The BIG Tea Cosy November 2009 Join in our flagship fundraiser The BIG Tea Cosy this November. Knit a tea cosy or a cupcake pin cushion and you could help support your local St John Ambulance volunteers. Simply go to http://www.sja.org.uk/bigteacosy and click on the knitting corner section. You can either sell your knitted cupcakes or tea cosies at your BIG Tea Cosy party and send us your donation or alternatively send your knitted items to: The BIG Tea Cosy, St John Ambulance, St John’s Lane, London EC1M 4BU. For every knitted item we receive, we will sell for a suggested donation. For further information or to request a fundraising pack please contact Helen on 020 7324 4154 or visit our website.

We are a small group of country women living in the little village of Exeter in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia. Earlier this year we started a 'Crazy Cozies Competition' to raise funds for women with breast cancer in rural and regional areas of Australia. The competition closes on 30th September 2009 and it culminates in an exhibition and sale of all the 'crazy cozies' entered and made which are donated for sale with proceeds going to our cause. Please visit us at http://crazycozies.blogspot.com to see some of the cozies that have been made so far - and maybe you'd like to make one too?! Thank you! Kaye Healey Crazy Cozies Convenor Exeter CWA

http://www.stitchforcharity.com aunty jane 1 coggan close south bank york yo23 1eh north yorkshire uk we are an on line charity crafting group making bibs,blankets and garments for babies and young children with profound disabilities .. we supply groups and organisations with hand crafted boxes of love containing lots of essential garments appropriate for the babies/childrens situations ..be it sadly being born sleeping to needing help at meal times and sleeping.... if it can be crafted we will have a go at it ... we are holding our first fund raiser on 26th september and rafeling a signed afghan donated by lucie heaton the much loved cross stitch designer .... lucie also designed our group logos and is presently working on a second alphabet for our blankets of love project ... for more info please contact aunty jane at jane5kipper@hotmail.co.uk thank you hugs aunty jane

I have been knitting gifts for family and friends for 18 years, but it wasn't until a friend of mine began Mary's Shelter, a woman's shelter in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that I realized my knitting could be a source of funds for her work. So now I knit, felt, and sell fine gift items and donate the proceeds to the good work being done for destitute women and their dependent children. My hand knitted products are sold here: http://www.fibefads.etsy.com Information on Mary's Shelter is here: http://marysshelterva.org

I have been knitting gifts for family and friends for 18 years, but it wasn't until a friend of mine began Mary's Shelter, a woman's shelter in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that I realized my knitting could be a source of funds for her work. So now I knit, felt, and sell fine gift items and donate the proceeds to the good work being done for destitute women and their dependent children. My hand knitted products are sold here: http://www.fibefads.etsy.com Information on Mary's Shelter is here: http://marysshelterva.org

P/hop: pennies per hour of pleasure P/hop is a knitting fundraiser for the humanitarian medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres. Over the coming months, several generous designers will be donating knitting patterns to the project available to download for free on the blog. The idea of p/hop is donate based on the hours of enjoyment you got from knitting your free pattern. There is no set price for a pattern; you can donate 50p or £50. It’s entirely up to you! For more information and free patterns visit http://www.p-hop.co.uk . You can also join us on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/groups/p-hop We are always looking for designers! Please get in touch with louise.salkeld@london.msf.org to find out more on how you can donate a pattern.

There are an estimated 3.5 million orphans in South Africa, many of them as a result of losing their parents to HIV AIDS. The number is growing - 575 children a day become orphans. This is a terrible and mostly unrecognised human tragedy. Knit-a-square.com has been recently set up to ask the knitters of the world to send an 8 x 8" (20 x 20cm) square (or more, three cost the same to send as one) to specfied charities in South Africa, and soon Zimbabwe, where they will be made up into blankets for these children. The orphans live in terrible poverty. They need love, shelter, food, education and warmth. Many charities are working hard to provide the first four. The knitters of the world can provide the last. To knit a square please go to http://www.knit-a-square.com/knitting-for-charity.html

Algerian Action is a small London based charity which provides blankets, clothing and other essentials to needy children in Algeria. All types of knitted or crocheted items are needed but there is particular demand for baby hats and cardigans. Any colour and type of yarn may be used. Knitted or crocheted squares are also needed to create beautiful patchwork blankets. For more details of the project please visit http://algerianaction.co.uk

http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/news/newsarchive/athwinterknitters.htm To mark the launch of the upcoming Winter Tree Hunting season The Woodland Trust are proud to present this winter’s most ingenious woolly accessory. It’s a free designer knitting pattern for a scarf that doubles up as an ancient tree measuring device. The Winter Warmer Ancient Tree Hunting scarf measures exactly 1.5 metres in length, the same size as a British Standard Hug. This measurement is officially recognised by the Ancient Tree Hunt team as an easy way to measure the girth of trees, because a fat girth is one of several indicators of age. So to all knitters out there - this is a plea to get knitting your very own designer scarf or gloves. The links on the website will take you to a simple guide on how to knit yourself a scarf or gloves. The stripy scarf is for the novices amongst you and the leafy scarf is for the more advanced knitters!

Handmade Lap Blankets for Seniors in Nursing Homes during the Holiday Season Many seniors in nursing homes are alone, without family and without some holiday cheer. Please help us make a difference in the lives of seniors in Washington State nursing homes by donating a handmade knitted or crocheted lap blanket as a holiday gift to acknowledge, remember and honor the seniors. Deadline for 2008: December 10, 2008 After 12/10/08, we will accept blankets for the 2009 holiday season. Size: no larger than 5 feet by 5 feet Colors preferred: warm colors (no black, please) Blankets must be machine washable. Blankets can be sent directly to Makaylaa Powers, Visiting Angels, 903 5th Ave Ste 201, Kirkland, WA 98033. For more information, contact: Makaylaa at (425) 828-4500 or via email makaylaa@eastsideangels.com.

In January 2006 I started Knitting for Brisbane's Needy (Queensland, Australia) after being told that not many people donated warm clothing to the charities that help the homeless, needy families etc. As I love to knit I said I would knit some things for this particular charity, then I told a friend and it evolved from there. Since inception in 2006 we have donated over 14,000 knitted/crocheted/loomed/sewn/quilted items to the homeless, needy families, domestic violence shelters, premature babies, aged folk homes, animal refuges etc. We are always on the lookout for more members. There is not a particular item/s that you need to make, not a particular number of items, just what you can, when you can. Beanies, scarves, socks, bed slippers, gloves, mittens, blankets, jumpers, (adults and children sizes) are very much in demand. So are toys! Its amazing how many children we come across that have never had a toy to call their own. They just love any toy, knitted, crocheted or sewn that we can give them. Also give trauma teddies to various police, fire and ambulance stations around Brisbane and Queensland. If you want to find out more or join us please go to: http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/knittingforbrisbanesneedy/ All of our donations are GIVEN DIRECTLY TO THOSE IN NEED, nothing is sold and everything stays in Australia, where the number of homeless and needy people is rising dramatically every day!! Thanks for reading!

Warmer Winters is a non-profit organization of volunteers in Massachusetts who warm the Winters of people in need by giving hand knitted items to homeless shelters and agencies that work with people in need. This year the need is greater than ever for people on fixed incomes who will not be able to heat their homes. We give sweaters, afghans, as well as hats, scarves, mittens and slippers. We would gladly accept any of these items.Last Winter we gave 1500 items to shelters and agencies in four towns. With your help, we can increase that number to 2000. New England Winters can be brutal for people struggling to keep warm. Our website is http://www.warmer-winters.info We're always looking to set up more chapters and have an e-mail newsletter we'd be happy to send to anyone who is interested.

Every minute, a woman with no medical care dies in pregnancy or childbirth Millions of mums in poor countries get low-quality health care, or are forced to go without it altogether. High fees, a shortage of hospitals and clinics, and not enough doctors and midwives means women struggle to get the medical care they need and all that too often they don?t survive to look after their babies. In Africa and South East Asia pregnancy and childbirth represent the biggest cause of death amongst women of childbearing age. Oxfam is asking supporters to help campaign for better healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth by knitting squares for a giant baby blanket, where each square represents a newborn baby, left needlessly without a mother because of lack of healthcare. These squares will be joined together and handed into the UK government in September. Instructions Each square should be 9 inches in size and preferably made using double-knitting weight yarn. You can use any type of yarn, provided that it is washable. All colours are welcome. Superwash wool or washable cotton yarns are particularly suitable. Typically this weight yarn will knit up to around 21-24 stitches to 4 inches in stocking stitch on 3.75-4.5mm needles (depending on how tightly you hold the yarn, you may need to use a different sized needle to get the right gauge). At a gauge of 24 stitches to 4 inches, you will need to cast on 54 stitches to make a 9 inch square. If your gauge is different, please make sure that you use the right number of stitches and rows to give a 9 inch square ? odd sized squares can be very difficult to piece together. Plain stocking stitch always curls up at the sides. You can prevent this by knitting a narrow border of garter stitch all round the square. To do this, just knit the first and last five rows (no purling!), and always knit the first five and last five stitches of every row with your stocking stitch in between. Many people like to make patterned squares. You can find a dictionary of stitch patterns available free at each of the sites below: http://tinyurl.com/2ketdl http://tinyurl.com/2v556p http://tinyurl.com/369xvz Others may wish to use up different coloured odds and ends of yarn to make striped or multicoloured squares. Some ideas and examples are available here: http://tinyurl.com/5rrf4 http://tinyurl.com/32dcbq If you want to design your own multicoloured pattern, you can find special graph paper to do it at the sites below - just print out a sheet and have a go at creating your own unique square. http://tinyurl.com/pp9wm http://tinyurl.com/5fnkw Crochet Squares are also very welcome. There is a wonderful selection of free patterns at the site below. You can enlarge the small squares by adding a few extra rounds until you reach nine inches. http://tinyurl.com/cbsje To finish please weave in all yarn ends on you squares and, if necessary, block them neatly to size. This will save lots of time when it comes to assembling the blankets. Send knitted squares with your name address and email to Sarah Blakemore, Oxfam campaigns, 47 Park Square East, Leeds LS21 2NL by 1st August 2008.

Hello! We would appreciate your help knitting warm hats for a group of Tibetan Buddhist nuns near Lhasa, Tibet. Our goal is to complete 250 hats by March 3, 2008. If you would like details, including a free pattern (simple and quick to knit) and yarn suggestions (about $6.50 per hat), kindly visit our website at http://mysite.verizon.net/reso5cyd/hatsfornuns/ Thank you for your help!

http://www.geocities.com/earlyangelsproject/ Early Angels is a site set up to try and encourage people to knit for the premature babies at their local hospitals SCBU's and NICU's. The site has loads of free preemie patterns and we also accept donations. We are also always on the look out for any volunteers who would like to come on board with us and donated their knitted baby garments (we also accept crocheted and sewed garment, unfortunatly we dont have any patterns for these up on the site yet).

Head Huggers is an organization that collects and distributes chemo caps. http://www.headhuggers.org

What colour is your Scarf? Hello! I would like to enlist the help of anyone who wishes to help me with a Community project to knit a total of '500' colourful scarves for homeless people by Saturday 8th December 2007. The scarves will be distributed to both national and local Homeless Charities including Sr. Joan in New Addington who works with homeless people in London (at Lincoln's Inns Fields and at Waterloo), Crisis a national homeless charity and 'The Passage' in London who work with homeless people. Your scarf can be any colour and should be about 60 inches long and 7 inches wide. I've included a pattern for a basic scarf below, if required. You'll need a pair of knitting needles (size 5mm or 6mm) and some wool (200gm). In my local parish, Our Lady of the Annunciation church on Bingham Road, Addiscombe, Croydon, I've arranged some knitting sessions to allow people to come together in the large church hall to knit their scarves and also to give non-knitters the opportunity to learn to knit. You are welcome to join in the knitting sessions and also the scarf collection event on Sunday the 9th December. Future sessions on: Sunday 2nd December 9.00am to 12pm Sunday 9th December 11am to 1pm- knitted scarves to be handed over to Charities; celebrate with tea, coffee & mince pies I would really appreciate your help with this project! Do email me or ring me to let me know how you get on. The scarves will need to be completed by Saturday the 8th of December. Many Thanks. Fiona Lobo Tel: 07796 238009 Email: fiona.lobo@yahoo.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To knit a plain/basic scarf You will need: 200 gm double knit wool; 1 pair of 5mm (US Size 9) or Size 6mm (US Size 8) Knitting Needles. If you use a big size needle (e.g. 6mm), you'll only need to cast on 45 stitches. The scarf will be approx 7 ins wide and 60 ins long With 5mm or 6mm needles, cast on 51 stitches. Rib Row 1- Right Side- K2, *P1, K1; repeat from * to last stitch, K1 Rib Row 2- K1, *P1, K1; repeat from * to end. These 2 rows form rib. Work in rib until scarf measures 60 ins ending with Right Side facing for next row. Cast off in rib. Fringe (optional): Using 4 strands of wool 10 ins long for each tassel proceeds as follows: Fold strands in half, using a crochet hook draw the looped ends through edge of scarf, pull ends through loops and pull tight. Continue all along ends of scarf.

Hello there! We are a group of like minded knitters and crocheters who make things for various charities all over the world. (We reached 80 members today and rising!). We have a Blog http://charityknitters.blogspot.com/ a website http://www.lovinghands.org.uk/ and also a brilliant Forum (link on the website) where our members can chat and exchange news etc. We make things for The Baby Pack Project, Burundi Bears, Preemiesuk, Local SCBU's, Boobs for breastfeeding and also for ladies who have had mastectomies, Warm Clothing for Blythswood Care and Blankets for animal shelters. We are always delighted to have new members join us either on line or by post or by coming along to one of our meetings (Mondays 1pm - 3pm in Kelty Community Centre, Main Street, Kelty or Mondays 7pm - 9pm in the JRD Trust, 9 The Esplanade, Kirkcaldy). Why not join us - you know you want to :0)

We're a small group of volunteers that knit and crochet clothing for premature babies. We also knit burial items for babies that, sadly, don't survive. For more information about PreemiesUK, to volunteer your services or donate materials (wool, buttons, ribbon etc), please contact Shelley http://preemiesuk.googlepages.com/home.html

Feed The Children cares for some of the most vulnerable children in the world; orphaned, abandoned, homeless and affected by HIV/Aids. The charity doesn't just ask for financial support, but also accepts donations of gifts in kind to send to places like Angola, Kenya, Uganda and Liberia. FTC accepts donations of knitted clothing for babies and children, and blankets for all ages - even in the hottest parts of Africa, the temperature can drop several degrees at night, putting under nourished children at risk. In addition, FTC sends emergency aid to disaster situations; knitted jumpers, socks, hats, gloves, scarves and blankets were sent to Pakistan after the earthquake, to Jordan for refugees from Iraq, and to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in the midst of conflict. To find out more about knitting and fundraising for Feed The Children, see http://www.feedthechildren.org.uk/pages/resources_knitting.shtml

How to help Annie Modesitt and her family When Annie's family found itself facing a serious health crisis with limited funds - her husband, Gerry, was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in April 2007, they realized - like many insured American families facing a similar situation - they didn't have the resources to cover the non-medical expenses involved in his treatment and recovery. Annie came up with the idea to 'sell' the pattern for a popular dress she had designed for a friend to wear to the Emmy's. It seemed a graceful way to attack this problem - folks could pay as much or as little as they wanted for the dress pattern (or download it for nothing if they could afford nothing) and they would create a fund to offset their expenses. To read more or to download Annie's Red Carpet Convertible pattern go to: http://www.anniemodesitt.com/patterns/rcc.html