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2009 Charity Projects


This year's charity hosts are Christine Montet and Diane Martini. Please contact them if you have suggestions.

This year we are working to extend our charity focus to the whole year, not just September. We thought this would be a good way to keep September from sneaking up on our members (and us).

Every two months starting in March, we will highlight one of our charities in the newsletter and on our website. We will provide some information, and a pattern that members can knit for contribution. Links to the charity will be posted on the website along with the rest of our charities. The month after the charity appears in the newsletter, we will collect donations at the regular guild meeting. For example, we talked about our featured charity at the February meeting, and will talk about it again at the March meeting. At the April meeting, we will collect donations and send them along. This gives you two whole months (or at least one) to work up something to give.

If you miss a meeting where we collect charity items – Do NOT Panic, give up, or throw out your donations. We will collect donations for all charities in September

If you need yarn contact Diane Martini (drmartini@onshore.net) and we can find yarn for you to use for charity items. If you want to donate yarn contact Diane, and we will try to match up those with yarn with those with a desire to provide items. Some charities also accept yarn donations, so you may bring them in to a guild meeting.

2009 Featured Charities


Featured Patterns

Knit A Tit Bit

Link here to get a free pattern from Knitty.com -- http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTbits.html
Also see: http://www.titbits.ca/

Knit-A-Square

INSTRUCTIONS:
100 g 3.5 oz ball wool, wool blend, 8 ply worsted
Size 10 US needles
Cast on 32 stitches and knit an 8 x 8 inch square.
You can do knit and purl but looks like most are just garter stitch knit.

Leave a long tail so they can use that to sew the blocks together.

Christine’s Baby Blanket Pattern

Here is a pattern for baby blanket that Christine Montet designed for her grandson. She has donated it to the Windy City Knitting Guild for use in Charity projects.

Measurements: approximately 27 by 34 inches with size 6 needles, and sport weight yarn- varies with gauge. Preemies are very small and do not require a large blanket, so do not worry that you are making one too small. Please use hypo-allergenic machine washable yarns such as microfiber, mercerized cotton, or soft synthetics to avoid irritating tender baby skin. Also be aware that many dies can trigger allergic reactions. This is one case where inexpensive yarns are the best choice.

The blanket is done in squares of 32 stitches and 36 rows each, in stockinette and reverse stockinette, alternating so that it ends up looking like a checkerboard. Embellish with shapes, letters etc – Try cut out felted shapes like circles or squares, knitted or crocheted shapes, sewing them on to alternate squares when finished.

Try using duplicate stitch or embroidery to embellish the squares. The adventurous can use intarsia to knit-in the shapes or create different colored squares.

1. Cast on 138 stitches and knit in garter stitch for one inch.
2. Begin Pattern: Row 1 - Knit 5 stitches, place marker (pm) purl 32 pm, k32 pm, p32 pm, k32, pm K5. (Because this is an even number of blocks, the pattern the same on both sides – repeat this row, keeping 5 edge stitches in garter until 36 rows are completed, then switch –
3. Row 37 of pattern -K5, K32, p32, k32, p32, k5 repeat until 36 rows are completed.
4. Repeat until 6 squares have been completed.
5. Finish with 1 inch of garter stitch then sew on shapes or decorate as you wish.

Pattern Resources

(Please keep in mind and respect copyright restrictions - some free patterns prohibit the sale of items even for charitable purposes.)

Charities We've Contributed to in the Past