I love gathering with you all at Silverwood in the winter, cozying up with a hot cup of coffee and a skein of yarn. In all, you brought in 39 blankets, hats, shawls, and even a neckwarmer!

by Amy Pass, Team Yarn Co-Founder

Happy Birthday, Team! We’re 5 years old - a whole half a decade! I am so proud of you and your commitment to making the world a better place, saving the world one stitch at a time. In 2017, you collectively made 785 items, including 46 blankets and 18 shawls, which put us at a grand total of 3,877 since our beginning!

Team Yarn donated to 8 different facilities this year and several family members and friends of team yarn. Our list of donation sites this year included: The University of MN Children’s Hospital, Hope Lodge, HCMC, Ronald McDonald House, Fairview Southdale Cancer Care Center, St. John’s Hospital, the U of M Cancer Care Center, and the VA Medical Center.

We especially want to acknowledge those who took 1st-5th place as top contributors this year. Team Yarn could not reach nearly so many people without them. Jody Gilbertson from Beldenville, WI held on to her position as our top contributor with a total of 235 items! We are amazed at Jody’s continued commitment to Team Yarn, as she has never met any of us in person! She even got her mom involved, and we received such beautiful items from both of them! 2nd place goes to Linda Moore, who made 119 items, followed closely by Sandi Fischer in 3rd with 110! Bernice Foster and Sandra Slater tied for 4th place with 84! How did they do that?! Did they plan it? 84 is such an exact number... And 5th place goes to another woman we have never met, Tammy Nelson, who donated 34 items this year. And, get this, just for kicks, there’s ANOTHER tie for 6th place - Joanna Koecher and Char Cervenka each made 26 hats! Are you as amazed as I am?!

We want to give a very special thanks to Joanna, who battled Leukemia in 2017, and now has a clean bill of health! She sat in the hospital during her chemotherapy treatments making hats for “cancer patients”...and seemed to never lose her sense of humor about it! Joanna, you are amazing and inspiring!

We are so very grateful for the work of every single person on this Team. Just last week I received a personal thank you note, passed along by one of the nurses from one of the patients at Health East Cancer Care Center in Maplewood. This one was addressed to Linda, but it really represents the work that all of you do,

“Linda, Thank you for the beautiful pink hat you crocheted for St. John’s cancer patients. I will wear it when my hair falls out. It will keep me very warm when I go for short walks outside and in my house. God bless you for what you do. All my love, Marilyn H.”

So simple and so beautiful. The world is made more beautiful in these small acts of kindness...in your small acts of kindness...in the creativity and artistry you are willing to invest in a gift for a stranger. Your care and kindness go out with those hats and blanket, shawls, cowls, and “fiddle-muffs.” And that kindness is felt. Thank you. 

December is a busy time, and yet you all still managed to fashion 182 items! Wow! Impressive!

The month before, in November, you brought in 51 items. (Sorry I don't have any photos from that month, but I missed the meeting.)

While waiting for her chemotherapy treatment at the University of Minnesota Cancer Care Center, North Branch resident JoAnna Keocher makes hats on a loom to donate to others who are battling cancer. Keocher is a part of Team Yarn - Head Huggers, an organization dedicated to providing the comfort of hats, scarves, shawls, lapghans, and other handmade items to people who are fighting cancer and other chronic illnesses. More at http://teamyarn.blogspot.com.

Team Yarn representatives Amy Pass and Joselyn Pettit, surrounded by nurses and staff members, drop off 100 hats at the University of Minnesota Cancer Care Center. Of course, some were made there in the hospital by Team Yarn member JoAnna Keocher who is being treated for leukemia there.

North Branch resident JoAnna Keocher (front) and mother Bernice Foster of Amery, Wis. display a collection of hats Keocher made while being treated for leukemia. She donated the stack of hats, the most she’d ever made before, to Team Yarn - Head Huggers to be given to others battling cancer and chronic illnesses.

Ask JoAnna Keocher what she’s doing as she’s waiting for her chemotherapy treatments, and she’ll cheerfully tell you: “It’s a funny story. I belong to Team Yarn - Head Huggers, and I’m making hats for cancer patients!”

Yes, you heard that right. As she’s getting treated for her own leukemia at the University of Minnesota Cancer Care Center in Minneapolis, the North Branch woman is doing what she can to help others with cancer.

Keocher has been using a loom to make hats for several years, following the lead of her mother Bernice Foster of Amery, Wis. Both donate what they make to Team Yarn - Head Huggers, an organization begun in 2012 in honor of Koecher’s aunt, Cheryl Slater of Isanti, Minn., who died from a rare and agressive form of cancer.

The mission of Team Yarn is to provide the comfort of hats, scarves, shawls, lapghans, and other handmade items to people who are fighting cancer and other chronic illnesses. Items are all donated within the greater Twin Cities area. To date, the group has donated nearly 3,000 handmade items.

Since experiencing cancer firsthand, Keocher has begun making her hats a little differently. She’s found that she prefers hats to come down just to her ears, rather than to cover them, and so she’s started making her hats a bit shorter than before.

Keocher has been glad to have something to keep her hands busy while she’s in the hospital every few weeks for her chemotherapy treatments and recovering at home in between hospital stays.

“I have never made so many hats at one time,” she observed. “It gives me something to do. I don’t want to just sit.” Several women from her workplace at Wyoming Machine in Stacy donated yarn for her to use, and she’s also used yarn donated directly to Team Yarn.

One day, a nurse observed her at work, and let her know she could donate her finished hats on the fifth floor of the hospital. A few weeks later, on Sept. 20, 2017, two representatives from Team Yarn dropped off 100 hats at the University’s Cancer Care Center in honor of Keocher. Of course, the donation boxes included some of the hats Keocher had made.

Discovering she had cancer came as a shock to Keocher, who went into the Wyoming Hospital on Aug. 14 because of pain in her chest, and was immediately transported to the University’s Cancer Care Center where she spent the next 24 days. She is expecting to be out of work for three to six months. Recognizing the financial strain this is putting on the family, a friend started a Go Fund Me page. Donate at www.gofundme.com/jos-leukemia-fundraiser.

Team Yarn is always looking for more people to get involved. Drop off items during the monthly meet-up on the third Sunday of every month, 1-3 p.m., at Silverwood Park in Minneapolis, Minn. or drop off donations at the Cambridge Century 21 office when open.

For more information or to send a donation, email amyinthewind@gmail.com. Be sure to stay updated by browsing http://teamyarn.blogspot.com or visit the group’s Facebook page.

For the past four years, we have been making red, white and blue items to donate to the VA Hospital in Minneapolis on or near Veterans' Day. This year we dropped off 18 items on Friday, Nov. 10.

... And discovered that the hospital is pretty barebones on Veterans' Day. While they were holding a special ceremony later, when we were there many offices were closed, including the Volunteer office where we usually drop our donations. Luckily, we ran into a few ladies in the hall, and one had a key to let us into the Volunteer office! So we were still able to donate that day. (Thank goodness! Those bags were heavy with lapghans!)

Read more about our past 5 donations here. 

A new covered walkway since we were here last!