Knitters, spinners and weavers,

Egads, it has been so long between posts. So sorry.

First a thank you thank you thank you for all your donations. YWP really appreciates your willingness to chip in for our work and am glad that you find it worthwhile. I thought it would be good to update you on the amazing things that have been happening:

• youngwritersproject.org -- our 'after school' Web site and civil online space for teens and preteens now has some 4,000 members from VT and NH and about 1,000 visits a day! Kids are creating amazing stuff and hope you take a look. We have some professional writers (volunteers) and college students (as part of their classes) providing mentoring to many of the young writers.
• We have expanded our Spoken Word events to twice a month. A recent poetry slam brought in 60+ people and the poets ranged in age from 11 to 84. The 84-year-old was wonderful and made it to the final round where she performed her poem: My Secret: I LOVE Costco. It was hysterical.
• The YWP Schools Project (ywpschools.net) now has four part-time teacher coaches in the field; we are working with 57 schools including one in China and another in Uganda!
• And we are publishing our THIRD anthology which is really a sparkling example of kids' talent and creativity. (It has some great visual art, too.)

I hope that some of you might connect with us if you live up this way, but please know how much we appreciate your generosity. This began as a tiny little project and we are now working with upwards of 10,000 kids. Very exciting indeed. And this is only made possible by folks willing to donate a little money so we can do our work.

As a bonus to all of you who made it this far, check out this wonderful project we did: youngwritersproject.org/ballad which was a school residency we did in two schools several years ago. I was showing it to another group of teachers today as a model. I worked with my friend, Pete Sutherland, a wonderful musician, and together we went into two schools, had the kids interview some local elders and then helped them create ballads. Enjoy.

cheers to all of you in Knitting Land!

Geoff Gevalt
YWP founder and director.

My contact info should you have any questions or suggestions:

Geoffrey Gevalt
Young Writers Project
Champlain Mill
20 Winooski Falls Way, Suite #4
Winooski, VT 05404
802-324-9537
ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org

Winter has finally arrived in Connecticut. Very pretty light and fluffy snow. So everyone drive carefully! Good day for the kids to use those sleds and skis.....'
Have a great weekend

Hi everyone

Rest assured I am NOT trying to give anyone a hard time regarding the contact information. If you put up an ad to sell or an ad looking for something and you can't be contacted you will never sell your item or find what you are looking for. It's like saying "Call Me" and then failing to put your phone number. When you create your ad your MUST TYPE IN THE CONTACT INFORMATION - IT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY GET THERE.

Thanks for your understanding

Janet

Okay everyone, this is the final notice., In the Free ad guidelines it states in BOLD LETTERING that you MUST put your contact information in ALL ads,. This week I have received two in a row with NO contact info at all and another one last week. Since this is a FREE site I do not have time to look up your information for people who want to buy your product nor do I have time to constantly email people to go correct their ads.

Wishing everyone a very happy and safe new year. Be careful if you are on the roads tonight. Looking forward to a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year for all.

Janet, Gigi, Ariel and Polly.

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Solstice, and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.. May the light shine into your lives, as it returns to us in the new Spring that is coming. May the light enter those hearts that are at their darkest point, those who are grieving, starving, or emotionally starving, families in need, children who are hungry.

Please consider giving to your favorite charity, whether it is Doctors without Borders, Young Writers' Project, or your town's version of the Food Shelter, La Leche League International (www.lalecheleague.org).

Whatever speaks to you.

Thanks to everyone that has helped the Young Writers Project throughout the year. I just chipped in another $10 to try to get these folks up to at least a thousand!
Only $38 and change left to go. Please help to get us to that goal and more I hope before the holidays are over.

Thanks
Janet

I have already send one blog message telling everyone that you MUST INCLUDE CONTACT INFORMATION in ALL of your ads. I'm still getting ads with NO CONTACT INFO. As of today they will simply be deleted.

Thanks
Janetr

Good morning,

Despite me making sure in the Create and ad information
that contact information MUST be put in the ads I'm still getting ads with NO CONTACT INFORMATION and I'm having to email you to put that information in your ad. Starting today, if there is no contact information your ad will be deleted.

Thank you
Janet

Okay folks. I'm getting a bit cranky these days as I'm getting a bit of rudeness from a few members. Now the issue of ADS, posting and removing. I was asked tonight WHY I don't give instructions for deleting them. PLEASE, open up the CREATE AN AD. PLEASE read ALL of it. It clearly tells you how to delete your ad and has from the beginning. It is nothing that has been added recently. We are all very busy and it is that season again, So I am asking if we can all PLEASE be pleasant to each other in dealing with issues on this list.

Suddenly folks have been sending me their ads and asking me to do the work of putting them up. Well if I was home all day and didn't have anything else to do that would be just fine. HOWEVER, I work outside the home 6 days a week, I run other lists, I'm a Registrar of Voters, I have a 96 year old mom and also occasionally like to have a bit of time to knit or spin. The directions for placing an ad are right on this page "CREATE AN AD" and are very easy to follow. I don't mind helping folks but honestly I can't do your work for you for free ads.

Thanks to all of you who have been so generous and donated to the Young Writers Project. It is a wonderful charity and helps so many young people. Every dollar is so appreciated. Thank you again!
Janet

Hi everyone,

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. Despite the state of our country we still have much to be thankful for. Stay safe and enjoy.

Janet

11/19, well it's 2 days before my 54th birthday. Working on Christmas knitting. Why am I so SLOW?

I am also spinning some Cormo, in the hopes of dyeing it this week.

I am working on ordering some Swedish Fine wool, and I'd like to get it made into pin drafted roving or top, though top is not easy to do , requiring a lot of it to work with...Extra fiber from my own work is being sold now in my Etsy shop, in Heritage Fiber Samplers.

I see I have received several notes because I have not gottenapproved members approved for several days. We have NOT had any power until 6 AM this morning. It has been out since early Sunday Morning. I have had no heat, no lights, and no computer. So I apologize that you have not had immediate approval. Hope the power stays on now but I will still be VERY behind as not only do i need to catch up here but I'm a registrar of voters and we have an election next Tuesday which means we too have to get all our preparation done in record time.