Knit-wits rule!

From time to time I like to reminisce about days gone by (and, in the process, sound exactly like my parents did, thus boring the socks off of anyone under 40). Thanks to the changes I’ve seen in my lifetime – especially during my working years – I am the proud possessor of skills that are totally useless in 2012.

The short list is:

• I can (safely) tap a beer keg. Not the new ones, but the old fashioned type. These are the ones that, if badly managed, can result in injury or even death as the rod flies up and into your head (usually entering the head or, at best striking you very hard under the chin).
• I can change a ribbon on a manual typewriter.
• With a little bit of refresher practice, I think i can remember my copy fitting formulas, so that I can tell you how many words at a given font size will fit a given space.
• I still remember most of my proofreaders marks (and still use them, much to the confusion of my work colleagues who wonder why I wrote # and 'stet'  on their document.)
• I (vaguely) recall how logarithms work – and I can certainly do long division without a calculator.
• Although I never learnt how to cast on or cast off, I can knit – but I forget how to do pearl stitches.

I seem to recall there was a (shot lived) fad at primary school. A lot of boys were knitting in arts and craft classes and I recall that the needles were overly thick, perhaps to make it easier for kid’s fingers. I made a longish scarf, only because knitting a big long thing was all I could do.

It’s this last, lost skill that came to mind most recently, thanks to the ABC’s annual ‘Knit In’ promotion. I was still home from work and listened to a lot more radio than I would normally be able to and so, the annual ‘Knit In’ got more of my attention than usual.

The event was, as always, remarkably successful. More than 1,000 knitters headed along to the ABC studios in Sydney and beavered away knitting squares (I think they’re around 8” square or so), which are then packed up and sent off to be sewn together to make blankets.  These are sent overseas to people in need.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2012/08/04/3560598.htm

The ABC ‘Knit In’ was launched 10 years ago, to support the main initiative program, called ‘Wrap with Love. ‘Wrap with Love’ began in 1993 and, since then, over 255,000 wraps have been knitted (square by square), sewn together and sent off overseas.  There have also been around 8,000 distributed around Australia, with over 3,000 going to victims of the Victorian bushfires in 2009.

http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm

Here’s another of my special ‘likes’ – a lot of people doing relatively small things to make a real difference in the world. In the first year, the founder (the late Sonia Gidley-King OAM) and 30 supporters sent 38 wraps off to Mozambique in a container of farm machinery. So, the 250,000+ total is even more impressive!

They got into the spirit in my local are as well, as reported in The Leader.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/knitting-warm-gifts-for-the-needy/2646982.aspx

Time to break out the knitting needles Trev! J

The real value of smaller things...............

I LOVE this stuff:).

All too often, the business world and people in general get themselves caught up with pictures that are just too big. I recently signed on for 'Dry July' and managed to raise $100; $40 of which came from generous donations from family and friends. Overall, 'Dry July' raised about AU$3.4 million, a lot of which came, I'm sure, from smaller fundraising efforts like my own. (See http://www.dryjuly.com/ ) 

In our local communities, there are stories every week about community groups needing relatively small amounts to get over tough times or even just to survive. Today's Leader contains a great story about one such organisation that's been saved because of the generosity of some locals. No huge donations were received, but the sum of the parts made up the lifesaving amount.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/community-rushes-to-support-sylvanvale/2641903.aspx

The program that was in jeopardy was an after school hours care program for children aged 5 -11 who have 'high needs". Obviously, these special kids can't be looked after by just anyone outside of school hours. The tragedy was that the shortfall in funding was just $7,800 and, as one person wrote in the Comments section on the leader's website, it probably cost more for the decision maker (in a Government department) to make the decision that the $7,800 that they are refusing to provide.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/children-in-jeopardy-special-care-may-be-axed/2628911.aspx

But, the money has been raised from the local community, proving yet again the value of local support in our communities.

I'm back at work next week and my mantra to anyone who'll listen will be "Think Locally and Act Locally" - because thinking globally won't help your, your business or your community anywhere near as much as entrenching yourself and your business in your local community will.