Knit4Charities

NO-ONE IS TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE    

Knit4Charities is a Yahoo group, based in Australia, dedicated to knitting and crocheting items to donate to needy people throughout our community.  All of our donations are given freely to whoever needs them - our items are not for sale under any circumstances. 

Since starting the group in August 2004 I have been joined by the most wonderful, generous knitters and crocheters from across Australia and around the World.  Each and every one supplies their own materials and gives freely of their time to make the most beautiful items.  Most of them are also more than willing to post items to our Charity of the Month projects all at their own expense.

The aim of the group is to share between members, ideas, patterns and needy charities.

After searching for a similar group and not finding one I decided to start knit4charities myself.  There are lots of organisations who would benefit from donations of knitted and crocheted items if only we knew where to look.  Hopefully, on this website, you will find the information you need to get started.  The idea is to make the items you enjoy working on most and finding who can use them. 

Charity donating can be done anywhere, at any time, and so our principles can be applied to any country in the world.  We welcome interested people from all over the world to join our group.  We are happy to share our ideas to get you started donating within your own community and to share stories, patterns etc. with you.  At present we have members in the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand -- all helping to make a difference!

If you would like to know more about me check out my Profile http://www.freewebs.com/knit4charities/myprofile.htm

If you would like to read my occasional ramblings you can do so here http://www.freewebs.com/knit4charities/myblog.htm 

please dont be afraid to post a comment -- you do not have to sign in to do so -- just write your name and comment in the boxes supplied and click on Post -- I will still get your message!!  

On this site I hope to provide Links to some of my favourite sites where Free Patterns are available.  Also, hints and tips for creating, making, donating your work.  Lists of Charities, who to contact and where to send your donations.

I also hope to encourage and inspire others to join me, helping to make and donate, warm items of clothing etc. to needy people here in Australia.

There are several ways to donate.  

Charity of the Month Calendar - these are the projects we are supporting as a group.  Each month we knit for a charity (members chose who or how many they want to support), then end of that time post their donation to the member who nominated the charity.  She then collects and counts all of the donations and delivers them to the charity as a whole group donation.  Members who chose to knit for a charity on our calendar are only required to make one item -- they are, of course, welcome to make more than one if they wish but there is no pressure put on anyone to make more.  The calendar also serves another purpose by giving slower knitters a chance to work towards a charity a few months down the track.  I give out the details for posting donations to group members on the 25th of each month and also at that time put up the list of requirements for the following month.
 
Members are also encouraged to find a needy charity within their own neighbourhood.  Postage costs are getting out of hand - the more we can save on postage gives us more to spend on yarn :)  
 
Or perhaps you would just like to make an item or two and if it doesn't fit into any of our projects then I can give you some ideas of where to donate when you are ready.
 
Just about anything you make is needed by someone!  This includes animals :)  For more information email Pam - knit4charities@gmail.com

 Charity of the month - Donations

2006  1537 items

2007  5820 items

2008  7492 items

2009  6132 items

Individual donations (by Members who have chosen to share)

2006/7  5377 

2008      9152

2009      8155

Special Project donations  1419

45,084 items donated to date.

NOVEMBER PROJECTS

ROYAL CHILDRENS HOSPITAL (MELBOURNE) -- Monster Sock Puppets and Finger Puppets

HUNTER ANIMAL RESCUE - Dog coats all sizes

ELIZABETH CHURCH OF CHRIST (SA) -- Trauma Teddies (for distribution to the Police)

Special Thanks go to the ladies from Aruma Lodge Aged Care Hostel in Broken Hill for the wonderful knitting and crochet they donate to us.  These ladies are well into their 80's and 90's and produce the most beautiful garments.

Lincraft Sydney Pitt Street (Imperial Arcade ) Store and floor supervisor Maria -- a very big thankyou for your most generous donation of yarns to our Sydney members. 

To Mahony's Group of Pharmacies in Tamworth for the many boxes of donations they have sent.  I cant thank you enough for your generousity! And the boxes just keep on coming............

Thanks to everyone who has purchased The Gift of Giving -- I have been able to subsidize quite a lot of postage costs for our members.

Thank You to Spotlight for sending a donation to help cover the cost of postage for our Charity of the Month Projects and for the gift vouchers that I used for prizes in our Treasure Hunt Competition.

Special thanks go to Sandra Rohde from South Australia who donated tons (and I mean tons) of wool to the group to be knitted up and given to SA Charities. 

A huge Thank You goes to Carol at Wangaratta Woollen Mills for all the help she gives over the phone and especially for choosing lovely colours when I order yarn from her and the little extras she sends because she knows I knit for Charity.  One of these days I intend visiting Carol to thank her in person --- I did this!!!  I met Carol a few days after Easter this year (2008) - she is just as nice in person as I thought she would be :) 

Get Creative Magazine - who donated some lovely books for us to give away in our member competitions and who have been so supportive to me over the past year or so.

Australian Country Spinners - the creators of Patons, Cleckheaton, Panda and Shepherd who have very kindly placed a link to us on their websites.

The Barrier Miner - our local freebie newspaper here in my hometown who not only printed my book The Gift of Giving but have gone way beyond the call of duty with their support, newspaper article, classified ad etc. etc. etc. Special thanks to Jonnah - she is a gem!

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Email me for more information knit4charities@gmail.com 

If you like what you see here and would like to join our group click on the link below. 

If you would like to donate your knitting/crocheting but would rather not join the group please contact me - I am happy to share information with you.

Thank you for looking at our pages, please take the time to comment in our Guestbook.

This site was last updated on 21 November 2009 

Group membership at my last update is 758 but....... we always have room for more!

Click to join knit4charities (group)

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