Whip out those knitting needles

My suburb has a pro-active community headed by the I Love Kensington Association. They do many community projects and the most recent one that they're getting on board with is an initiative to provide something like 7200 knitted blankets to organisations working with abused women and children.

I don't always get very involved with all of ILKA's activities but when things like neighbourhood clean ups or flower planting come up and I'm around, then I lend a hand. And I can certainly knit a square or four over the next month.

The whole gig with this blanket thing (it's a Knit-a-thon and family-a-thon) is that all the donated squares will be sewn into blankets (1mx1.5m); completed blankets are number one prize. On 4 December, the blankets will be spread out on a rugby field and joined together to make a record-sized blanket (they'll then be separated again for donation to organisations involved with women and child abuse).

So... I'm roping in friends to help me make up a couple of blankets to contribute.

To give you some guidance...

• I'm using 3.5mm needles and inexpensive single-colour, 4-ply (double knit) wool (Elle Family Knit - available at any fabric/knitting store).
• Please use YELLOW, BLACK and WHITE wool only - http://www.ar.co.za/ colours.
• 25cm squares
• It takes around 68 stitches to get 25cm in width. And then you knit until you get 25cm in length. Remember to fold your square into a triangle to check that sides are even.
• I'm knitting patterns into the single-colour squares, for fun. I found a whole lot of easy patterns for squares using only knit and purl - like basket weave, checks and diamonds - on the Halfknits website. Patterns will make each square more interesting and also offers tactile variety for children.

Please email me directly if you're keen to participate and to knit a pair of squares, or more (the lady at the wool shop seems to think we'll get two of three squares from one ball of wool). Knitting is for boys too - don't be lazy gents.

Finally, as I've never gotten the hang of crochet, I'll need some assistance joining the squares together. I'll make a cake ;)

Some images below for inspiration.


Here they're using more than one colour per square. Pretty.



I especially love the patterns knitted into the single-colour squares



Again, pattern knitted into the square. Nice.