Support the Homefront

The outpouring of love from our countrymen to our troops never ceases to amaze me.  The charitable organizations and the dedicated individuals who send letters and boxes and supplies, well, there are no words to describe how wonderful their commitment is.  I am so happy that our troops are well supported, for they deserve all the attention they can get.

I have, however, made it my one-woman mission to support the homefront.

A long while back, I wrote about how one is the loneliest number, how going through a deployment without children or pets is a lonely existence.  That's how I lived my life for 13 months, and I remember vividly how quiet the house gets.  So I'm on a quest to adopt single spouses.

I currently have two good friends who find themselves in this situation.  One is a friend who's still back in Germany; all her friends PCSed away and she got stop-moved there alone for the next 15 months.  Another is a wife who was in the middle of a move when her husband got called back up on IRR.  They had already sold their house and she'd quit her job, so she found herself completely rootless heading into a deployment.  Both my friends have limited local support and just generally feel out of sorts.  So that's where I come in!

When my husband was gone, I had a friend from back home who started sending me snail mail.  Regularly.  I realized that her letters were filling a communication void in my life, and I can't even express how important these letters became to me.  So I'm on a mission to do the same for my two friends.  I have been sending them weekly mail and packages, just so they know that someone cares about them.  They're shouldering the burden of supporting their husbands, so I think someone needs to step in to support them.

Luckily, both of these cool ladies are knitters like I am, so I hatched a plan for a knit-along.  I'm buying the yarn today to send on to them so we can get started soon.  I wanted to post this here on SpouseBUZZ in case there are any other knitters out there who want to join our knit-along.  (And for those who don't have any idea what I'm talking about, a knit-along is where knitters hook up to make the same project at the same time.)

Here's what we're making:

I found this excellent project while bumming around the internet.  This picture comes from a knitting blog called 10 Feet High.  I just can't wait to make this scarf.

If there are other SpouseBuzz knitters out there, please join us on our deployment knit-along!  Entrelac is not as hard as it looks, and the yarn does all the color changes for you.

The knitting pattern is the Danica pattern from Knitty.com
The scarf takes three skeins of Patons Soy Wool Stripes.

OK, so I'll concede the fact that maybe a knit-along isn't for everyone.  But perhaps you could come up with a different way to Support the Homefront.  Do you have a friend who's all alone, or know someone who could just use some extra support right now?  Can you send a card in the mail just to let him/her know you care? 

I'm telling you, that kind of mail does wonders for the soul...for the recipient and the sender. 

Comments

[Andi]

Sarah - this is a great idea. Thanks for coming up with it, and for spreading the word.

Now, who's going to teach me how to knit? I want to learn...

[armywifetoddlermom]

A am a crappy crocheter!

Can I crochet snake?

[Love My Tanker]

OK, I sew a little bit, but I stress, a little bit! You are so talented and I am totally jealous. This is a super idea and looks like great fun! Happy knitting!!

[audette]

There are actually knitting groups specific to military support. One of my favourite is Socks for Soldiers. I think there's about 1000 members now, and they knit socks, washclothes, and beanies to send to deployed soldiers. They focus on the socks, though. I think they're over 2500 sock sent overseas. It may be a bit of a drop in the bucket, but on the other hand, handknit socks can be one heck of a pick-me-up when a guy is in the field...

Let me tell you, though... Finding black sock-weight yarn is not an easy task... :)

[audette]

Andi,

I teach knitting here on post. It might be worth looking into what your local arts and crafts center offers...

[Sarah]

Audette, I should be getting Andi here for a visit soon. It shouldn't take long to teach her :)
And 2500 pairs of socks is nothing to sneeze at! Thanks for the info on this group.

[Kate]

Can I join in the knit-along? I'm not a spouse, but my boyfriend is a Ranger, and I'm in Hawaii for school and he's well... not in Hawaii...

[Sarah]

Oh my gosh, I hope you aren't asking because you're "just a girlfriend"!!!! Anyone is invited, and there's no such thing as "just a girlfriend" around here :)

I'd love to have you join us!

[Heather S.]

Kate--my husband was in 3rd ranger battalion. Before we were married I was a girlfriend living in St. Louis. After we married, I was a spouse living in St. Louis for a year. St. Louis isn't as far from GA as Hawaii is from any other CONUS location, but, I feel your pain! And I highly recommend that you knit, knit, knit! Helps me keep my sanity. Maybe I better go knit for a while now...

[Kate]

Thanks Heather- for making me feel not quite so crazy. We're talking about getting married before his next deployment, but not sure because we know that we wouldn't actually get to be together for a while... Do you have any tips?

[HeatherS]

Kate--
That is a tough call. My hubby and I did choose to get married before he deployed (despite being apart for a while afterwards). It was good for us for several reasons: I was able to be part of the FRG and to be the person who would be notified if anything happened to him. This was a huge comfort for me. I also had tricare, which was helpful for me in a few situations. Just being part of the phone chain was a big comfort to me as well, even though I wasn't on Post. Also, my husband is very organized and so he quite smoothly integrated finances and important documents and really helped me through the process of becoming a milspouse.

The year that we were apart after he got back from deployment was hard. Being apart always is.

I don't know if that helps at all. If you ever want to bounce ideas off of someone, feel free to email me (hjknowles@yahoo.com)

[Melanie]

What a great idea! Has anyone finished their scarf yet? I am going to start mine just as soon as I am able to hit the yarn store. :)

[armyitalian]

Hi i saw you have thank the one who have sent package and letters. A wife of a army solider overseas on deployment. And I am opening a bussiness of gift package and letter just for the soldiers oversea. Pleas i have many sponser not enough soliers to send packages to fo gift,food and needed items. I sent many. So please read my comment posted on Whats your story here on SpouseBUZZ. Or email me with soliders name and address that want to be sponsered. All packages are military secure. MY son is the one who started this for all the soliders serving our country. please read my stories. Family and freinds arent able to send packages as often or phone cards. my husband constintly tells me the mail is a soliders only link to home and theres no such thing as to much.... thank you please email me I to miss my husband so much. And this is why im doing this my way to support our troops....

[Melanie]

I finished the scarf, and there are pictures on my blog. :)