We had to have a mini photo shoot for something today, so I thought I’d include a photo of the Loopy Elves for you to see! (Do you like how I’m knitting them all together from above? I had fun tangling the all up in yarn.) So the middle row – Sue, Kathy, Wendi and Diana, and sitting down – Susan and Vicki. Wendi has taken over doing the photos for us (although WH still does alllll of the color correcting on the computer every week) and Diana does the bookkeeping. (My least favorite thing in the entire world.) Aren’t they wonderful? 🙂
Today is our weekly RAK Reporting Day! Have you done any RAKs that you can comment on and inspire us with? Remember, although we all love doing them secretly, when you share it on the blog, it gives others some good ideas about things that they can go out and do, too. I’ll do the weekly Loopy Gift Package drawing on Wednesday before I blog that day. I did the “pay for the Starbucks in the car behind you” a couple more times this week. Although I’ll keep doing that, I want to come up with something else for this week, just to keep it fun. So I’ll be interested in all of your new ideas! I loved the ideas that people had about giving out knitted items. Back in my “just getting back into knitting after 20 years” days, I knit sooooo many scarves. Many have been worn once (or …. not at all) and I thought I should wash them all and then be on a mission to give them away this month.
I also wanted to give you a Sneak Peak at the new Dream in Color colorways – their 400 series! (And a special thanks to Veronica at Dream in Color for sending the photo so that I could share it with all of you on the blog!) We’ve had these on order forever (it seems like) and they’ll be here this month, as soon as they can get them labeled and shipped. (It will be a fun Dream in Color month with more Smooshy, more Classy, all the new Lace, and all of the new colors!) The colors, starting with the orange/peach and going counter clockwise: Flamingo Pie, Butter Peeps, Go Go Grassy, Lunar Zazzle, Pansy Golightly, Punky Fuschia, Into the Mystic, and Midnight Derby. YUM!
Sheri hadmylastspinningclass&nownotspinningalickuntilsomeknittinggetsdone
I love the new colours (and it is nice to see a festive picture of the Loopy Elves – very holiday modish!)
It doesn’t feel right telling the RAKs one does … but I do love a contest, so let’s think — today in the snowstorm (it was a mess here), I scraped the snow, slush and ice off off my 2 co-workers cars who parked on either side of me … one had no gloves, was in spiked shoes and wearing a mini skirt 🙁 chilly!.
Over the weekend, I let a lady go ahead of me at the grocery store (she had whacks of stuff and kids, I had 2 things, seeemed like thhe right thing to do. And I am knitting a couple of cute hats to give to the Salvation Army Giving tree for kids in need.
Also, I spent some time on the weekend piling our winter wood in the basement, something that is usually my husband’s chore, or we share, but he’s been so busy at work and dead tired when he gets home, I thought I’d do an armload or 2 … but it turned into nearly 2 hours (and a huge dent in the pile!) He was pretty pleased and very surprized when he got home.
Feels good to do nice things, but also makes you wonder why we don’t do more things like this naturally.
It’s hard to say this is a RAK because we have so much fun doing it. We adopt a family each year through my sisters’ church. We all get together one night & go to Target & shop for our adopted family. My sisters, our daughters, grandkids & my mom go shopping & we have a blast filling up the carts. People look at us like we’re nuts – there is nothing quiet about my family esp when you get 10 -12 of us shopping together for the same family! I wish I knew if anyone in our adopted family knits – it would be fun to throw in some knitting needles & a couple fun colors for them to knit!
Sheri, I love RAKs,as does DH. One of my favorites is letting someone, espeically young men, go ahead of me in the grocery store line. The look on their faces is always priceless!! DH frequenly pays the toll for the car behind him. And while I can’t always afford to pay someones entire grocery bill, I definitely have provided the extra $$ they’ve needed so no items had to be removed from their shopping trip. One young man really wanted my name and address to he could return my money – I conviced him to pass on the gift to the next person in need :>.
Thanks for the thoughts – I’ve needed the uplifting power of the season this year!!
Yum….Dream in Color lace. I’m drooling on my poor keyboard. 😉
For our RAK, hubby and I shoveled our neighbors driveway and sidewalk during the last snow fall we got. We figured we were already shoveling out ours so why not do our neighbors too. 🙂
She was so surprised to see her driveway clear. Come to find out she had just gotten over a horrible head cold so the last thing she was wanting to do was go out in the snow to shovel the driveway.
looking forward to the new DIC!!!
our RAK this week was putting gas in my sister’s car. I used one day, and it was low, so rather than just putting $5 in it and calling it good, we put in $20. So, not anonymous, but she seemed to really appreciate it. 🙂
Here’s my RAK for thsi past week: I was X-mas shopping in Target on Saturday, and I had a coupon for $10 off a $100 (or more) purchase. When I realized I wouldn’t be buying enough to use it, I looked for a Mom pushing a cart full of stuff and gave it to her for her use. She was very appreciative.
Wow! I can’t wait for the DIC Lace! My RAK for the week was to donate some diapers to a local charity.
My RAK this week happened very randomly: I was in the post office, and the lady walking out as I walked in dropped a striped glove. I scooped it up, and turned around to hand it to her, saying, “Ma’am? Ma’am?” but she didn’t hear me. I ended up chasing her down in the parking lot to give it back (she looked at me like I was mildly insane, but said thanks.)
Perhaps she would have cared more if it had been handknit. 🙂
I had a good week for RAK.
I recently was given a new digital camera as a present for an occasion, so I offered up my older but still in excellant shape digital camera to someone in need on one of on-line groups I participate in. I got two responses that were especially deserving, picked one and sent the good news. While talking about the situation with one of my tenants, a camera shop, in a shopping center we manage, they matched my gift to the other deserving party. So now a stay-at-home-mom with a small business who dropped her camera will be able to keep her income stream without dipping into the kids present funds and a rescue group for French Bulldogs will be able to help some of their foster families document the dogs so they can find new homes.
My not-so RAK is that yesterday I finally got to bring home a cat that I am fostering (with the intention of adopting when she fully recovers) for the SPCA. She has been through a rough time and still needs a lot of care, but I am happy to be able to give her a room to herself instead of a tiny cage. Hopefully when she gets the oppoutunity to meet my other cat they will get along!
Love seeing you and all the elves!!
My RAK was for a friend who wanted to knit caps for another friend who has cancer-my friend couldn’t find her knitting stuff, so I gave her 2 different skeins of yarn, and downloaded a free cap pattern, and loaned her some circs, so she could get started.
At my studio tour this weekend I watched to see who really had to make hard decisions on what they could afford and gave random discounts. Never told anyone, they’ll never know unless they check the price tags as they take them off. It’s so much fun.
For my RAK I paid for the person behind me in the KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut line. Though I am determined to keep doing other things.
Also, though its not really random, two swaps happened at my favorite of all time MB. Unfortuantely, the same individual for both swaps flaked on her partners. Not only was that sad, but one of them was my swap I hosted.. and the second was the one ‘she’ hosted herself. I was already, in the wings, making a kit for the person left out of my swap, cause I was just not going to let her partner get nothing… but then I thought.. hey, I have a little bit of money, so I made both kits for the other swap too. They were sent off last week and are even now arriving on their doorsteps. I hope I made them smile.
~W
Can you count the one that I commented about last week on the day you announced the last winner? ;> I paid for the groceries of the guy in front of me.
The new colors are dreamy 🙂 My RAK was just a simple one – holding a heavy door for a woman who had her hands full and looked like she was going to drop/spill her Starbucks if someone did not give her a hand – can’t let that happen! Also, I’ve been seeing the Pay It Forward exchanges popping up on various blogs – so I joined up with that. I’m still hoping one more person will sign up and let me send them a handmade gift this year.
Just read RAK about donating knitting books to library. I’m headed to the Public Library now and am taking some of my knitting books!! Since I’m on the Board of Trustees for the Library, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that……
I have one more:
I gave someone my umbrella. It wasn’t the nicest umbrella, but she had a baby with her and no umbrella (and probably no car) and my daughter and I each had umbrellas so… I gave her my umbrella.
Love the Loopy Group picture! Your RAK contest was the final push I needed to purchase a Kitchen Aid mixer for a friend who wants to start a catering business but just couldn’t afford one at this time. I left it for her anonymously with a note from ‘Santa’ saying the elves had gotten her gift done early this year. Not sure if she has figured out who left it, but that makes it so much fun! I just love trying to think of a little RAK to do each day. I do think I get more from it than the person I am doing it for!!!
I found an abandoned library book on public transit last week. Instead of giving to the bus driver to put into the lost and found, I decided to bring it back to the library so that the person wouldn’t be charged any fines.
I love reading these! You guys are wonderful! I had some RAKs this week. I went to a very busy mall. It was raining and there were some parking spaces available; however, people had left carts in the middle so nobody could drive in. I walked through and gathered the carts so that spaces were available.
At the library, I noticed a bunch of books that were shelved wrong. I put them in their proper places.
This week’s RAK…This past Sunday afternoon I went to my FLYS to spend some time knitting some Christmas presents. Well, at the table were all these people having “issues” with their knitting projects. So I spent most of the afternoon helping them with their “oops”. Even though I didn’t get much knitting done, it was fun to help others with theirs.
I was sitting in church yesterday morning, wondering how to avoid buying stuff for our 5 kids who need nothing!!! I came up with a great idea. After church we got the kids together. I told them that i’d already purchased one really nice gift for them. I asked them how they would feel about providing Christmas for a family at our church. They’re having their 4th baby soon and are on food stamps. I told them we could buy an outfit for each member of the family, a toy for each child, some new baby things, and some groceries. I was so pleased when they all jumped on the idea. Usually one of the kids has to complain, but nobody did. They all agreed it would be a lot of fun. We usually do anonymous gifts, but we’re thinking about bringing everything to them in person. We’re thinking it may create a relationship with them. We want them to know that there are people that care!
OOh I’ll take one of those and one of those and….
This week I helped a woman who was didn’t quite have enough cash on her to pay for everything she was buying. I’ve calculated wrong in the past and it always seems to happen when you have left your wallet at home or something like that and it was just a small amount that it was really no trouble.
I’ll never pay for someone’s coffee at Starbuck’s. They managed to put our local coffee roaster/house oof business for good this month. That hits home. It feels like another Walmart situation. So I will gladly do anything else for someone, but not that. Sasafrassafrika…..(cartoon swearing LOL)
I love the new colors of Dream in Color! And, I love seeing the picture of you “knitting the Loopy Elves together!” Thank you to all of you at Loopy for all that you do for us! And thank you for putting the names with the pictures, so we can associate faces with names.
My RAK’s are rather limited because of a health problem. Last week, my husband and special needs son went out of town with me to a medical appointment. That appointment took forever, and they kept running me around the clinic, literally. I was totally exhausted and in real pain, and my special needs son had been really crabby for a good 4 hours. (I was there a good 6 hours, literally.) When I was standing with my walker, in line to check out, so I could leave, an elderly lady came up. She was beside herself because she had a long distance to drive home, and her elderly husband could not drive after dark. With a smile on my face, I let her cut in line ahead of me to check out, so she could a little head start, anyway. 🙂
About a month ago, I was driving by a house near our neighborhood (but I didn’t know the people at this house) and saw a whole family of skunks going into their open garage! Yup, a mama and 5 babies and while I thought they looked quite beautiful from afar, I figured the people didn’t want to be sharing their home with the family so I quickly ran up to the door and told the nice little old lady and nice little old man and their nice little doggie about their “guests”!
Nothing spectacular for my RAK. I just noticed that the lady ahead of me in line was strugging with an over-stuffed bag to find her money, so I paid for her snack. She tried to give me the money, but I said no, just pass an act of kindness on to someone else. She thought it was a great idea!
After pondering a bit I realized I had a RAK that wasn’t something I thought was a RAK at the time I was doing it. We have a knit and chat at the LYS and the owner was quite sick the evening we had it. As she was closing out her drawer I put all of the goodies away that she always provides for us – coffee, tea, snacks, etc. and put the table away so she could get the heck out of dodge and go home and get some rest.
Lots of great RAK I work in a nursing home. Many of the family members chose to eat a meal with the loved one who lives there. It only costs 3.00 to have your meal with the nursing home residen\t. But it makes my heart warm when I have handed the tickets for free meals to the family and said no charge today. The kitchen is serving you a free meal. Two acts at the same time. The kitchen staff (sometimes sadly taken for granted) gets credited for a few free meals and secondly the familty gets a meal and warm thoughts about the home. They never know it is me. sometimes I just leave tickets in the room.
After standing on the subway for a while on my way home from work the train pulled into a station and a seat became available right near to me. I sat down in it, but then three older ladies got on the train. I immediately hopped right back up for them. I always do this anyway, but a few moments after I did it this particular time two more younger passengers stood up to allow the remaining older women to sit down as well. Standing up myself didn’t feel like a random act of kindness as much as inspiring two other people to do the same did.
I was just reading everyone’s RAKS (very inspiring) and wanted to mention that most areas have a freecylce group. You can visit freecycle.org and find a link to a group in your area.
We never throw anything out and I find that I actually give away stuff that i would have normally kept but have decided that someone else would appreciate it more than we do. My last couch has gone, TV’s have gone, Old craft supplies (sadly knitting patterns from just before I started to knit that came from my ex mother in law) but since they are in a presumably good home and made someone happy, it’s ok.
On the flip side, we got a beautiful set of hard wood french doors from a wealthy couple who didn’t need them anymore.
You should check it out!
It’s not much, but I had a sick daughter, so I was a little limited on what I could do. My RAK was giving up the parking spots closest to the door for the cars behind me. That was a hard thing to do too considering how crowded everything is for Christmas. It was alright though, I got my exercise in!!
I love those Dream in Color colors and the group picture! It’s great to see all those smiling elves!!
Hope everyone has a great week! I have some books that might need a good home at the library too! 😉
My random act of kindness was for my mom. We put up the lights outside in 20* weather so she wouldn’t have to do it. Boy was she surprised and thankful. 🙂
I love the new dream in color shades! So beautiful! Cute pic btw!
My RAK: My ex-husband is having a very difficult time financially, so I paid a small amount on a bill of his. Although… I may have reversed any good karma that I might have gotten from this when I told God He better give me extra points for this.
I was also asked by a co-worker if I would knit a pair of mittens in Ohio State Buckeye colors for his 3 yr old grand daughter. I told him I would, and, I already have yarn to do it.
Oh yeah, He doesn’t know I paid on the bill.
Love the new colors…and haven’t been to the drive-thru Starbucks in awhile but plan to soon so I can put your RAK into action.
Here’s my RAK. Instead of rushing around campus like I normally do, I have stopped to help a number of people over the last week get to wherever they need to go. Our hospital campus with all the construction is quite confusing. One day I helped a mom who was carrying a sleeping child get from the heart hospital to medical records the short way round. Then another day an older woman who just was released from the hospital (and was utterly confused) needed to get from the heart hospital to radiology clear on the other side of campus so I arranged for the golf cart to come get her and take her over. Then today a new mom with a 6-week old was loaded down with all of her paraphenalia and was having trouble getting to her doctor’s appointment so I helped carry items for her and get her to the doctor (she had just the carseat carrier to carry the baby and no stroller).
Also plan to adopt some of the other RAKs I have read here.
My RAK this week was to knit up a couple of pairs of Thrummed Mittens for troupsin Afghanistan (sp?) I can’t spell, but I can be nice to our freezing troups:-)
I also paid for the person behind me at Dunkin Donuts this morning on my way to work. It really does feel nice to do this kind of thing for people. Working in retail makes me forget this sometimes.
I am all done shopping and everything is going into the mail tomorrow morning for my family’s Chanukah gifts. It starts tomorrow night, but I figure I have eight days to get the gifts to people;-)
I don’t have a true RANDOM act of kindness to share– well, sort of. It’s the reciprocity of it that makes it so beautiful. The first snows have come to Maine, and I haven’t had a chance to put on the snow tires yet… ugh… and a few days ago I was traveling along, and of course the road was slipperier than I thought it was going to be, and I fishtailed right instead of left and ended up with the nose of my car in one of those loose slate walls in someone’s front yard. The people who lived there rushed outside– an elderly couple– and asked me if I was okay (I was fine, just shaken up) and they welcomed me into their home and they were so very kind and they treated me like a long-lost granddaughter, which was so sweet. While the man called the tow truck his wife offered me chocolates– I was so grateful. These people were so nice even though I had demolished their wall! Anyway, the tow truck finally arrived and pulled my car out– no damage– and a few days later I came by their house again. Nobody was home, so I snuck onto their porch and left a thank-you card and a box of chocolates.
I’m thinking of keeping a stash of chocolates and thank-you cards in my car for future moments like this.
Hi Sheri, Thanks for including the picture of the Loopy Elves. It’s nice to put names and faces together. I too love the new DIC colors. My RAK this week – I went to my LYS on Saturday and at the entrance, the shopowner’s Dad was putting up Christmas lights. He was balancing a folding ladder on two different steps and then climbing up to put up the lights. I held the ladder for him while he finished putting up the lights. Kristi
Not sure if this counts, but, on Saturday I was a volunteer for holiday party for disabled kids. When I got a hug from one of the kids, it totally made my day!
I also stopped at a local bookstore and picked a child’s name and bought them a book that they wanted. I’ve always loved to read and love to pass that onto others, especially kids.
Love the new yarn colors! Very drool worthy!
Those DIC colors are so spectacular!
Not particularly random, but I did go through my closet this weekend and bag up all the clothes I don’t wear anymore. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to drop them off at the Salvation Army this week. This post series is such a good idea…. I’m constantly brainstorming about other RAKs I can do in the coming weeks!
I loved the pictures of you Sheri and all your elves. Wish I could be there to laugh and have fun with all of you. My RAK this week was babsitting. My daughter and her best friend both teach elementary school. Her friend has four children ranging from ages 11 to 5 years of age. They wanted to go out to a nice dinner with just their husbands. Babysitting for my daughter does not pose a problem as I AM ALWYAS available. But, it’s another story for her girlfriend. It costs them an arm and a leg to hire someone for a few hours on a Saturday night. So, I offered to babysit all the kids for a few hours so they could unwind and enjoy a nice meal. I enjoyed having all the kids and hearing laugh and play.
Happy Knittin and Spinnin…
Sandy
Not sure that this is completely random, but our local food bank is in desperate need of toiletries. Since they were especially asking for toothbrushes, toothpaste and deodorant, I made a trip to a local store at lunch last Friday and picked up a set of 10 of each of the 3 (half guy DO, half for gals – do you know there aren’t really any generics for guys, but there are for gals? Weird).
Along these RAK/not-so-RAK lines, our local bookstore collects book for a needy local school (guaranteeing a book per child with additional books going to their school library). That will be my fun thing to do Friday night – I can get a Starbucks drink for myself and then I really enjoy browsing the kids’ books and picking some out (I’m a big reader myself – I *love* encouraging a love of books in children!).
Hi Sheri,
Well, our RAK is to be Secret Snow Shovelers for our elderly neighbors:) this is fun for our son to be a part of, at age 4, so he can learn to think of others! The funny thing is the neighbors that we secretly shovel snow for? Their son is now retired and he comes over to snow plow and he always takes care of our front walkway and sidewalk as we have the new baby and haven’t been out as much! He did this last year, before baby #2 and one time I managed to run out and give him a plate of warm-out-of the oven cookies.
What fun to read these posts!
My RAK was for my boyfriend. I left on Thursday for a 17 day trip to Australia! (I’m having a blast but still keeping up on my Loopy Ewe!) and before I left I left him lots and lots of post-its all over the house with different messages for when he got home. I also watched someone’s bags at the airport for them…and saved a snack box for the sleeping man beside me on the plane (it was a 14 hour flight and I figured he’d be hungry when he woke up and no more food was coming along!).
I knit a pair of socks for every person in my diabetes education class using yarn I purchased from Loopy Ewe this year. It was a total of twelve people (men and women). During our three week session earlier in the year I jotted down everyone’s size when the educator was doing a foot check and we were all sharing our foot size as she wrote down comments about our feet in her log. We meet recently for a progress check and everyone had lost some weight. I thought that would be better than buying them a Starbucks with extra whipped cream. I did actually have a Tall Mocha Peppermint the other day and they are really good.
i GOT MY Groupie package last week. Thank you, Sheri. I love the Urban Gypsy. I saw a homeless person asking for food on my way to work the other morning and gave her my can of soup. BTW the can was a pull tab.
I can’t wait for the new DIC colors! I hope I can check your website in time to snatch some up before it’s sold out!
Anyway, RAK submission…
I am continuing to help out my co-worker who cannot drive. And I found a cute ornament for my mother…So I bought it and I am just going to give it to her, just because.
What a fun picture! I wish I could work there 🙂
The DIC colors are awesome, I saw a picture of the laceweight on the web and I can not wait for you to get it!!
My RAK submission: Grocery shopping the other day at Wal-mart, there were two elderly women and they were trying to get toilet paper off of the top shop shelf. I offered to help and they told me not to worry about it, they would get an employee. Well i know how long that would take, so I climbed up the rack and got it myself (my Mom is 4’10”, it’s been a lifetime of climbing the shelves, lol)
And also, I have been destashing on ravelry. I sold an item and the girl sent me a message saying her paypal account was a few dollars short. She wanted to know if she could send what she had until a friend could transfer money to her account. I told her not to worry about, shipping would be on me 🙂
My RAK isn’t the typical RAK. I helped a lady break into her car because she locked her keys in it. They were still even hanging in the ignition! Luckily the lady left the windows down a little bit, I was able to squeeze my arm in and unlock the door. Her arm didn’t fit. However now I have nasty black and blue since my arm got stuck in the window! But at least she got in the car.
I like reading everybody’s RAks it’s fun!
the folks over at an etsy shop i love were collecting for a friend who had an unexpected and un-cheap surprise expenditure. when i made two purchases that could get shipped together, i threw the other shipping expenses in, when i could have had it refunded. 🙂