Saturday January 26, 2008 at the East Irondequoit Helen McGraw branch library, six ladies and I worked to sort, package and begin assembling over 600 swatches donated by library patrons into blankets that will be donated to the local community. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of all the librarians at the Helen McGraw branch, especially, Nora Pelish.

Below, Helen and Karen sort swatches by color.

As well as solid color swatches, many multi-color swatches emerged from the piles. I've done this enough times now that I know the strange, weird color and texture combination swatches will make great center or corner designs when combined with solid colors. Still, the volume of swatches made many of the volunteers that day uneasy. How would they all come together to make leasing blankets, and how were we ever going to get it all done in one day?

The answer is: we don't. Half of last Saturday was spent sorting the swatches by color, and they laying out pleasing combinations of 25 swatches. Then the seven of us sat down and began to work on assembling the first of the blankets. Below, Linda and Helen stitch away.

One box we received was filled with several dozen black-edged Granny Squares, a project that someone had tired of and decided to donate. Lucky us :)
Here's Fran assembling the squares.

The ladies who came on Saturday all had their own reasons for volunteering. One was a cancer survivor who still had the blanket she'd received during her treatment. One laid out a pattern of swatches that reminded her of a blanket made for her when she was younger. The yarns were all different, it had lots of texture, but most important, it was cuddly and comforting. Everyone there wanted to make something that would help someone else.

Two ladies came from a local church that is interested in starting their own blanket project. The hardest part is spreading the word that swatches are needed. We were fortunate to have mentions in several local papers and on WHAM 13 TV's "Bright Spot". Click here to see the video with librarian Nora Pelish.

At the end of the day, one more lady dropped by with what she said were "about 500 swatches" made by her sister. At that time, we had sorted and packaged close to 20 blankets worth of swatches. Each of us there volunteered to take one or more blankets home with us to finish over the next few days.

• If you want to help, here's what you can do:

• We will be meeting again Saturday March 1, 2008 from 10 am to 1 pm. Everyone is welcome to help sew more blankets together.
• If you can assemble a blanket at home, stop by the Helen McGraw branch and ask at the front desk for a bag of swatches.
  
• Knit more swatches. Please make them from a machine washable/machine dryable yarn, any color, 7" by 9", knitted or crocheted. See the WarmUpAmerica website.
  
• Questions Not Answered Here: e-mail Nancy Vandivert at nancyv1@rochester.rr.com