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Special project: knitting for refugee children

Hi knitters,

I hope you are all staying healthy and relatively sane in this unusual and scary situation we find ourselves in. Are you stuck at home with some extra yarn and extra knitting time? Eleni brings us a special project from her mother's knitting group in Wales. They are knitting sweaters (or jumpers as they say in the UK) for refugee children in Europe. Roxana is generously donating one of her patterns for us to use for free, and I will post it here along with a photo of a sample next week. It will take a little more than 600 yards of worsted weight yarn, so go dive into your stash and see what you can come up with. Here is some information about the project, from Stiwdio 3, the yarn shop in Cardigan, Wales that is organizing it:

From the home of the giant Cardigan cardigan, we are reaching out to our incredible community and setting a challenge to produce 2020 children’s jumpers or cardigans for refugee children throughout Europe. 

The inspiration for the project comes from Eileen Johnson whose memory of learning to knit as a child in the air raid shelters instilled a lifelong love of the craft. Eileen was evacuated to Cardigan and incredibly her first home was at 3 High Street, the current home of Stiwdio 3! 

This year Eileen turns 80 and it marks 75 years since her time in the shelters. She wants to mark the occasion by getting the community to knit or crochet jumpers or cardigans for refugee children whose circumstances are so similar to children during the second world war. The giant cardigan hangs proudly at Stiwdio 3 and in its shadow, we want to create many small garments to help children who are still suffering the injustices of our world.

We are asking you to lend your support by either knitting or crocheting small garments (4-8 year old) or to donate wool and needles for others to use.

Please stay tuned for the pattern next week. Thanks to Eleni for bringing this special cause to our attention. I hope many of us can join in!

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