Why Charity Knitting Won’t Make a Dent in Your Stash
The sad truth about charity knitting, your overflowing stash and why you might want to do it anyway.
Once in a while I get tempted to take part in a charity knitting initiative. There are some wonderfully compelling ones around. I am sure we’ve all seen them. From bonding squares for neonatal units to socks for cancer patients there is probably one for anything you’d like to knit, even tiny hats for smoothy bottles.
Wonderful we think. (Well, except of course much better to knit hats for humans who actually need warm heads than bottles of juice!)
We persuade ourselves that we can use up stash yarn and feel good about it at the same time. We think. Maybe...
I’m afraid though the reality might be a bit different.
First of all it assumes that the reason stuff is lingering unused in there is that you don’t have a use for it.
It also assumes that you are willing to put aside your current projects and knit to someone else’s requirements. That feels a bit like those people who see you knitting and generously tell you:
“You can make me one of those next! I’ll even buy the wool!” 🤷♀️
There are some excellent rants about this attitude to knitters and a certain brand of smoothies on various blogs if you want to read more. Meanwhile let’s just look at our WIP piles and agree that we probably don’t need anyone to give us reasons to knit or suggest projects for us.
Also most of the charity knitting appeals do actually have quite specific yarn requirements. Many of the baby or care home ones need you to use yarn that can be washed by machine at high temperatures. This is often important for hygiene reasons.
You Might Want To Do It Anyway!
That all being said knitting for a worthwhile cause can be a boost. It can give you a chance to knit yet more hats when you have run out of people to give them. It can let you knit baby clothes when you’ve no access to wee ones. It can give you a warm glow knowing your work will help someone in need. So, let’s have a look at some options .
Three Charity Project Suggestions
Here are three that I know are current in the UK:
Hand Knits for Care Leavers - Christmas Dinner hats and scarves.
I am particularly drawn to this one. It provides hats and scarf sets as a present for care leavers aged 18-25 at a big Christmas Day Party in various centres round the UK. It seems such a lovely idea, like giving them a long distance woolly hug.
The yarn requirements are quite precise and need to be followed carefully.
You need to commit to a hand AND scarf set
Specifics
The chosen patterns (Wheat Scarf and Barley Hat) can be downloaded for free from Tin Can Knits website
NO pompom.
Yarn - machine washable, aran weight in solid, cheerful (so maybe avoid black!) gender neutral colours. (Any of the solid Stylecraft or other brand Aran with 20% wool would ideal).
Adult size
Should include a Christmas label sending Christmas wishes and care instructions.
Tie up the set together. No need to wrap, the young people get to choose a colour they would like and don’t feel obliged to take one if they are not keen.
Deadline: to arrive by November 22nd
Contact helloMissGoggins by clicking through on the image above for the address to post them to when you’ve finished. More details on her Instagram bio .
Wool and Wellness
https://fcn.org.uk/wool-and-wellness/
This is a great campaign in conjunction with British Wool to give British wool hats to farmers. Sounds a bit like coals to Newcastle doesn’t it? There is a bit more to it than you might think. Anyone who lives in a rural area knows that farmers have been under immense pressure for many years and rural suicide rates in the UK are very sobering.
This seems like a timely, sensitive and sensible initiative. Stitched inside each hat is a label with the Crisis Helpline number for the Farming Community Network.
There are two recommended patterns, both available free from the site. I particularly like the West Yorkshire Spinners one which also comes with a lovely textured scarf pattern.
I suspect many of us in the UK will have a suitable ball or two of British wool that could quickly become a hat.
There’s no formal process for handing them over so unless you personally know a farmer you’d need to work out how to do it. Some knit and natter groups have given them away at rural shows, like this one in Monmouth
I like this idea as farmers can help themselves to a hat without much having to be said about the phone number.
A slight problem is that I am still trying to find out where you can get the printed labels.
Pattern : choice of 2 free and provided
Yarn : any Aran weight British Wool
Close to Home
The last one is trickier and involves a bit of research on your part. I’m going to suggest looking at your own local community.
Is there somewhere closer to home that needs your help?
Phone up local ones or check their Facebook page and ask them!
Places to try:
Care homes : twiddle muffs or blankets, bed socks etc.They might even welcome a donation of yarn from your stash for residents to knit with themselves. Stash reduction win!
Your local neonatal unit: bonding squares, hats for premies, blankets to take home with baby etc.
Cancer units : soft hats, cannula guards, soft blankets or shawls, socks.
Hospices: May want items for use in the hospice or fund raisers.
In all instances contact local ones and ask them! It’s much better and greener to support LOCAL initiatives. There is less postage and you might be able to forge an ongoing relationship with them. There are too many stories of places like Great Ormand Street or a Neonatal Unit in Leeds getting inundated with knitting they don’t need or want long after a campaign has been abandoned. Think local, check before knitting and you will avoid that.
Assorted Charity Websites
There are a number of country specific charity websites that attempt to co-ordinate charity knitting. Sometimes you send them your knits and they pass them on, others just give you contact information for available projects.
I’m not keen on some of them for a number of reasons. Firstly it all seems a bit impersonal, secondly there’s a lot of postage and travel miles involved, thirdly with at least some of them, you’ve no idea where your knits have gone. Finally they don’t always keep their websites up to date so you could be wasting your time, effort and yarn.
A quick Google will turn up several pages of these sites for most countries. Look into them carefully before you do decide to knit something for them.
Here are a couple that folks recommend
says:Just the other day, I stumbled upon a website called Knots of Love https://www.knotsoflove.org. I’ve been wanting to find some way to help others with my crocheting, and this website is absolutely a Godsend. Knots of Love gives free knit and crocheted hats to cancer patients, as well as free knit and crocheted blankets to NICU babies.
They do have some reasonable stipulations regarding what types of yarn donors can use, but they have a huge list of yarns that are allowed, so everyone is sure to have at least one of them in their stash. They also ask that donors wash the items before sending them, since these people have compromised immune systems.
When I found Knots of Love, I immediately thought of you and your Substack articles on using up hoarded stashes of yarn. If you have any yarn that’s on their list of acceptable yarns, maybe this would be a way for you to reduce your stash a bit and help others at the same time!
Thanks Chantal!
I also quite liked the look of Woolly Hugs. They are a UK based busy Facebook group and have a website with explanations of their various projects.
https://www.woollyhugs.org
Do you have a favourite charity that accepts knitting? Drop a link in the comments and tell us about them.
Thank you for the shoutout! :) You've inspired me to reach out to some of the hospitals in my area and see if they could use donations. Charities are wonderful, but helping one's own community is sometimes even more wonderful!