Basically, we cover up all the shelves and lay out as many tables as we can fit into the shop; on top of these we put all the yarn we’re discontinuing. There could be whole ranges of yarn, shades of yarn and some you might not have seen before. There will be odd balls, several balls and packs of balls, no matter what, all balls are €3 each.
There are things to consider: you have to book your slot, you only have 20 minutes (you’re timed), you have to prepare, dig out the patterns, check your favourites on Ravelry, make sure you know how much double knit/aran/chunky you need. Have a look at the post linked above if you’re not sure and make sure you book your place quickly before they all go.
I’ve spent the last few days trying to gather up everything we’ve collected in for the The Kyl Assylum in Belarus. As you can imagine my office tends to resemble a very untidy wool shop at the best of times but there are times when the whole thing just gets out of hand. Lately the problem has worsened as the sample balls of wool fight with my stash, the paperwork and the ever increasing number of carrier bags containing donations. As if that wasn’t enough, my son shares the office so I can keep a watchful eye on his computer use and ‘spend some time’ with him whilst he battles aliens on his XBox 360.
It was lovely to go through everything again, some of the items are so beautiful. In total there were 30 Scarves and 24 hats to send to Kyl via the Bureen Chernobyl Project. In addition to the hats and scarves we also received a couple of boxes of toilitries to pass on and we had a good rummage and found a good few jumpers too.
Some of the donations that came in have been more suitable for children so I have separated these out and will be forwarding them on to The Children’s Chernobyl Trust for them to pass on to needy boys and girls. In addition to the 31 hats and 13 pairs of gloves we’ve had 13 baby and toddler cardigans donated too to pass on.
Thoroughly, embracing the tidying up bug I also managed to go through the XBox king’s old clothes and sorted out everything that he’s grown out of to send off with The Children’s Chernobyl Trust items.
Happily there’s now space to house all the knitted squares were hoping for.
As you can see from the pictures the shop is now Stash Dash ready for Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th March. There is sooooo much lovely yarn included that I will have to try to control the urge to buy it all myself.
Of course if we’re going to be honest then I shall have to admit to having selected several balls (slight understatement possibly?) for some of the projects I’ve cued…….. Who could blame me?
Double knit
So will I give you an idea of what to expect when you come in for your 20 minutes?
Spring/Summer is supposed to be coming so it stands to reason that there will be chunky yarns, including –
Shades of Wendy Merino Chunky, Rico Galaxy, Bergere de France Duvetine, Twilley’s Purity & Sirdar Folksong to name but a few. We are also clearing Wendy Celtic Chunky & Wendy Norse.
In super chunky were clearing Sirdar Denim Ultra & Big Bamboo, shades of Sirdar Big Softie and there’s a few packs of Rico Super Chunky Tweed there too.
In aran weight there’s Wendy Traditional Aran, Rico Country Aran, shades of Sirdar Supersoft Aran and several lovely cottons from Araucania.
More dk
As you might expect there’s loads to tempt you in double knit yarns – shades of Sirdar Baby Crofter & Snuggly dk, we’re clearing King Cole Riot, Shades, Moods, Moods Duet, Baby Alpaca & Haze. Sorrento from Wendy is also included to clear as is Tiny Tots from Sirdar. There are also shades of Wendy Merino Dk, King Cole’s Splash, Rico’s Cotton dk and Sublime’s Egyptian Cotton.
4ply & scarf
In 4ply and lace there is Sirdar Countrystyle to clear and Rico’s Romance, there’s also sock yarn, shades of Comfort 4ply and loads of odd balls and hanks.
There’s also scarf yarns from Sirdar, Rico & Tivoli, shades of Reflection from Rico, Snowdrops from Sirdar and loads more yarn in lots of lovely colours, too many to mention.
I’m looking forward to having another look myself and hope everyone that’s coming finds something they like.
As most of you are already aware we are constantly encouraging everyone to knit or crochet for charity. At least once a week I hear the words ‘I use to knit all the time, but my kids/grandchildren won’t wear knitted jumpers anymore’. Hopefully, this is becoming less the case as all things woolly have become quite fashionable of late and some of the coolest people are donning Aran jumpers or oversize sloppy hats, and there’s no denying the current trend for super chunky cowls.
So knitting is the rage once again but if you remain unconvinced perhaps you could be persuaded to pick up the needles or your hook again and get to work on creating some much needed winter woolies for our current charity – The Kyl Assylum in Belarus. If you want to know more have a read through my previous post here http://knitmidleton.com/2012/11/15/our-latest-charity-collection-is/
The lovely scarf above is a beautiful 4ply, yes I did say 4ply, number knitted by Edwina.
Sinead’s Mum made these
This lovely trio of hats were knitted up by Sinead’s mum, they also dropped off a bar of soap to add to the toiletries collection to send out to Belarus too.
In addition to the knitted items, Mary also grabbed a bargain batch of gloves and hats to include and whilst some of them are for children they will still be passed on to needy smallies via the charity.
Teresa O’Flynn has sent in some more baby raglan jumpers and cardis.
Lastly there’s these lovely hats that a lady dropped in to us to forward on. Unfortunately, she didn’t leave her name so if anyone know who she is let me know and we can credit her beautiful work.
So if you’ve the time…….. all donations will be sent to worthy, reputable causes and will be very much appreciated by those in receipt of them.
OK, so I know we’ve already been busy knitting and crocheting for this charity however, the charity is involved with so many different projects (all as needy as the rest), that I feel sure I’m not asking too much of you all again.
This time we’re hoping to help the 500 residents that live on 5 floors of the Kyl asylum. Many of the children that the charity work with in the orphanages out in Belarus end up going to Kyl asylum when they turn 18. Conditions are hard with the total allowance for clothes and shoes per patient being €3 annually. The Chernobyl Children’s trust have been working with another group The Bureen Chernobyl Project and have recently managed to collect in approximately 1000 pairs of secondhand shoes as the residents had been using cardboard on their feet whilst working out in the fields.
We’ve been asked for hats, scarves and mitts again and in addition maybe some socks and legwarmers, anything to help to try and keep out the cold.
Bureen Chernobyl Project
A lot of the links I put up for our previous collection will still be valid as are
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)
A big thanks in advance for all of your help AGAIN.
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.
The new Knitpro Karbonz Sets have also been popular.
The extra special Knitpro Box of Joy
The heart shaped ones are a little bit different too.
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 