Olympic Diversion: For a Worthy Cause

Last night, my children's school had it's 4th annual Art Night Fundraiser for Malawi Children's Village. We have been able to raise enough money in to help build a new wing on one of the schools and, even more important, a girls bathroom, so that girls can get an education. Without one, the girls were too embarrassed to travel far from their home.

Every year I knit a few things for the auction, and manage to raise a little money for Malawi. I had a Peruvian Hat sell at the auction for $40.00, a few years ago and then got to watch the little boy who'd won it, wear it nearly every day.






This year, I decided to make a pair of felted mittens for the auction, but I was drawing a blank on what else to donate.






Then I saw Lindsey Vonn wearing the cutest hat while getting her Gold Medal. "Hey, I can do that hat!", I thought. This was on Thursday, though and the auction was Friday. Checked on Ravelry to see if anyone else had the same idea and posted the pattern. Nope. Not yet. I started examining the hat more closely from the picture and felt confident enough to go ahead and figure it out.

So Friday morning, while the kids and I got ready , I made a poster for the auction with Lindsey wearing the hat and stating that I would knit the hat over the weekend and have it ready for them by Monday am, and then placed it on one of the bidding tables at school.

I continued to check Ravelry for a pattern, which would save me a lot of time and one finally popped up for me to use by BelgianWaffleKnits. Hooray!

Even better news. The winning bid: $72.00 And, even better news, another parent offered to match the winning bid and have me knit another one. So, I'm raising $144.00 for Malawi Children's Village. Wow! Glad these are pretty easy hats to knit. Just hope I get them the right size for the two little down skiing girls, who idolize Lindsey Vonn and have dreams of being Olympic DH Stars themselves.

Got to get back to work!