dabblings and whimsey: Knitted Together

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

2. a locality inhabited by such a group.

3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the ): the business community; the community of scholars.

4. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.

5. Ecclesiastical . a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.

A couple of weeks ago a fellow food blogger named Jennifer Perillo suddenly lost her husband to a heart attack. I never knew her, I may never meet her. But she is a part of the same community that I have found myself a part of. Furthermore we have a couple of other things in common. She was a wife, and she is a mother. I can sympathize. If you are a spouse and a parent then you can sympathize too.

The only thing she asked of anyone was to make a pie in honor of her husband Mikey, and to give it to someone you loved. Many bloggers did. Food Network even joined in and began listing all of the different blogs that had participated in her request. The "problem" when you are involved in a community is that it is bigger than you. People wanted to do more.

Bloggers Without Borders Started a fund for Jennie and her two daughters. On Twitter it even has it's own hashtag; #afundforjennie. Bloggers across the country are coming together and auctioning off various items. 100% of the proceeds are going into a fund for Jennie and her girls to help them. On the Bloggers Without Borders it explains the point of these auctions...

From Shauna:

“As you can imagine, Jennie is overwhelmed not only by her grief, and the sudden responsibility of raising two children by herself, but she is also struggling with this financially. She just learned that she cannot collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she earns too much money each year. The health insurance for her and her kids runs out in December and she just learned that the total she will have to pay will be more than her mortgage. It’s possible she’ll have to pay off the entire mortgage in one lump sum because the apartment was in his name alone.

And more than anything, Mikey wanted Jennie to continue living her dream of being a food writer. And he wanted to make sure his kids were taken care of well. That’s why he worked as hard as he did.”

This fund will help Jennie to do just that: to continue to work and take care of the girls with some peace of mind.

When I first saw people Tweeting about these auctions I thought you had to be, you know...somebody. Which although I am to my family, in the food blogging community I am not. Then I realized that we could all participate and give the proceeds towards Jennie and her girls. I believe in communities. I believe that we are all in some way or another a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to be. The food blogging community, I am new to, but I have been, and am a part of communities that were/are bigger than myself. When you are involved in something like that there is a certain sense of comradery that comes with it. The all for one and one for all type of comradery. Prime example: I remember when my husband and I were still just dating and he was forced to quit his job. The church that we belonged too began supplementing his income until he found another job. It was an amazing thing to experience. I had never seen anything like it.

So when this happened to Jennie I felt connected. As a wife, as a mother, as a blogger. But what did I have to offer?? All of these great auctions are going up but I don't have tons of money floating around. We don't roll around laughing on a bed of money here. We have a budget. But I do have something to offer. Something I can give. That something is my time.

Time is a precious gift. I was reminded of this when I saw what a fellow blogger and someone I have come to know through Twitter posted her auction for a knitted blanket. This blanket, FYI, will be up for auction until Tuesday August 30th. And if you don't up the bidding I just might. But when I read Janis' post I remembered something...

Towards the end of last year I decided to learn how to knit for real. Prior to that moment I could only do the knit stitch. And I could only knit a scarf. I could knit you any width or any length scarf you wanted, but a scarf was all you were going to get. After hours pouring over books and You Tube I started to be able to do more. These fingerless gloves were one of the first projects I did with my new found abilities in knitting. I was proud. I was going to start an ETSY shop with these. But when I saw Janis' post I remembered these fingerless gloves, and all of a sudden starting an ETSY shop with them seemed...silly.

They are not much, not like some of the auctions out there. But maybe they can be something. maybe they can be a bag of groceries. Maybe they can be a new outfit for one of Jennie's daughters on their first day of school. Or a warm batch of cookies for an afternoon snack. A trip to the zoo. Maybe instead of just being a thing, they can be something.

I know there are several of you on Facebook that have shown interest in these fingerless gloves so here is your chance. Leave a comment down below this post placing your bid. I am going to start the bidding off at $25, which is what I was going to sell them on ETSY for. You can bid in any increment as long as it is at least $1 more then the current largest bid. I will leave the auction open until next Thursday at 12am EST. That is one week from today. The highest bidder will be announced at a more reasonable hour later on that day. 100% of the proceeds will go into #afundforjennie. If you just can't bid I understand completely but please consider donating any amount through paypal at the link below.