Would you like to swap ideas with other Knit Clubs near to you?

Knit Clubs by area:

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Buckinghamshire

Robertswood School, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

Ages: 9-10

Project: Blanket for school's sponsor child in Ethiopia

"Our knitting club is held over 2 lunchtimes due to overwhelming demand!  It is only open to year 5 because that provides about 40 eager students, about 10 of whom are boys.
We have almost finished knitting a blanket of squares to send to the school's sponsor child in Ethiopia.  One of the boy's grandmothers has kindly assisted on one lunchtime per week and sewn up the blanket for us.  I was interested to read about the other schools on your website and noticed a lot of similarities between our experiences. From time to time we do have other volunteer helpers from adults associated with the school and all materials have been donated by myself (via charity shops) or other club members.
On setting up the group I was astonished at the enthusiastic response and have been very pleased with their progress.  Mothers report how much the children enjoy attending and practising, plus how they have involved their grandparents because the in-between generation doesn't know how to knit."

Click here to contact Sally Lippiatt, Project Co-ordinator

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East Sussex

Marshlands County Primary School

Ages: 7-11

Project: Rennie Mackintosh wall hanging

"So far the children (both boys and girls across the school) have been carrying on the knitting from the original workshops. They are still working on the Rennie Mackintosh wall hanging! It is a shame it takes so long to produce one piece, but time is so limited. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.One of the things I discovered during the workshops was that many of the children with special needs (and we have a large proportion here), were amazingly good at knitting; children who find it hard to concentrate normally were totally absorbed and many of the boys (some with behaviour problems) were particularly patient while learning this new skill."

Click here to contact Chris McKinnon, Project Co-ordinator

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Essex

Montgomery Junior School, Colchester

Ages: 7-11

Project: Blanket for children in Ghana

"Our children are aged 7 -11 years of age, both boys and girls. The blanket is under way, but as yet no where near completion. We are hoping it will be ready for February half term when our LSA is travelling to Ghana. We will be send you photographs of the children knitting and further photos of the blanket in Ghana at a later stage."

Click here to contact Tanya Gibson, Project Co-ordinator

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Hampshire

Hordle Walhampton School, Lymington, Hants

Ages: 5-11

Group name: "knit wits"

Project: Knitting for African Aids Orphans

Busy knitting	Modelling one of the blankets	More knitting

Blankets sent to Soweto Christmas 2005	Blankets sent to Soweto Christmas 2005

"In the Christmas term of 2005 I ran a knitting activity at my childrens' school in Lymington where we knitted squares to make up blankets for Aids orphans in South Africa. The response to the project was overwhelming and I was inundated with donations of wool and knitting needles but also time and effort going into the knitting and putting the blankets together too. There were children as young as five "knitting"! quite a few boys and many parents, grannies and others related to the children were involved. We sent 13 blankets to South Africa with a business man who kindly offered to take them. So many people enjoyed the project so much that we will continue to do it every Christmas term, but why limit it to one school one term a year?

Why indeed. I am putting notices up in local community centres, libraries and will speak to local council to see if any other schools would like to be involved and we will make Knitting 4 Africa an ongoing project. To this end I will coordinate a national effort and if anyone would like to knit (or crochet) squares for blankets I would be happy to receive them to send on to
SA. Our squares are 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20cm) and finished blankets are typically 48 squares which is 48" x 64" (120cm x 160cm)."

Click here to contact Diana Wood, Project Co-ordinator

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Lancashire

Hillside Community Primary School, Egerton, Tanhouse, Skelmersdale, Lancashire

Ages: 7 - 11

Projects: scarves, bags and new ventures of fingerless gloves plus wrist bands

Click here to contact Barbara Brown Project Co-ordinator

Click here for school website, click on 'enter' and then select 'Gallery' and scroll down to view photos of the knitting club

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North Tyneside

Appletree Gardens First School, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside

Ages: 7 - 9

Projects: Fingerless gloves, chunky bags and tiny purses

"Just wanted to mail you to tell you about the knitting and sewing club I have set up in my local school.The club is for 7-9 year olds, both girls and boys, and takes place on a Thursday evening straight after school. I started the club last september with the help of one of the teachers. We now have 22 children attending the club and 4 regular helpers. We have 4 or 5 different projects on the go for the children to choose from which I have designed myself. The children are very enthusistic and are working hard at their new skills. At the moment we have a choice of fingerless gloves, chunky bags or tiny purses for the knitters and a needlecase, a mouse or a binca mat for the sewers.
We have 3 left handers in the group who are causing us a few worries, any hints?
Would love to swap ideas with other groups and swap patterns. I am thinking of putting our ideas into a booklet to raise funds for the group of putting together little kits for the kids to take home or give as gifts. How do other groups finance themselves? "

Click here to contact Clare Taylor, Project Co-ordinator

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North Yorkshire

The Michael Syddall Church of England (Aided) School in Catterick Village, North Yorkshire

Ages: 9 - 11

Projects: Finger puppets, headbands

" The Michael Syddall Church of England School has a role of just under 200 children.  I started the Craft Club for the year 5 and 6 children in September and thought that this year one of our activities would be knitting.  It is a mixed group (sadly only 3 boys) but they are all very keen. All of our projects are "ongoing" as time after school for clubs is quite short and it's quite a tricky business when you first start!  On the needles at the moment we have a variety of finger puppets, some "sheep" and some of the girls are keen to make a headband.  This week we had a break from knitting and made some felt balls with a view to making them up into insects or flowers to wear as a badge or brooch.  They loved that - I think it was the mess!"

Click here to contact Barbara Dobson, Project Co-ordinator

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West Sussex

Glebe Middle School, Church Lane, Southwick, West Sussex. BN42 4GB

Ages: 8 - 12

Projects: Christmas sack, small bag or pencil case

"The Glebe Textile Group has now been a thriving knitting group since mid November. On average approximately 15 children come along for an after school session once a week - a mixed group - initially with one very keen boy who has now recruited three others to join us!
Our first 'made' project was a small Christmas sack - red double knit with a trimming of white whisper and finished with a hand made silver lurerx cord.  - when the sack was complete the children received a Christmas chocolate to go inside. A nice little incentive.
To encourage the children, in the beginning they were given a piece of knitting which had already been cast on, and with one or two rows knitted. This was very successful as they felt they were knitting straight away - rather than having to go through the difficult stage of learning to cast on.
Since Christmas the children have now learnt to cast on - so much easier when you already know the principle of knitting. They have also designed a small bag or pencil case for their next project and I'm encouraging the use of stripes, learning to purl and decrease in this particular piece. "

Click here to contact Sue Davies, Project Co-ordinator

 

 

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