Knitting for UK charities

Online craft shop Injabulo are once again running a knitting appeal for the children of Pebbles Project - children with special educational needs living in the Winelands area of South Africa. This time they are asking for anything knitted; scarves, hats, gloves, blankets, sweaters, cardigans, toys. The response to their last appeal two years ago was phenomenal and made such a difference to the children.

Send your knits to: Injabulo, Home Farm Cottage, Ashton Wold, Oundle PE8 5LZ - please include your email address.

Stepping Stones Nigeria is a UK-based charity passionate about defending and upholding the rights of children in the Niger Delta region. They're asking knitters to knit hand puppets that can be used by teachers to engage young children in learning how to read and write. There are three puppets to choose from - a snake, a bee and a mouse - and you can get the pattern to knit them by emailing l.atkinson@steppingstonesnigeria.org.

Anita Hunt's children's novel Matty-boy & The Secret Pigeon Racket aims to encourage children to tell a trusted adult if they are affected by bullying. Talented toy designer, Alan Dart, has designed a knitting pattern of Percy, from the lovely illustration by Sarah Miskelly.

Please consider making a donation to the fundraising campaign when you download the pattern; all donations will make a difference! A donation of £3.00 makes a difference to 30 young people who are affected by bullying.

Knit an Easter chick, which will be filled with a Creme Egg and sold in aid of Francis House Children's Hospice in Manchester. More than 550 knitted chicks were sold for Easter 2012, raising a staggering £650 - help them raise even more for Easter 2013! Download the PDF of the knitting pattern here.

When you've knitted as many chicks as you'd like to, send them in any time before Friday 8th March 2013 to the Fundraising Office, Francis House Children's Hospice, 390 Parrswood Road, Didsbury, Manchester M20 5NA, marking your parcel 'Easter Chicks'.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home want to re-educate folk about the wonderful characteristics of the much-maligned Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Help them raise funds by purchasing a knitting pattern for a cuddly Staffie.

When you have knitted your Staffie, name it, take some pics and send them to softerthanyouthink@battersea.org.uk.

If you're a dab hand with a set of needles, you could create a better future for people in poverty. Jumpers, cardies and scarves can all be sold in Oxfam's High Street shops. Your local shop manager will be able to tell you what they can sell and roughly how much money they'll be able to make.

And then there are blankets. 6ft by 4ft Oxfam blankets go down a storm at music festivals, selling for anything up to £35. That's enough to provide clean water for 60 people in an emergency.

For loads more info and free patterns you can use, visit the Knitting for Oxfam webpage.

made4aid is a non-profit-making organisation, raising money for aid and relief work, through the generosity of creative people around the world. Handmade art or craft items - or materials - can be donated to made4aid and will be sold online to raise money for aid. All proceeds go to the relief work of Médecins sans Frontières (aka Doctors without Borders). You can also help by buying from Made4Aid's Etsy shop.

In 2011, Simply Knitting and their sister magazine, The Knitter, nominated domestic violence charity, Refuge, as their charity of the year. To support the important work that they do and to bring some comfort to women and children in refuges, they launched a Comfort Blanket campaign.

The deadline for receiving blankets has now passed, but you can still get hold of the free PDF of square knitting patterns. There are 26 patterns in total, from designers including Alan Dart, Ruth Maddock, Sarah Hatton, Pat Mencini, Juliet Bernard and Elizabeth Jarvis. In return for downloading the PDF, the suggested minimum donation is £5 (but just give whatever you can).

This money will be paid directly to Refuge, allowing them to continue their work for women and children experiencing domestic violence. All you need to do is go to the Comfort Blanket campaign's Just Giving page.

SIBOL members make themed blankets throughout the year which are donated to elderly people living in nursing homes. For details, visit http://sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com

Knit for Peace is an initiative of the Charities Advisory Trust that encourages women (+men) from different, often historically hostile communities to come together informally to knit (or sew or crochet). With a shared common goal, differences in race, religion or caste are irrelevant, and individuals come together to knit peacefully.

They need warm knitted jumpers, hats, scarves, blankets and baby clothes for the children of Afghanistan, and are also grateful for knitting wool and needles (postal address here).

"When knitters send us lovingly hand knitted clothes for children we always try to make sure that we pass them on where we are sure that they will reach the intended recipients and that they will do maximum good. Susie Jenner, one of our staff members recently went on a visit to Sierra Leone and took a bag full of clothes with her." Find out more her trip on the Knit for Peace blog.

Knit A Square asks you to make and send 8 x 8" squares to help keep an AIDS orphan warm. Soweto Comfort Club, who have taken up this knitting project with great enthusiasm, will join and distribute the blankets.

The Knit A Square website has full instructions on how to knit or crochet squares, and how to send them to South Africa where they will be distributed to the needy.

Bonnie Babies sends premature baby clothes, blankets and burial outfits to UK Special Baby Care units, hospices, SANDS (the UK neonatal death charity), and to parents needing support. Knitting, crocket and sewing patterns are available on their website. They also require donations of white DK yarn, buttons, ribbons and lace.

Algerian Action aims to help relieve some of the difficulty that poverty brings to children and adults living in Algeria. Items welcome include kids' clothes, toys and knitted squares, and free patterns are available on the website

Animal Assisted Therapy is the use of animals to provide activities, fun, exercises and education for children using animals. Alpacas have a luxurious coat of wool and are very therapeutic to stroke, comb and feed.

If you can help to knit cute woolly alpacas so to be sold in aid of the Alpaca Maraca project, please email info@alpacamaraca.com for a free pattern. They don't have to be conventional camelid colours - go nuts and make them purple if you like! The knitted alpacas are also for sale via their website!

The UK Military and Veterans Support group on Ravelry.com aims to promote and support the UK's military charities as well as backing up UK personnel wherever they are. Ideas for fundraising and advice are welcomed as is input from anyone who might be serving at the moment.

Knit a bear for a child who needs comfort or something to love. Contact Teddies for Tragedies and they will tell you where your bear is needed. Each bear is knitted to the same basic pattern so that no bear is 'better' than any other - as the website says:

"Don't deviate from the pattern, all teddies are different but none should be superior (no skirts or hats, stripes are OK in moderation, especially if you're using up duller colours). Think of it this way - we all want our teddy to be the best but do we want the child who doesn't get our teddy to be disappointed?"

You'll also need to sew up a simple drawstring bag for the bear to live in - again, follow the instructions on the Teddies for Tragedies website.

Knit an Angel Bear and it will be sent to a child in the UK or overseas who needs a cuddly friend. They're particularly keen to send a regular supply of Angel Bears to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Free knitting and crochet toy patterns available on the website.

Support The Children's Society's The Big Stitch by using their knitting pattern for little cuddly hearts. Get sponsored to knit them, or make them into badges and keyrings and sell them to raise more money.

Mencap supports people with a learning disability and their families and carers. You can download a free knitting pattern Snowflake Beanie hat from their website. In return, please make a donation to Mencap.

Hospitals and community midwifes use model breasts to show new mothers how to breastfeed and how to express milk if necessary, but they cost £35 each, and knitted versions work just as well!

Contact your local hospital's infant feeding co-ordinator to find out if they would welcome donations, then use this knitting pattern, from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (pdf) to knit breasts in any skin shade.

Every year, Innocent Smoothies launch 'The Big Knit', asking knitters to knit tiny bobble hats for their smoothie bottles. A basic pattern, which you can customise, is available from the Big Knit website. The deadline for the 2011 campaign was 14th October 2011.

Each behatted bottle sold from November 2011 raises 25p for Age UK. The target of 650,000 hats aims to raise £200,000 to help people in later life stay warm this winter.

You can read about how money raised in 2008 reached older people in Devon here.

Every autumn,
Operation Christmas Child asks knitters to make mittens, a scarf or a beanie hat or even a hand puppet to put a smile on a child's face. Simply put your knitted gifts along with other gifts in a shoe box and take it to your local OCC Drop Off point between the specified dates (usually during November). The deadline for 2011 has passed, but look out for details of the 2012 campaign on their website later in the year.

Find out the location of your nearest (UK) Drop Off point by checking the OCC website.

You can use their specially made pattern for hand puppets. The clowns were so popular last winter that they hope to have many more knitted puppets in shoe boxes this year. Playing with a glove puppet has been found to be very therapeutic for a child suffering from trauma or isolation - the puppet becomes a little friend to talk to.