Dulaan Photos!
I'm back on campus to start my research! I just finished unpacking, and I'm exhausted. I'll post about that later. Right now--I promised Dulaan photos before I left, so here they are!



That's the entire load, 32 items in all. A dozen more than my goal of 20!




The scarves, which made up the bulk of the items (partly because Linda Shank from the President's Office put together seven of them in about two weeks).



The sweaters. The two adult sweaters on top are the famous sweaters from President Muhlenfeld. (They were pretty clearly made some time ago, but are amazing all the same.)



Hats and mittens. Look at that pale green one on the bottom left: that one was knit by the ten year old daughter of a Government professor here after his wife got involved with the project. I love the idea of a child here in America knitting for a child in Mongolia! (His wife's contributions were amazing, too--that strawberry hat there, and also the huge purple scarf pictured above. They're both very finely made, and I was impressed.)



Blankets, and toys. I taught my friend Mary to knit before spring break, and she took to making bears like the one pictured above--she's made four or five now at least, and now one is going to Mongolia! The cat was mine. Not pictured is a soft yellow baby afghan that I didn't manage to pick up from the Chaplain's Office until literally minutes before I shipped the box off.

It breaks down as follows:

15 scarves
3 sweaters (two adult, one child)
2 mittens
5 hats
1 vest
3 fleece blankets
1 small afghan
2 handknit toys

My fish blanket didn't make it into this box--I have all the pieces, but with finals and packing up everything I own, I just didn't have enough time to seam it together. I'll put it in the box I'm sending out in June.

I was a little afraid I would end up making most of the items myself, with just a few things from the school, so I'm happy (I guess?) to say that only six of them were mine. The Sweet Briar community really came together for this! Without giving you a list of all the names, here's a list of all the different departments and offices that I got stuff from:

Development Office
Government Department
Academic Resource Center (and English)
Alumnae Office
Class of 2009
Class of 2010
Finance and Administration
Studio Art
President's Office

Also, the Lynchburg News and Advance did a story on it, which means that I'm beginning to get people from off campus contacting me. In particular, a woman who's on the board of a local charity thrift store (Red Apple Thrift Shop, if you're in the area) has gotten involved--she's buying things that come through the store to send them off. I saw some of the stuff she's getting, and it's wonderful. Basically, this is the coolest thing I've ever been able to get involved with--because we're helping people, yes, but also because it feels so great to see so much good will just popping out of the woodwork.

And over break, I managed to come up with five items towards the next box--four are mine, because I couldn't stop knitting all week, and one is from the close friend I was staying with while I was gone (who also happens to be connected to Sweet Briar). Forward ho!