125 Hats For Halos Of Hope

A few days ago, I sent out 125 hats to Halos Of Hope, an organization that provides hand-knit/crocheted hats to chemo patients. I saw that they had a need for hats on Twitter, so I decided this would be a good opportunity for us to help some chemo patients with our items. Here are a couple pictures of my daughter and me with the hats I sent. Sierra helps me a bit with the charity so I thought I'd include her in the picture. Halos of Hope mentioned something about a press release, so I'm sending these pics to them as well. Many thanks and kudos to those who helped by sending in items!!

New Donation & Contest Reminder

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Terri in Ohio for sending in 16 prayer squares and 8 hats!

Also, just a reminder that our contest is still in full force. LOTS of things have been sent in, so the competition is strong, but don't let that discourage you from joining in! Simply send in at least 1 knit/crocheted item and you will be entered into a drawing for prizes. For every 5 items you donate to Knits For Needs, you get another entry into the drawing. I'm not sure yet, because I'm still gathering prizes, but we should have at least 5 winners. More to come about the prizes, but they'll all be knitting/crochet related.

As you know, 100% of items donated to Knits For Needs go to people in need throughout the United States, be they homeless, chemo patients, preemies, or anyone else in need.

Hats For Heads

Many thanks to Lorraine in South Carolina and to Robin for sending in a total of 14 hats and 9 skeins of yarn for Knits For Needs! Aren't the hats gorgeous? And Lorraine actually took the time to tag each one beautifully. I love these hats! And the skeins of yarn are up for grabs for people who need more yarn for their charity projects. I just ask that you pay $10 for shipping (it usually costs more than that but I just pay the rest) and I'll send you a box full of yarn.

With the 1 hat that my daughter knit for KFN and the 7 that I just donated, that means our count for this year is up to 439!

A Special Hat For KFN

My daughter (12) has just finished knitting a hat for Knits For Needs! It is the first hat she has ever knit. She decided to knit it for KFN for a service project for Beta Club at school. I'm so proud of her :)

A Blanket For Kyle

Yesterday I sent 50 blanket squares to Melinda, a Ravelry friend, for a blanket she is making for a little boy who was just diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a brain cancer common in children. I love that Knits For Needs loves to do things like this for people, and I'm so lucky to be working on this mission with you all. Thank you Melinda for doing this for Kyle. I'm sure it will make him feel very loved and supported. Thank you also to Michelle, who knit and donated the 50 squares that are making this blanket possible.

Collection for Charity GROWS!

These are exciting times for Knits For Needs! We've had many donations, including a HUGE one from Alicia in New Jersey. Many thanks to Alicia and her mother for donating a whopping 56 hats, 2 scarves, about 8 skeins of yarn, some baby booties, and 50 prayer squares! WOW! You guys have been busy. Thank you so much for your dedication to Knits For Needs. Thank yous also go out to Terri in Ohio for donating 6 hats and Myra in Illinois for donating 3 hats and 3 super adorable purses that I'm sure some girls are simply going to love!

Our total for this year so far is 417! We are well on our way to 900 items, which is our goal for 2010. If you are just now starting to follow Knits For Needs' progress, please take the time to read our blog to see what we are all about. We love to donate knit/crocheted items to people in need, and YOU can help! Every donation counts.

Also, we are currently looking for donations of prizes to award our contest winners. Do you own a shop and would you be willing to donate stitch markers? Knitting needles? Any other possible prizes? We will also accept monetary donations to help with the prizes as well as for shipping costs. We have a PayPal account where you can donate money to our wonderful, charitable organization. You just need our email address: knitsforneeds@gmail.com

Thank you for reading our blog, and have a wonderful day! Thank you for supporting Knits For Needs!

Contest!

We're having a contest here at Knits For Needs! Everyone who donates items, from the beginning of 2010 to June 30, 2010, will be entered into a drawing for prizes. For every 5 items you donate, another entry will be placed in the pot. For instance, if you donate 1 item, you get one entry. If you donate 5 items, you get 2 entries. If you donate 10 items, you get 3 entries. And so on, and so on. As always, 100% of items donated to Knits For Needs go directly to people in need.

If you'd like to donate a prize or if you have questions, please feel free to leave comments or email us anytime: knitsforneeds@gmail.com.

Please remember to include your address, phone number and/or email address, and info about which groups you belong to (twitter? ravelry? facebook?) in your packages to I know how to reach you.

Let the games begin!

Knits For Needs would like to thank everyone for all the donations we've been receiving so far this year. I love going to the PO Box... it's like Christmas :) Christmas for people in need. Thank you for the donations and support!

Melinda in Pennsylvania has sent 17 prayer squares to us here in Atlanta and has delivered 14 blankets to Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Thank you Melinda!

Michelle, also in Pennsylvania, knit 51 blanket squares and 2 scarves for Knits For Needs with yarn that her grandmother left when she passed. She thought that would be a great way to honor her grandmother, and we agree that her grandmother would approve and be very, very proud.

Elizabeth in Alabama and Whitney in Indiana together sent 3 scarves. Thanks guys!

Lynne in Marietta, GA knit and donated 35 hats and 3 scarves! Wow! I also had the chance to meet Lynne last weekend as I was bringing her more yarn. I wish I could meet all of you. Lynne and I are going to a meeting of Twitter knitters (and non-Twitter knitters) this Sunday, March 21, at 12:30 at Rare Purls in Duluth. If you're an Atlanta knitter, think about coming out to join us!

If I have forgotten to mention someone, PLEASE let me know. I do forget things now and again. Our email address: knitsforneeds@gmail.com. I think some of our Ravelry members have donated many items and I counted them on our total count, but forgot to write down the individual donations...sorry! Let me just send out a big thanks to Sweezer and GennyLynn on Ravelry for all you do. GennyLynn has been receiving many blanket squares. Thank you all for sending them and allowing her to make blankets for people in need. Our Ravelry group is really active so if you don't belong, join us today!

Our total count of things donated to Knits For Needs so far just in 2010 is: 289!! As you know, 100% of items donated to KFN go directly to people in need through homeless shelters, food banks, hospitals, etc. Keep the donations coming.. onward to 900!

Timothy's Cupboard

Hello everyone, and thanks for reading this latest update about Knits For Needs. If you are new, please take some time to read about all the wonderful things we've been up to in the past year, including donating 634 items to people in need in 2009! Our current count for 2010 is 48 and our lofty goal for this year is 900 items. If you are donating on your own in the name of Knits For Needs, please let me know and I'll include your items in our count.

Last week I had the honor of donating (you're going to kill me for not counting the exact number) about 25 hats, 4 crocheted amigurumi animals, and about 10 scarves to a church right around the corner from my home in Woodstock, GA, just north of Atlanta. The church is called Timothy Lutheran Church and is near and dear to my heart because all three of my children attended their preschool. What you see in the picture is not the church, but the tiny little house called Timothy's Cupboard, which is a food bank run by the church. In 2009, Timothy's Cupboard fed a total of 2,903 children, 8,277 people, and 2,433 families in the Cherokee County area in which I live. I called them a couple weeks ago to see if they might be in need of knit/crocheted warm things, and they said a resounding, "YES!". When I took the items (pictured) to them last week, I can't tell you the looks of amazement and appreciation I saw on their faces. They were amazed at our wonderful group of people and asked for more information about us and also mentioned they would not only get the items out immediately, but they'd need more. Needless to say, I will be bringing them more items soon as well as all of our contact info, including this blog.


Here is a not-so-great picture of me resembling Santa on my way to drop off the items at the church. Also pictured are some of the items that were donated. After this picture was taken, I found a bunch of adult hats that I wanted to include but then forgot to take of pic of everything altogether. I must get better at documenting all of this!

Below is a random picture of a hat I just finished for Knits For Needs. It was finished after the Timothy delivery, but I wanted to show it anyway because I think it is so cute! I can't wait to donate it.. actually, I guess that makes our count 49 now, doesn't it? :)

Have a great week, and please spread the word about our awesome organization, Knits For Needs!

Happy New Year!

It has been an amazing first year for Knits For Needs, and I thank every one of you for your support and contribution to this wonderful charity that, a year ago, was just an idea sitting in my head. Our goal for 2009 was to collect and donate 500 items and we weren't sure we'd be able to do it. In August, we were at 324 after receiving a huge donation of 120 hats from The Crochet Guild of America, and we were wondering if we'd ever make it to our goal, although 324 is quite an accomplishment! On November 16, we were at 405 items, and then, as if everyone came together to make sure our goal was reached, not only did we reach our goal of 500, but we soared to a whopping 634 items donated in 2009! Woo hoo - 634!
Knits For Needs thanks everyone who has nurtured this project into a huge, loving charity that is made up of giving people throughout the entire world. You should feel very special for using your time and talents to help those in need across the United States. Not only do we bring a bit of warmth to the people we donate to, but we send them a message of hope and love. Someone, somewhere took the time to knit or crochet something very special for them, and that may very well have been the only gift they received this year. You deserve a pat on the back for your contributions to Knits For Needs, be they knit/crocheted items, monetary donations, yarn, or just plain support. I am proud to be associated with you all and wish we could all sit around and knit and crochet together :) If you're around Woodstock, GA, let's get together!

Looking forward to 2010, I hear by announce our goal is going to be 900 items this year! I know we can do it. We overshot our goal for this year and we are growing by leaps and bounds. 900? Piece of cake :) That does NOT include our total for 2009. So that means that by this time next year, if we reach our goal, we would have donated over 1,500 items to people in need. Let's go for it! Shanda in North Carolina has been the very first to donate in 2010, making our current total for this year 11. Thank you Shanda and all who will contribute their time and talents to Knits For Needs in 2010.

Also, there is something new I am going to suggest to you all who love Knits For Needs as much as I do: let's promote it like crazy! Twitter it, Facebook it, email news channels and newspapers about what we are doing. Make sure you send them our blog address.

Let's make 2010 even bigger! Thanks to all!

Meridith Zelaya