Knitting for Charity 2010
Knitters are very generous people. We know that many of you already knit for charity and that there is a need for more promotion on knitting for charity. We have received many enquiries asking which charities need knitters and we hope to let you know, but we do need your help.
If you know of any fundraising activities which involves knitting, please let us know so that we can keep everyone informed
Click here to tell us of any charity you are knitting for that would welcome help from other knitters
Here are some projects currently involved in raising money through Knitting for Charity
Hats On For Homeless People: Woolly Hat Day Friday 22 October
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Woolly Hat Day |
Ed Byrne |
St Mungoes Supporters |
St Mungo's in London would like knitters to support its first ever Woolly Hat Day on Friday 22 October, a day designed to raise funds and awareness about homelessness in modern day Britain.
The charity is asking people to show their support by putting their 'hats on for homeless people' in a variety of ways:
* Knit a hat, wear it on the day and donate £2 to St Mungo's
* Make some hats and sell them to family, friends and colleagues at a fundraising hat party perhaps
* Be sponsored to wear your wildest woolly or silliest hat for the day
* Get creative! Come up with your original hat-related way of raising money to mark Woolly Hat Day
The funds raised by Woolly Hat Day will allows St Mungo's to continue offering a recovery pathway from being homeless through to a more independent life. St Mungo's supports people in London, Bristol, Oxford, Reading and the south of England, housing more than 1,500 people every night of the year. The vision of the organisation is simple - everyone should have somewhere to live, something meaningful to do and satisfying relationships with others.
Top comedian and actor Ed Byrne is backing St Mungo's Woolly Hat Day. Between gigs and Mock the Week, he found time to visit one of the St Mungo's hostels and meet some of the residents. Ed says: "Use your head and put a hat on to show your support for the ground breaking work that St Mungo's does for our homeless population."
Tanya English, St Mungo's Executive Director of Fundraising and Communications said: "Rough sleeping is not easy any time of the year but as colder, darker nights set in, homeless people can face particular problems on the streets. That's why we chose a day at the end of October, just before the clocks go back, as our first St Mungo's Woolly Hat Day. Our hope is that many people will take part and the day will become a major national fundraising focus for people to show their support for homeless people as well as a significant awareness builder for homelessness issues and the good work that St Mungo's does in helping people recover."
Click here for details of how to obtain fundraising packs and others ways you can take part
Teddies For Tragedies
Wendy has written in to tell us about Teddies for Tragedies: "I knit and collect from other knitters for a charity called Teddies for Tragedies. We are always on the look out for new knitters or new sewers as each teddy comes with a material bag to keep it in. The charity operates all over the UK. There are a number of people like myself who coordinate the making and distribution of teddies when a charity asks for some. Each coordinator has a posse of knitters to call on and when a charity in the region asks for teddies I will get the knitters on the case. In the SW area I check the teddies and do any changes that are needed so that they are up to the standard we require, I then get them to the charity requesting them. Each teddy comes in a cloth bag and I have people who cannot knit but make the bags for me. There is also a crotchet pattern."
Click here to learn more about this charity and how you can take part
Age UK: The Big Knit 2010
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Once again knitters are poised ready with their needles to take part in The Big Knit 2010 and knit hats for Innocent Smoothies.
Katy West, a volunteer at Age UK Wiltshire has written to remind everyone about The Big Knit and to request that enthusiastic knitters in Wiltshire get in touch:
"Once again this year, Age UK is participating in ‘The Big Knit’ in conjunction with Sainsburys and Innocent Smoothies; for every little hat that is knitted for the Innocent Smoothie and Juice bottles, Age UK receives 25p. We have set an ambitious target of knitting 16,000 hats with the hope to raise £4000 and are looking for enthusiastic knitters from the Wiltshire area to help us achieve this!"
Click here for further details if you live in Wiltshire
Click here for details of how you can take part if you live anywhere else in the UK
Help Raise Money For Age Scotland By Knitting Tiny Bobble Hats For Innocent Smoothie Bottles
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Every year Age Scotland asks the country’s knitters to get their needles out and create tiny bobble hats to keep bottles of innocent smoothies warm in winter. For every little hat sent for smoothie bottles to wear, 25p is donated to Age Scotland.
This enables Age Scotland to, amongst other things, provide information, advice and materials such as our Hot Tips guide that are aimed at ensuring the country’s older, isolated and vulnerable people know what to do to stay warm in winter.
So far Age Scotland member groups and individual members are on track to deliver the 28,000 little hats they have committed themselves to knitting, but 12,000 are still needed to meet our ambitious target.
Novice knitters can easily master the simple pattern and more advanced knitters can challenge themselves to create something more outlandish – any colour, yarn, stitching or design, as long as it will fit on the 4cm-wide bottle top, and is knitted. It can also feature a bobble of some kind.
So, get out your 3mm - 4 mm knitting needles and start stitching, then send your completed hats to:
Joyce Sperber, Age Scotland, Causewayside House, 160 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PR by 13th September 2010.
Click here for details of how you can take part if you live in Scotland
Forever Our Angels Of Northern Island
Karen Hodgson is involved with knitting for Forever Our Angels. This is a charity which makes up memory boxes for parents who have lost babies.
Click here to contact Karen if you are able to help knit baby hats
Click here for website
RNIB
Donna Fillary recent lost her father after a long illness. Throughout his illness, the RNIB gave him his only lifeline and as such Donna wants to repay them for all they did for her Father and other people who find themselves loosing their sight.
She has hired a stand at a Christmas Craft Fair in Essex and is trying desperately to get stock to sell on their stall. Every single penny they sell an item for will go directly to the RNIB, but they are having trouble finding enough knitters who would be willing to get their knitting needles out and knit items.
Click here to contact Donna if you can help or would like to donate knitted items
Click here to the RNIB website
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Julia making plans at Knit Wits, Penzance |
Guy, Tom and Matt |
Guy and Tom |
Julia and designer Tina Baratt |
Back in 1980 Matt Hopson (Cornish Organic Wool Ltd) was injured whilst training in the Army. After an operation he was sent to RAF Chessington Rehabilitation Centre where he found himself amongst men from the Parachute Regiment injured in the Warrenpoint bombing. It’s an experience he has never forgotten and, to this day, he wonders what happened to these men (and many others like them) and what support they received.
Thirty years later, with men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with horrific injuries, Matt and Julia’s sons – Guy (16) and Tom (15) – asked if they could spend a fortnight of their summer holiday 2010 cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End in aid of Help for Heroes. Matt thought it was such a fantastic idea he had better cycle with them. The plan is for the entire family to leave Penzance for John O’Groats on July 9th and then leave John O’Groats for Land’s End on July 11th.
Julia will be driving the backup campervan and the boys were concerned that she would get terribly bored waiting for them. And so the idea of the “End to End Sweater” was born. Designed by Tina Barrett, the sweater will be cast on by Julia at John O’Groats and, all being well, she will be wearing it at Land’s End 13 days later.
Julia said, “I don’t think I’ve every knitted a sweater in such a short space of time and I’m not a particularly fast knitter so I can see knitting going on late into the night when the exhausted cyclists are snoring around me. I’ve left the design entirely to Tina but I did ask for it to be not too complicated and not in 4ply! So far as we know, this has never been done before and I think getting the Guinness Record for the Largest Knitting Needles was a doddle compared to this challenge!”
This epic adventure will commence on Sunday 11th July from John. O'Groats
Click here to follow their progress on Julia's blog
Click here for information about Help For Heroes and how you can get involved
Mencap
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The Knitter's chosen charity of the year for 2010 is Mencap and the magazine has asked us to let you know all the exciting ways that you can get involved.
First of all there are patterns to download from the Mencap website including great hat designs from Lynda Bellingham and Mathew Horne. The Knitter is delighted to let you know about their nationwide event which they have called 'Make and Bake for Mencap'." We know how much knitting groups love to get together - any excuse and we will stop by for a cuppa and a piece of cake . So why not turn this into a fundraising event for Mencap? There is a great pack to download on the website and with Learning Disability Week from 21st to 27th June, the timing couldn’t be better to plan your event."
Click here for patterns, fundraising packs and news of an exciting competition you can enter
Families Against Neuroblastoma
Linza Corp runs Families Against Neuroblastoma, a children's cancer charity. She has launched an appeal for knitted squares to form a bank that children can pick from (from online photos) to create a patchwork blanket of their choosing, to keep with them through their treatment.
The squares are based on 10cm square panels, but knitters can choose to knit multiples of this to create 20cm by 20cm square, or 30cm by 30cm, or even 20cm by 10cm etc. each 10cm square panel will count as 1 choice, therefor a 30cm square panel will count as 9 choices. (A baby blanket would add up to around 100 choices, and a junior blanket around 600)
Every year there are around 100 children diagnosed with this type of cancer.
The panels can be of any design at all, and can be heavily embellished with any type of decoration, buttons, beads, patchwork etc, or can be plain.
Please send completed panels to:
FAN,
The Old Stores,
Main Road,
Elm,
Wisbech,
PE14 0AB
Click here for more information from the FAN website
Alpaca Maraca
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Alpaca Maraca is a small children’s charity based in Leeds set up to provide kids with disabilities animal fun assisted therapy sessions with alpacas.Our aim is to work closely with local Leeds children’s charities, schools, community programs and families to provide fun animal assisted therapy sessions where kids can come and get up close to these loving, gentle and friendly alpacas. We want to provide fun, educational and interactive sessions where children can safely stroke, feed and even walk the alpacas under supervision. Alpaca activities will be individually tailored to each child’s needs and parents are encouraged to join in!
We plan to raise funds by knitting wooly alpacas to sell for Alpaca Maraca.
Click here for more information
Click here for pattern
MedEquip4Kids: Knitted Breasts Needed
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We are a children’s charity and we are working with breastfeeding drop-in groups across the north of England. The boobs have been a huge hit, and we have been asked to supply more and more of them. Our regular knitting group at Chorley are struggling to cope with demand, they think they can cope with up to 100, which is great for this time round, but really I think this is too much for them if it turns out to be four times a year, so I need to find 2-3 more groups who might be willing to knit a batch of 30-40.
We have been paying 50p per boob to cover costs and postage.
Address: MedEquip4Kids, The Appeals Office, Rico House, George Street, Prestwich, Manchester M25 9WS
Click here for more information
Click here for BBC news item about the value of knitted breasts
Click here for pattern
Pact Animal Sanctuary, Norfolk
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Helen Simpson Slapp, a Norwich artist invites knitters to knit squares to make a giant rainbow scarf which will be part of the Norwich Pride 2010 parade on July 31st. The project will also attempt to break the world record for simultaneous knitting, and is searching for a venue that could hold at least 300 knitters. After completion, the scarf will then be broken up into blankets for the Pact Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk.
The squares need to be 15cm x 15cm in double knitting and a colour of the rainbow.
Click here to contact Helen for details of where to send completed squares to or if you would like to donate spare wool and needles
Knit For: Help For Heroes, SSAFA Forces Help And The Royal British Legion
Albertina McNeill has just set up the UK Military and Veteran Support group on Ravelry to raise the profile of charities such as Help for Heroes, SSAFA Forces Help and the Royal British Legion. She hopes to encourage fundraising through knitting and crochet as well as staying in contact with knitters serving overseas in the forces.
If you would like to help, please send donations of blue knitted (up to 19cm) or crocheted (20cm) squares in acrylic or acrylic blend yarn (washable at 40 degrees on a synthetic cycle). These will be put together to make a throw to raffle for Help for Heroes.
Click here for Ravelry Group
Click here to contact Albertina
RNLI: Above And Below The Waves; Latest Images And Update
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Alison Murray's latest large scale knitted installation 'Above & Below The Waves' will be premiered at the 13th Appledore Visual Arts Festival held in Appledore, North Devon 3-6 June 2010. Over 2,000 knitters from around the world have sent in knitting. Her installation will include a three-dimensional undersea tunnel, waves, a beach, jellyfish, octopi, lifeguards and many more amazing knitted creations. Visitors to the Festival will be greeted by Syrene a life size knitted mermaid, she will guide them in to a once in a lifetime experience as they walk through a wooly sea full of creatures !. Alison is raising money for the RNLI's Save One - Train Many Campaign.
Click here for more details
Marie Curie Cancer Care
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The Marie Curie Organisation are launching a new competition from 1st April to ‘Knit A Tea Cosy’. This is something that is being done alongside our ‘Blooming Great Tea Party’ campaign. The competition will be judged by Cath Kidston, Simply Knitting Magazine and Marie Curie.
Click here for further details if you would like to help raise funds
KasCare
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KasCare is a knitting for charity project, 'knit-a-square'. Knitting Groups throughout the UK are working together to help warm and comfort AIDS orphans of southern Africa. KasCare would greatly value your contribution to this knitting project. Your crochet and knitting squares will add to the many thousands of 8"/20cm squares from around the world, which continue to be joined into blankets and distributed to these children.
Click here for more information about how you can help
Click here to contact Kelso knitting group in Roxburghshire if you need any advice about knitting for this charity
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Sidmouth-based Donkey Sanctuary is challenging keen knitters to turn their needles towards creating a herd of knitted donkeys to raise money for the charity. Since they first arrived at the Sanctuary, the adorable knitted donkeys have been growing in popularity every year. They are knitted by supporters and then sold in both the Sanctuary visitors’ centre. As each one is individually hand made, all the knitted donkeys are truly unique creations with their own personalities, just like the Sanctuary’s real life donkeys.
Click here to request a knitting pattern for a 5inch or 9inch donkey to knit and donate to the Donkey Sanctuary to help raise funds
Click here for Donkey Sanctuary website
Velindre Chick Knit Appeal
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This Appeal was started in 1997 by Julie Smith at Velindre Hospital to help raise much needed funding for the furtherance and care of cancer patients who are being treated at Velindre Cancer Centre.
Bev Parry, with the help of her family and friends, has knitted more than 20,000 chicks over the years. However, she now needs your help to raise thousands more pounds for the hospital as this year she hopes to knit 50,000 chicks .
Click here to request a pattern from Bev if you would like to help knit some chicks, or if you can donate some yellow wool. (Chick patterns: hand knitting, crochet and machine knitted)
Every Child Charity: Planet Blanket
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Jennifer Taylor, a photography post graduate from University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, Kent, has launched an ambitious project on the internet to unite crocheters across the globe in creating the world’s largest granny square blanket and hoping to achieve a coveted spot in the Guinness Book of Records.
“The whole project is designed to get as many people interested and creating work; from crochet fanatics to people who have not picked up a hook for years and wish to start again. I also hope that others will learn how to crochet and teach others, so more people get back into arts and crafts. The aim for this project is to unite people from around the world interested in contributing to this huge blanket. I would like every contributor to add their own creative flair to their squares, making the whole blanket unique to view.”
Jenn is calling for worldwide contributors to crochet their own signature granny squares, and post them to her so they can be sewn together, along with many others, to produce one enormous blanket.
Click here to visit Jennifer's blog for more information about how you can take part
Kids Company: Wrap Up a Kiddie
We knit scarves, hats, mittens, cardigans, jumpers, blankets of all shapes sizes and colours for them - there are children from tiny babies to teenagers being helped via Kids Company and so we can find a home for any items in virtually any size and colour! We would also like to collect some knitting supplies to share amongst those who can knit but are not able to buy wool etc.
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The address to send finished items to is:
Kids Company,
FAO Rebecca Peters / Shyam Scheuch
Wedge House
36-40 Blackfriars Road
London
SE1 8PB
Click here to read more about 'Kid's Company'
Click here for more information
Click here to contact Nicki if you would like to help
RNLI: Above And Below The Waves; Latest Images And Update
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Life Buoy |
Lifeboat Men |
Punch And Judy |
Collection Of Starfish |
Alison Murray writes: "We have received amazing knitting and crochet from all over the UK and abroad,from tiny shells to a 3ft whale and an R,N.L.I flag.Thanks to everyones incredibe work and time from groups, schools and individuals we will have a wonderful knitted creation to show.
We now have the challenge of putting it altogether.We have started to sew the sea.If you still want to join in there is still time,we still need more rectangles and more shells.The latest time to send it to us is the end of February 2010.
It will first be shown at The Appledore Visual Arts Festival 3rd -6th June 2010, it will then go to Exeter Westpoint with ICHF 23-26 September and start its National Tour with them into Spring of 2011."
Click here for patterns of fish, coral, sand, sea scallop, whelk and sea flower.
Click here to contact Alison
Knit A Square
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Do you love crocheting and knitting for charity?
Make and send 8"/20cm squares and help keep a cold orphan warm.
Join our crochet and knitting for charity project to help make the abandoned children and AIDS orphans of southern Africa warm.
It is estimated that there are 11.6 million orphans in sub-saharan Africa. 1.4 million live in South Africa.
They need love, shelter, food, education and warmth. Many children's charities are working hard to provide the first four.Charity knitting and crocheting can provide the last.
This simple charity crochet and knitting project to make and send 8"/20cm squares, which are made into blankets for these children, takes little time, costs little and DOES make a difference.
All while you do what you love - knitting and crocheting.
There are thousands of people making and sending squares from 32 countries around the world, but the need is so great, we implore you to join our army of charity knitters and crocheters as well.
Every square that is sent will be used in a blanket to keep an orphan or abandoned child warm.
Click here to visit the website, join the forum and find a world wide community of people working together to make a difference.
Stitch and Bitch Derby: Raising Money For Children's Charities
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Stitch and Bitch Derby are continuing to raise money for childrens charities with this New Year's Project. We hope to kick start this ongoing project to knit or crochet at least 50 childrens toys from your left over yarn stash to be raffled off around Easter time. All you need to do is bring your toy project with you to the event. It is also an opportunity to get pattern inspiration for future projects.
Click here if you would like more details of how you can take part
Click here for details of Sitch and Bitch Derby Knitting Group
Seed Sowing Network
Amanda Tennant, a member of Stitch & Bitch London has launched this initiative new for 2010.
The Seed Sowing Network is a school just outside Nairobi, which aims to provide the children who come to the Red Cross feeding station in Dagoretti village with a free education and a way out of the slum. The charity's organisers have requested some brightly coloured bobble hats (particularly in football team colours as they are already football-mad) for the children.
For knitting colours read any team in the UK Premier League - red/
white, blue/white, black/white, stripes please!
Send your completed hats to Amanda c/o 94 Sebright Road, High Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 4HN
Click here to contact Amanda if you can help
Click here for more details
Go Knit! The Bumblebee Conservation Trust: Update
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Seasalt’s 2nd Go Knit! 2009 campaign has raised £2000 for The Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Our window displays across Seasalt stores in Falmouth, Fowey, Truro and St Ives were transformed during October and November, displaying and selling a bright display of handmade knitted scarves for charity. All of the scarves were kindly donated to us by people and knitting groups all over the country - from Cornwall to Wales and even Scotland.
An amazing army of knitters helped to make the 612 scarves sold, which raised the £2000 that will all go straight to The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT). The BBCT is a very worthwhile cause considering the dwindling UK population of bees and the fact that we need them to pollinate our crops and flowers.
We are also looking at getting people to contact us if they are interested in Knitting or Crocheting Christmas decorations for us to sell next year.
Click here for further information about The Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Click here to contact Lisa if you can help
The
Big Issue in The North: Knit For The Homeless
Winter is Coming and the Homeless
clients we work with are in desperate need of Gloves, Socks,
Scarves and Hats! You could knit one or one hundred, it’s
up to you.
Please send your items into:
10 Swan Street
Manchester M4 5JN
Click here for more information
The Children's Society's Big Stitch
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Knit some love with The Children's Society
Love is the theme of The Big Stitch. Get sponsored to knit as many of these fantastic little hearts as you can. The money you raise will help The Children's Society to work with more children facing abuse, neglect and poverty in their daily lives - building the foundations of a good childhood with these children and their families.
We have a great heart knitting pattern for you to follow and lots of ideas about what to make your hearts into - as well as labels to attach to the hearts and tell your friends what you have been knitting for.
Together we want to make 10,000 hearts and we will be counting
up the total at three key points in the year:
Valentines Day - 14 February 2010
International Outdoor Knitting Day - 12 June 2010
Click here for more information and to let us know how many hearts you have made
Click here for Heart Knitting Pattern
Arthritis Care: Competition To Raise Money
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Knimble
Knitters is a brand new UK-wide knitting competition
being launched to raise funds for Arthritis Care’s free
services, while giving entrants a chance to win prizes.
This is an
opportunity to make a positive difference for people with arthritis – entrants
will raise sponsorship money to support Arthritis Care’s work as they knit.
The competition
Entrants can knit hats, gloves or scarves for this year’s theme,
Winter, and will have the chance of winning a cash prize
The winner will also be featured in Arthritis News magazine, which goes
out to over 35,000 people. All entries must be submitted by 15 February 2010
and the winners will be notified by mid-March.
Click
here for further information if you would like to take part
Many of The Charities who have contacted us during 2009 still need your help.
Please click here read about charities we have featured previously.
Click here for main menu
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