Knitting for Charity – Tips for Getting Started

Knitting for charity really appeals to me. I have grandchildren to knit for but I think of all the kids out there who have no hats and scarves and it makes me want to gather them all up and knit a hat for each and every one of them. I looked around my town to see what knitting charities I could find because I’m not sure how many hats I can knit on my own-lol.

In my small hometown in Oregon, women get together to do Hats for Kids every year. People donate yarn or they buy it and they knit hats to donate to the elementary school children. There is a big hat giveaway each year and the kids love it! I couldn’t find anything like that in my area. However, the YMCA in my area is opening it’s doors for groups to form around certain interests, like book clubs, so I”m getting together a group of knitters do knit for charity. We’ll make hats and scarves to donate next Christmas to the Mission Arlington, which gives out clothes to people who need them in our city.

If you want to knit for charity, but don’t know where to start, ask at your local yarn shop. At my local yarn shop they are doing hat helmets for the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan but I really knit something for children. Your local yarn store may have a charity knitting group or will know of one.

Here are some other ideas for knitting for charity:

• Bundles of Joy on Ravelry – Ravelry is a free to join knitting communty and Bundles of Joy is a knitting group whose members knit for Pine Ridge OB Ward on a Reservation in South Dakota. The poverty on the reservation is extensive and many babies go home with no hats or baby blankets. You can also purchase baby items to send.

• Knit Along with Debbie Macomber: Charity Guide for Knitters offers simple charity knitting patterns and names and addresses of groups who knit for charity, as well as ideas for finding a group of your own. Now that I’ve discovered Debbie Macomber, she seems to be everywhere!)

• Ask local groups if they have a need for knitted items. Ask your church, local homeless shelter, Meals on Wheels, hospital auxiliary or other organization. It’s nice to make an impact in your own local community.

• Decide what you’d like to make and then look for a group who might need it. If you’d like to do hats for chemo patients, contact your local chapter of the American Cancer Society. If you’d like to knit shawls or socks, you could contact a local nursing home or a VA hospital near you. I knew someone who made afghans for the veterans at the local VA hospital and they were really a hit there! If you belong to a knitting group, ask if others might be interested in contributing one knitted item for charity.

Whichever knitting charity you decide on, be sure and check first if there are any specifications. I know at the VA hospital, afghans need to be a certain size so as not to get caught in wheelchairs. Also, make sure the charity will take the items and agree to distribute them.

I think January is a good time to start knitting items to donate next Christmas. That gives everyone time to make one or more items. Everybody has bits of yarn or a skein in their stash they don’t know what to do with. If you need knitting patterns using one skein to knit for charity try One Skein Knits for Baby or 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders: A world of possibilities inspired by just one skein, for lots of ideas and knitting patterns.

Knitting for charity not only makes you feel good but it helps others by doing something you’re good at doing. What could be better than that!

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