Make- Grow- Thrift; a small cog in a big wheel....

Last week I didn't join in with Jodie's Monday feature as usual as I didn't really have anything to show. Never mind I have a 'finish' to share this week.
Regular readers would know that I belong to a knitting group which focuses on providing knitted items for needy people in the community. As I wrote in the title, I'm just a small cog in a rather large wheel but every little thing I achieve still helps and that feels good. There are over 300 members in this group and members live in many locations around Australia, not just in Brisbane. I mentioned once at a Knit and Natter that it would be lovely if we could learn which specific groups we've helped rather than the rather general term, 'needy'.

To some people the terms 'needy' and 'charity' could conjure up images of 'rather grubby, oldish men living under bridges'. I feel such stereotypes are only a small section of the needy in our community.I wanted to know more about the 'human face' of the needy as I feel my friends would be more likely to help, especially when we collect toiletries etc. I got my wish when the total for the year to date January 1 to March 31 was posted in our forum. There was a total of 8185 items made by the group in that time. Four thousand of those items were distributed  after requests for help. I'm including the list that Karen Croke the founder of the group, released on the forum.

'ALSO just to let you know where about 4000 items have gone to this year so far:




1. Club 139



2. St Marys Anglican shelter Toowong



3.Pindari Women's Shelter



4.Brisbane Youth Services



5.Goodna Youth Centre



6.Ipswich Youth Centre



7.Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre



8. Safe Placement for Children (will give more to Paul on 13th April at Beenleigh knit and natter, when he comes to speak to us re this organisation )



9. Roma House



10. LEAC - Emergency accommodation for families; DV shelter etc at Nambour



11.Caboolture Hospital (emergency department - trauma teddies)



12. Next week we will be going out to QUINH on the Sunshine Coast and Drug Arm in Brisbane with all the items they have requested.



13.Tonight we intend going to the Caboolture Community Group Feeding the Homeless bbq at Caboolture and giving out more rugs, beanies, etc and also hope to go out with Pastor John and Mama Rene's kitchen at Spring Hill on either Tuesday or Friday night with donations to give out!'

Since Karen published that list we received an update late last week that we had made just under 9500 items this year so far.
So after that HUGE introduction I'll now unveil  what I've recently finished ready for the Homeless Connect Day in late May. Knitted/crocheted blankets are desperately needed and I was able to finish another one made from donated squares similar to those squares in the blanket in my banner.

The blanket in my banner is quite large but I didn't have enough leftover squares to make one that large again. So I crocheted some rounds to make it a tad bigger. This working fulltime is really interfering with my output for the group but that should be all over and done with in 3 weeks or so. I also have a knitted blanket on my circular needles which only needs another 40 cm to be completed so hopefully that will be finished soon too :-)