A couple of weeks ago this article was published in the New York Times, about internal refugee camps within Afghanistan, and how children, including a young infant, died in the cold.  It’s enough to break any person’s heart to think about. The follow-up article tells the story about hapzarard efforts to respond to these people, while not perfect, at least people are making the effort.

Ten years on from the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, it’s hard to realize that for most people in Afghanistan, things are either the same or worse.  I don’t have any real solutions to the whole war and the sides there, given the complexiities of the balance of powers, the so-called American partners, Pakistan, etc.  These are frankly beyond my time and understanding.

Therefore, I knit.  Over the years, I’ve probably knit over 100 items for Afghans for Afghans.  There’ve been a couple of blankets, lot’s of sweaters, and a few hats thrown in.  The ones I’ve documented are included in my Ravelry A4A project page.  I knit because at least I can assure some children and youth (and a few adults) that someone in America cares enough to provide them something I would be proud to have anyone in my family wear.  At least I can do something for the poor and the ones who are in need, even though there’s no New York Times article being written about their particular situation.

So far, for the Afghans for Afghans campaign that is coming to a close, I’ve completed less this time (starting a new job cut into the knitting time), but tried out some new things.  First up, a bunch of pretty standard toe-up socks:

And then I decided to do a standard sweater a la Ann Budd, but with a shawl collar in a pullover:

And Brandy did her usual inspection of the knitwear:

With the leftovers, I also did a vest with simple two rows of striping:

And Brandy did another “inspection”!

And now I’m taking those leftovers, along with a skein of worsted wool in taupe, and doing a steeked vest with stripes.
Here’s the vest done with the knitting complete:

and with the steeks crocheted (I used Eunny Jang’s quick and dirty tutorial for doing them)

and with the steeks cut:

Since then I’ve sewn the shoulders, and now I’m blocking everything before doing the armholes and ribbing.