Wow didn’t we do well? So well in fact that this little lot completely filled 3 black bin liners.
In total there were:-
Hats – 110
Scarves/Cowls – 86
Gloves/Mitts – 39
All of you that gave your time, energy, skill, yarn and most importantly care should be so proud of yourselves. When Deena from The Chernobyl Children’s Trust came to the shop to collect the garments she was honestly shocked to see how many items we had.
The organisers gave out as many woolly items to the visiting children as they could before they flew home and intend to send any that are left over later in the year. There are 2 lorries traveling over to Belarus later this year hopefully, full to the brim with everything the charity can collect in to help as many families as possible.
The charity are still keen on trying to get unwanted pairs of knitting needles in if possible. I know we’ve already sent a good few over but if you have anymore please let me know.
A big thank you once again to everyone that contributed.
After being contacted by The Irish Premature Baby Charity I went off looking for ‘basic’ knitting patterns and was bogged down by how many were out there. Many of them seem to be perfectly lovely, but some of them needed to be paid for or had a suggested donation and we’re already making them for charity aren’t we?
So I grabbed some needles and some double knit and knocked one up myself. You will discover that the hat is a little higher than we would usually knit, this is to accommodate the little babas’ heads, which can sometimes be a little oddly shaped.
Preemie Hat
Hat Dimensions
Height 5.5″/11.5cm
Width 4.5″/14cm
Tension
22sts x 28 rows
Abbreviations
k – knit
p – purl
st(s) – stitch(es)
ws – wrong side
k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together
Materials
A little squidgy, soft double knit
4mm Needles
Darning Needle
Pattern
Using thumb method cast on 56 stitches.
Work 4 rows in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )
In stocking stitch work until hat measures 10cms ending with a ws row.
Crown
1st Row – K6, k2tog across all sts (49 sts)
2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th rows – Purl all stitches
3rd Row – K5, k2tog across all sts (42 sts)
5th Row – K4, k2tog across all sts (35sts)
7th Row – K3, k2tog across all sts (28sts)
9th Row – K2, k2tog across all sts (21sts)
11th Row – K1, k2tog across all sts (14sts)
Cut yarn leaving approximately a 12″ tail, using your darning needle thread the yarn through your remaining stitches and remove them from the knitting needle. Fasten off and sew up using yarn. Sew in ends.
As some of you are already aware, we were contacted back in May by Mandy Daly the Family Liaison Manager with Irish Premature Babies, Ireland’s only charity supporting families in Ireland with premature babies.
Each year, over 4,500 babies are born pre-term, and many require very long hospital stays and suffer lifelong complications as a result of their early arrivals.
The charity works hard to raise public awareness of premature birth and arranges several public events every November 17th to celebrate World Prematurity Awareness Day. This year the charity is participating in a global initiative and is hoping to turn many Irish landmark buildings purple (the worldwide colour of premature birth). It also wants to engage in a photography project where it plans to photograph a washing line of baby socks in front of these landmarks.
The charity also wants to donate preemie baby clothes (knitted and crochet hats, socks, cardigans, etc) to the various neo-natal units countrywide. This is where we come in.
Our collection for The Chernobyl Children’s Trust has come to an end; items are being collected later this week. This means we can put all of our efforts into this campaign now. Items can be worked in knitting or crochet and the charity has said all colours are acceptable. Of course they have to be soft yarns, that goes without saying, but the items really can be every colour under the rainbow. Fantastic, if like me you get tired using the same colour, if however, you do have any purple or white yarn lurking around in your stash the charity would love the odd item in these shades to follow their theme.
There are obviously quite a lot of sites online with patterns for preemies in addition you might already have some paper patterns that include preemie sizes. 16″ is newborn and 12″ and 14″ are classed as preemie.
Pattern Sites
While looking for free patterns on the web, I discovered lots of broken links and many sites suggested a ‘donation’ for their patterns.
Ravelry contains well over 2,000 knitting/crochet preemie patterns, with approximately 1,500 of them available free. I assume some of them can also be found on the other sites listed.
I think this site is one of the best for free patterns, it has links to some of the more popular patterns on the net. There are hats, booties, cardigans and blankets. I had a good look through the patterns and the yarns used range from 4ply through to aran weight. They are all knitting patterns though
Hopefully, there are a good few patterns there for you to get busy creating for the latest charity collection. Ideally all items need to be in for around the second week in October to enable them to be sorted out and dispatched to the hospitals for November 17th. You can forward them on directly to the charity or hand them to me at the shop to go off with ours.
If you need to know any more information please email me.
I seem to be constantly knitting hats. They are, I suppose, my ‘go to’ project. I have many friends whose default dial is stuck on scarves and even one who loves to make socks, but they’re too time consuming. True, I always have at least one rib scarf on needles for easy cinema knitting – yes I do take my knitting to the cinema, and no, you can’t hear my needles clicking, they’re wood. So, as you might have expected for our Chernobyl Children’s Trust collection I knitted up quite a few hats.
This is my pattern. I’ve knitted it up in several sizes so you have a few alternatives. I researched loads of size charts to check and double check the relevant sizes and in truth find the largest hat, which is meant to be for an adult woman, rather big (see my previous post, ‘Where Has My Creativity Gone‘). I know I’m vertically challenged but I definitely don’t have a small head, having even managed to hide some stash yarn in there somewhere, sshhh.
You can make the hats in the round if you prefer, just remember to place a marker at the beginning of your row when you join and to knit all of your rows when you change to your larger needles instead of plain and purl. My hats are all worked in 4 row stripes but you can chose to do yours plain or have some fun and make it as multicolored as you like.
Hat Sizes
Child 3 – 5 yrs
Child 6 – 8 yrs
Teen
Adult Woman
Tension
14 stitches x 19 rows
Abbreviations
k – knit
p – purl
st(s) – stitch(es)
kfb – knit into the front and the back of the next stitch
k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together
Materials
2 x 50g balls of any standard chunky
5.5mm & 6.5mm needles
Darning needle
Pattern
Using thumb method and 5.5mm cast on 62 (66, 70, 74) stitches.
Work 5 (5, 7, 7) rows in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )
If you want to work in the same strip sequence as me knit the next 4 rows in the same shade as the rib and then switch to your other shade. Continue to knit 4 rows with each shade until hat is the correct height. If your hat finishes with slightly more rows than the 4 you may find it looks better to finish off with the colour you completed the last stripe in. Carry the yarn up the side of your work if possible rather than cutting.
Work in stocking stitch until work measures 5″ (5.5″, 6″, 7″)
Crown
For 2nd, 3rd and 4th sizes work the following rows
3rd Size – Work across row as follows k7, k2tog to end (64sts), work 1 row purl
4th Size – Work across row as follows k7, k2tog to end (64sts), work 1 row purl
All 4 sizes
Decrease Row 1 – k6, k2tog to end (56sts)
Next and every wrong side row purl
Decrease Row 2 – k5, k2tog (48sts)
Decrease Row 3 – k4, k2tog (40sts)
Decrease Row 4 – K3, K2tog (32sts)
Decrease Row 5 – K2, K2tog (24sts)
Decrease Row 6 – k1, k2tog (16sts) – For 3rd and 4th sizes leave approximately 12″ of yarn, cut and thread through remaining 16sts using a blunt tipped darning needle to secure. Sew seam
For 1st & 2nd Sizes – Work 1 more decreasing row k2tog to end (8sts). Leave approximately 12″ of yarn, cut and thread through remaining 8sts using a blunt tipped darning needle to secure. Sew seam
Despite all the wonderful scarf patterns available out there it’s amazing how often I’m asked for basic scarf patterns. A good chunky 2 x 2 rib scarf is in my opinion, one of the best as it’s double sided and unisex.
This one uses 2 strands of double knit yarn held together to produce a chunky effect of course you could also use a standard chunky yarn. I tend to find I have more double knit yarns in my stash and using 2 different coloured yarns can produce some interesting affects.
Scarf Dimensions
Length 40″/101.5cm
Width 5.5″/14cm
Materials
2 Balls Sirdar Crofter Dk
7mm Needles
Darning Needle
Pattern
Using thumb method cast on 36 stitches.
Work every row in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )
Knit until scarf is as long as desired or all of your yarn is used up – remember to save enough to cast off, approx 3 times the width of the scarf.
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 them 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 developement, building rennovations, 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.
We are committed to bringing trust, dignity and joy both to those we seek to help and to our volunteers and supporters. As an organization of volunteers, we can give maximum donor value by directing all funds to exactly where they are most needed.
Description
A non-denominational, non-political, humanitarian organisation, we work in partnership with community based Belarusian organisations to bring children to Ireland for recouperation holidays. We also operate essential programmes for the advocacy and support for disabilities, poverty and sickness, the promotion of health and community development for marginalised children and their families, throughout Belarus.
General information
Chernobyl Children’s Trust is an Irish registered charity set up and run by volunteers dedicated to helping children and families most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. All proceeds from our fundraising efforts go directly to helping the children of Belarus.
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 
