Hello everyone
Here are the details for the July Challenge - keep a newborn warm. As stated previously there has been a significant escalation in South Africa of newborns being abandoned. There are many charities who have responded to this crisis and are providing safe homes for these babies. One such charity is Tshwane Place of Safety who currently have 255 babies and toddlers in 100 safe homes. They are receiving 12 requests a day to take in babies. We have written to Tshwane to ask if they would like us to provide blankets and hats for their newborns. They are absolutely delighted.
The details
For the purposes of keeping the challenge manageable and simple, we suggest that we don't distinguish between the babies and toddlers as we don't have the breakdown from Tshwane, but given that they are receiving so many requests, if we make our challenge 255 blankets and hats that is a great goal to strive for.
The blankets will be made of 12, 8 x 8"squares, so they are more like cot blankets. As they are for newborns, they should be soft yarn, warm and cosy. I would like to suggest that we ask Tshwane to 'gift' these blankets to the babies as a comfort for them in their journey into life, rather than pass them onto other newborns. What do you think?
Making whole blankets
While we have not encouraged the making of whole blankets because of the duty issues, some small blankets and quilts have been sent and not attracted duty, so we thought because these are such small blankets we would waive the 'no complete blanket' rule for this challenge, for those of you who are keen to make a whole blanket. It will help with the joining too which will be quite a challenge for the SCC ladies. Could you indicate in the thread below if you are intent on making a whole blanket?
Team up and make more blankets!
We also think this is a great time for KAS members to team up with other members, perhaps two or even three people who can work out colors, patterns and yarn weights between them. Apart from the fact that it will add to the challenge if new friendships are made, we hope that it will also increase the number of blanketsmade. It may be easier to pal up with someone in your own region so that you can share and organise the postage together.
Introduce a friend or family member
What better time to introduce someone new to knit-a-square then making blankets for these precious abandoned babies. If you do introduce a friend or family member, please post here as it will be a great incentive to everyone else to see: I am introducing my friend, mother, sister, boy friend, husband etc! Then ask them to find someone else to join the circle!Scoring the number of squares
We thought it would be a good idea to count downwards and also in squares, not blankets, to allow those who may only knit 1 or more squares to participate. Every now and then one of us will tally up the number of squares knitted and post the total of blankets. There is a total of 255 x 12 =3060 squares required and 255 hats. Only subtract from the total when you have completed squares. So if you have knitted 3 squares toward your blanket and two hats you would then put the total as: 3057 squares, 253 hats. Hope that makes sense.
Postage
Just make sure that you put For Charity Only and No Commercial Value on your envelope and July Challenge and send as usual to knit-a-square, c/o Soweto Comfort Club, Pvt Bag X900, Bryanston 2021, South Africa.
If you have any further suggestions for this, could you add them here. I hope that everyone has a great month and we look forward to warming up as many of these little babes as we can. Thank you all, Sandy
You need to be a member of Square Circle Forum to add comments!
sending off in the post tomorrow - 5 baby blankets
2 flannel quilted and 3 crocheted
:)
Laurie C. Hake > jacqueline sousaNovember 2, 2009 at 9:54am
Hi Jacqueline: If you check out the "November" Challenge forum posts, Sandy is trying to figure out if it would be feasible to put 25 blankets together by the end of January to be gotten to Pennsylvania for the African Choir that is coming to the US. I wonder if maybe your work group and some of the rest of us might not be able to accomplish this here in the US rather than mailing over to Africa and then having them sent back here - timing would be mighty tight - anyway, any thoughts on this? I'm sure Sandy will give us some feedback in the next day or two - thanks, Laurie
laurie
i was reading in the november challenge whilst you were writing here
yes - i agreed to help
will do whatever sandy would think necessary to make it work
what a wonderful thing that would be if we could pull this one off!!!
I have some perfect plush wool which I will knit some blankets for the newborns, not sure at this stage how many the wool will make, I will make the squares 6"x6" to allow for a few extra squares. Will let you know count as I progress.
With 6 inch squares you'd need 4x6 I suppose to make the minimum size of baby blanket which is 24x32. Plush wool is great! Very warm and soft and cuddly for the wee ones. Way to go!
Linda Simmons > P. Jeanne HaesslerSeptember 29, 2009 at 6:43pm
Thank you Jean for the correct size, I thought it was a bit small with 3x4 so will add more squares to make it up to 24x32.
You're quite welcome. If you're using 100% pure wool yarn you might want to add another row or two to the top and sides in case it felts down when washed. Just a thought, just in case.... :) And particularly with the 6 inch and 4 inch squares the ladies in Soweto appreciate them being sewn together as it's a lot more sewing for them to do it. One of our members said that her granddaughter (if memory serves) could manage to make 4 inch squares. She then crocheted or knitted around them to bring them up to 8 inchers but smaller squares can be done so long as WE are the ones sewing them up. Just FYI to anyone with kids who could handle making smaller squares. :)
Linda Simmons > P. Jeanne HaesslerSeptember 30, 2009 at 6:55am
Hi Jeanne, unfortunately my little boy is 30yrs old and 6' 2" tall so its down to mom, I have sewn the squares together and will make whole blankets, and I was also thinking of the rolled edges when washed, so I am going to crochet a border around the squares and make it up to the correct size, thats my limit for crocheting I've never learned how to do it properly. Thank you so much for all your help, I so enjoy knitting for this worthy cause don't want to end up getting it wrong.xx
You and me both. I've made some very "funky" squares so far (warm but unusual), but the hats turned out alright and the Go-Over is going good. My son is about the size of yours, 3 years younger but he's a skinny beanpole, never gains weight. He's happy when I crochet, so long as I don't gift stuff to him, lol. He still remembers his sister asking for a bright pair of slippers. As you can imagine, I ran with that one. You need sunglasses on when wearing them, lol. I'm enthused about helping the kids too. I wasn't thinking your boy crocheting per se, just a general shout out to anybody with grandkids, nephews and nieces or school kids, regarding the smaller squares. :) They make up great but it's a lot of sewing up for them over there. That being said, one of our brilliant members knits small squares to each other as she goes along and never has to sew them up...it's under knitting patterns I think. So sewing up isn't inevitable if one is crafty enough.
Linda Simmons > P. Jeanne HaesslerSeptember 30, 2009 at 8:53am
Yes, big boys dont knit!! give lots of love though, but I do have 2 beautiful goddaughters who I will rope in bless them. You mentioning slippers, when I was a child in my first school I remember my Nan knitting me skirts and cardigans for my school uniform, I was so embarrased as a child but you daren't tell anyone in those days, I must admit they did keep me warm.xx
Replies
2 flannel quilted and 3 crocheted
:)
i was reading in the november challenge whilst you were writing here
yes - i agreed to help
will do whatever sandy would think necessary to make it work
what a wonderful thing that would be if we could pull this one off!!!
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 14 Next