Charity Knitting

I don't do charity knitting.  Knitting is a selfish activity for me.  I make things for myself and the people I love.  I get solicited to make charity mittens for kids.  I didn't do it.  I do make mittens for a little kid every year.  She looses them and they get dirty.  This is her job.  Mine is to make her more.

Anyway back to charity knitting.  I believe in charity.  Helping others is one of my core values. But, when it comes to my knitting needles, I have resisted it.  There are so many things I have wanted to make that I will never be able to make them all in my lifetime.

 

So what changed?  Years ago I saw something about the terrible suffering of women in Africa who had experienced an obstetric fistula.  I never forgot the social ostracism they experienced.  A week or so ago I read about and joined the Stitches-for-Sisters group on Ravelry.  They are making 4" garter stitch squares to be sewn into blankets.  I can make a 4" square.  So far, I have made 10 of them.  My basic pattern is to cast on 39 stitches and do a center, double stitch decrease on the right side and slip the center stitch on the wrong side.  To make a neat edge, the last stitch of every row is knit in the back and the first stitch is slipped purl-wise with the yarn in front.

I will send them to a central US collection point and they will be mailed on to be sewed into blankets.  The squares are small and all together should create a riot of color in a patchwork effect.  The will then be sent to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital.  Women receiving care at the hospital are given a blanket that they wear.  You can see some in the NOVA video: A Walk to Beautiful.

I like this project because I don't have to make an entire blanket.  I can make as many squares as I want.  I am using up my leftover wool yarn scraps.  In a few days I will mail these out and go back to selfish knitting.