The kindness of strangers......

I recently joined the Charity Knitting group on Ravelry.  I knit a lot and probably 75% of what I make goes to various charities.  This isn't because I am a saintly, good person. It is just because there is only so much I can make for friends and family before I turn into that crazy lady who everybody wants to avoid at "present time".

I noticed one of the threads on the forum was all about donating yarn.  There are some very generous givers, but most seemed to be thousands of miles away.  In an optimistic moment I put on a request for any UK member who might have yarn to donate.  I'm happy to pay for my wool and love looking for bargains.  But I'm also a keen recycler and love to make something useful from unloved yarn.  Imagine my surprise when I received a quick reply.  

Beverley lives in the UK and is decluttering her yarn collection.  The photo shows what she kindly donated to me.  I love the challenge of using remnants like these. There is some dk yarn....some fairly standard and some really beautiful....especially the orange yarn which is very shiny and has tiny threads of purple in it.  I'm still waiting for inspiration about the best thing I can make with it. 

There is also a lot of 2 ply sock yarn.  I know knitting socks is very popular.  But I must be a rare knitter who hasn't yet caught that bug.  Instead, I am going to knit with 2 balls of yarn together to produce 4 ply items.  I've already knitted a baby hat from a pattern that I really like.  Here's a photo of it:

It weighs about 20g and as I have over 600g of donated yarn that is a lot of hats!

Some of the yarn was in skeins.  To me that implies it is vintage and has probably been seeking a new home for a long time.  When I was a child, my mother always bought her wool like this and I had to sit with my arms outstretched to help her wind it into balls.  I quite enjoyed it (to her surprise) and it probably sparked off my fascination with knitting etc.  It was harder to roll the skeins without a helpful little girl to hold them straight.  But I managed and all the yarn is now safely stored away.

Every last scrap will be used and I will probably send the items to Operation Orphan, Greenfields Africa, and Sibol.

Beverley insisted on paying the postage herself.  So I passed on the kindness.  While putting away the yarn, I came across 4 skeins of what I can only call "shawl wool". That doesn't do it justice.  It is a good quality 4 ply yarn in a cream colour with a nice sheen.  It would make a beautiful wedding cape or something similar.  I see a lot of lovely crocheted and knitted shawls.  But that's yet another bug that I haven't caught.   I think I have been inoculated against shawls and socks.  Instead, I have now given the yarn to a Barnardo's charity shop for them to raise money by selling it.  I also sorted out my ribbons and passed them on to the Sibol challenges project.  So Beverley's generosity has helped at least 4 charities.

Thank you, Beverley.

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.".

AESOP, The Lion and the Mouse


“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” 

― Plato

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” 
― Mark Twain