Thinking 'outside the square'...

I've mentioned in other posts the mini Christmas stockings that the knitting group that I belong to, make each year. These stockings are filled with sweets and distributed to the various community groups and other charities who then distribute these little gifts to the needy. From the original request for a 'one off' 150  stockings the demand has grown and grown! 

At a recent  'stocking filling working bee' at a Knit and Natter, I noticed that some mini stockings that had been made by members of our group, were being discarded/set aside, as they were too small. It was basically impossible to fit more than 1 wrapped sweet in each. 

The photo below shows a wrapped sweet's size in comparison to the little stocking...

So I went away and gave the problem some thought...I hate waste and by not being able to use these stockings we were wasting the time and effort of some of our members who had taken the time to make them. So...lightbulb moment! I organised to get the bag of discarded stockings...some sewn, others knitted or crocheted. 

A few of us had been experimenting with placing sweets in cellophane bags...this had been successful. I wondered if we could tie the tiny stockings to the cello bags as a decoration? 

Then I tackled the problem we had had with some sweet little crocheted stockings...the sweets fell through the spaces between the treble clusters...so these little stockings were filled, then each was placed in a cello bag and tied with curling ribbon. 

And that worked so well that I started putting one lolly in each of the tiny sewn stockings that hadn't been used to decorate the bags (and there were a lot left over!)  and then put the stocking in a cello bag with some more sweets. In some bags I eventually placed 2 little stockings with a lolly in each as I had run out of lollipops. 

All in all, I used up over 100 teeny tiny stockings that had been discarded...and I like that idea :-)

Bagged up sweets ready to hand in...

All this endeavour took place yesterday evening. This morning I headed off to a Knit and Natter and guess what we did there? Lots of nattering but very little knitting/crocheting! Yep! Many of us were filling stockings and cellophane bags! Lol