Knitting for Chernobyl Childrens Trust

One of the members of our knitting group (Mary) opens her house and more importantly her heart to children that come to stay for rest and recuperation from Chernobyl. The children are brought over by the Chernobyl Children’s trust – check the trust out here http://www.facebook.com/ChernobylChildrensTrust?ref=pb

The organisation is an Irish charity run by volunteers to help children and families most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Their help takes many forms in addition to bringing children over to stay with Irish families the charity also offer assistance on the ground in Belarus. The charity are very hands on and help in so many ways including community support and development, building renovations, holiday camps for special kids, family support, home care for special needs kids and humanitarian support.

Their mission is to help build the futures of those affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in a principled effective and humanitarian way. They are committed to bringing trust, dignity and joy both to those we seek to help and to our volunteers and supporters.

Since opening the shop in Midleton I’ve met quite a few of the ‘foster’ families and on occasion some of the children and I got to wondering if there was anything we could do to help. Sure we have the penny jar next to the till for the charity, but it still felt like we could do more.

I’m not sure I’m even capable of imagining how cold it can get in Belarus and it’s sad but true that food can even seem like a luxury to some of the families so it would be fair to assume that hats, scarves and mitts could be scarce on the ground. We work with yarn, yarn keeps you warm – great stuff!

I ran the idea past a couple of friends who agreed with me that it was a great idea and we’ve been collecting items in for some time now. We’re trying to make garments with teenagers in mind however, the children tend to be a little small for their ages.

These are some of the great reasons to get involved:-

You can break out the orange yarn hiding in your stash because these are knits for kids and kids love bright colours, the funkier the better.
You know that every garment will end up exactly where it’s intended. The garments won’t be intercepted and sold.
Although we’re trying to aim for teen sizes and bigger or smaller items will be given to mums, dads, uncles, cousins and baby brothers.
The collection is running until the end of June so you still have a little under a month to get creative.

There are lots of lovely, free patterns available on www.ravelry.com here are some of the ones I like:-

For Hats

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thorpe This one has just gone straight onto my ‘to do’ list. Maybe I can get a couple made up soon?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/galway-chunky-family-of-hats particularly like the fact that this is knitted in garter stitch

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/knit-hat-for-anyone This has been the most popular pattern amongst our knitters and the finish product looks like this.

For Mitts

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/camp-out-fingerless-mitts Edwina has made a good few pairs of these

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gradient-mitts These are even quicker to knit up if you make them in the one colour

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/workshelter-hand-warmers These were a previous shop knitalong

For Scarves

Well there are absolutely hundreds of patterns available but for speed and ease a safe and speedy bet is plain garter stitch, great, especially in chunky or super chunky yarn. If garter stitch is too boring what about moss or rib, 2 x 2 rib looks great. Don’t forget you can double or triple your yarn strands and work on bigger needles to speed through your project faster.

If you don’t have the patience to make a scarf what about a neck warmer or a cowl? This is a neck warmer Dina made:

It would be great to collect in as many items as we can. I know my ideas have all been knitted – my crochet leaves a lot to be desired and I wouldn’t know where to begin with a hat in crochet. I’ll have to ask for some help from my crochet friends for pattern suggestions.

One thought on “Knitting for Chernobyl Childrens Trust”

Our Latest Charity Collection Is……….. « knitmidleton says:

November 15, 2012 at 7:24 am

[…] http://knitmidleton.com/2012/06/01/knitting-for-chernobyl-childrens-trust/ Our collection will run until the end of March when the next containers will be traveling to the area, so you’ve plenty of time to get cracking. Items will be accepted in all colours of the rainbow, so break out the stash and use up your leftovers. The residents are both male and female and all are over 18 although they will be slight for their ages. We’ve also been asked to collect any unwanted needles and wool in for the residents some of whom love knitting. If you can’t knit or crochet maybe you could be persuaded to drop off some personal hygiene products like soap, shampoo, etc. which we will also be collecting in (all new and unopened please, with as long a ‘use by’ date on) […]