E1 received some BIG Boxes!

Wednesday after work, 10/20/10, E1 found two registered mail slips in her home mailbox. Hmmmm.... Couldn't go to the PO on Wednesday night. Thursday at lunch time she went to the PO to get her registered mail. What did she have? Two "GINORMOUS" boxes from the Choctaw Nation. She said they were so big that she could barely carry either of them. Carrying both in one trip was out of the question. One was giant and flat, at least a yard in each direction. The other was the size of a big boot box. Neither was very heavy, but the contents were quite mysterious! She couldn't open them at work on Thursday, so I had to wait until Friday to find out what was in them!

E1 writes:

Oh, they're so nice...
The boot-sized box was in fact a boot box, and it contained a letter from Rebecca, some newspaper articles about our hats, some thank-yous from the kids and teachers, and a blanket with the Choctaw Nation seal on it.

The other, big, flat parcel had pictures and thank-you posters from each of the schools, with pictures of the kids. I think she said every hat was shown, but I didn't count. I only recognized a couple hats, but then again, I didn't even recognize most of my own when I took them out to photograph! Each is addressed to you and me and our friends.

I will probably see E1 at Thanksgiving time. I hope to get photos to share with you at that time, unless E1 makes a photo CD at the pharmacy or Wal*Mart again. (News flash: I now have a CD reader for my computer so I won't have to take a picture CD to Staples to have the pictures moved from CD to thumb drive!)  In any event, as soon as I have photos of this very moving Thank You gift from the Choctaws, I will share them with you!

Meanwhile, I think the blanket may look like the one you can see at the Choctaw web site.

E1 will also get an answer to a very important question soon:

When I write to thank her, I guess I have to ask if they can get by with less than 300 next year, maybe a 100-hat replacement rotation.

For my own part, I've been wondering if the kids need mittens, too. 

Any one up for a year of 310 Hats plus 620 mittens????  Or, as Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitting Guru, wrote: "Always make mittens in threes, so there's a pair even when one gets lost or ruined." So, I guess that would be 930 mittens. Fleece mittens are a relatively quick sew.... Nudge, nudge.....

{If you'd like an easy mitten pattern, check out MINDLESS MITTENS ON MAGIC LOOP (or DPN). Here is a mitten formula, for any size mitten with any yarn knit at any gauge. If you like the custom fit aspect of TOP DOWN mittens, and you have a Kindergarten-sized person who can be your test model, you should click the link for the TOP DOWN MITTENS pattern.}