The State of the Nea

My cold has gotten to the point of me breathing and sounding like Darth Vader, but I've now been blessed as "reasonably healthy" by both surgeon and GP. The GP still wants me to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day and stop eating so many eggs/salty things, but she's stopped fretting about my blood pressure.

So that's all good.

Also, there will be a charity knitting post Real Soon Now, as in "probably as soon as I've caught up on LJ and eaten dinner."

Knitting Charity Pimp Post: Covers and Soles

Pimp post for a new charity knitting project: Covers and Soles. Covers and Soles is a new charity that collects hand-knitted hats (covers) and socks (soles) for the troops. I'm attracted to it for two reasons beyond "I get to feel like my knitting has a purpose."

1) The woman running it says "I'm not asking you to agree with why they're fighting or approve of where they are; I'm just asking you to support them as people in a dangerous job." Which is good, because I don't agree and I don't approve, but I do *know soldiers,* I mean, I know *actual individuals* who've been deployed, and that I can't turn my back on.

2) There is a distinct minimum of "Our brave, noble, saint-like troops" or "Do it for Jesus" in this appeal. A paragraph of rah-rah ending "They deserve the best we can give" and "God bless America" show up -- once -- on the brochure and the website. But on the whole, I feel completely welcomed even being your basic commie pinko new deal democrat elitist liberal atheist... and yeah, we did very, very briefly talk about politics before all politely heading off into discussing Doctor Who.

The hat pattern - available for free at the website - dates back to the 1940s, with a slight modernization at the crown to make it fit more snugly under helmets. (I'm doing a test-knit right now; it goes easy and makes good "purse knitting.") Covers and Soles can take only military-approved yarn and colors, listed at the website, for deployable hats and sells kits at cost. (There is apparently a possible need for "undeployable" hats for returning injured veterans; I'm looking into that.)

Covers and Soles has also teamed up with the Delaware-based Stockings for Soldiers, which sends personalized stockings overseas stuffed with goodies. They have a knitting pattern as well, but Firefox has crashed twice when I try to open it, so I can't talk about that. However, SfS also wants gently used DVDs, CDs, and mass market non-romance paperbacks, so if there are any of those you're looking to send to a new home...

(Yes, I name-dropped The Book Thing!)

Stockings for Soldiers has asked Covers and Soles to try to come up with 10,000 hats for them in addition to what C&S is already knitting. So if you're interested, take a look and cast on.