up. And now she and her son are losing their home on Tuesday. Her only real option is move to another state where she’ll have the support of family as she tries to make a fresh start, but moving costs for their belongings and tickets out of town are beyond her reach at the moment. I know that things are tough for everyone right now. Things are tough for me right now, but thankfully not as tough as this. Here’s where you might be able to help.

What I’m asking is if you’d be willing to donate a few dollars towards helping a fellow member of the fiber community who is going through an extraordinarily rough time. All funds will go towards helping her and her son relocate and start over fresh. If you can, please use the donate button at the top of the right sidebar to add to her rainy day relief fund. You don’t need to be a member of PayPal to donate, and you can donate by credit card if you prefer using PayPal. You can also help by spreading the word and linking to this post!

Any amount, even just $5, would help. I’ve never done this kind of thing before, but I do know this. When someone you care about very much is facing dark times during the worst and coldest time of year, you do what you can. I’m already offering my home until it’s time to pack up the last bits and send her and my favorite Little Man away forever. I’m asking on her behalf because she’ll never ask for herself, with her permission of course.

Devon, Becky, Me, Robin, Michelle, Little Man.

And while I know you don’t need a reason to help one of our own, I would like to offer a $50 gift certificate towards anything in the Bittersweet Woolery shop as a gift. I’ll use a random number generator to pick a name out of the hat, so to speak, from the list of everyone who’s donated. Every donation, no matter how small, will qualify. There will be other prizes in the offing, and I’ll update you all to let you know as soon as I have more donations confirmed.

Before I sign off for a while, I want to thank you in advance for your support. I know that many of you won’t be able to contribute, or will choose not to for your own reasons, but I also know that many of you will at least offer to keep Michelle and Little Man in your thoughts. As she’s a devout Christian, knowing that she’s in our hearts and prayers will mean a lot to her. And I thank you, because I know that I’m asking a lot for someone you’ve probably never met. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Donation Prize List:

• $50 gift certificate to Bittersweet Woolery
• A custom 4oz handspun skein of yarn by me, we’ll work out fiber (either yours or mine) and skein type.
• A Stitched by Jessalu bag of your choice
• One skein of handspun by Jessalu
• A skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk from Michelle’s stash.
• A skein of Wollmeise Superwash Merino Sock from Michelle’s stash.

Update 1/27:

• 4oz of your choosing from Zarzuela’s Fibers
• 4oz of whatever you’d like from Dirty Water Dyeworks
• 4oz of pure Angora fiber from Chris at Woolybuns

Update 1/28:

• 500g of hand dyed fingering weight mini-skeins (for colorwork) from Jenny at Holiday Yarns
• Lora Jean of Knitted Wit would like to donate a skein of sock weight yarn from her shop

Other People Helping in Other Ways:

• SOASA (the lovely Robin) is donating 50% of all her sales between now and February 5th to the fund!

PS: Michelle is also seller her Louet Julia wheel for $550, including shipping ($500 if you’re local.) This wheel sells for $750 new, and it’s in good shape!

*Edited to Add: I’m sorry, I got that part wrong. No offense to ‘Chelle’s mom, sorry! I was trying to keep a lot of stuff straight when putting this together.