Internet blogging, knitting and Orleans Habitat for Humanity may not seem to have a lot in common, but those three things put together mean warmth and well wishes for families in need.
“It’s wonderful how knitters are so generous and it’s wonderful how they answer the call to so many charity programs,” Habitat board member Jackie Fleckenstein said.
Fleckenstein of Waterport, writing under the pseudonym “firefly,” started her Internet blog less than a year ago with a focus on the simplicity of country living and knitting projects. Blogs are a kind of diary, but published on the Internet for anyone to read.
Now the site has had nearly a quarter of a million hits and knitters across America, and from far-off countries like Denmark and Wales, have joined Project Gracious Parcels and donated 7-inch squares for blankets to keep Habitat families warm because of the blogger with a passion for stitchery.
“I found it on Jackie’s blog and I had been reading her regularly when that came up,” Carol McDermott of Florida said.
Fleckenstein read about the Warm Up America! Foundation, an organization that collects and distributes knitted items, and from there she decided she would collect her own squares to help others in the community with Project Gracious Parcels. After promoting Gracious Parcels on her site and receiving an overwhelming amount of support, the project has been very gratifying, Fleckenstein said.
“It’s just a neat way to reach out to our families,” Chapter President Kay VanNostrand said. “It lets them know that there are people not only in Orleans County but around the world thinking of them.”
So far one 49-piece blanket has been completed and will be given to a Habitat family. However, she has enough squares for at least two more blankets as more parcels continue to show up in the mailbox, Fleckenstein said. Each parcel comes with a tag listing the type of material, who made it and where they are from.
“She’s doing quite a nice service and I’m just amazed when I go to the post office and so many have come in,” VanNostrand said. “I picked up one not too long ago, a package from Hawaii.”
According to Fleckenstein, some people have taken up knitting just so they can participate in the project while other experienced knitters are so ambitious about the project that they have committed to making more than just a few squares to contribute.
“I understand that some people are so excited about it that they want to contribute a whole blanket,” Habitat board member David Miller said.
According to Fleckenstein, there are a couple of women in Europe who are in the process of completing their own blankets which will then be sent to the organization for a family moving into a new Habitat home in the spring.
Each of the pieces Fleckenstein receives follow a color scheme, traditionally the colors of rural America with greens, golds and browns.
“I wanted to make it more creative so I gave them photographs and asked them to think about a rural area and choose a color and a stitch pattern that would represent that,” she said.
By giving her readers an idea of what Western New York looks like throughout the year, knitters have taken the landscape and turned it into colorful blankets that represent home for the people receiving them.
“I get a feel for it from reading her blog,” McDermott said. “It actually sent me running to my local yarn shop.”
McDermott, the blog reader, lived in Pennsylvania prior to moving to the sunshine state 30 years ago and remembers how it looked, so when she went to the yarn shop to find the colors she wanted she imagined the shades of green grass, golden wheat and the colors of fallen leaves, she said. For the first blanket McDermott knitted five squares and has since committed to knitting one square a month for future blankets.
“The parcels represent parcels of land and since this is a rural area I wanted it to have a significance in this area,” Fleckenstein said.
Contact Miranda Vagg at (585) 798-1400, Ext. 2225.
Local News
Related Photos
-
Dennis Stierer/Staff Photographer
Discussion
February 21, 2007
BLOGGING FOR BLANKETS: Local writer unites nations with knitting project to aid Orleans Habitat for Humanity families
- Local News
-
-
Market on Main will offer fresh produce, baked goods
Medina’s Main Street has more than its fair share of spots to pick up prepared food, but starting this summer there will be a place to buy artisanal bread and locally-grown produce.Dave and Bonnie Reigle have operated a produce stand on their Ridge Road farm for 17 years. They plan to open Reigle’s Market on Main in the former Whole Nine Yards and be open year-round as a bakery and produce store.
-
Lyndonville BoE approves budget propositions
The Lyndonville Board of Education approved the four propositions district residents will vote on May 15, including the school’s $12,964,687 budget.The 2012-13 budget decreases spending by 1.28 percent, but the property tax levy will rise by 1.95 percent to $4,620,374. The estimated property tax rate is $18.40, an increase of 1.38 percent and a bump of a quarter for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
-
Medina BoE OK's budgets for May 15 vote
Medina Central School District residents will have the option this May to vote for a budget that does not raise the property tax levy next year, but does increase the district’s budget by 1.74 percent.
-
Ridgeway sets public hearings
The Ridgeway Town Board will hold two public hearings at its next meeting on May 21.
-
Hoag will host STEM summer camp
The Hoag Library in Albion isn’t set to open until the weekend after Independence Day, but preparations are well underway for a two-week summer camp for a select group of Albion students.
-
Growing like a weed
The Orleans County Chamber of Commerce’s Home and Garden Show had a new home this year, and a record crowd came out to Knowlesville for helpful advice, information about local businesses and organizations, and a wide range of activities, promotions and giveaways.
-
Village budget talks continue
Medina’s 2012-13 budget is coming together at a series of meetings between department heads and village board members that largely focus on projected spending plans and areas where cuts can be made and additional revenue can be found.The board met Monday with Police Chief Jose Avila, who said his department budget will be less than the current year despite increasing salaries and associated benefits.
-
Hoag Library era nears in Albion
The transition of Albion's long-time library to a modern South Main Street facility is quickly approaching, which had the Swan Library Board of Trustees discussing the closing of the current library in early June, a month of movement and plans to resume service at the new Hoag Library on the day after the facility's July 7 grand opening at their Wednesday meeting.
-
Pillars hosting Titanic evening
The extravagant experience that the high-class passengers enjoyed on the first and final voyage of the RMS Titanic will be replicated in a dinner at The Pillars Estate’s new ballroom this weekend.The Pillars echoes the luxury liner’s grand staircase and chandelier, with historic touches throughout the restored County House Road mansion’s ballroom.
-
Shelby formalizes reserve funds
The Town of Shelby has had a highway equipment reserve fund for as long as Supervisor Skip Draper can remember, but to be safe the town board formally created the fund and other others Tuesday.Draper said the origins of the town’s long-standing funds, used to prepare for large expenses and avoid a yo-yo-ing budget, were questioned in an audit of the town’s finances.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Market on Main will offer fresh produce, baked goods
Ravi Spared Prison in Rutgers Webcam Case
Miss. Prison Quiet After Riot; 1 Dead
Obama Confident Afghans Can Take Security Lead
Raw Video: Deadly Bombing at Yemen Parade Preps
Professor: Chinese Activist's 'Spirit Is Good'
Ring of Fire Eclipse Seen in U.S., Asia
Golden Gate Bridge Celebrates 75 Years
G-8 Seeks Unity on Euro-debt Crisis, Iran
Prosecutors: Trio Planned to Attack Obama's HQ
Obama: G8 Unified in Stance on Iran, Syria
