At tonight’s Stitch Party we’re kicking-off our new charity knitting effort for the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House services families with seriously ill, hospitalized children in the oncology and cardiac units. They provide families with a home away from home, a space to gather as a family, to eat a meal together, do their laundry, or just spend time together.

They are in need of knitted and crocheted items such as fun hats, scarves, and lap blankets. Lap blankets are especially needed for the children in the cool hallways as they are transported in their wagons or wheelchairs, or even just to be out of bed. The children range in age from newborn infants to teenagers. This is a great way to use yarn you have left over from other projects or yarn you’ve bought but haven’t used.

All of us at Loop will be making items for the Family Rooms from now through the end of the year. We invite you to join us in our effort. Come knit and crochet with us on Sunday afternoons from 2 to 4 pm or drop off your contributions and we’ll get them to the Ronald McDonald House.

Knit One, Save One is a program developed by the international organization Save the Children that collects knit and crochet hats for prematurely born babies in poor countries. According to their research, “Four million newborns die each year within the first month of life – half within the first 24 hours after being born.” By providing antibiotics, immunizations, training for birth attendants and education about infant care – and hats to keep premature babies warm – Save the Children can save lives.

Loop friend and customer Yvette Jiggetts has organized a gathering this weekend to make hats for Knit One, Save One. All crocheters and knitters are welcome. Bring your machine washable yarn, hook, and needles and join the effort to make 100 preemie caps.

WHEN: 11:30 am to 1 pm, Saturday, December 13
WHERE: The University City Arts League, 4226 Spruce Street

If you are unable to attend, you can still participate by making a hat and bringing it to Loop by December 30. We’ll give the hats we collect to Yvette to send in. To get you started, you can find patterns for preemie hats at Knitting Pattern Central and a few more at the Knit One, Save One site.

Preemie hats are so small they would fit a grapefruit. So take a few minutes, some leftover yarn and give one more gift this holiday season!

Since we opened in 2005, we’ve offered patterns from Cottage Creations. These fantastic patterns have clear directions, fun illustrations, and something for everyone in the family. The Wonderful Wallaby and the Rambling Rows Afghan are two of their better known patterns, but peruse them all and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

The Wonderful Wallaby Pattern

While you may know their designs, you may not know that Carol Anderson, the woman behind the patterns, lives and works in Iowa. She recently told us that she’s collecting knitted items for victims of this season’s floods and could use our help. (Carol had only a little flooding at her home; neighboring counties were hit hardest.) Carol is collecting mittens, caps, scarves, afghans, prayer shawls, baby blankets, dishcloths, socks, and sweaters for infants, kids and adults.

We’d like to help and you can too! Bring your knitted and crocheted items here and we’ll ship them to Carol. Each item should have a card attached with the following information: name of item, size if applicable, fiber content (machine washable and dryable are preferred but not required), your name and address and any words of encouragement.

As a thank you for helping, you’ll receive 10% off any purchase you make the day you deliver your donation (classes, private lessons and gift certificates cannot be discounted). There’s no limit to the number of donations you can make or discounts you can receive. The last shipment will be sent to Carol on November 1, so that will be the last day donations are accepted.

This is a great opportunity to help others, so please spread the word!

After many hours of knitting, we have 3 blankets to donate to Project Linus!

Thank you to everyone who knit squares and who helped sew them together. The blankets will bring comfort and warmth to a young person in need.

The Loop Charity Knitting Club held its first meeting yesterday. Twenty-one knitters joined the effort to knit squares for a blanket for Project Linus. Here’s a few of us who were at the table –

See how hard we’re working? (that’s because everyone looked down when Laura said she was taking the picture!)

Alina finished her square – well done! – while the rest of us got off to good starts. Our goal is to complete our squares by the end of August, so we can assemble and then donate our blanket(s) right after Labor Day.

We can still use more volunteers. Stop by anytime and pick up a ball of yarn and a pattern sheet if you’d like to get involved.

Thanks to everyone who came yesterday and helped get this project going!

Through my participation in Stitch N’ Pitch, I met the Janet Geissler, the President of The Project Linus Philadelphia Chapter. Project Linus is a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing “love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.” As of March 31, 2007, Project Linus has donated over 2 million blankets made by volunteers in 406 chapters! The more we learned about Project Linus, the more we wanted to get involved.

Janet told us that what she needs the most are blankets for teenage boys, so that’s where we’ll start. We’ve come up with a blanket made of large squares knit in various stitch patterns. Loop will donate the yarn and if you can knit one square, we should have several blankets in no time!

The Charity Knitting Club will meet on Sundays from 1 to 3 pm. The first meeting is this Sunday, July 15. Please call ahead and let us know if you plan to come, so we know how many people to expect.

If the meeting time is inconvenient, you can still help. Just stop in any time after July 15 to pick up yarn and a pattern sheet.

We’re very excited about this new project and hope you’ll be able to join us!