Last charity donations for a little while.....

As Royal Mail postage costs went up recently and courier costs have started to rise, I pulled out all the stops and finished filling a box for Operation Orphan which is an organisation that distributes warm clothing to children in Central and Eastern Europe.

Here are the contents: 2 scarves, 12 hats and 2 waistcoats.  Some of these items have been ready for months and now they can actually be useful and keep someone warm. it might seem odd thinking about warm clothing in the summer, but this is the time of year that charities start to prepare for distributing clothing in time for winter.

I have already started knitting a baby jumper for one of my favourite charities.  But it will probably be another year before I have enough items ready to fill a box to capacity.

I wonder what postage costs are like in other countries.  In the UK we definitely have to thing twice before posting something.  In the last week, I have spent nearly £10 on postage.  That is £10 that i can't spend on wool!

More and more people are looking for local charities that they can support by dropping in with their knitted/crocheted donations.  That is good news for the local charities but not such good news for those that rely on  receiving lots of parcels.  I would choose the local option if I could.  But, for now, my favourite charities can still rely on one box per year from me.

Off they go.....

I've been filling a box with charity knitting for several months now and it was starting to get in the way.  I also reasoned it wasn't doing anyone any good sitting on my bedroom floor so I finally got my act together and posted it off today.  

In the box were 3 children's waistcoats, 1 baby blanket, 6 boobs and 3 birds' nests.  The boobs are used by midwives and health visitors to teach breastfeeding and the nests are used at animal shelters as bedding for small mammals and birds.  Quite a mixture this time!  

I sent this box to Loving Hands http://www.lovinghands.org.uk/ from where they will be distributed to various good causes.  They promise to find a good home for anything and regularly create wishlists for quirky items such as boobs and nests as well as the more mundane baby items.

I kept back a pile of knitted hats and scarves which I will eventually send to Operation Orphan http://www.operation-orphan.org/initiatives.htm for their "Keep a Child Warm" initiative.  I just need to build up a bigger collection to fill a good size box.  That will mean I can use a courier instead of the Post Office.  Today I used the Collect+ service http://www.collectplus.co.uk/send and saved over £2.  That equates to another 2 balls of wool.  That is how I tend to think these days whenever I save money on anything.  Does that make me a knitting addict?  My name is Una and I'm a knitaholic.