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Knitting For
Charity
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 To tell us of any charity you are knitting for that would welcome help from other knitters, just click on the 'contact us' link in the menu above Here are some projects currently involved in raising money through Knitting for Charity (Click on images to view full size) Homeless Beanies: Knit Us A Beanie
A newly established homeless support project in West Yorkshire is searching for knitting enthusiasts and groups to help get its project up and running. Homeless Beanies UK want to hear from keen knitters to make hats for the organisation to sell on its website. For every hat sold a similar one is given to a homeless person. Any money made in selling the beanies will then also support local homeless charities. We want to warm at least 200 heads by the end of 2013. Click here for more details of how you can help Royal Navy Royal Marine Children’s Fund
We are looking for volunteers over the UK to kindly donate their time and spare wool to make dolls, about 6 inches high (maybe bigger, whatever would be easiest for people to knit), like the images above - holding the hand of a child doll to symbolize ‘knitting the family’ back together. The Royal Navy Royal Marine Children’s Fund is based in Portsmouth. We are currently working to produce a booklet to help families cope with Operational Stress Reaction. This is a condition that affects a huge amount of servicemen when they return from military operations and have to re-establish themselves in family life. OSR can often cause people to become depressed, withdrawn, nervous and even violent, plus the children and partners can be affected too. The booklet will cover ways of identifying OSR and then where to turn for help. It will also form part of a ‘kit’ to help ‘knit the family’ back together. Click here to download patterns Please post dolls to: Natalie Lloyd, Spider PR, 4 Leathermarket Street, London, SE1 3HN Walk With Donkeys: Equine Sanctuary
My partner and I run a donkey sanctuary in south Crete. At the moment we have 18 donkeys, 1 mule, 4 horses, 1 shetland pony and 10 dogs!! This is a full time job, but in my spare time I knit little animals to sell to visitors and in our online Facebook fundraising page. We would really welcome any donations of knitted animals or animal based items. Click here for more information and here for Facebook page Please send knitted items to: FM Caravans Ltd, 169 Fountain Road, Hull, HU6 7DB Ward End Cat Rescue: Help Us To Knit Mice
Sharon Gannon has written in about her local cats home - Ward End Cat Rescue who are trying to raise money to finish off their new cattery - they need £750 in total. Sharon is trying to help them, and so far she has got prizes for a raffle and now trying to find knitters to help us !! One of their ideas for raising money is selling knitted items at some table top sales. So far they have 40 catnip mice, 2 knitted dogs, 2 knitted cats, 2 knitted elephants and a zebra !!! One of the items they would really like help with is some catnip mice... We have about 40 knitted so far and we are going to be selling them for £1 each. The cats we have tested them on so far seem to really like them !!!They are also going to give all the cats in their care one each, so when they get re homed, they can take their mice with them... Click here for website Click here for pattern information and here for actual pattern Cystic Fibrosis: Help Us To Knit Leg Warmers
The CF Trust is the UK’s only national charity dealing with all aspects of CF. Each week five babies are born with CF and two young lives are lost. Since 1964, it has supported excellence in research and clinical care, as well as providing practical support and advice to people and their families. We are asking keen and amateur knitters to take up their needles to help raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Trust by making legwarmers for trampolinists. Legwarmers are great for garden trampolinists as they help keep their ankles warm in the cooler months. They can’t be made of manmade fibres because otherwise they can create too much static when bouncing. We’ve joined forces with knitwear designer, Rebecca Peach from www.twigsknits.com to offer people a free pattern to make legwarmers in aid of the charity. People can download the free knitting pattern below. Once the legwarmers are knitted we are asking people to send them back in so that they can be sold via our website in the run up to Christmas with all proceeds going to the CF Trust, which is our Charity of the Year. Please post legwarmers to: Super Tramp Ltd, South View Estate, Willand, Cullompton, Devon, EX15 2QW. We hope lots of people will take up our whacky challenge to the nation’s knitters! Click here for pattern Click here for website Mencap: Homes & Interiors Crochet Club
Get crafty with the Country Homes & Interiors Crochet Club and help raise money for Mencap: We are launching our first ever online craft club to teach people how to crochet – and raise money for charity Mencap at the same time. The aim is to get as many of you as possible crocheting and donating ‘Granny Squares’. These will then be designed into gorgeous accessories and auctioned for charity. To make your Granny Squares as lovely as possible we have joined forces with crochet experts and wool yarn retailer Rowan. It has created two exclusive Granny Square patterns using 100% wool in spring colourways and provided a ‘How to crochet’ guide for us. Click here for instructions and start crocheting Click here to share your crochet moments with us on Facebook Please send your donated crochet squares to Country Homes & Interiors, IPC Media, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU. Oxfam: Knit For Syrian Refugees; Knitted Blankets, Jumpers & Hats Needed
Click here for patterns and more information about knitting for Oxfam West Wales Dog Rescue: Knitted Coats Request
This is a small Dog Rescue registered charity based at Cardigan, West Wales. We take in unwanted and ill treated dogs from the 3 counties of West Wales and rehome over the whole of the UK. We are entirely staffed by volunteers and receive no public funding. During the cold winters our dogs desperately need warm washable coats. It would be lovely if some knitters could help by knitting coats from tiny Yorkshire Terrier type size to really large for greyhound size dogs. We could supply the patterns if the knitters wish or they could use their own. We will offer a small prize for the most unusual. We would feature the coats and their knitters on our website and in our quarterly newsletter and would hope to get local publicity through newspapers. Click here for more details if you would like to help Kids Company: 'Heartsease'
Kids Company provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children. Their services reach 17,000 children across London, including the most deprived and at risk whose parents are unable to care for them due to their own practical and emotional challenges. The Heartsease Project is a way that knitters and makers can extend care to children they have never met by sending them special heart shaped bags; these can be keepers of hope and safety in the form of words, pictures of small treasures. Click here for more details of how you can take part and here for the website Click here for dedicated Facebook page Loving Hands: Knitting for the UK and the World
Loving Hands work reaches across the globe. The hand knitted garments and gifts are sent direct to where they are urgently needed. The diversity of where Loving Hands work goes is incredible, from special baby care units in UK hospitals to those in need all across the world including Africa, South America, India and Eastern Europe. Click here for Loving Hands website, here for their 'wishlist' and here for patterns Siblings Together
We are Siblings Together, uniting brothers & sisters in care and adoption. We hold summer camps and drop in centres and befriending programmes for siblings all of whom are in care & adoption. We would love some colourful knitted blankets for the evenings around the campfire and to keep the children warm in their tents. We would also love knitted throws to sit on which are soft and colourful, our children like to dress up so we like silly hats and waistcoats and colourful leggings and scarves! ... Delma Hughes, Founding Director suggest a new knitting project for 2013: "We all love ponchos, it would be brilliant for kids to have these to wear for camps, it really does get cold in the evenings. They could wear at camp and share, possibly take away with them to keep even if they become attached.We have a wide variety of different sized children, all from about 6yrs -18 yrs long and short wide and thin male & female, ponchos with or without hoods, pockets etc small teddies on a string!" Click here for ponchos pattern on our Free Patterns page Click here to contact Delma if you can help knit some items for this charity or for further information on the website Oldham Cats
Samantha Fahmy has recently started to knit and crochet baby items and toys for a local charity called Oldham Cats. Oldham Cats is a UK registered charity dedicated to rescuing and re-homing stray, abandoned and unwanted cats & kittens in the Oldham, Rochdale & Middleton areas of Greater Manchester area. So far she has raised over £200 for this small local charity through knitting and crochet. The items are kindly sold by the wool/haberdashery stall called Sew Inn in Oldhams indoor market. No items are too small and would be gratefully received. Click here to contact Samantha if you would like to knit or crochet any baby crochet items tp help raise money for Oldham Cats Click here for website and Facebook page Knit For Peace
We have been delighted by the huge quantity of knitted items we have received. Over 2000 were sent out this week (November 15th) for people in Eastern Europe. The temperature there drops to a ghastly -30 degrees. (We keep our freezers at -18, -20) We have also sent out warm cardigans for refugees from Syria. Please join our Christmas and New Year Knit-in. Use the spare time between Christmas and New Year to knit for those in need. Knit for Peace believes that knitting is good for you and can be good for others. We find good homes for your knitting (or other craft work) where the warmth of a woolly hat or joy of a teddy bear makes all the difference. Whether you want to knit a scarf for a homeless person or a hand puppet for an education project in Nigeria visit knitforpeace for a wide variety of projects and suggested patterns. Knit for Peace also encourages women and men from different, often historically hostile communities to come together informally to knit (or sew or crochet). With a shared common goal, differences in race, religion or caste are irrelevant, and individuals come together to knit peacefully. Click here for website and more information about how you can help Stepping Stones Nigeria
Stepping Stones Nigeria is a Child Rights Charity working with and for children currently living in the Niger Delta. We have 4 programme areas: Advocacy and campaigns, Street Children, Education and Literacy. The Literacy team, have in the past 2 years launched the Read and Write Now Initiative (RAWN), aiming to dramatically improve literacy rates amongst disadvantaged children in the Niger Delta. Working with educational partners out in Nigeria, we are training and inspiring over 3, 400 teachers, from 1146 schools in one year to teach reading and writing to 85, 900 children using the fun and successful method of synthetic phonics. Despite effective implementation of the ongoing training of teachers in such methods, the lack of class room teaching resources make hand knitted puppets an invaluable tool for teachers to best engage young children in learning how to read and write. There are 3 puppets which corresponds to characters, in the synthetic children reading books, inky (the mouse), Snake and Bee. These puppets, although a long way from some of the teaching materials we have become accustomed too, these puppets have proven such a ‘hit’ with the children, who needless to say having very little toys and possessions of their own, immediately adore them. Click here to request patterns for puppets Click here for website FacilitAid: Burundi Bears
Over the years, our fundraising has been assisted by hundreds of knitters
from groups around the country, who have knitted our 'Burundi Bears' for Every penny raised from the campaign will go directly to the work in Burundi - there are no UK salaries, and no expenses incurred in the UK. All the money is spent in the local economy and most of the labour involved is undertaken by women, local to the project. Click here for further information about how you can help Headway Belfast: The Brain Injury Association
Kathy Marsh: "Calling all keen knitters! I am a project artist working with the charity Headway Belfast. I work with a group there, developing art activities. We are setting up an arts and craft stall at a Saturday market, as a way to offer a social activity to the group and aid in their rehabilitation. I am seeking some assistance from talented knitters, who would be willing to create a knitted toy or blanket that we can sell on the stall. I can provide the wool! Please contact me if you would like more information. Thank you!" Click here to contact Kathy if you can help Battersea Dogs & Cats Home: 'Staffies'
The Battersea Dogs and Cats home have launched a knitting campaign to help raise awareness about Staffie dogs. Jude Peppis writes: "Last year, we launched a campaign called ‘Staffies. They’re softer than you think’ to help rebrand the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The campaign mascot is a knitted Staffie toy and we are hoping to encourage members of the public to download/purchase the knitting pattern to make their own knitted Staffies." Click here to download pattern and more information about the project Click here for Facebook photo gallery of knitted Staffies Cats Protection Click here for mouse pattern to be made and donated to help raise funds Francis House Children's Hospice: 2013 Update start knitting now for 2014! Francis House Children’s Hospice offers the families of very sick children a respite from their role as carers and gives the children a loving home from home. Each year knitted chicks are made to help raise funds. If you would like to help with the 'chicken run' for 2013, please see below:
Charity Chicken Knitters "Over 550 chicks of the ‘woolly’ kind have flown the coop from Francis House Children’s Hospice based in Didsbury, South Manchester, after months of work by a dedicated team of 8 chicken knitting ladies. The knitted chickens complete with crème egg, were then successfully sold for £1 in primary schools in the north west of England during the week before the Easter break. The figure raised this year was the best ever, with the proceeds of £650 going straight to the children’s hospice. The idea came about 12 years ago after Jackie Hadfield from Radcliffe, a volunteer on the care team at Francis House, saw the pattern being knitted by a woman for her church bazaar. Jackie’s husband Graham, then a head teacher, was also raising awareness about the work Francis House through school assemblies, so they decided to take the chicks into the schools to see if they would help raise funds." Click here if you can help to knit chicks or if you wish to donate wool (please request pattern) Click here for Francis House website Knit For Newlife: Help Support Disabled Children
The UK’s leading children’s disability charity is calling for knitters to ‘Knit for Newlife’. Whether it is a favourite pattern or something new, Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children is asking for help in supporting thousands of children across the UK who rely on the charity to get the essential specialist equipment they need. Knitted and crocheted items will be sold at craft sales to boost funds. Every knitter will be supplied with special tags that show their first name and town or county, so those purchasing will know whose care and talent has gone into creating the items. The ‘Knit For Newlife fund’ will buy essential items of equipment for specific children and the charity will report back to knitters with details of who has been helped and how. Click here to find out more and how you can help Waen Chapel Outreach Project, St Asaph, Denbighshire North Wales We are a group of all ages who crochet and knit items which are sold in aid of our Local Hospice and for the support group and day care provided for older people which currently provides friendship and support for 14 older people who live alone providng them with weekly hot meal and day care all run by volunteers with no paid staff. This care is open to anyone in need regardless of faith or belief. We would particularly welcome any donations of any craft materials e.g. wool knitting needles etc and we would also be very grateful for any completed knitted or crocheted items which we can sell at our annual craft fair which last year raised £5,500 in aid of our local hospice. Any donations are very gratefully recieved and acknowledged Click here for website and contact details Or write to: Waen Chapel Outreach Project, Waen Chapel, Waen, St Asaph , Denbighshire LL17 0DY Age UK Waltham Forest: Keep Warm, Keep Well Knitters Network Age UK Waltham Forest are seek knitters to help with supporting older adults in Waltham Forest who are at risk of ill health or death during the cold weather by knitting simple hats, scarves, gloves or squares for blankets. Items received will be distributed to adults we have identified as being at risk as part of a variety of 'warmth packs'. Please send completed items to: Click here to request further information Bullying UK
Anita Hunt has been in contact to tell us about an anti-bullying charity raising money and awareness through knitting: "I wanted to let you know about my fundraising campaign for the charity Bullying UK. I have an Alan Dart designed 'Percy the Pigeon' knitting pattern. The idea is to encourage a child to tell someone if they are being bullied, as well as raise funds for the charity. My aim is to raise as much money as I can through downloads of the fantastic knitting pattern, for my fundraising campaign for Bullying UK" Click here for more information The Freedom From Fistula Foundation
In Sierra Leone, The Freedom From Fistula Foundation manages ‘The Aberdeen Women’s Centre’. This centre currently provides free surgeries to women injured in childbirth, runs a children’s clinic, and now has a maternity clinic. The goal of the new maternity clinic is to provide mothers in Sierra Leone with quality care during childbirth which will have the double benefit of reducing the number of childbirth injuries, as well as helping to reach the worldwide Millennium Development Goal #5 which aims to reduce maternal mortality across the developing world. Completed garments can be sent to: Click here if you would like to help and for all further information Erin Hounds Sighthound Rescue: Cheshire/North West Charity
Erin Hounds Sighthound Rescue is a small, albeit growing charity based in Cheshire with dog fosterers and supporters in parts of Merseyside and Sheffield.
It works to save, rehabilitate and rehome greyhounds and lurchers from Ireland, which would otherwise face death or a very grim future (e.g. retired racers aged just 4, failed and injured racers, 15 months plus, mistreated and abandoned lurchers etc etc..). We rehome all over the UK but primarily in this area.
We have homed over 100 dogs and we have a growing facebook presence and an website with a new and well used online shop www.erinhounds.co.uk. We can sell these at the many fundraising events we do also (where the dogs need plenty of layers as they stand for hours patiently doing their bit). Click here to contact Rosey to request pattern or to donate wool Click here for Erin Hounds website Joshua's Boxes We are a small locally run charity who have been providing memory boxes free to hospitals both locally and throughout the UK for 8 years now.We are always needing beautiful little items for our boxes and have patterns and wool to send anyone wiling to do this. The main items that we need are blankets in a varity of sizes, hats in the same size difference, and angel robes and pouches. They can be made in pastel blue, pink, lemon, green, lilac and white. Click here for more details if you would like to help Alzheimer Scotland
We would like to create a blanket measuring 710 squared meters. This blanket will be made up of 71000 squares to represent the number of people in Scotland in 2010 that had dementia. This record attempt will not only raise awareness but it is hoped that it can facilitate people from all over to pass on the skill of knitting to someone they know. We would really appreciate you helping by knitting squares measuring 10cm by 10cm Click
here to request information pack for further information Upon Butterfly Wings
With the support of our lovely helpers, UBW are able to provide local hospitals and funeral homes with suitable clothing to fit every baby ranging from a simple blanket, hat and booties, to beautiful burial clothing and for the delicate babies we are able to provide wraps, pockets and sleep sacks. If you are able to help or know someone who can, we are in continuous need of donations of knitted, crochet and sewn items. Free patterns are available Click here if you would like more information about how you can help either The Knitted Wings and/or The Butterfly Box Project Click for Facebook page (login required) Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
"Incredibly generous designers donate their time and knitting patterns to p/hop. These patterns are then available for you to download from our website www.p-hop.co.uk. All we ask is you make a donation to humanitatian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders based on how many hours of pleasure you'll get from knitting your p/hop pattern. There is no set price for a pattern; you can donate 50p or £50. It's entirely up to you - P/HOP = PENNIES PER HOUR OF PLEASURE! Knitters also swap unwanted yarn in return for donations through our Ravelry group and have lots of other ways for knitters to raise money and awareness about MSF on our website. Please come and join in the fun" Click here for more details Click for group on Ravelry (login required) Square Circle: Join The Knit A Squillion Challenge
Lisas Stars
Click here for more information. Lisas Stars can also be found on Facebook (login required) New Hope Rural Community Trust - UK Maureen McMillan has written about
the above charity which is based in Orissa, India. It was a Leprosy
Charity but has now diversified. In the latest magazine she received,
they requested blankets, and baby clothes - for HIV+VE babies.
These babies are being abandoned by their families
because of fear and destitution. Please send items to: Jill Ghanouni, New Hope Community Trust, 49 Alfred Street, Southampton SO14 ONB Click
here for further information
Teddies for Tragedies: Yorkshire Aid Convoy
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