We have a winner!

Congratulations to Sherry DW of Northern Minnesota!

I have it on good authority that the Traveling Shawl has been packaged up, along with the accompanying journal and will be mailed to Sherry this week!


Thank you to all of the knitters across the country who worked on the project and to all of the people who donated money to Komen for the Cure and to the people who purchased copies of the pattern.

Sherry has graciously agreed to add photos and a little bit of "her journey" to the Traveling Shawl Blog very soon! Stay tuned to learned about Sherry and her plans for the Traveling Shawl!

Upcoming Announcement

This morning a winner of the Traveling Shawl was chosen through use of the Random Generator. An email has been sent to our winner and her name will be announced shortly.

On behalf of Kay, myself, and all of the Traveling Shawl knitters - Thank You to everyone who participated via donations, knitting, pattern purchases and publicity. It has been an emotional journal for many of us. Kay and I are both a little surprised to find it suddenly over.

We hope you continue to support Komen for the Cure and Breast Cancer Awareness. Run a race, support a Komen team - and please perform self examinations and get mammograms.

Denise Bell
Komen Team Captain

Mark Your Calendars!

The Traveling Shawl has arrived back in Arkansas where it began with knitting designer Kay Meadors.

I chatted with Kay this week and we have chosen October 8, 2009 as the day we will announce the winner of the drawing to own the shawl. Each $5 donation counts as an entry in the drawing, and there is still time to donate to Komen's Passionately Pink for the Cure and get a chance to enter the drawing (or maybe increase your chances!). Follow the link in the right hand column to our Komen team page.

Fifty knitters. Fifty states, One hope - to find a cure for breast cancer.

#50 WISCONSIN

Name: Lynda
Ravelry name: lacelibrarian
Location: Waupun, WI

In honor of my sisters.

Late July update - News, 50th knitter, and Donations

For several weeks The Traveling Shawl was on hiatus while one of our knitters dealt with unforeseen circumstances in her life.

The shawl is now on it's way to our 50th knitter! This week as I traded emails with our 50th knitter, Lynda in Wisconsin, I learned that she is a perfect person to put the final rows on the shawl. I'm sure that Lynda will soon have a post sharing her experience.

When the shawl was again on it's way this week we also learned that The Traveling Shawl was highlighted in the News section of the Fall Issue of Vogue Knitting (page 18) in a lovely article titled Sister Stitchers. We hope that everyone who is following the shawl's progress will take the opportunity to read this wonderful tribute to our project. A big thank you to the people at Vogue!

On the Donation front - we've surpassed our goal of $1000! Originally Kay and I had discussed and set a goal of $5000. Yes, it was quite an enthusiastic goal. As financial problems began to have a devastating affect on many citizens we realized that the economic struggle would impact donations to charitable contributions as people lost jobs and homes and we lowered our goal. As we all know though, cancer happens regardless of what the financial state is of the nation. Men and women are still being diagnosed, seeking treatment, recovering and dying of breast cancer. Because our goal of $1000 dollars has been achieved we hope that you will continue to donate and purchase the pattern of The Traveling Shawl in an effort to contribute to the research that will some day find a cure for this disease.

Thank you

#49 MINNESOTA

Name: Meg
Ravelry Name: Peaceknits
Location: Duluth, MN
In honor of Nana.

In the News in Lincoln, Nebraska

Here is an article about Kim in Lincoln, Nebraska and the shawl.

#48 IOWA

Name: Wendy
Ravelry Name: Maerchen
Location: Des Moines, IA

#47 Lincoln, NE

The shawl arrived at my home on June 26. I knew as soon as I saw the box, it was my turn. One of 50 knitters who would share a project, that could make a difference---that could help find a cure. When I first saw the project on Ravelry, I thought it was an amazing idea. I have knit prayer shawls for several years, but to have one shawl created by so many hands, whose story is spread across the country seemed pretty powerful.

Over the past few years, I have known several women who have fought battles with cancer. One lost her battle, another is fighting the disease for a second time. Several have gone through surgery, chemo and radiation---they are probably the bravest people I know.

Article in the Aberdeen American News

Here is an article on the South Dakota leg of the journey.

#46 The Little Shawl on the Prairie- The Shawl in South Dakota

When most people think of South Dakota, they picture Mt. Rushmore. I take nothing away from The Hills (well, okay, maybe I do. I grew up in the shadow of the Cascades, so to me, The Hills are just that- pretty hills with a few trees on them), but there is more to South Dakota than a carved mountain and a drug store that gives away free ice water.


I live in Eas Triver (SD Parlance for the half of the state that is east of the Missiouri River), the land of the 360 degree horizon, where you can watch thunderstorms building up 100 miles away (a handy thing, especially lately), where 20 mph steady winds are considered a breeze, where there truly are amber waves of grain.



I was happy to represent my part of the state as the South Dakota knitter for the Traveling Shawl. I expected to take some pictures of The Shawl on the prairie (after all of its travels to big cities and the like, I thought a quiet day or two in the country would be a relief), and I knew that I would marvel at this amazing project, and at all of the knitters who have contributed to it so far. I expected to feel proud, both of the knitters, and of myself, for being part of an enterprise that is so much more than the sum of its participants. I expected to be blown away by the beauty of the design and the softness of the yarn, and I worried that my own knitting skills would not be up to that of the previous 45 knitters.


All of those things happened (my skill was likely up to standard, but I was still intimidated by the possibility of making a mistake).


What I didn't expect, and what caught me totally off guard, was the emotional wallop of seeing the shawl, this work of love and dedication, and the accompanying journal, in person.


The shawl itself is gorgeous, worked in a softly variegated dark mauve, and the yarn is incredibly soft (and even the needles are pretty- KP Harmony circulars). I oohed and aahed over it for a bit, before opening the journal to find page after page, each written by a different knitter, most dedicating their work to specific women and men, battlers, survivors, and those who lost their battle with breast cancer.


The stories described on every page of that journal were amazing, and overwhelming. So many people affected, so much love, so much courage. So much grace. I am not ashamed to say that I wept.



I talked about the emotional connection I felt to the writers, and to the men and women mentioned, whom I will never meet, to the TV and newspaper reporters yesterday (one, whose writing was a little slower due to numbness and redness in her hands, from her own chemotherapy), but I'm not sure I got the point across as well as I would have liked. I talked about how amazing it is to contribute to a single piece, crafted by so many hands, each working with love.


I talked about the women I dedicated my work to- our neighbor Paulette, who lost her battle, and my knitting and spinning friend Deb, who is still battling. I talked about the mundane things, like how to go about donating to this amazing cause. And of course, I talked about myself, because that's the way I roll.


But last night, when I was doing the actual knitting, I thought not only about Paulette and Deb, and the other men and women mentioned in the journal, but about all of the people in my life who have faced cancer. I thought about my husband's mother, and two of his brothers, all gone far too young, and his sister, whose cancer was caught early and cured. I thought about my friend Diane, whose mother, and two grandmothers all battled the Big C. And my stepmother. And Betty at the library. And Kevin. I thought about my aunt, dying of lung cancer in her 40's, and a cousin who died before reaching adolescence, and an uncle with brain cancer. And I thought about my son, whose dire prognosis eight years ago, laid me flat. He faced his ordeal with much more grace and courage than I did, and came through with only scars (visible, and non) as reminders of that dark time.


I thought about how much I whine and moan, how little time I take to appreciate just being here, and being with those I love. I knitted my six rows on the Traveling Shawl as a contribution to a cause, to a fight, that I wholeheartedly support and believe in. But The Traveling shawl gave in return- a renewed awareness of my own good fortune and happiness, and a hope that should I face this battle, that I will be even half as brave as the people in the journal, as my own friends and family have been.


I am honored, and humbled, to be a part of this project.

#45 Minot, North Dakota

Well, the shawl was here from 17 June to 19 June. I worked on it at our weekly knitting group,on my break at work, and at the Midsommer Natt Festival (we have strong Scandinavian roots around here!) The above photos are by the Dala Horse at the Scandinavian Heritage Park, on my sofa at the shop, and at the shop.

#44 Traveling Shawl In Montana

I knit in honor of my sister-in-law, Tonia. She is a courageous warrior as she continues her radiation, the final stages of her battle against Breast Cancer. She is a hero.













In true western tradition, I took the Shawl with me as we took our cattle to their summer pasture which looks at the North Eastern side of Glacier National Park. Sorry...the cows are behind me...I wasn't about to get this beauty dirty!


























Highway 2 travels East to West across the Montana area called the Hi Line. (Chester calls itself the Heart of the Hi Line.) These shots are taken at Marias Pass, which is almost 1 mile about sea level. In the background you looking North at Glacier National Park.































My goal for this day was to have the shawl shared in an article...which did happen! Alas, I don't have the link as it was a pdf file...but I hope to have a link or photos from that article later. Until then, here is a photo of the shawl at the Kalispell, MT WWKIP.

In the News in Oregon.

Here is another article on our shawl. This time it features our Oregon knitter, Jackie Sario.

#43 CHEYENNE, WYOMING

The shawl arrived while I was away visiting my new grandson. As soon as I returned home, I knit my 6 rows and it is now on its way to Montana!
I knit on this beautiful shawl in memory of 2 very special people in my life: Gail Shearer, who was my knitting mentor and my first employee. She was a master knitter and endured some real hardships in her life. She lost both her son and daughter to cancer, before it took her also. Carla Rae Figgins was a dear friend and customer who fought the fight with as much dignity as she could, but in the end could not beat it.
I knit this in honor of my pastor's wife, Lois Hansen, who recently found out she has breast cancer and is very brave as she starts her quest.
I want to thank Kay for starting this shawl on its journey of life.
Penny Franz
Ewe Count
Cheyenne, WY

#42 IDAHO

I am honored to be the Idaho knitter on this shawl. I was so excited when I learned it was on its way to me. I am knitting this shawl in honor of my dear friend Becky who showed me how a real woman handles such adversity. She always had a positive attitude; she smiled constantly; she went to work every day while taking care of her children and her household; she had complete faith that she would be healed. After her chemo, radiation, and mastectomy, she said that having breast cancer had brought her so many blessings thqat she would not otherwise have had.

I am knitting in the hope that daughters and granddaughters will never have to face this trial.

The shawl visited the Field of Heroes during the Memorial Day holiday.

#41 Oregon

Name: Jackie

Ravelry Name: AThousandCranes

Location: John Day, OR

Occupation: Legal Secretary

Here's what I wrote in the Traveling Journal accompanying the Traveling Shawl:

'My mom, Hisako from Hiroshima, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991. Actually, back then, all of the sisters still alive in her family developed breast cancer within 5 years of each other. How strange. I guess this was yet another reminder of the atomic bomb legacy in our family.

I knew that the lace was a mauve-ish pink but I didn't realize that it was my mom's favorite shade of mauve until I opened the box. What a lovely surprise … made me tear up a bit. If she was still alive, I know that she would've wanted me to knit her one just like it. So, if I don't win the raffle, I guess I'll have to knit a twin sister to the Traveling Shawl in my mom's memory.

I knit my six rows in memory of my mom, Hisako Otani Brown. I knit in honor of all survivors, my loving respect for your strength and beauty represented in this handwork.'

Article in the Salt Lake Tribune

Here is another article. This time in the Salt Lake Tribune.

#40 Utah

Name: Nancy
Ravelry Name: KnitThisPurlThat
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Occupation: Teacher

I had a wonderful experience with the Traveling Shawl...it was touching yet fun. My husband and I took it up to the Olympic Stadium at the University of Utah - the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics. In the background of the second photo you can see the caldron - it's an amazing sight.

We also took it to the Komen Race For The Cure! I heard there were 18,000 participants this year. We passed out flyers and spoke to many people about the shawl.

I was interviewed for a newspaper article and the paper had a photographer take pictures while I knit my rows. We used the Cancer Wellness House as the setting...it's a wonderful resource in our community.

Finally, here is a photo from my chemo days with the shawl nestled in front. This is where I contemplated what the shawl experience meant to me, and I thought of the women who helped me along the past four years.

I knit in memory of Robyn who inspired me in countless ways as she continued to teach as long as she possibly could.

I knit in memory of Val who told me her cancer had spread to her brain and spine, yet she offered her phone number to me and told me to call if I needed someone to talk to.

I knit for Gina who spends so much time and energy mentoring women online, guiding them through the hardest parts of the journey. Thank you for everything Towanda!

I knit for the women and men who knit chemo caps and afghans for others, giving them one of the best gifts of all - something made from the hands and heart.

I knit for Brenda and Phyllis - my Towanda sisters - who are still in the fight. I think of you often.

And I knit for the women who will find a lump in their breast today...

I found a pin in the airport gift shop, and this was written on the packaging...it sums up my experience with cancer:

Life's Rider

The ride was long and hard and I lost my dreams along the way.

When I arrived, I found them waiting.

- Alice Seely

#39 ALASKA

Name: Monica
Ravelry Name: Snowmagnolia
Location: Fairbanks, AK
Occupation: Administrative Assistant
In honor of all breast cancer survivors.