Donation Blankets

There are a lot of knitters, crocheters, and general crafters who often make items for donation for a variety of charities. Sadly, I am not necessarily one of these people, because there's a lot of things that actually do take up my time. Instead, I tend to donate monetary funds to my chosen charities to use as they see best fit. (Charities often get better pricing for bulk items, so cash can be better utilized.)

One of my favorite charities (Nine Lives Foundation) uses an Amazon Wish List to request items, which are then delivered to the shelter. It's an interesting way to solicit donations. I noticed that they wanted pet blankets to send home with foster families for young kittens as well as to use within the shelter. I noticed that these were rather "pricey" for the amount of fabric used in what little construction the blankets used. These blankets were a 26 x 24 inch rectangle of fabric that were very badly blanket stitched at the edges.

Well, heck, I can churn out a polar fleece blanket in minutes. So, I went to my fabric store, which was having a 50% off sale on their polar fleece fabric.

For the price of three blankets, I bought 5 yards of 60 inch wide fabric. I washed it to remove any chemicals.

Then cut out rectangle pieces at 30 x 30 inches, and used the serger to overlock all four edges. At the end, I had 10 blankets ready to be dropped off at the shelter (along with a donation check).

When I got there, I also found out they had a bunch of fleece fabric donated, but that weren't cut up into blanket sizes, so I offered to do it, so it would free them to do other important things.

Like taking care of these cuties. Because, these little guys deserve all the help they can get.

Knitted Knockers

This is very cool, and helps breast cancer survivors. So, if you want to do some volunteer knitting, yet something "different", here's the thing for you.

Knitted Knockers Program

Charity Knitting

Charity knitting is a wonderful idea. The thought of knitters getting together to help make the world a better place is great. It combines the love of knitting with the kindness of giving to others less fortunate.

However, this past week, I read on Ravelry someone being "guilted" into doing charity knitting. No one should ever be guilted into doing something they might not be able to do.

Perhaps that one lone knitter doesn't have enough time to complete their own knitting let along anything for charity.

Perhaps they are helping in other ways, by giving a monetary donation or donating time (like helping out in a soup kitchen).

You don't know and can't assume otherwise. And it would be wrong of us to assume that just because they're not doing charity knitting that they aren't otherwise contributing to their chosen charity.

We all love knitting. It provides a relaxing way to unwind and to create something. However when we are *forced* to knit something, we start to look warily on knitting or the knitting groups to which we belong. It's the reason why some knitters don't like to knit gifts -- it causes too much stress and worry to the point where knitting is no longer enjoyable, but a chore. I don't see knitters "guilting" others into gift knitting. So, why should charity be any different?

Charity should be given from the heart and provide the giver a sense of doing good in the world. Being forced to *do* something makes people resent not only the process, but the end product as well. And we don't want someone to resent a charity or their knitting.

We all give in our different ways. We need to respect each others' abilities to do what we can, when we can, and not force the issue just because everyone else is doing it. It makes that person not only resent knitting, but the person or group that is forcing the issue.

And, that is not in the spirit of charity.