Last Chance Charity Knit Along
Posted on July 11, 2013
As y’all must know by now, I am a knitter. The knitting travels with me just about everywhere I go, and I think knitting is about the most relaxing thing I can imagine doing. And the best part of knitting is that when you’re finished with a project you have something wonderful to give away.
That’s right, I almost always give away the stuff I knit. Only rarely do I knit something for myself. I get so much more joy in knitting for others. Which brings me to something I want to organize starting this August. It’s an idea suggested a couple of weeks ago by Belinda Harbuck Joyner, a member of the Last Chance Book Club Facebook Group.
Belinda posted a link to an organization called The Hatbox Foundation, which organizes donations of hand-made knitted caps for people with cancer or otherwise in need, and she asked if I would spread the word about this organization to my knitter friends. Well, as it turns out, in my next novel, Last Chance Knit & Stitch, a group of knitters called “The Purly Girls” undertake a project for Chemo Caps, another group that helps organize knitters who want to donate caps for cancer patients.
And an idea was born. I thought it might be fun to do more than just spread the word, but to organize a virtual month-long knit (or crochet) along with knitter friends, and any readers or authors who are also knitters or crocheters. The object would be to see how many caps we could collectively knit in a month.
Since I’m working on a book deadline between now and August 1, I thought we’d start the knit along formally on August 1. But between now and then, I invite you to do the following:
1) Leave a comment here, or in the Last Chance Book Club Facebook Group, or on my Facebook Page telling me you’re committed to producing at least one hat. You can also tell us about your knitting expertise or any other relevant information about your knitting.
2) Share a link to a hat pattern that you particularly like or that you’d like to attempt. Post that link in a comment below, so that everyone can enjoy it, whether or not they are on Facebook. There are hat patterns posted at Chemo Caps, ravelry.com, and other places.
3) If you’re really into it, post a picture of the yarn you’re planning to use in a comment below.
I plan to knit a hat that looks like the one below, which is the pattern that the Purly Girls use for their hat knitting efforts. It’s made with Red Heart worsted and knitted on US 8 needles circular needs and DPNs. And if you want to knit the same thing as in the upcoming book, here is a link to the pattern.
Oh and one final thing — the first ten people who post comments containing a link to a pattern or a picture of the yarn they are planning to use, will get a spiffy tape measure to use in their knitting or sewing baskets. And we’ll have other inducements as we knit along.
We’ll start the official knitting on August 1, so that gives you plenty of time to go find the yarn and the pattern.
