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Sea Turtles
Sea turtles are one of the Earth’s most ancient creatures. The seven species that can be found today have been around for 110 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. The sea turtle’s shell, or “carapace” is streamlined for swimming through the water. Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their legs and head into their shells. Their color varies between yellow, greenish and black depending on the species.
Sea turtles are found in all warm and temperate waters throughout the world and migrate hundreds of miles between nesting and feeding grounds. Most sea turtles undergo long migrations, some as far as 1400 miles, between their feeding grounds and the beaches where they nest.
Behavior
Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the water, where not much information can be gathered on their behavior. Most of what is known about sea turtle behavior is obtained by observing hatchlings and females that leave the water to lay eggs. Sea turtles, like salmon, will return to the same nesting grounds at which they were born. When females come to the shore they dig out a nest in the ground with their back flippers, bury their clutch of eggs and return to the ocean. After hatching, the young may take as long as a week to dig themselves out of the nest. They emerge at night, move toward the ocean and remain there, solitary, until it is time to mate.
Why They’re Important
Sea turtles have been around since the dinosaurs. They are a food source for many species and provide essential functions for marine and coastal environments. As just one example, on the coastal dune systems, the egg shells left over after sea turtles hatch become essential nutrients for dune vegetation. This, in turn, prevents the dunes from eroding so they continue to provide protection against storms and sea swells. As with all wildlife, protecting one species has a large ripple effect throughout the ecosystem.
Major Threats
About 1 in 1,000 baby sea turtles will make it to adulthood. The biggest threats to sea turtles by far are related to human activities. These include: habitat loss due to coastal development and urbanization, disturbance from artificial lighting, capture in commercial fisheries, eating or getting entangled in marine debris, oil spills, human poaching and off-road vehicle use on beaches.
What Defenders is Doing to Help
Over the last decade, Defenders of Wildlife has been working tirelessly to protect sea turtle populations and the habitat they desperately depend on for survival. Our legal team has brought suits against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to protect turtles from fishing-related deaths and our Florida experts have fought to improve coastal lighting practices and prevent poorly planned coastal development and damaging shoreline armoring projects at some of the most important nesting beaches in Florida.
Source : http://www.defenders.org/
Support Inkbean by completing any one of these free offers:
Let’s be blunt for a moment, Yarn cost money. These premature babies and abandoned pets could use some love and that’s the whole focus of Inkbean. Without money to buy yarn, we can’t show them love.
Now it’s easy and FREE to help us help them. Take a few minutes each week and complete one or all of the offers below. Each one is completely free and takes under 3 minutes to complete.
If you really want to help Inkbean this is the best free way to do it. With each offer you complete we earn $1. The numbers add up and can really buy enough yarn to provide pet pads for the 100 dogs and 125 cats that live only a few miles from us. So please,take 3 minutes out of your day each week and complete just one of these offers.
Remember it’s completely free.
The Offers:
Enter your email, name or your zipcode to get started:
Infants, dogs, and cats aren’t being blessed by strangers. They are being blessed by secret friends. They don’t have to know who bestows the gift to feel loved. They just feel the love, and that is the point. It must feel good to know someone is snuggling up in a comfy blanket because of your efforts.
When it comes to crocheting a blanket, for a premature infant or dogs and cats who need something loving in their lives, the important thing is to keep your patterns as simple and useful as possible.
Of course, an animal won’t be as picky as a premature infant because they have less of a risk of getting sick from something like a designer yarn.
Premature infant blankets need to follow these rules:
Rule one- Keep the stitch simple yet effective. I enjoy granny squares because they are both. They are pretty quick to make. I also love afghan stitches with a nice fat hook because of the speed, design, and the fact they aren’t super tight. This prevents the baby from getting too warm in too short a time.
Rule two- I keep each blanket around the same size so they fit in a shipping box or a general box quickly. Sometimes I send blankets to locations around the world. The shipping can be very expensive. To reduce that cost, I stack the blankets that are the same size and of similar thickness.
Rule three – The yarn I use is not cotton. Some infants are actually allergic to cotton. If you use cotton, leave a note on the blanket that says that, so the nurses know which babies can’t use it.
Rule four – Label the blanket, if possible, so the parentsr know who it came from and who to thank in their minds and hearts. I only started doing this because I am making so many, and I want these parents to know just where they came from.
Rule five – I keep the blankets up to 25 inches all around. This is a nice size that fits most babies. I also make blankets that are at least 20 inches. When I was younger, most of them were about 10 inches. I was informed that these may be kind of small and limited to only certain babies. I want every child to benefit from this hard work.
When it comes to animal blankets, there are certain rules as well. I have only begun this project recently. The deadline is farther away because these blankets need to be a wide range of sizes to fit all of the animals. There are big animals in shelters as well as small ones.
I follow the rules below.
Rule one- I keep the stitch even more simple. I also avoid lacy patterns that have holes in them. It can be frightening to an animal to get a nail stuck in a blanket.
Rule two – I use whatever yarn is clean and simple to work with. I am ok with using cotton. but I do ask sometimes if it’s ok. Cotton is a huge issue for both projects as you can tell.
Rule three. – I don’t label these blankets because it’s a complete waste. I know the dog or cat will just take it off.
Rule four- Cat blankets are all the same size. Kitten blankets are the same size as well. Dog blankets are three different sizes because there are three different sized dogs. I might call the shelter before starting on the larger blankets to make sure I make enough. The sizes range from 15 inches for the kittens to 36 inches for the big dogs. I don’t change the size for puppies because of the wide range of their growth. Normally, the shelter will just pick out the ones that fit the best.
Rule five – I work on them for awhile to insure that the stitches are even and well taken care of. I don’t normally use the afghan stitch for big dogs but, maybe, for kittens because it can be tons quicker
Rule six- I might use a number of yarns combined. It gives me a nice tight stitch that will last pretty long. Shelters love this because it really does allow the snuggle to last for about 3 months sometimes even 6 months.
These rules are here to help you if you decide to crochet or knit some really great items for both premature infants or for dogs and cats.
One more thing… I find it silly and wasteful to make anything but blankets for babies, cats and dogs. Sometimes people make booties. It’s pointless since, many times, they are too tight to even be used and might also make the baby too hot. It’s just a waste of time. Save those booties and hats for mature babies or for gifts for the mothers.
Soon I will be adding some of my personal patterns that might help you. I will also be supplying some links to patterns and helpful videos for those of you who have never crocheted before. I can’t provide knitting patterns because I don’t have any. Sorry.
Thank you for your continued support and taking the time to read this article. Crocheting so many blankets for so many animals isn’t easy in any way. Your support is greatly needed.
You can support Ink Bean by simply liking or tweeting any of our postings or forwarding the emails to your friends and family. Getting the word out is so important because I know, with your help, dogs, cats, and premature infants can get the things they need to become healthy and feel blessed. Help us help them.
To find out the patterns I use you can visit the Tiny I Que blog or to find a showcase of wonderful crochet patterns please visit the Charity Crochet Blog.
Thanks and All the best,
Chimica
CEO and Editor of Ink Bean
The P. B. and J. Project
P = Pets
This times it’s all about the pets. This means cats and dogs! I want to work on building pet pads that are used in animal shelters. These will keep the bottom of the kennels warm when it gets really cold out. They are quick to make and are normally considered rugs. Grab a rug pattern and start knitting or crocheting some pet pads. Make circle rugs ( pet pads) for the cats and rectangle ones for all sizes of dogs. These pet pads have little to no restriction, so feel free to build them from whatever you can. We are hoping to donate 15 to 20 pet pads every month… That means within a year we will have at least given 100 pet pads!
B= Babies
Last year it was all about the blankets. This time it’s about baby booties and baby hats. Both of these take very little time to make because they are smaller but the rules are unique because they have direct contact with the body of the child. These will still be donated to premature babies. We are hoping to donate 15 to 25 sets each month. That is a ton but it’s very easy to reach because baby booties only take 1 oz of yarn per pair. While the yarn needed is less… the cost of yarn is still there.
J= Joy
This year we are spreading the joy of reading , writing and learning. We will be publishing the first yearbook which is going to be called Joy. Secondly we will be holding a magazine fund raiser. This fund raiser will provide Ink Bean with enough funds to pay for the ebook publishing and also to afford buying enough yarn to do these monthly projects.
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How you can help:
- Spreed the word! Let others who are crafters or writers know about Ink Bean and all the great things that is going on over here. A quick tweet of this page can help so much!
- Crochet , knit or even sew something for the project above.
- Buy a magazine subscription from this site once the fund raiser starts.
- Submit your work to this website and get placed into the yearbook so that you can help us market and spreed th word as well. [/message]
Learn to Crochet using these great books:
Teach Yourself VISUALLY Crochet – By Cecily Keim
Crochet the Complete Guide – By Jane Davis
The Easy Learn to Crochet in Just One Day – Bobbie Matela
Learn to Knit using these great books:
The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting – Nancy Queen
Teach Yourself VISUALLY Knitting - Sharon Turner
You can also use classic sewing to create these goodies.
Find patterns at these great websites (and more!) – Just search for free patterns, and you will find tons. Soon there will be a list that has my all time favorite patterns to make.
Send your completed item or baby weight yarn to:
Chimica Robinson
1633 Lauterbach St
Lancaster Ca 93535
Deadlines:
The last day of the each month is when things will be delivered to different locations around the world.
Want to see the progress?
Want to see the most recent pictures? Then visit our Duckboard page…. We are very thankful to the Duckboard developers for providing Ink Bean with an account for free. This page will allow you to check out the latest counts, fun facts and also check out pictures.
Link for the Ducksboard page is coming soon.
Questions? Comments? Please contact Chimica Robinson P.O Box 283 Lancaster Ca 93534 — 661- 802-7197 — Sweetcrabhoney18@aol.com
About Chimica: For nearly 10 years , Chimica has been creating premature baby and pet pads for others. Over the years she has worked hard to make those that need love, feel love. She’s also a professional freelance writer and a proud mommy webmaster. Ink Bean is a labor of love and passion.