All Knitting Together Nicely… St Pancras Knitters continues to be as popular as ever with up to 15 regular members meeting every Wednesday afternoon in St Pancras church lounge. Trish Gribble coordinates the group, which knits in support of Knit-a-square (KAS - https://knit-a-square.com/knitting-for-charity-for-children/). KAS’s aim is to raise awareness and help for the orphaned and vulnerable 'street children' in South Africa by sending knitted beanie hats, hand warmers and squares for blankets, to provide warmth and love. Since it began in 2008, KAS has distributed over 90,000 blankets to warm and comfort the cold, orphaned or vulnerable children of South Africa. It takes 35 squares to make a blanket and each parcel to KAS contains two blankets 2 hats, 2 pairs of handwarmers and a small toy tucked inside. Parcels are then wrapped tightly in bubble wrap to ensure they meet the size limit for sea mail. Each parcel weighs usually just under the 2kg allowed and costs around £12.95 to send to South Africa. Group members put £1 in the money pot each week to help pay for postage and there is also a pot for loose change, which is sent periodically to pay for KAS to receive the parcels – yes, they have to pay for every parcel received in South Africa and charities are not exempt. Several of the community knitters and group members also give donations towards postage costs, as well as some of the church family. Everyone is so supportive, especially as they buy their own wool most of the time too, although we have had some lovely donations lately of double knitting wool which is what we use and are very grateful for. There is always a lot to do and we are always buzzing with activity. This fantastic support is boosted by several people in the community knitting for us, including the St Boniface Group at St Budeaux. Please Note - numbers are currently monitored to help ensure safety and social distancing ref. covid so please contact us via admin@stps.org.uk or Facebook beforehand if you would like to join the group). Can you help? As well as the various donations outlined above, we would be grateful to receive bubble wrap. Thanks to folks recycling we have always managed to avoid buying any but we are running low so please bear us in mind if you have any going spare. Trish issues regular updates and on this page is a link to her most recent newsletter, which we hope you will find interesting and heart-warming.
