Crochet in the news

My mom called me today to share that the local paper ran the following article today:

Homeless Pair Knit, Smoke, Find Serenity Outside Union Station

It's really a great article to read about this lady and her daughter, both currently homeless who spend many of their days between stays at local shelters greeting and chatting up local commuters. I glanced at the first few comments on the article and quickly refused to read many more because well, you guessed it, DC area people felt the need to judge just because they are homeless however, a few did point out the positives in what these ladies do.

• They do commissions for locals. People give them yarn, they knit it up and make some extra cash.
• Knitting (and crocheting) are very much stress relievers and nothing is more stressful than being homeless, having practically nothing and not knowing what the next day, or even the current day, holds.
• Many studies have shown that the best way to avoid depression is to force yourself to have positive interactions with people. Isn't that what they're doing? People who are willing to engage in conversation back with them are bound to have a positive influence.

I know businesses need start up money but man do I wish these ladies would know what kind of money they could make selling knit/crocheted items to those busy commuters. People around here are so obsessed with money and "things" that they could sell about anything for twice what it would normally be priced at a craft fair. With both women hoping to apply for disability because they are unable to do other jobs due to health concerns, a craft business would be right up their alley!

In other news for the day, I have to say most of my progress in the past few days has been made on the baby gift that I can't quite share just yet! It's 50% done and I hope to share the pictures of it after the recipient has received it soon :).

Everything else:

• Snowflake Throw: 3 motifs done just yesterday so I'm ahead on that
• Tunisian Tee: I need mucho concentration time so that's a "when the hubby is taking care of the baby" project, no true progress there
• Ropes & Ladders Scarf: Nada
• Knook Leaf Table Runner: Completed my third leaf this morning
• Knook Scarf: Had to start over because I attempted to work on this while taking care of the little one and it didn't quite work. I counted wrong, accidently skipped a wrong stitch, went to drop the stitches to create the open lines on it and ooopss, a giant hole appeared and it was beyond fixable besides a total restart
• Vortex Baby Throw: This is a slow progressing project and by the end of the week I should only have the corners left to complete on the second square
• Convertible Crochet: Not sure I mentioned I was working on this one. I'm doing it in Red Heart Shimmer in Lime. Will post pictures of my motifs tomorrow, it's one of those motifs that you absolutely have to block first in order to get a decent picture.
• Dare I say I'm most likely taking on another cardigan in addition to all of the above? O:) I told you I'm a sucker for CALs and I can't turn down one that I have the yarn for! The Chevron Lace Cardigan

Sorry for lack of pictures this post, I'll make up for it by blogging two days in a row ;) so expect plenty of pictures tomorrow! I'm also going stash diving because I'm curious as to the color combos I have so yes, plenty of pictures to come!