This time of year, no matter what holiday you celebrate (or if you celebrate one at all), I think it’s pretty natural to look back about the past year and see your successes.  All of us at Knit Picks and Crafts Americana had a great year here and are so happy to be be doing something that we love …which makes us want to share our joy with our local community!

Angela, Alisha, and I have been going through our catalog samples over the past month & finding local charities to donate them to.  We found a bunch of charities – some of which members of Crafts Americana volunteer their time at – and we are so excited to share them with you.

First we gave a large box of blankets to the Oregon Humane Society, where Angela volunteers.  Our sister company, Connecting Threads also donated extra fabric for so the cats & dogs could have some festive bandanas!

 

 

One of the IDP designers Adrienne Enriquez helps with Our Mother’s House, a shelter run by Global Health Promise that assists and shelters women & children escaping sex trafficking & exploitation in the Portland area.  Alisha & I put together a big box to give the women & children some warm clothing for the winter.

 

Our HR gal extrodinare, Kristina, works with a charity called Dress For Success which provides resources and support to help low-income women successfully enter the workforce.  A couple of our guys, Brent & Jared, helped Kristina load the 5 boxes of sweaters & handbags we donated to be used as part of their Professional Women’s Group.

 

Finally, it’s funny where knitting & crocheting will show up – I’ve been attending a boot camp at Therapeutic Trainers Network for the past several months (hello 30lb weight loss since June!) and this week we held a drive for clothing to go to the Portland Rescue Mission.  Knit Picks donated a large box of hats, scarves, mittens & sweaters and the TTN members had a knitting/crochet party to celebrate the 78lbs of clothing we ended up raising!

 

The knit/crochet group at TTN!

We also taught some members to knit and crochet- including the young man in the photo above and my friend Carmel.

All of us here at Knit Picks hope you had a great year as well and have a warm, safe and happy holiday season. We hope to see you again in the new year!