It rained (wool) at the AFSC Basement in San Francisco.

Monday's super-strong gang included (left to right) Kirstin (Happy Birthday!), Charlene, Bette and Giovanna. Carol R had to catch the street car to the ferry, so escaped before we took the photo. Bette and Giovanna visited us as emissaries from the Fiberfrolics knitting group in Benecia, above San Francisco. Our longtime supporter and friend, Carol M, involved the Fiberfrolics many years ago, and they have knit hundreds of sweaters and hats and other garments for a4A. Giovanna owns the yarn shop, of the same name, that orchestrates charity knitting and includes us because they love to use wool. Glad the ladies could drive down to deliver their pile of colorful hats and spend the afternoon with us. We needed their muscle. A huge pile of boxes and envelopes were waiting for us. We worked non-stop to open as many as possible .

On Tuesday, Candace, Elizabeth, Marina, Rachel, Susan, and Anne finished opening almost all the mail and reviewing the baby socks. That more than filled our afternoon, and we even started to fill the cartons that will be sent to Afghanistan. I have no idea how most of the afternoon's stars managed to escape the camera, but they did. (You could probably search this blog to find photos of the long-timers.)

Susan visited us all the way from Bezerkeley. Let me tell you, meeting her and hearing about her work was very meaningful and not bezerk in the least. Susan coaches Afghan-American immigrants in English as part of the social service programs of Jewish Family and Children Services East Bay. While the women visit and support each other, Susan has them knitting for Afghanistan. Susan brought over their beautifully well-made hats to add to our cartons heading to their homeland. Susan's on the right (Anne is on the left):

Anne was a special visitor from Wellesley, MA. In town for work, she managed to schedule us in before flying home -- and we had a super visit. Anne G is connected to a group that reached out to the people of Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11. Anne's neighbor lost her husband on the United Airlines plane.

Can you believe that Anne brought us a box of chocolates not available, everywhere, thanks to globalization? Check out this exotic box from New England nestled in with the fabulous wool baby socks:

Golden foil for precious wool baby hats --

The Baby Shower ended on July 31. Knitters and crocheters across the US and Canada, plus some Royal Mail, a package from Switzerland, and Japan, too, plus maybe a couple other far-away lands responded enthusiastically to the invitation to create wool socks and hats for babies at the Malalai Maternity Hospital in Kabul.We don't know yet how many heads and footsies are going to be warmer and happier because of our generous volunteers, but the number will have 4 digits.

Here's the first of the cartons to be packed up ... 500 pairs ... 1,000 Afghan feet ... 5,000 Afghan toes!

Thank you, Knitters and Crocheters, for Afghanistan! XOXOXOXO

Thank you, Stephen McNeil, Director of Peace Building at AFSC, and the front office staff at AFSC.

Group hug, everyone, and enjoy the weekend.

Wish we could make it rain rain in California, too, but our powers are limited.