Crafting for a Cause: Knitting

It has struck me recently how many creative and talented colleagues and friends I have and I wanted to showcase some of their creations and stories for you.

This post is a tribute to my mother Gill and all the other people who ‘craft for a cause’. Gill belongs to a group who get together regularly to listen to a speaker or just socialise and knit whilst they are there. The cause this group supports is the Kidz First Children’s Hospital at Middlemore.

The group also keep on knitting at home using their own wool or wool that has been donated by others. They knit all manner of clothing items from hats and socks for premature babies to sweaters, vests and slippers for children of all sizes; and toys of every description from eye-catching mobiles to hang above babies’ cots to stuffed animals to keep the children company when they are in hospital.

The creativity (particularly during COVID19 Lockdown) was in figuring out how to complete a garment or toy using only the wool that they had to hand without it looking silly. This could be anything from creative use of stripes or blocks of colour to adapting a pattern so that, for example, a toy has boots rather than feet to substitution of colours that would create the same general effect for things like beaks or feet. And even to create a finger puppet with the last remaining scraps!

When knitting a jumper, even when using somewhat random stripes, it can be difficult to determine whether you have enough wool of any one colour to make the back and the front (or both the sleeves) with the same pattern. So the crafty crafters knit both parts together or put one part on hold whilst they catch up to the same point on the other part and then decide what they will do next.

Gill had the remains of her wool and a box-full donated by a friend and found it very rewarding to have something useful to do during the COVID19 Lockdown period. She could knit whilst she watched TV or even better while she listened to an audio book. Here are a selection of toys and clothing she knitted over that time.