Knit, Crochet and Sew for Charity

Update on Summer Challenge
Hello Everyone!
Here we are again with the latest update from Loving Hands Headquarters! You all did amazingly well with the last round of challenges - we asked you to make us 200 of each of the challenge items and (as always) you did us proud and have smashed all the totals!
Final figures were:-
Baby Hats 1103
Baby Cardigans 367
Blankets 280
Jumpers and Cardis for children 273

Fantastic! I am so proud of you all - what a great job!

Hope you are all ready for the next round now! This one will run from now to the 28^th September - keep you all out of mischief for a while!

500 items for the Linda MacDonald Foundation - this gives you oh so much scope - these orphanages hold children from babies up to 16 years old so you can do clothing (cardigans, jumpers, hats, scarves, gloves, mittens - stitchers can make pyjamas, nightdresses, summer dresses etc), blankets and toys.

300 scarves for Blythswood Care - as they are telling us they need items to keep the elderly warm we thought we would send them lots of scarves this time to go along with the hats and mittens we have sent already! Any kind will do - from fluffy ones to Dr Who replicas!

200 knitted boobs - we are needing to boost our boob supply again - the last lot we sent raised lots of money for breast cancer charities so we need to fill up Avril’s boxes again ready for the next round of shows. We also send some of them directly to hospitals, clinics, youth workers and doulas who ask for them specially so there is a great demand for them!

On the subject of knitted boobs we are holding our first ever competition this time as well -

PIMP MY BOOB has arrived (thanks to the inspiration of Margaret (Slacksitches) who posted the photo of her boob with a face on it on our Forum some time back and gave me the idea for the competition. Tommee Tippee have come forward with a prize for the winner and when the contest is over we will send down all the 'pimped' boobs to be auctioned off for Breast Cancer charity so it is a win win situation! It is already advertised on Simply Knitting's web page and they are featuring our challenges and the competition in issue 44 - brilliant - thanks Marjorie! :0)

The competition will end on the 14th September and entry forms will be sent out to all who wish to take part!
We thought this was enough to be going on with as we are still making Teddies for Tragedy and Bags for them for the next three weeks anyway. (For those of you who have been out of the loop through not having internet access - we have been churning out Teddies for Tragedy and the stitched bags to put them in for the Singing Children of Africa to take back with them at the end of their tour here (end of July they leave us). Obviously these teddies are great for Linda MacDonald and Blythswood as well so they will be great for ongoing projects too.

Hope you all like these challenges and we smash these targets as well as we did the last ones!

Remember if you need anything at all give me a shout!

Keep up the great work - you are all stars! (By the way we now have 251 members - woo hoo - we are growing!).

Easter update and Summer Challenge:
Well the Easter Challenges are now over and what a great result!  I asked you for 100 of each item and we got back .....
170 knitted boobs !
201 knitted and crocheted toys  !
257  sailors hats  !
What a result - we are all really delighted with these totals.  Well done girls - you all deserve a medal for all your hard work :0)

Now the exciting bits.  We are now 150 members - the Kelty and Kirkcaldy groups are growing week by week - and we have announced the Summer Challenges too!  :0)
This time we have a four way challenge and have decided that since we now have more members we will have bigger challenges!  We are looking for 200 items for each part of the challenge this time!!!!  :0)

Part one is Blankets - we need these for most of our charities and they can be knitted by hand or machine, crocheted or stitched so everyone can be included!  We are looking for pastel coloured prem blankets  12" to 15" for UK hospitals,  baby blankets  15" to 18",  lap rugs approx 36" square for Blythswood Care to send over to Croatia, Romania, Albania and places like that where the elderly are freezing cold at the moment,  Feed The Children are also looking for blankets 3' x 4'  or 4' x 6' which are handed out to children in camps all over the place.  We can also use yarn not suitable for these other projects to make blankets for our animal shelters in various sizes.  :0)

Part two is for Baby Cardigans - again mostly pastel colours for our UK maternities but we can also use nice bright colours for Baby Pack.  12" up to 16" sizes.

Part three is for jumpers for Feed The Children - they are looking for sizes 22" up to 34" and we need to add 2" on to the length of the sleeves and the body.  For everyday wear we can do any pattern in jumpers or cardigans in these sizes and in colours as bright as you want (no all white please as this is the colour of mourning in many of these countries).  They have also specifically asked for school V Neck jumpers in the same sizes - the colours are :-  Royal Blue, Navy Blue, Burgundy, Bottle Green, Yellow and Pink.  Here is a link to a free pattern http://www.knitcrochetpatterns.com:80/vneckpullover.html - remember girls this is an American pattern - it will be DK yarn and sizes 3.25mm (10) and 4mm (8) needles for us :0).

Part four that we added later is for the Save The Children challenge launched by Paul O'Grady this week.  Here is the link to this for you http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/983_5150.htm  We want 200 baby hats and you can print the labels to attach from the link above.  These labels will be sent to Grodon Brown to try to get him to help these poor children :0)  These wee hats are simple and easy to make - you can use any baby pattern you have and use up scraps of brightly coloured yarns to make them in no time :0)

So there you go - hope you are all happy with what we have chosen.  If anyone needs any patterns, yarn etc just give me a shout. 

Don't forget to have a look at the Forum (link to the Forum at top of the website)  it would be lovely if you could all join up to the Forum and we can all get to know one another better.  It is a great way to feel part of the group and see what everyone else is getting up to.  The Forum is updated several times a day and has photos of completed work and lists of what we are making and where we are sending it to as well!

If you do join up don't forget to PM me or email and tell me what your username on the Forum is as it can get confusing if you don't :0)  (Especially if you pick a strange username! :0).

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January Update! First of all let me wish you all the best for 2008! Hope everyone has had a really good Christmas and you are all in good health and raring to get those knitting needles and crochet hooks flying for Loving Hands this year! J

 The Christmas Fayre held in December was sadly not a great success - mostly my fault girls - sorry - I had arranged it for the week after the Church Women’s Guild Fayre and was too late with posters etc. Never mind I will get it right next time when we have our Summer Fete J
I bet you are all wondering how we got on with the Christmas Challenges???? We made it! 102 prem baby cardigans and matching hats and (after I quickly knitted up the few we were short) 100 boobs for Tommee Tippee’s breast feeding classes! Well done everyone - hopefully now that we have proved we can do it you will all be keen to join in with the new challenge for Easter!

Between now and Easter Sunday we want you all to join in and help us to meet three different challenges - you can just pick one or do things for all three (or just keep going with the other things you do best - we don’t mind - we mustn’t ignore any of our charities just because we are taking part in a challenge!).
The challenges are to make:-

100 Baby Dolls - we have patterns for Jelly Babies which are very simple and quick to make or Jean Greenhowes Rainbow Babies which are more intricate but ever so cute (you may also use any pattern you like for small dolls of course - I know some of you might have a favourite that you always use for sales of work and fetes!). These are to be distributed between our prem baby units and the baby pack project.

Part two of the challenge is to make 100 hats for sailors! We are going the help out the British Sailor’s Society who hand out woolly hats along with other aid to seafarers in over 90 ports in 28 countries all over the world. Their mission has been ongoing since 1818 and they now distribute over 10,000 woolly hats every year - they want our help to make that even more in 2008! I have a pattern Patons has donated to them for two men’s hats - one plain and one aran with a bobble on top - I can send out copies of these or you can use any man’s hat pattern you like and any yarn so you are not restricted in any way!

The third part of the challenge is 100 knitted boobs (Oh no not again I can hear you say!). Tommee Tippee have gone into partnership with the Breast Cancer charity to raise awareness and funds for such a great cause. They are going out doing lots of shows and trying to persuade women to breastfeed and also to check their breasts regularly. The health professionals who attend these shows can ‘buy’ our knitted boobs for use in their own breastfeeding classes by giving donations to help the Breast Cancer charity, Obviously the more boobs we can make and send down the more money they can raise so please don’t give up on me now - more boobs as well please J

So there you have it girls - we are still working away making our prem baby things for units in the UK, baby clothes for baby pack, jumpers for Feed The Children, Blankets for several different causes including Blytheswood care, Animal Shelters, Prem Babies and Baby Pack and lots more besides. So no matter what you like to knit or crochet I am sure we have something you could help us with.

Anyone who needs patterns, needles or wool please let me know and I will send them out straight away - we still have lots of needles and yarn in the office and I can print off patterns for any of the things we are doing and get them in the post straight away!

If any of you know of anyone else who would like to join us please pass on our details so they can register with us. All they need to do is send me their name and address so I can add them to the list. We have now got 97 members so are so very close to 100 now!

The Kelty group meets in the Community Centre on Monday afternoons from 1pm to 3pm and the Kirkcaldy group meets in the JRD Trust offices, 9 The Esplanade (where the old YWCA was) on Monday evenings from 7pm to 9pm. If you live close enough then please come along and join us. We have a great laugh together at the meetings and it is great to be able to knit or crochet with no interruptions for two whole hours! J

Right - enough blethering for now girls - if any of you have any concerns or need me to send you anything please get in touch. The address, website and email address are printed at the top of this letter or you can phone me on 01383 830277.

Keep Busy! Lou xx

Christmas Challenge for this year........
Between now and Christmas our target is to produce 100 prem baby cardigans with matching hats and 100 knitted boobs! It may seem a tall order but if every member makes something we can achieve this easily! I have the pattern for the boobs and the patterns we have been using to make the 14" prem cardis and hats that the hospitals are wanting - this way you will all have access to them (I can attach them to an e-mail or send you out hard copies in the post whichever suits you best!). If any of you need some yarn then let me know and I will post some out to you - we do have plenty here and it is as well out there being used as lying here in boxes! :0)