It Has Begun!

I'm so very excited, I have received a photo of the first link created after the testing phase is over! If you join us over on the Ravelry group, you will see that sign-ups have already begun and groups are being assigned, and the packages are out there beginning (slowly, due to me being ill and broke!) to travel the world! Do please come and join us. Help drag suicide into the light where everyone can see it and discuss it and do something to stop it, instead of being ashamed and afraid and alone.

The first link photo that I have received, which can be seen in the slideshow in the sidebar, is from kdyorkie, the starter of the Cassiopeia section. Each section that travels has 5 or 6 members, so that nobody has to wait too long to receive it and add their link, and it doesn't get so heavy that it's expensive to mail.

Can't wait until more photos start showing up and the Sections really start growing with links!

Facts About Suicide

More than 32,000 people in the United States die by suicide every year. It is this country's 11th leading cause of death, and is often characterized as a response to a single event or set of circumstances. However, unlike these popular conceptions, suicide is a much more involved phenomenon. The factors that contribute to any particular suicide are diverse and complex, so our efforts to understand it must incorporate many approaches.

The above quote is taken from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website. Over 32,000 successful suicides take place each year in the United States alone. For myself, in the population group that I belong to (white females between the ages of 25-34), suicide was the third leading cause of death in the year in which the most recent statistics are available. It followed only accidents and malignant neoplasms. If I were older, the statistics would be almost as bad, as white females between the ages of 35-44 had suicide as the fourth leading cause of death.

In 2005, more than 17,000 people committed suicide by using a firearm, 31% of these were women. Each year, approximately 750,000 suicide attempts are made. An estimated 5 million living Americans have attempted suicide, and more females attempt suicide than males.

These numbers are bad enough, but when you consider that every life affects another, the problem of suicide becomes even more clear. It is estimated that each suicide intimately affects at least 6 other people. Based on the more than 742,000 suicides that occurred between 1977 and 2001, it is estimated that the number of survivors of suicides is 4.45 million (1 out of every 64 Americans). Because, on average, a suicide occurs every 17 minutes, there are about 6 new suicide survivors every 17 minutes as well.

In our Chain, every link is a person, and each of those links is surrounded by others. No one stands alone. Help strengthen the whole by reaching out individually: when someone appears to be in trouble, or when you yourself need assistance. Help prevent the numbers on these data sheets. If you or someone you know is suicidal, please go to any of the suicide prevention links in the sidebar of this blog or call a suicide crisis hotline.

What is the Friendship Chain of Yarn Project?

• The Project is, essentially, a long chain made out of separate individual links, either knit or crocheted. Each link is made by a different member of the Project, using a specific set of instructions and a particular pattern that is provided by mail. The links are done in sections by mail, so that members can watch the Chain grow in their hands and see it travel. A Guest Book is maintained for all members to include a little something about themselves when they add their link. The sections are mailed back to the Project Administrator, who adds them to the main Chain.
• The Project is my baby. While participating in the Traveling Scarves Group on Ravelry, I remembered a scarf I'd seen that was made up of separate links, similar to the construction paper chains I'd made as a child at Christmas. Originally I thought it might make a good Traveling Scarf project. Then, thinking about the Christmas chains, I thought it might be better as a longer chain that could be used as a holiday decoration. From there it was a short hop to the longest chain project. In Traveling Scarves, the people in groups were brought together through their scarves, and I thought that contributing to one large project might be a great way to celebrate the friendships between fiber artists.
  
• For more details on the purpose and goal of the Project, please see the rest of the FAQs.
  

How Can I Get Involved?

• If you'd like to be a link in the Chain, you'll need to sign up for Ravelry first. Since Ravelry is in beta, sign up for an invitation on their front page. When you get the welcome link from them that allows you to sign up, come join us in the Friendship Chain of Yarn Group. You'll find a Welcome Thread there, many friendly people, and a way to sign up for the Friendship Chain.
• In order to be a link in the Chain, you'll have to be one in a line of people, which means that your address and full name will be made available to one other member. Individual links are not accepted due to logistical issues, cost-effectiveness, and the fact that the basic premise of this project is to provide a link between people. If anyone were to create an individual link, that separates them from the others involved.
  
• If you're not able to participate as a link at this time, please feel free to sign up for Ravelry and hang out with us in the group anyway! Later you may find that you're able to participate and you'll be ready to sign up. Also, everyone is welcome to donate funds to the project using the PayPal link in the sidebar of this blog. There are continuing administrative costs of postage, yarn for joining links, paper and ink cartridges for instruction booklets, and other items. I am an individual, not a charity, so while I'm happy to explain exactly what my personal costs are for this project, it's not tax-deductible.

How Long is the Chain?

Because the Chain is constantly growing, it wouldn't make sense to update these FAQs every time it does, and so the length isn't listed here. I try to keep a current update on this blog's front page, but for a more accurate length, please check out the Ravelry Friendship Chain of Yarn Group.

Who Runs the Project?

My name is Robyn, and I'm known on Ravelry as onesweettart. I live in California, but I love to travel and hope to see ever more of the world. I'm amazed by the way the internet makes the world so small, but at the same time it seems such a large distance separates me from my online friends.

The Project is not funded or endorsed by any organization, and it is not a charitable or non-profit organization for the purposes of taxes. It is basically an individual project by a single entity with the assistance of many friends. Please see the sidebar for persons who have made special contributions, whether financially or with their time.

What is the Project For?

The main purpose of the Project is to combine fiber arts and friendship, throughout the world and across all boundaries. If two people can reach out to each other, no matter how different they may be, and attempt to create an honest bond, they are bringing together more than just the two of them, they are bringing with them all their other connections. And making the world a smaller place. So many of us have experienced this through the internet, whether on Ravelry or elsewhere. We’ve become close to people with different political beliefs, different faiths, different backgrounds, of vastly different ages…because we knew them first through something we shared, and grew to care for them as a person.

The Friendship Chain aims to do that in a tangible form. Taking those bonds we’ve learned to create online and making them physical in the offline world. No matter how many links separate yours from any other member, you are still linked. And your link strengthens the whole Chain. If one of the links were to be suddenly removed, the entire Chain would cease to be a Chain, and would be two long sets of links. Each loss of an individual breaks the chain and weakens the whole.

So while the Chain represents friendship and the bonds we make as knitters, crocheters, fiber artists, artisans, etc., and this board is here for the fun aspects: the games and chat and jokes and all the rest, the Project as a whole is also meant as a way to aid Suicide Prevention.

Each link represents a person, obviously, the person who made that link. Once the Chain has started growing, I will be taking it to suicide prevention workshops and using it as a talking point. I’ll be attending suicide survivor support groups and teaching the families and friends of those who have taken their lives to do basic stitches, so that they can add their own links to the Chain. I’ll also be helping those who have survived their own suicide attempt add their link, in hopes that the soothing peace that many of us find in knitting and/or crocheting can be a help to them as they move forward through their struggles. I will be happy to have the help of other FCY Group members with these projects.

The message here is a positive one, a message of hope and of community, of support and strength, and the board will be a cheerful, upbeat place of chat and games and all the rest. I’m not looking to make it a depressing project, but to raise awareness, to help those who have been affected, and possibly sometime down the road, to help raise funds for suicide prevention programs.

It’s a lofty goal, I know, and beyond that I’m also hoping for the longest fiber chain ever created, with the most people represented on it, the most countries…I’d like to see this project become something big, to show everyone out there what we can do with a little yarn and some sticks and hooks. While it may seem big, the point is that it takes such a little thing to make a large whole. Piece by piece, together we can make it a success.