Fancy knitting a blanket (or even a bit of one!) to give to women and children escaping domestic violence?

[KateMumsnet]

Refuge (the domestic violence charity) recently launched their Comfort Blanket Campaign. The idea is to bring a bit of comfort and warmth to the women and children staying in their network of refuges across the UK, lots of whom arrive with only the clothes that they're standing up in.

They wonder if any crafty MNers could help them out by knitting one or more 6" squares, which can be sewn together to create larger blankets for the families who access Refuge's services.

It doesn't matter if you're an absolute beginner, an old hand, or even a whole knitting group - all contributions will be very welcome. Feel free to make up your own design, or use one of the 26 fab patterns that Refuge's campaign partners Simply Knitting and The Knitter magazines have designed. You can grab them here in return for a small donation to Refuge.

If you're a ferociously fast knitter (or you get together with other MNers) and can rustle up a whole blanket, send it directly to Refuge's offices at 4th Floor, International House, 1 St Katharine's Way, London E1W 1UN.

But if you're just starting out or pressed for time, don't worry - the (very) lovely people at Simply Knitting have kindly agreed to stitch your individual squares into whole blankets, if you send them in to their own offices at Simply Knitting, Units 1 & 2 Cotterell Court, Monmouth Place, Bath BA1 2NP.

Happy knitting! If you decide to help out, do post here to let us know how you get on.

@ShakeThyGoryKnottyLocks

Btw, can you knit or crochet?

I'm afraid not. Despite my grandmother's best efforts. (Is this a test?)

We did wonder at work whether there was any way we could contribute grown-out baby clothes etc to refuges but could not discover practically how to.

I've wondered that myself herecomesthesun - and for various other things as well that I otherwise give to charity shops. I will see if I can get an answer.

MNHQ x

Rowan, not a test, no

For future reference maybe

Hey, thanks for trying to find out Knotty, and Rowan I shall look out for further info, cheers.

I am not a knitter (perish the thought) but can I just butt in to say that, given the amount of Debbie Bliss and Rowan double knit (or whatever it's called) that we are getting through (tragically) lately perhaps we should be asking the companies to team up with MN and contribute some wool for free, on a 'when needed' basis. Many lovely ladies are prepared to give their time to knit, and sew, and post, and co-ordinate, and many others have donated money for wool, even if they cannot really afford it, so the wool companies are profiting out of MNers hearts of gold. When I went to buy the wool for little Leo's blanket the woman said 'Wow - that must be the most expensive blanket ever!' because of the fabulous quality we'd chosen.

Also, as this is becoming a bit of a 'thing' have we extended the request for knitters to Gransnet? I'd hate to think we get compassion fatigue because so much pressure is put onto a relatively small group of Mners who can actually knit and sew.

Sorry for the slight hijack, and I hope no-one thinks this is out of line, but it's just a thought.

Fell, we've been having a big discussion about this very recently and have included MNHQ in that. We too want to avoid compassion fatigue. Good idea about Gransnet: we'll certainly consider that.

I'm on the case about sourcing wool at a discount.

Of course you are not out of line. It's great to have your input .

Ok I know that this campaign has been launched by Refuge and I am sure it's a lovely idea and that people want to help,but speaking as a woman who fled domestic violence to a refuge a hundred miles away from my friends and family with two children and just the clothes we stood up in a bloody knitted blanket was the last thing I wanted or needed.

I really don't mean to upset or offend anyone but there are more practical ways to help imo.

What are the practical ways Lillypie, do you have any ideas? I'm rubbish at any kind of crafts, but would happily do other things that could help families in your situations like you were.

What I needed were clothes toiletries cosmetics books- things that could make me feel a little better /more normal whilst living in the refuge.Toys and books for younger children were always needed.

My boys were teenagers when I fled to the refuge and I literally got them up told then to dress and we ran-before I lost my nerve.So please remember when donating to Refuge that not all children who end up there are tinies.

Womens Aid should be able to tell you how to go about donating to to your local refuge x

do you think shelters need cots? i have a perfectly good cot frame that i haven't been able to give away on freecycle presumably because people are looking for cotbeds with drawers and built in dvd players with surround sound rather than a basic pine cot.

i would really like to pass it on to someone who will get use out of it.

wallowed - worth ringing local refuge and asking? I was wondering that too...

Hello all

The women at Refuge say: completed blankets are being accepted right up until Christmas, so you can send them up until the last minute. For individual squares, Simply Knitting have set a deadline of December 1.

For donating items directly to local refuges, they suggest contacting local domestic violence services directly (I see lillypie has also suggested contacting Women's Aid).

Refuge have also just launched a Christmas gift list for people in their refuges; go to the John Lewis gift list site and search for gift list number 478985 if you'd like to take part.

Thanks again,
MNHQ x

john lewis? blimey.

some good stuff on the gift list. Thanks for that.

Rowan, that Gift List is a great idea for lazy people like me who would love to donate but never gets round to researching local refuge requirements.

Would you consider giving this its own thread (even a sticky) in Chat or similar so that it reaches a wider audience?

The gift list does look good. Is it worth starting a separate thread to support it? I'd rather give from this as a charity xmas gift than buying a goat or whatever.

Xposts!

Great minds, GreenBlueRed!

I am not really a crafty type person (i am not so good at knitting etc) but would love to try! I have given to a local womens refuge before. Nothing fancy tho just the "third" from the Boots christmas offers nail polish type things. Will have a crack at knitting and if i fail then will donate the third from Boots christmas offer or shampoo etc that's on offer.

The thing is, it is quite difficult to identify local refuges directly, and we were assuming (my work colleagues and I) that there would be a good reason why it would be difficult to work out how to get stuff to refuges (presumably women don't want their violent ex-partners tracking them down)

I know our local refuge has an email contact for the public to use...was planning on using that. They keep their location quiet and post directly there is restricted.

I've been knitting squares to make a blanket for this campaign, along with my Mum and my Nan. We've managed 16 squares between us - just over half a child's blanket - but we're not going to manage the rest in time. Would anyone like to come to our rescue and knit a few squares so that we can complete a blanket?

As it's a child's blanket, bright colours are good. We're trying to avoid pink so that the blanket can be given to a boy or a girl, but any other colours are welcome.

Hi Womble If you don't get any takers here you could send them to Simply Knitting (see OP for address & Rowan's post of 1st Nov 12.59 confirming the deadline of 1st Dec)

Thanks BarbaraWoodlouse - I'll do that if I can't get the whole blanket done. It just seemed a shame not to finish it, having got so far.