Wool on Sunday...

In February, my cousin from Western Australia rang me with some terrible news. She had been diagnosed with cancer; she had a large tumour on one of her kidneys. My cousin was facing a major operation to remove both the tumour and the kidney.
Good news is that she has successfully come through the surgery and does not require chemo...a great result!
In these circumstances I usually try to make something that can go towards cheering up the recipient. And so it was this time and I was able to post a knitted throw to Terese. Because I wanted something that could be knitted quickly, it was that old favourite of mine...the chevron/ripple stitch. In this version I knitted an 8 ridge black stripe between the purples/mauves/blues.

And it achieved that outcome. 😊

So why do some people 'have to be somewhat unpleasant'?...

I've often mentioned the Knitting group, Knitting for Brisbane's Needy in my posts. I joined this group after retiring and have enjoyed being part of such a wonderful and giving group of people. The group is not a registered charity and does not attract any funding. Members live, not only in Brisbane, but in other cities and towns and in some cases, members live in other states.

Our recent Challenge was to make beanies, scarves and fingerless gloves  for the Mission to Seafarers

The founder of our group, Karen Croke, does an amazing job. Karen entered the group in the Sunsuper Dreams competition for August. The prize is $5000 for the group who gets the most votes. Karen wrote on her entry:-

Knitting for Brisbanes Needy has been operating with no funding at all, for nearly 7 years. In that time members have lovingly made over 120,000 items including blankets, beanies, scarves, jumpers, toys etc which are then given free of charge to homeless; needy families, premature baby wards; chemotherapy patients; domestic violence shelters, Indigenous communities; animal refuges , in fact anyone in need. These items are sent all over Queensland, and in times of tragedy to other parts of Australia as well.

People often donate squares which members sew into blankets 

Many of us buy blankets to supplement crocheted and knitted ones. All year round there is a demand for blankets

One of our challenges this year was to make blankets for kittens in an animal refuge

The members have worked hard to get votes and we soon got into first place. The group in second place have been working hard to close the lead. K4BN members have acknowledged that this group, an animal refuge in WA is a worthy cause but we had decided that $5000 would buy a lot of  yarn, fabric (we have non knitters who sew children's clothes for us) and toiletries for the hundreds of toiletry bags we hand out each year.  

Both groups have checked out each other's Facebook page which is fair enough, but today things got just a bit nasty. #2 group posted messages on our Facebook wall suggesting 'that as we were just knitters' we weren't worthy of the prize money'.  ( I've used polite terms ) The offending comment was removed and Karen wrote a message on their FB wall...

'We may be just "knitters" (and crocheters, sewers and animal lovers). Not only do we donate all our items free of charge to the homeless, needy, but also we make and donate animal blankets, toys, items for wildlife carers etc. A lot of homeless people only have one friend, their dog or cat...and they love the fact that we also care about their pets. So, just to put it straight we are not JUST KNITTERS. We get no funding whatsoever, most of our members are pensioners who would rather not buy essentials for themselves but use that money to buy wool to help others, including animals, who are less fortunate.'

As far as I know there has been no response to this comment but possibly the post has been removed from their site...can't confuse people with some facts now can we? Being an ex teacher can sometimes be a positive thing. A number of my former students have decided to 'drum up votes from their friends' as have former colleagues of mine and many other friends. 

If any Australian readers of this blog want to help, this is the link. My 'McAfee Site Advisor' acknowledges it as a safe site and link. The competition closes at 5pm on Friday, August 31. The group would be very grateful for any votes received.

As a postscript to the above; one of our members did some sleuthing on group #2's site and found that they have recently had a successful Trivia Night and have a 'street collection' (?) coming up shortly. We figure that they can delay winning the Sunsuper Dreams' contest for another month surely :-).  

Another challenge was to provide 'pretty things' for women in isolated areas

One of the many scarves that get knitted for K4BN each year...

We have members who sew clothes for children of needy families. Here at the monthly Scarborough Knit and Natter, Rene  'models' one of the dresses made by some members.

Two older ladies, Val and Ann sew patchwork quilts for needy children

If, after reading this, you would like to vote for us, here is the link at which to vote! 

Zillmere Knit and Natter...

The last Tuesday of the month K4BN has a Knit and Natter at the Zillmere Community Centre. Today I took my camera to capture some of the action. As well as the group of women who sit around the long tables, knitting, crocheting and chatting, there is also a constant stream of people who just drop off big bags of donations. I never ceased to be amazed by the amount that is collected from this K&N. Today a large number of donated toiletry bags (filled with toiletry items) were handed in as well as all the knitted and crocheted items.

Here's the entrance to this busy community centre...

Jenny holds up one of the crocheted blankets that came in today...

Some of the many bags of donated items, waiting to be sorted...

Elaine holds up the tartan crocheted blanket that she made....

This is Karen who is the organiser of K4BN. Karen was taken to hospital a few weeks ago after suffering chest pains.  She had a number of tests while an inpatient but is still undergoing a series of tests. She has been warned to 'slow down' and group members are endeavouring to find ways that Karen can delegate!

This member showed us the children's beanies she has made; ranging from premmie size up

This is another one of Elaine's blankets; this one is made up of 9  squares with 24 rounds. Clever Elaine,  less sewing up required with BIG squares!

This is Elizabeth holding up her knitted blanket. Knitted with scraps and odd balls , about 300 stitches on circular needles :-)

These gorgeous crocheted toys were dropped off by a donor this morning

Starting to sort donations; Jenny and Elaine did this today instead of Karen having to do it at home.

A view of the busy room....

Blankets packed into the bags ready for recipients/organisations etc that help the needy

There are a lot of activities for the indigenous community in this centre and today  this didgeridoo player dropped in to our room to give a short recital. he was great and he was so thrilled by our enthusiastic clapping when he'd finished. 

And this is another blanket that I've made from the donated squares.

Today's donations of knitted/crocheted items numbered over 140 with 30 of those being blankets.

I had to keep a secret recently....

Regular readers would remember that the knitting group that I belong to, Knitting for Brisbane's Needy (K4BN) have a member challenge at the beginning of the month. The idea of the challenge is to build up supplies of warm knitted and crocheted items. There are 2 members, Rosanne and Sonja, who are known as the challenge ladies; they decide what the challenge will be and this is kept a secret until closer to the first weekend of the month. Now I knew what the August challenge was going to be a week before it was announced,  and I had been sworn to secrecy. So how come I was so privileged to know the big secret beforehand???? It all started like this...

The Sunday before last, I slept in...I thought I might skip church as a result. But some how I found myself getting dressed and heading off to the 9.30 service. Well... instead of a sermon that day, we had a guest speaker from the Mission to Seafarers. Our parish, like many others, has always supported this group. Marcia, the guest speaker, spoke of the work that the mission does (on a shoestring ) and then she mentioned that many of the ships that dock at the Port of Brisbane, are heading south where it can get pretty cold. The Mission distributes beanies and can't keep up the demand...well naturally my ears pricked up at that. I spoke to Marcia after the service and said I would speak to Karen, the organiser of K4BN, to see if we had any 'spare' beanies we could give the Mission. 

Port of Brisbane

Later I emailed Karen and the 2 challenge ladies. Within the hour it had been decided that not only would the group help with providing beanies, but it would be our August challenge. The enthusiasm of the lovely members when the challenge was announced last weekend is inspiring...not only will beanies be knitted but a number of the ladies are making fingerless gloves, scarves and beanie sets.

I had emailed Adrian, who is the manager of the Mission here in Brisbane, telling him what the group planned.  He wrote such a lovely email back to me...here is an excerpt from that email....

'I have been with the mission for 6 years, 3 as a volunteer and 3 now as manager.

 

The beanies were the first and original free item issued to seafarers by our mission - we also now give clothes, magazines and books to sailors.

 

For a sailor, a beanie is like an adult's security blanket.  I have one good sailor friend who has been at sea for 20 years.  He's a Brit, and still has his original beanie, he doesn't remember which mission he got it from (or) who would have knitted it for him.  But he cherishes it.  He even wears it with pride when he is back home, on a night out with the lads.  People will ask, which football team the colours denotes - he tells them that it's not a football beanie, and tells the story of the "beanie brigade".

 

So beanies are an important thing - at sea, with a short-hair cut - your old noggin can get a little cold - especially if you have a buzz-saw haircut.  Even in Australia, during summer you head can get cold!  So a beanie is bloody brilliant. 

 

We can do with scarves, gloves and beanie combo sets - they would all go down a treat.

 

Any season in Australia - our beanies go.  I have just returned from Vietnam, and found a huge amount our our beanies had gone.  I would easily say more than five hundred!  Each year, since I've been a part of the Brisbane Mission - beanies, gone each year have been 2 thousand or more.  It is really quite something.'

So I guess I was meant to hear Marcia's talk! The photos in this post are from the Mission's webpage and they show some of the services that are provided to sailors. These services include, internet and phone access, free tea/coffee, free bus service to local shopping centre, free pool tables and games room, free TV and of course, free beanies and other clothes.