Link Log for August 6

A short one. Categories: Charity, Crafts, Faith.

Charity 

You can take it from someone who's been homeless, penniless, out of work...

http://personapaper.com/article/36352-what-is-toxic-charity

Some readers may notice something about the charitable causes this web site endorses. They're in aid of all kinds of different things--disaster relief, animals, diseases, disabilities, education, more--but they're not (so far as I know) about enabling a lifestyle of dependency on handouts.

Crafts 

Entrelac is a traditional knitting pattern that makes a sock, mitten, sweater, etc., look like a basket woven from strips of multicolor knitting, while the knitter handles only one strand of yarn at a time. (At least, unless the knitter is doing one of Christian de Falbe's more imaginative designs with multicolor patterns in the strips...though even this one uses only one strand at a time.) +Theresa Wiza has samples and a demonstration of how to crochet in entrelac.

http://www.allcraftconnection.org/2015/08/crochet-quilting-using-entrelac-crochet.html

Every day seems to be Almost Wordless Wednesday at this crafts blog; open it only if your browser can handle masses of pictures. But the pictures are pretty, clear, and informative.

http://iputabirdonit.blogspot.com/

Faith 

Liz Klimas shares a possibly predictable finding that people who live in places where they can commune with nature may be less likely to go to church...or even identify with a traditional religion at all. To which I'll add: As long as churches tell people they should be or pretend to be extroverts, people like my husband and me (who did identify as traditional Christians) will probably prefer to do our prayer, study, and worship at home if we can't go out and do it in green space. I miss being part of a "church of two members." I'd like to have someone to worship with, again...but it won't be a church where anybody can say "If you really loved Jesus you'd be more 'outgoing'" (without immediate excommunication).

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/06/study-finds-something-else-could-be-meeting-peoples-spiritual-needs-in-place-of-traditional-churches-nature/?