It's been over a week since the big quake hit Christchurch, and while life must go on, I have noticed the entire country seemed more subdued. Forums centered around New Zealand folk are fairly quiet, it seems as if we are all more aware of just how trivial our usual everyday chatter is.
We had a reasonable jolt here in Wellington the other night it definitely put all of us on alert and I have been going through our emergency supplies making sure things are up to date and batteries functioning etc. I also added a couple of balls of yarn, a few excess circs and vanilla sock instructions to the two containers we keep.. you know, just in case.
It really has been a time of reflection on what is important to me in my life, just what would I grab? the photos? the heirloom china? the various bits and pieces I've discovered in junk shops over the years? I was pondering this, would I make my way to the bedroom to unearth my trollbeads collection? or rescue my cashmere merino sock yarn from the lounge. Maybe I would make a dive for the tin in drawer that keeps all the important documents safe. Or perhaps the CD that store old photographs. Nope, at the end of the day,while I am slightly sentimental, I've realised just how practical I really am. My thing I would spend a few moments searching for (if I had the time) is the tramping boots that usually lurk somewhere in my bedroom. I think I need to go find them and make sure they are somewhere easily got to, so I can move my must rescue at all costs item along to being one of the more sentimental options.
So on to quake, I'm not going to mention stats or talk about quake drama, there are enough people already doing that. When I first got news of it and settled down to watch the tv, I felt the need to do something to help out, sending parcels of food down is a waste of resources and time and creates issues. They needed/need money but I don't have much spare in my weekly budget. What I do have however are designing skills, I already have two knitting patterns I have self published and sell via Ravelry so I decided to donate 100% profits from those sales to the quake fund until the end of march.
Then I started hearing more about the womens refuge center, and how after the dust settles families are still pushed to the limits emotionally, parents become stressed to the point of passing that snapping point. And sometimes the best thing for a mother is to just get out of dodge with her children in tow. So I designed a hat specially to raise money for womens refuge in New Zealand. Not only will 100% of the profits from it be going to the womens refuge in Christchurch until the end of march, but as an ongoing fundraiser I will be donating the profits from the sale of this pattern to womens refuge NZ.
The pattern is named "Kids Play" and is written for three sizes from toddler through to large child/adult. It will be available on Ravelry in the next few days as I tidy up some of the rough edges in my writing.
