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Help for Australian wildlife- Crochet and sewing

13 replies

user1471469526 · 05/01/2020 21:24

Please forgive the shameless begging, but I hope you'll understand the motivation!
You've probably seen recent news reports of the terrible wildfires in Australia. The wildlife rescue centres are being overrun with injured wildlife and need help from from us crafters in the form of crocheted and sewn 'homes' for their patients. There's a UK group making and collecting up supplies to send over to help out. The main things in demand are sewn joey pouches for the baby kangaroos and crocheted nests for the other small animals. You can find more details and free patterns from the Animal Rescue Craft Guild on Facebook or Instagram or the UK Crafters for Animal Rescue Effort Facebook page.
I've seen so many of you talented crafters on here and hoped that you might consider joining me in making something as your next project (they're also great stash busters if you're looking to free up space and justify your next splurge!) - I'd be ever so grateful if even one of you could find the time to help out. Thank you!

OP posts:
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bellinisurge · 07/01/2020 19:32

Brilliant. Just about to post similar myself. I'm spreading the word as much as possible to knitters, crocheters and sewers I know. Dd is doing it, MIL just asked for some patterns - she's not on FB thank god in other circumstances . There are hubs for sending popping up in different countries.

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bellinisurge · 09/01/2020 10:19

Here's an approved tutorial with a link to an approved pattern for a hanging joey bag. There are plenty of patterns on the Animal Rescue Craft Guild FB page in the Files section but I was a bit nervous about taking on a big pouch.

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Victoriaspongecakealltheway · 11/01/2020 08:27

Just joined Mumsnet am not on FB. I am desperately looking for a UK version of either crochet or knitting to help the Australian animals. Has anyone got a UK pattern please? Not sure if this message will be in the right place but I really would like to help and can't find a converted UK pattern.Thanks in advance.

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SD1978 · 11/01/2020 08:39

Many centres are not currently accepting further donations due to the sheer volume being offered- would be an idea to check with the organisation you're interested in donating to, what they currently need as there has been an inundation of items, and places are now requesting money donation instead due to storage issues.

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itchybitzy · 11/01/2020 08:53

Not the best crocheter in the world but I don't think people are looking for perfection here so I'd be delighted to help. Will check out the websites

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flamingnoravera · 11/01/2020 08:58

I've given my mum (who has dementia) a ball of wool and some needles and she's happy as Larry knitting away for the first time in years. I know they will probably never reach Aus and they are already inundated with pouches but we have found something that makes my mum happy so I'm not going to stop her making them.

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JanuaryIsNotTheOnlyMonth · 11/01/2020 09:02

Sorry to be a dampener but surely it would be better to fund the local efforts rather than transport things halfway round the world.

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HerculePoirotsGreyCells · 11/01/2020 09:05

I'm in the middle of sewing liners for the pouches as I don't knit. I'll still send them as perhaps they'll store them?

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Wildorchidz · 11/01/2020 13:10

The wildlife rescue centres don’t want any!!!!

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bellinisurge · 11/01/2020 15:37

There are hubs in different countries you can send you items to . Many of them are making arrangements with, for example, airlines that are already going there so you are not creating new air miles as such, you are piggy backing on other people's.
Making just liners and sending them would be great. Each pouch needs 3 liners at least for poo and wee so making them on their own without the outers is also helpful.

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bellinisurge · 11/01/2020 15:40

There is a UK FB group called UK Crafters for Australia Animal Rescue Effort. Look there for the latest info.

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loutypips · 11/01/2020 15:42

Surely it would be better to just donate money, than to send something to the other side of the world and adding to the global warming that's going on?

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bellinisurge · 11/01/2020 16:36

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE ARCCG ADMIN TEAM

If you are in a GLOBAL craft guild group (not this group), please share this to your team/post/moderators.

This is not about people in this page that are from anywhere in particular, this is about the new global groups that are springing up everywhere that we know nothing about.

The past few weeks several overseas groups, sub groups and even a "Global Admin Craft Guild" team has sprung up from people we don’t know about, who aren’t affiliated at all with our work and are NOT dealing with the rescuers we work with.

Supply and demand require coordination, so global groups that are coming online without our involvement are creating disorganisation, confusion, and likely an oversupply of some items.

We encourage global groups to make contact with their LOCAL animal rescue groups in their own country. As we have seen in Australia, these groups have lacked support for a long time and would really appreciate your support.

We have just hit 200K members and we are working hard to ensure supply doesn't overstrip demand. We don't want items to go to waste. You may need to sew or crochet slower or stop entirely. This is a good news story, and why we want you to reach out to your local rescue to see what they need. Opossums, squirrels, rodents, snakes, lizards, cats, dogs, etc. can use these items too.

The Animal Rescue Craft Guild is part of the Animal Rescue Collective (ARC) team. It has been doing a fantastic job of supporting the local team with supply and product to add to our food and medical supply loads that go to animals in need.

The Rescue Collective and ARC focus on getting food and supplies to animal rescuers impacted by fires in Australia. Tonnes of food, everywhere. That keeps animals alive. As you have seen this has become incredibly big, it’s an organised and thought out mod team and we know what is needed.

But we are being distracted and taken away from our important work by “craft emergencies" created by new groups springing up that now need somewhere to put the products they make. We didn’t ask for it. Urgent requests, calls, and demands for our immediate attention on conspiracy theories, business plans they have dreamt up, researching shipping for them, etc.

This makes for a LOT of noise, questions and admin, a lot of misinformation that takes us away from things running smoothly.

It's the equivalent of walking into someone else’s business, throwing mess everywhere then saying, "you really need to bring me in to clean up this mess, lets have a meeting urgently.”

The work the craft guild does is important and the way we are doing it is going well. We can speed production up and slow it down based on demand. But the important work we need to be focused on is feeding and treating animals that are dying. Not creating global bureaucracies and artificial “craft emergencies.”

If you are a member of a global craft guild page that isn’t this page you are on here with this big red image. It is highly likely that we don’t have anything to do with it. It is also highly likely that you or they will end up with a large amount of your products wasted and sitting in your lounge room or shed. Or thrown in the bin.

  • The supply is very high, we need to keep managing this centrally. Here with this team.


  • We are not taking on the coordination of the inbounds from these new global teams. We already have enough to do. They need to work WITH us to check on supply and demand, not MAKE more work for us.


  • We recognise that people have seen a movement, and want to be on that and to create their own. We encourage them to make contact with shelters in their own countries and do this for them. Save the postage and help your local rescue groups!


  • The rescue groups and the animals that need help are here, with us, in Australia, where we are shipping out food and supplies. WE KNOW what is needed and what isn’t.


We are not going to have a meeting about it, we don’t need to have detailed global plans. It's a Facebook group, we are in Australia where the fires are and are dealing with emergencies on every side. That's our priority.

If you have created a global page and we don’t know about it and it isn’t able to get supply into Australia, it is OK to close your page down or talk to your local rescuers and animal welfare to support them instead.

If you are a member of a global craft guild page… please, ask your local page admins in your country how they intend on getting product here, and which rescue groups… and then actively encourage the local team to work with local rescuers in your own country, that is important… shipping tonnage of supplies to Australia when we are already flooded is a big challenge.

We cannot stop what we are doing to deal with “Global Craft Emergencies”… we already have emergencies to deal with.

Thank you to everyone that is in this page/group and working within this process as this is how we can manage it the best.
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