Two yarn donations for Team Yarn came my way at the end of 2014.

The first came from Char Theis, one of my husband's co-workers. After reading my Christmas letter and learning about Team Yarn, she wanted to do something to help. And so she sent a bag of great yarn home with my husband.

The second came on Christmas Eve from the aunt who taught me how to crochet when I was in 4th grade (and then I taught Amy at school and promptly forgot and then amy re-taught me in my 30s -- so you could say Team Yarn is here in a large part because of my aunt Julie!). Thanks so much, Auntie!!

And here's a photo of all the yarn that came in during December 2014 from various sources. You are all amazing!!

At the December 2014 meet-up, 54 hats and a lap blanket were donated. A good chunk of them came from teenager Lexi. Wow! You're inspiring!! You all inspire me every single month.

That brings our 2014 total to 808, about 20 more than our first year. And as everyone becomes more experienced, every item we donate becomes better and better. Learn more about our year during our second annual celebration meet-up on Jan. 18, 2015. See you from 1-3! (Special program at 1:30pm.)

Lexi and her mom Kelly

Yep, this teenager made all that hats filling that bag!

Little crochet hearts decorate these knit hats made by Brenda

We love it when new people attend our meetings! Hope you come back, Kathy!

There's plenty for the kiddos to do while the moms chat and crochet.

A stack by Linda

The basket Linda's hats come in each month.

We brought 41 hats, a scarf, and 13 blankets to the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014.

The donations were a result of several months of dedicated effort by our talented and creative volunteers. Linda's tip for finishing 4 blankets? Work on them all at once and switch between them so you don't get bored.

Linda with one of the four blankets she made during our red, white and blue drive.

The entire room of volunteer service staff were so appreciate of our work, and they ooh'd and ah'd as they looked through the boxes we brought. "Wow, this is wonderful!" one said. 

Meegan Johnson said, "Aren't they pretty? Thank you so much ladies!"

"Thank you so much!" echoed John.

Amy pointed out, "We try to meet the needs of the people we're donating to." Because of that, we embarked on a concentrated effort to make red, white and blue lap blankets after donating to the VA in May 2014. While we were there, a volunteer had let us know that those items would be really appreciated by the veterans and their families. She encouraged us to make big lap blankets, not small ones. And so we did!

Learn more about the VA over at this earlier post.

This cart was being pushed around by a volunteer the day we were there. Note the hats and blankets on the bottom being given out? This is how some of the Team Yarn donations will be distributed.

Team Yarn was featured on the main homepage for all of Allina in December 2014. Neither Amy nor I work at Alina, but we have several friends who do, and they all let us know they saw our smiling faces when they opened up their computers at work. The photo featured our October donation to the Harbor Room.

Here's a screenshot one friend sent over: