The A4A blog and ads

Hi, everyone --

I need to bring up a subject that some may not have seen when I last posted about it in the comments section. Ann and I have decided it's necessary to bring it up more visibly now, but I hope doing so does not make anyone uncomfortable.

A few weeks ago, in the comments section, I noted that that we wanted to keep this blog totally noncommercial. I had hoped to avoid writing a featured post like this one. When people come here, from links on the A4A site, or when they do a search for A4A, it's so much more inspiring for them to see all of our beautiful work and enthusiasm. This blog is intended as a community of knitters working together to aid the suffering civilians of Afghanistan, especially children, and that's what the focus has always been intended to be.

I know that the people who post info about the sales on wool yarn are doing it purely in a spirit of sharing, and hope you all will understand why we're asking that the blog pull back a bit to its main focus. The enthusiasm of the last few weeks as we raced the deadline for the youth campaign was so exciting -- I'd love to see us all keep feeling that way!

When I asked, before, that no further sales be mentioned on this blog, I did mention that all of the "big box" craft stores offer email newsletters that you can subscribe to. They'll send you advance notice of what's on sale next week, and they often (some of them always) include a pretty good coupon. That's an even better way to find out what good deals are around.

So, does that mean you can't ever mention a store by name? A gray area, indeed. If your local store is having a knit-in for A4A, by all means say who and where they are! If your local store is a place that carries great wools, has a nice owner, and you really think everyone should try to shop there -- no, that's an ad. If a local yarn store gave you all the yarn you used for your afghan, that's even grayer -- but I think a public thank you would be OK.

--Elizabeth