We’re keeping calm and carrying on!

Greetings Knitters. We hope you are all knitting, with its proven benefits of
reducing anxiety.

We have been very busy, responding to urgent requests from care homes for lap blankets, shawls, twiddle muffs, dolls and bed socks. We have requests for yarn and needles from community groups, homeless hostels and care homes.

We are running low on yarn because our deliveries have been stuck at the local sorting office for 5 weeks. Luckily Hilary (Director Dame Hilary Blume) lives nearby and has been providing yarn from her considerable stash. We have finally now taken a delivery of parcels and post so if you have spare yarn, please send it.

The work of Knit for Peace

Knit for Peace achieves a lot and this makes people think we are a huge
organisation, with official funding. In fact, we are part of the Charities Advisory Trust, and we get no government funding. Knit for Peace has one part-time dedicated member of staff and a team of enthusiastic volunteers. The whole organisation has 4 full time and two part-time staff, and they deal with the Charities Advisory Trust work, including the Good Gifts Catalogue, Peace Oil and the Green Hotel in India, as well as grant making.
At this time, because of the need for social isolation, especially for those with underlying health problems, we have just one person, Ria, who is in the office.
We are enormously grateful for her hard work at this time.

Knitting in need

These are the items of knitting that we will need when we reopen:
Large blankets, lap blankets, shawls (triangular and rectangular are both fine), soft toys/teddies, adult jumpers, newborn cardigans (we have plenty of other baby clothing), mitts/gloves/socks for adults and children, YARN. (We don’t need any children’s clothing.)

Thank you!

Thank you to all those who have sponsored sacks, and responded to our
appeals, bought raffle tickets, and tombola tickets.
Thank you to all who responded to our Covid-19 Appeal to help those in dire financial need because of the lockdown. And a gentle reminder to those who meant to, but haven’t done so yet. We particularly ask you to help us meet the cost of sending yarn, both to isolated individuals, mostly elderly, and to long term patients, homeless hostels, care homes etc so they can keep knitting.

May Raffle

The Raffle Prize for May consists of over 2kg of beautiful quality Sock Wool in the most delicious colours. (The yarn, which is 4 ply, can, of course, be used for other purposes, too)

£6 an entry

Feedback from Care Homes

Feedback from a care home in Hove:
What a lovely large sack of brightly coloured blankets and twiddle muffs. “They are so beautifully made and such vibrant colours. Many many thanks for thinking about us!!”

The daughter of a dementia patient:
I am particularly grateful as my mum has very late stage dementia and there is very little she can do now, so hopefully this will bring her a little joy.

Patterns

For those who want some inspiration on what to knit – we recommend UK
Handknitting website
as a good source of free to download patterns.
Scraps of yarn?

Why not use up your scraps of yarn to make a blanket. You don’t have to make squares if you hate making up. You can knit strips, or even knit the blanket all in one. Hilary is doing this with 360 stitches a row. They all fit on long straight needles, but you can use circular needles if you prefer. Another use for oddments of yarn is to knit stripey scarves.

Knit of the Day

Here is a selection of our recent Knits of the Day that we share every day on
our Facebook and Twitter pages