The Lead up to Christmas...

Readers who have been following the blog for a while would remember that each year about this time my thoughts turn to mini Christmas stockings. It would have been 2014 when I discovered that the founder of Knitting for Brisbane's Needy and her husband were spending hundreds of dollars of their own money on buying sweets to fill the mini stockings that the group members would make each year. Various community groups who work with the needy would distribute these little gifts; often to recipients who would get no other gifts except these humble offerings. What started out as a few hundred little stockings grew to a mind-blowing several thousand. Last year K4BN distributed 6500! 

So in 2014, I asked friends and relatives ( and other K4BN members) for help to provide the mountain of sweets needed to fill 3000 stockings. ( that number has certainly crept up over the ensuing years) The lovely Sunday Stitchers group continues to help each year without my even asking! 

These are some of the sweets donated by Sunday Stitchers this year...

Susan and Lynda also make stockings; the next photo shows the 50 felt stockings made by Susan this year. That is a lot of cutting out and stitching up there and it's really appreciated Susan.

As part of my plan for sourcing the best lollies' buys, I went to Costco that first year. My lovely sister and brother in law who are members, took me as their guest. 

The bucket on the left was a great buy that first year as it contained lollipops and wrapped sweets. 

The following year, that bucket of sweets was still available but these last 2 years it's not been at Costco. Each year, I check out and compare lolly prices at various 'bricks and mortar' shops, as well as online. Costco seems to be the best value for the lollipops. 

Last Tuesday, DsD2 who is a member of Costco took me and DsD3 there as her guests. I had been given money to help buy sweets for this year's stockings. In each stocking we place a lollipop and a few wrapped sweets. I planned to buy some of the packs of 100 chupa chups/lollipops...It would work out to be 19 cents per lolly. In shops the unit price of this popular brand is anything up to 50 per lollipop. 

But then I saw these! 

That's a tin of 1000 chupa chups...unit price 17 cents...but boy that tin was heavy!!!

DsD3 to the rescue!

So that was Tuesday night...next day there was a K4BN Knit and Natter...and knitting/crocheting was put aside as the ladies got to work packing stockings. 

We ran out of stockings before we ran out of lollies! We filled 267 stockings that morning. One member quipped that we just had another 6000+ ones to do by the beginning of December! 

Since last Wednesday I've been alternating between sewing stockings and knitting them. I had been working on stockings on and off for a few months but had only made a pitiful 12 which got filled at the Knit and Natter. 

Thankfully my output has increased! 

Another member dropped off 70 stockings last Friday...

Next Tuesday we have plans to fill more stockings...on a bit of a roll here! 

Wool on Sundays...

At this time of year, the knitting charity that I belong to, has the main focus on mini Christmas stockings rather that blankets, rugs, gloves, beanies and scarves. Many of our members, their friends and the members of the Australia wide knitting group K4C, work all throughout the year, on making the huge amount of stockings that we need...6000 this year I think it is!!

This year, I have already been given bundles of mini stockings that my friends have made...

The popular Jean Greenhowe pattern...

Another friend makes some in lots of pretty colours.

At the Zillmere Knit and Natter at the end of last month, a friend from Sisters of Stitch arrived with 135 stockings she had made for the group. She was able to see her stockings packed with sweets and bundled up ready to hand over to one of the many community groups that give these away as gifts to the needy.

Thanks to more generosity from friends and family, I was able to take a LOT of sweets to the Zillmere Knit and Natter! 

A trip to Costco with a cousin who is a member netted this lot; our cousin, a knitting friend and I bought these to donate. It's the best way to buy the lollipops; 100 for just under $20! 

And to finish the post, here is a photo from December 2013. I was recovering from an op and unable to drive. So sweet DH gave up golf for the day and drove me to the Scarborough Knit and Natter...where everyone was packing stockings...so he helped. 💕

Joining in with Janine over at the Rainbow Hare blog for Wool on Sunday. Janine's post this week was about making things for the approaching winter; whereas here in Australia we're looking for ways to stay cool! lol

FNSI...

Last night was Friday Night Sew In. One plan was to cut out some hexagons to start another Dilly Bag...

I had a packet of sample Liberty prints that I bought last year from the lovely UK shop, Alice Caroline...

Perfect I thought. And the templates had been put away in the correct spot, so out they came! ( I only use the big Perspex template as this pattern doesn't use the 'papers' method')

But then I remembered that at the Albany Creek Knit and Natter just last Wednesday, I heard that K4BN had already been asked for 1000 mini Christmas stockings by a charity. This was a 'new' charity for us to help, let alone the 6000+ stockings we provided last year, complete with sweets. Hmmm, so maybe I should be thinking about sewing some stockings??? So I printed off the pattern I use for the fabric ones I make...

But you know what? I ended up just knitting for the evening...

A few more rows on the 'blues and black' chevron/ripple throw. Only about 30cm or so till it's long enough. 

Thank you to Wendy for organising FNSI ! Check out the links to other participants here...http://www.sugarlane-designs.com/2016/07/july-signups-for-fnsi.html

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

Scarborough Knit and Natter...

The first Monday of the month is the Scarborough Knit and Natter. DH knew that I really wanted to go to this so instead of him heading off to his usual Monday golf game, he drove me to Scarborough. We had bags of yarns that friends had given me for K4BN, some fabrics for some of the sewers, a gift card from Yarn Over that DH and I had donated for the Christmas Raffle and I had a blanket of donated squares that was ready to hand in.

Blanket made with squares donated by Stephanie and Julie from Sisters of Stitch

 I loved 'Show and Tell' as there were some beautiful blankets...

Gorgeous! This is a new pattern that Angela tried and loved doing it; she used indigenous colours

 And here's another one that Angela made

 Karen held up this one that consisted of lots of small crocheted motifs

Here Karen is holding up a jumper and beanie set in indigenous colours. Hmmm hiding behind that beanie eh?

And this one was knitted in strips by Helen. Then each strip was crocheted around in dc and then each strip  was joined...very effective!

A new member, Robyn, brought along some wonderful toys that she had sewn...

These will make lovely gifts for needy children...

The next photo shows a bag filled with mini Christmas stockings which have been made by many of the group's members.

Each mini stocking is filled with sweets and then community groups hand these out to the needy at Christmas functions. Karen had been asked that group provide over 2000 of these Christmas stockings. That's a huge amount and members of our sister charity knitting group, Knit for Charities have given us a hand to get that number.

At many of the K&Ns at the moment, members are filling the stockings ready for the community events.  Here's my wonderful DH helping fill mini stockings...

And here's the stocking fillers on the other side of the table...

We only stayed for an hour as I was starting to tire...but it had been a wonderful outing :-)