I am a greedy fiber hog.

So I was watching 20/20 the other night and they are doing a series looking at the seven deadly sins and how they manifest themselves in today's world. I just happened upon the segment about greed. I think greed is probably the most appalling of the deadly sins because it seems, to me at least, to be the one that affects the greatest amount of people. The other six mainly just hurt the person engaging in them (sloth and gluttony are the obvious self-destructive ones). Yes, wrath and pride/vanity can hurt people too but the greed of others touches all of us. Look at the big oil companies--billions of dollars in profits made while the people on the Gulf Coast were living in shelters, their homes and jobs gone. Or Wal*Mart (I haven't seen the new documentary but I am hoping to soon--let me know what you thought of it, if you've seen it), which doles out an average wage of $8.43 an hour and recently stated in a company memo that they would be adding physical labor to every job description to discourage people with health problems from applying for jobs in an effort to lower their health insurance costs. Yes folks, greed is not a thing of the past, it grows in proportion every year as the gap between the super rich and very poor widens and lengthens into a great social chasm.

I myself admit to some greediness--look at my ever-growing yarn stash. I could do with a little less. But you know what, I'm going to take that stash and do some good with it. I like to do some charity knitting now and again but next year, I'm going to make it a priority. I've decided to pick 3 charities and break up the "crafting year" into 4 month segments, designating one charity for each segment. I know there are a ton of charities accepting knitted goods so to be fair, in 2007 I'll switch and do 3 different charities. I've also tried to figure out what items are needed when and to make up the schedule that way so here's what I've decided to do:

January-April
--squares and possibly completed afghans for Warm Up America, which is currently sending blankets to Hurricane Katrina survivors and other people across the country--acrylic or washable yarns only

May-August
--wool hats, socks, mittens and soft baby clothes for the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation located in South Dakota. Their winter starts as early as September.

September-December
--baby items for Stitches from the Heart
cottons and other washable yarns

Please join me if you have some spare time and spare stash!

Christmas present update: I finished a golf club cover for my soon-to-be-brother-in-law (it's ok, no way will he see this blog!) one down, only 9 to go to make the complete set...good thing I can read for school and do K2, P2 rib...The pattern is from Vogue Accessorize, if you are interested. It's done on #4s but I'm doing the magic loop method so it's speeding along and no seaming!! Gotta love it!