(Knitted fence by Helen Robertson, hung in the Peerie Cafe, Lerwick)

So many thanks for all your comments and feedback on episode 71 and on the value of knitting and what you do. It has been also lovely to read your commetns about knintworthyness in the KB Ravelry group too. Today I look a little bit to charity knitting, which is a bit of a distinct category of value and knitworthyness. I also have the first exciting Blacker Yarns Podcast Lounge news for you! Needles and yarn at the ready!

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| Show Notes

A great discussion has followed the last episode over in the KnitBritish ravelry group and on social media. Thanks so much for contributing to this wide discussion. Last episode I was specifically talking about knitting for others and knitting for sale: charity knitting is a distinct category of value and it is most definitely knitting for the knitworthy. I had purposely kept charity knitting separate from the discussion last time, but many of you have talked about it in the rav group and so I am happy to talk it about charity knitting today.

Knitting for Charity.

Someone, somewhere is taking comfort and solace in something someone made. We probably don’t know them, we don’t know where they are or where they have come from – but something we have made and spent time and thought on, can be keeping them warm, providing support or consolation and it could even be saving their life.

Whether you are making preemie baby hats, blankets for a care home, twiddlemuffs for dementia patients, hats for homeless or displaced folks…whatever – we know that there are people who will benefit from our craft.

I am not so fond of….

knitting for charitable awareness

for example….Stupid fucking hats for a smoothie bottles. A company owned by one of the biggest multi-est billion-est companies in the free world request knitters to make frippery little hats to raise awareness of age charities to which Innocent donate 25p per bottle. Surely Coca-cola can afford a bigger donation and the emphasis should be on knitting items for care homes, hospitals, elderly friends and neighbours? There is so much more that is wrong with this, but I only have one episode!

You may have also been aware this week of a ad agency in London who want to install knitters in a 2 week long spectacle which has them “embroidering/knitting” cheeky messages onto christmas stockings, which will be sold for £20. On a now archived deleted post on a ravelry group page they used wording like “get you out of the house” – it is both offensive and infuriating (see above gif again for the feels) and it totally misunderstands craft and undervalues and misrepresents knitters. Mother Fuc…London, you are taking the piss. This press release about their Christmas rebranding (as Grandmother) further adds to the cliches and piss-taking.

Sharing links to charities

After reader feedback I no longer feature a lot of charity knitting pleas here on the blog or on the podcast unless I am involved with fundraising myself or feel I want to spread the word. There is a thread in the KB rav group where you can pin links to charities who are looking for donations of textile items. You can find it here and posting rules/notes are in the header.

I also make mention of the following charities that KB listeners and readers and I think are worth sharing – of course, this list is unending and I only mention a few, but you can post about yours in that Rav thread. I was asked recently to also mention knitting for premature and still born babies. I mention today SANDS, Cuddles UK, Bliss and Project Linus. Please also chat to your local hospital to see if there is anything they need or services that may require your donation. I also talk about Knit for Peace and P-hop.

| Blacker Yarns Pod KAL  

I am very excited to make an early announcement that next year there will be a Blacker Yarns Podcast Lounge KAL for 2017! As you may know, the Podcast Lounge takes place at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, which is happening on 10-11th March next year.

A KAL (or CAL) is such a great way to ramp up the excitement and make something with your fellow festival goers, but don’t worry if you can’t go! Even if you have the EYF FOMO we still want you to cast on and feel part of the festival.

• The cast on date is 19th January, which feels ages off, but it isn’t!
• You can knit or crochet any design you like, but it must be entirely made with yarn from Blacker.
• There will be a chatter thread in the Blacker Raverly group ahead of the KAL.
• There will be a meet up in the Podcast Lounge
• AND there will be a discount on the Blacker Yarns stall at the event for those who appear in their FO. For those with the FOMO there will be a special yarny prize draw

We here at KB know the value of a KAL, we know how they are so community spirited and supportive and that there is a lot of fun to be had there.

There will be more news on this soon, but spread the word – get on social media with the tag #BlackerPodKAL and start talking designs and shopping or stashdiving for those Blacker yarns beauties….whose even more excited for Edinburgh Yarn Festival now?

| Information

Music: Carefree by Kevin McLeod and Singin’ in The Rain (demo) by David Mumford – Both are on FreeMusicArchive and are both shared under Creative Commons Attribution license.The Knitting Goddess Logo belongs to Joy McMillan.  Other images copyright to those stated. The Buffy Gif is from Giphy.