Wool on Sunday

 When I retired in 2011, I joined a group called Knitting for Brisbane’s Needy ( K4BN). This group made items of warm clothing for distribution by various groups and charities who give support to the needy in the community. As well as warm clothing, knitted and crocheted blankets and quilts, the group provided toiletries, sewn garments, knitted, crocheted or sewn toys and various other items such as school supplies that could help make people’s lives a little happier. The group had been started by Karen Croke who had seen a need in the community to help community organisations who endeavored to help the plight of the needy and disadvantaged in not only Brisbane, but also Queensland wide. Karen was helped by her husband Peter and I believe the group started with just a few people but the numbers increased as the word spread. 

The group had a number of Knit and Natter groups, which provided a social gathering as well as a collection point for donations. Over the last 16 years the group has distributed hundreds of thousands of items. 

At one stage in the last 10 years, I was a member of 5 Knit and Natters. One in a private home was disbanded about 5 years ago and a new venue was never found. Then in recent years I’ve had more calls on my time to do ‘Grandma Duty’ so not so many K&Ns for me. 

I’ve made lots of new friends over these years, been given lots of ideas and patterns by others and have had a thoroughly enjoyable time. 

But a few years ago, illness struck Karen…a severe illness at that. Then early this year Peter was also struck down by illness. 

So it really wasn’t a big surprise that in April this year it was announced that K4BN would be wound up. It was obviously a big decision and not one made lightly or without much soul searching. 

In a conversation with Peter, he indicated to me that they had decided to completely close and not merely do a handover to someone else to run this completely voluntary organization. In the 16 years he and Karen had built up a well deserved reputation of being reliable, as well as being supportive, compassionate and caring towards those who were doing it tough in our communities. They feared that if run/managed by others who didn’t have the same commitment to the needy, then the reputation they had built up would be tarnished. They just didn’t want to run that risk. 

Sure enough, after that announcement they were inundated with offers to take over. Eventually Karen wrote a post which I copied and saved at the time because it really showed how much this couple had done over the years…a lot of it, quietly in the background. I’ve masked the name of the member, who had suggested how the group should be run as Karen addressed this to her. 

So here we are in September and that means we are having our last K4BN Knit and Natters in these next few weeks. But that’s not the end of this story. Friendships have developed and even though some groups will disband, many of us are being ‘rebranded’ 😜 and will continue to meet regularly and will continue to  make items for needy people. But it will be on a much smaller scale as each group will make lists of community groups we’d like to help. 

For example my favourite K&N group at Albany Creek will now become ‘Knit, Crochet, Donate’ (KCD) Albany Creek and our ‘sister group’ is KCD Strathpine. We’ve had a meeting where we discussed the charities we’d like to support and we’ll only make what the charities need. The Albany Creek Library agreed to continue to let us use the meeting room for free as long as we donated to local charities…too easy! 

Many of us members have friends and family who have supported us by making and donating items to K4BN over the years and I’m forever grateful to these lovely people who have given me the most beautiful and useful items to pass on to K4BN. Hopefully this relationship will continue albeit scaled down somewhat. One thing KDC decided on, no fundraising so I won’t be pestering friends and relatives to buy raffle tickets any more! 😜

So wow! This post has been very wordy but it’s a post I felt needed to be written. 

Here’s a photo of Karen, such an inspiration to so many of us. Not only for her amazing compassion but also her dignity and determination as she lives with an illness that has taken so much of her energy 

, faculties, independence and mobility. 

Karen and Peter decided that despite closing down, that this year from September to the end of November they would accept items that could be used as Christmas gifts to the charities that the group usually supported. So I’ll finish the post with some photos of past years where members were packing the famous K4BN mini Christmas stockings. 

Goodbye K4BN and best wishes to Karen and Peter as they spend more time with their daughters and grandchildren. 

More donations from generous people...

Each fortnight on a Wednesday afternoon,a group of ladies gather in a meeting room in Chermside Library, for an afternoon of crafting, chit chat and sharing of projects. This group is Sisters of Stitch and people bring in whatever craft project that they wish, so there is a lot of variety; crocheting, knitting, patchwork, hand quilting, embroidery, smocking, hand sewing/finishing of dressmaking projects, tapestry, tatting, drawn thread work are just some the projects that can be seen at SoS! And many of these ladies often hand over donations for me to pass on to K4BN.

One Wednesday recently I received a large bag of items from Margaret...

Some children's tote bags...

Several pairs of children's shorts in lovely bright fabrics...

Some cute little girl's outfits...

A closer look at that one on the left...

And lots of little dresses!

Some dresses for older girls...

And some little pouches that can be used in a number of ways...

These lovely items from Margaret will be much appreciated by the recipients. 

In the cooler months over the last few years, another lady at SoS, regularly hands me a bulging plastic bag. 

Glenda makes crocheted squares for K4BN...and I join the squares into rugs...we're a good team! :-)

So on the same afternoon that I received the donations from Margaret, Glenda gave me a bag of squares; which became this blanket.

And just this last Wednesday, Glenda gave me another bag of squares!

Thank you to both Margaret and Glenda!

Zillmere Knit and Natter...

Today I went to Zillmere Community Centre for the monthly K&N. We last gathered there at the end of November and during the recess some of the ladies have been very busy!

 At that last K&N at Zillmere, I handed over a bag of patchwork fabrics that a friend had given me to two of the 'regulars', who knit, but also do a lot of sewing.. There were mostly blue fabrics in the bag  and Ann And Val were thrilled that there were quite large pieces of material in the bag. They have been very busy with that fabric...they made 4 quilts... (photo of 3 of them)

In front there are other quilts ....

 And this one is so effective too!

And Ann and Val also turned some pretty cotton fabric into some children's clothes...

 But there are still more lovely items sewn by this lovely 2 ladies and their 3 friends!

This one had embroidered panels!

And a few photos of donations from others in the group...

And look at all this donated knitting cotton!

Yarn on the table in front of bags of donated items

Some children's jumpers for the Aunty Gwen Challenge

On the left, Jenny and Elaine sorting and collating members' items . On the table are some donated yarns and a big tin of buttons, all donations to the group!

So far this year the group has made approximately 649 items for the needy... and as you can imagine there will be an even greater need for items this year following these horror weeks with fires and now floods!


Nothing from me today...but yesterday I handed over a blanket made with the donated squares that I finished sewing up for FNSI :-) and I wove all the ends in on Sunday.

I'm now working on another sewing up knitting project...all the odd sized donated squares are now my challenge...to some how sew them up into a usable blanket...wish me luck! lol

A correction needed in a knitting pattern...

Earlier this week I wrote a post on knitting and included  a pattern here. My lovely 'test knitter', Susan has already used the pattern and pointed out a possible typo in Row 8. In the pattern I had written that there should be 3 stitches left at the end of the row after patterning. It should be only 2 left. This is what it should have read; it is now corrected in the original post :-) 

8th row: Using C p1,sl 1,p4, * sl 2, p 4: rep from * to last 2 sts, sl 1, p 1.

Thanks Susan, for the feedback and it's good to hear that you are enjoying incorporating the design into your knitting.

 Last night, the organisers of the monthly challenges for K4BN announced the June Challenge which will run in the 1st weekend of June. Most of us cheat and start the week before though! lol

We have 2 choices; either kitten blankets for Animal Angels in Toowoomba or items for 'humans' to help replenish the supplies of winter woollies. We've again run out of rugs/blankets, 'indigenous' colours' items and adult jumpers and vests. So I guess I'll plug on with sewing donated squares together into blankets  (which I really enjoy) but I will make some kitten rugs (60cm square) as well.

Today in Brisbane, we had the Homeless Connect Day and all 3000 items taken by K4BN to the event, were given out. When they arrived with boxes and boxes of winter woollies, the volunteers thought that they had brought too much and that they would be packing a lot up to bring home. Not the case. Karen, the organiser was also asked for dog coats and the group has some in reserve but not at the Exhibition ground today.

I went out on another pick up on behalf of the group earlier today. This time it was a lovely lot of sewn items.  

(Another) Maria holding up some lovely cuddle blankets that she had sewed

Maria also had made lots of drawstring bags in children's fabrics

Maria has recently retired and was keen to become involved with helping the less fortunate. She has done some knitting but prefers to sew and her donations are beautifully made. I know Maria through my SIL, they both went to All Hallows (school here in Brisbane) and are still friends all these years later. I decided to take her a bunch of flowers as a thank you for some items that she made as gifts to me. You know how you might do something but not think it very special? That's how I felt about this bunch of supermarket flowers. Maria's reaction was anything but ho hum. She was just so pleased/excited; she said that she has very rarely got flowers but her daughters regularly get given bunches of flowers. So her joy at something so simple really made my day!

On my mind...another item finished

Today, being Friday, means that I'm joining in with Rhonda Jean's  Down to earth  Friday feature, "On my mind'. On my mind today is a feeling of accomplishment. Two finishes!

At the end of July, I wrote a post  here about getting inspiration from some balls of yarn I took home from a Knit and Natter session of K4BN. A photo that accompanied the post showed about 3 inches of a new throw that I was knitting for the charity. I finished the knitting just over a week ago but didn't get on to the finishing off details until yesterday. But now it's all ready to hand in on Monday at the Scarborough Knit and Natter group. I enjoyed working with colours that are a bit different to those I normally 'gravitate' to. On Monday I also have another throw to hand in...in my favourite colours!

It looks the same as all the other ones I've made because of the similar colours! lol

I have been 'auditioning' yarns for a new and special project that I'm starting. I'm going to be a bit secretive at the moment about this project but promise to 'tell all' when it's completed! lol  It won't be that old quickknit favourite of mine...the  2 row garter stitch chevron; although I'll probably have one of those 'on the go' in the next few weeks in case a raffle is needed for the church Christmas craft market later in the year :-) .

Giving the benefit of the doubt...

Yesterday I wrote on my FaceBook page about an incident that happened in the carpark at the medical centre where my doctor 'practises'. I was returning to my car in the below shop level carpark when I was approached by a young woman who wanted $3 off me. She said that she was short by that much to get a prescription filled. I asked my FB friends to guess what I said and did in that situation. One said that I would have refused; one, a former pupil, said she thought that I probably would have given her the money but she wasn't absolutely sure. Everyone else said that I would have given the money over. I did give her the money. In a split second I had toyed with walking up the stairs and accompanying her to the chemist shop, but instead just gave her the money. My parting words to her were that she was to repay me by helping someone else when an opportunity came up.

Now the question is 'Was I a soft touch'? You think about it...hang around a medical centre with a bandage ( unravelling a bit) on a lower arm and a handful of coins. Go up to people and show them the handful of coins and explain that you are short by $3 (she actually asked for 2 first but amended it to 3!) for a prescription that you need filled. What a great scam; what a great way of making money?...perhaps.When I think like that, it  is the part of me influenced by my mother (trust no-one! lol) but the part of me that is influenced by my dad was the path I chose yesterday. Interestingly my mother went to church but my dad eschewed the institution as he felt it was hypocritical of the Vatican to have so much wealth while the parish priest in his little village in Sicily had nothing! (He wasn't that keen on royalty for similar reasons)

My FB friends wrote of other cases in our local suburban area where they have been approached by people wanting money. Quite sad really especially when the comments were made that 2 such people were older women. I don't give to everyone asking for money and I don't even have a set of innate criteria to help me choose whom to give to. It's a bit like the capital punishment debate argument...it's better to let some guilty people get off than execute even one innocent person. If you can help do so even if there is a risk you may be being conned.

When DH and I were in London in 2008, we stayed in a hotel in Holland Park. To get to the station we walked past a small supermarket. Outside this supermarket was a lady (40ish) who begged. One day I waited outside the shop while DH popped in to buy some chocolate. This lady pounced...she spoke with quite a posh English accent which did take me back a bit! Soon as I spoke she knew I was an Aussie. She spoke about visits to Australia and seemed to know a bit about us. We spoke for quite a while as there must have been quite a queue at the checkout! A little voice inside my head kept saying...'she's playing you; she's clever; she's been smoking everytime you've walked past so she spends good money on fags'....but guess what? I suddenly found myself opening my purse, grabbing coins (pound coins worth $2.50AUD in 2008) and stuffing them in her 'cup'. I must have given her 6 pounds!!!!! My sweet DH was amused but knew that I was 'soft'.

Closer to home, I collect/buy/ make blankets for the homeless here in Brisbane. The Ecumenical Coffee Brigade distributes blankets, backpacks, hot drinks and food to homeless people in the inner areas of our city. So I take or send the blankets to them. But there are so many charities doing similar work and depending more and more on help from the public as government funding gets slashed. Obviously a lot of parishes do all they can to help.

This throw that I knitted was raffled to raise funds for charity work by our parish

Today I'm going to cut out and start sewing some pillowcases to donate to appeal for flood victims in the Gatton area. A large number of pillows were donated to flood victims but no pillow slips. Requests for handcream and carry bags have also come from the same area. I'll be taking in my contributions next Wednesday to the group 'Sisters of Stitch'