There must be many a nimble knitting finger out there. We are receiving squares at such a rapid rate we can barely cope… well that’s not true. We are coping. I am just adapting to typing with my elbows resting on squares, and I forget what colour my desk is. Not a bad thing really.
But with all these squares we now need to make blankets. So today I am putting a call out for any individuals, or knitting groups who are happy to give up a couple of hours a week to help our worthy cause once again.
We are located in Melbourne, so at this stage we are just looking for Melbourne based volunteers. If you are part of a knitting group, or would love to organize a regular morning tea with friends, or can make it into our office to knit squares together then we would love to hear from you.
So please respond to my call – can you chat, drink tea and knit squares into blankets?
Born to Knit 
I am happy to come and help sew the squares – do I need to make a specific day and time? If so, can you let me know when to come. I mayt be able to round up a couple more people too.
I am happy to come and do some sewing – do I need to make a specific day and time? Please can you let me know when is suitable ( but not wednesday mornings).
I may be able to round up a couple more people too.
Hi Pam. Thanks for the offer to help sew up the squares! We would love your help. We are just trying to arrange a regular day and time that people are available and so we can make it an enjoyable, social, knitting occasion. We will be in contact with you this week via email in regards to a day and time, and we will post it on the blog also in the hope to round up more people! Thanks again for your support.
I have rounded up 2 other friends who are willing to come and sew squares – has a day and time been organised? Most days are good for me except wednesday and thursday morning. Meanwile I am still knitting and will drop more squares off next week. Do you want them with the yarn ends short or long?
Hi Pam. That is fantastic that you have rounded up two other friends to help sew squares together. We have selected a few possible times, and we will post those times on the blog today as a poll so that we can find out which suits most people.
We are trying to get people to leave 30 cm ends of wool on their square, so that this can then be used to sew the squares together.
Thanks for your support!
iam glad you have lots of squares i did sent same to you about a week ago.iam doing same more for you when i got a bag full will post them to .i allso would like a news letter. my address is dulcie turner 5lodge st glenorchy tas 7010.iam glad the children wont be cold this winter regards dulcie. ps i no of a group may be able to help you .will send them a email .
Hi Dulcie. Thank you for sending in your knitted squares. We did receive them and we sent you out a thank you card on Friday! I will pop a copy of our World’s Children magazine in the mail for you. Thanks for your support and for passing on information about us to others.
I can go to your office to knit squares into blankets or I can also pick up the squares and knit them into blanket at home. I’m free on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.
Hi Elsa. Thank you for your response! We would love you to help us knit together the squares. We are trying to arrange a regular time for people to come into the office. We will contact you this week via email to arrange the time for you to come in either to sew together, or just collect some squares. Thanks for your support!
What an opportunity to involve young people into community service. Surely there are some young people whom can sew together squares with a little instruction and would get so much satisfaction from being involved in a cause. Try your local schools, dance schools, scouts etc.
I will continue knitting!
Good Luck
Wendy Kleeman
Hi Wendy. Thanks for the suggestions of getting young people involved. I agree with you completely! We do already have some local schools involved in the project – knitting squares, and sewing them together. If know of any groups or classes in particular that you know are interested, please by all means tell them to contact us. Thanks for your support.
Hello everyone, I am a knitting fool. My husband says I should belong to knitting anonamous. I was wondering if I can be of any help to Knit One Save One? I am very new to this Blog and I would like to help. Just tell me what you need and who it is for and I will do what I can. I am handicap and it will give me some thing to do. The Crazy Knitter
Hello Rita. We would love to have you involved in our Knit One Save One Project. We are aiming to collect 80,000 knitted squares (20 cm by 20 cm). We are then stitching these squares into 5000 blankets which will be distributed to newborns in India, Vietnam, Cambodia and around Australia. Knit One Save One is an initiative of Save the Children. For more information about our project check-out the About Us section of this blog, or visit http://www.savethechildren.org.au/survive-to-five/knit-one-save-one.html for instructions, guidelines, and where to send the squares to.
Thanks for being a Crazy Knitter!
Our knitting group would be happy to help if you were in Sydney.We have not knitted squares because the postage is too much as most of our group are pensioners. We have been working for Sydney based organisations but are happy to add you to our list if you change in this regard.
Hi Anne. I understand the issue with posting the knitted squares down to Melbourne. Although we do not have any shops in Sydney, we do have a volunteer who is arranging the knitting and collection of the squares in Sydney. I will send you an email with her contact details so that you can be in touch! It would be fantastic to have your knitting group involved with Knit One Save One and hopefully this would be a welcome solution.
I would love to help but i live in Brisbane and have just begun knitting squares. I have a condition that doesn’t allow me to do much and being only able to knit straight(couldn’t knit a jumper if my life depended on it : ) i feel so blessed to be able to help your organization in a very small way. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. Perhaps i will hold off posting the squares for a short time, and just keep knitting!!
If i can help from here i would love to.
sincerely, Trish
Hi Trish. Fantastic to hear that you are knitting squares. We are indeed still collecting them – we are aiming to collect 80,000 (and so far have just over 11,500). So you can definitely help from Brisbane. We are just putting out the call for Melbourne base volunteers to start stitching all our squares into blankets.
Thanks for you support – I look forward to receiving the squares. Happy knitting!
I would love to help but live in Brisbane.Can i still continue to knit squares. I have just joined this very worthy cause and have only done about 15 squares so far.
Hello there, I am an avid knitter and would love to help. I have spare yarns of wool in my knitting bag to be used. I also would love to help put them altogether. I’ll go back to your instructions and find out what specifics you need and get started.
Fantastic Rosemary! Glad to have you on board our Knit One Save One project. The instructions can be found here http://www.savethechildren.org.au/survive-to-five/knit-one-save-one.html . Happy Knitting.
We (my daughter and I) cannot join in with the sewing of squares as we dont live in Melbourne, but we will be sending some knitted ones in. And we can always knit the whole sixteen and put them together before sending them. Either way, they will end up in Melbourne.
Thanks Linda! We look forward to receiving your knitting. You can indeed sew the 16 squares into a blanket and then send the blanket to us in Melbourne. Fantastic to have both you and your daughter as part of our Knit One Save One team.
Just found this website, love to knit, so can do squares. Cant sew very well, but would be willing to learn if someone can show me what you want done to sew up the rugs. I sew up the jumpers I knit, although not very well, but they dont fall to bits. I am in Melbourne, and wonder where you are, so as I could join the people helping. Regards Wendy.
Hi Wendy. If you can sew up jumpers then you can definitely sew up squares! We are located at 250 Victoria Parade in East Melbourne. We are currently trying to make a regular time for people to come into the office to help sew together squares, drink tea and chat! So if you would like to be a part of our Knit One Save One team then we will be in touch with you via email. We will also post the details on the blog here when they are confirmed.
We are also still collecting knitted squares (we currently have 17,000 and need 80,000!) so feel free to knit some squares too.
Thanks for your support.
hi fellow knitters,
my mum and i are currently knitting squares for this great cause and when we have a few we will post them. unfortunately we are in sydney (liverpool to be exact) and assume they have to be posted to melbourne and would love to be involved with the sewing together. is there much happening north of the vic boarder.
Leonie.
Hi Leonie. We are trying to have sessions organised in each state for people to help sewing the squares together. But logistics does appear to be quite complicated! If you are keen you can always initiate your own session with your mum and some friends – and we can post the details on our blog for you. We do have an office in Surrey Hills at Suite 205, 410 Elizabeth Street (02 9211 8800), where it is possible for you to drop off your knitted squares, or collect extras for you to sew into blankets. This way you do not have to post your squares to Melbourne, and our Sydney office will send them down to us once they have been sewn into blankets.
Thanks for your support of our Knit One Save One project. Happy knitting!
just read the blog about organising collection in sydney. i would be glad to be on board with this if i’m needed
Leonie
Hi, I would like to volunteer to sew but live at Lake Macquarie. Do visit Sydney regularly. Will start knitting squares to send as I have a lot of spare wool.Look forward to your reply. Warm regards
Hi Johanna. That is fantastic that you are going to knit squares for us – if you can sew your squares into blankets before sending them down to us that would be wonderful. You can either post your knitting to our Melbourne office (level 6, 250 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, 3002) or drop them off to our Sydney office in Surrey Hills when you are there. Thanks and happy knitting!
I would love to start knitting (and sewing them afterwards) squares but need to know how many stitches, how many rows etc.
URGENTLY please.
Lynda
Hi Lynda. That is fantastic that you want to be involved in our Knit One Save One project. We are fast approaching our target of 80,000 squares (5000 blankets) and so are asking people to now take time out from knitting so that we can collect all the blankets and send them off to children in need at the end of August. We will be running another knitting campaign so get your needles prepared for our next one and stay tuned!
Hi, im a volunteer, and have rallied up some friends of mine to help knit, we’re in W.A, so is there a specific date/deadline we have to send the squares in by? Many thanks.
That is fantastic that you have rallied up some friends to help knit. The deadline for the blankets and squares is the 31st August. But we will be running another knitting campaign after this one is complete so stay tuned!
Hi, can you advise what sort of items the new campaign will be for, or at least what sort of yarn will be required? I have enough wool to finish up the current project, but my local Lincraft (Rundle Mall) has 100% wool (handwash only/feltable) half price until 14/6 and if this would be useful for the next campaign I might like to buy some more.
Thanks!
Hi there L – the development of a new “Knit One Save One” campaign is only in its very early stages. We need to discuss options with our programs teams to determine what is needed for the little ones… the success of the Knit One Save One campaign was so huge, we want to keep you knitting!
Stay tuned… and keep visiting the blog for updates (about to upload a new post about it).
Thanks for your reply. For how much longer will you be accepting blankets/squares? Is it still until 31/8 despite meeting target early? I’m still knitting 2 blankets & have another 2+ waiting to be sewn up. Plus I still have a lot of 8ply 100% wool I was intending to use for blankets, but presumably I could use that for the new campaign (or another organisation eg knit-a-square, wrap with love. thanks!
Like L, I am also wondering whether you will be accepting blankets until 31/8. I have been saving up my blankets to send them to you in one lot. I have 5 completed ones.
Regards
Dee
L in Adelaide
As a long time knitter for 3rd World campaigns can I suggest you not to use Felting wool .It shrinks and matts easily. Spotlight have a sale on at present but better still are The Bendigo Knitting Mills. Their wool is known in shops as Heritage. It is cheaper and comes in larger hanks . Use the internet to source them
Thank you so much for your well received comment about felting wool. Keep in touch regarding the development of this campaign.
Warm wishes, Bree.
Hello, I’ve just started knitting some squares. I found out about the project in Echuca in the library. I was wondering if it matters what sort of wool is used, synthetic or pure wool? If you could please let me know I would really appreciate i and will keep on knitting!, Warmest regards Pauline
Hey Pauline, thanks for your posts. We are asking that people use pure wool as this is more fire retardant and durable so will keep the little ones warmer for longer! However, you may have noticed that we have already reached our target of 80,000 squares and are now putting the call out for support in sewing the squares we have into full blankets.
We are also calling out for ideas on what we could do next – as knitting seems to be such a popular hobby for so many supporters! So if you have any wonderful ideas on what we could do next, that would be wonderful.
What are the contact details for drop-off points in Adelaide ?
This link has all of the Save the Children office locations within Australia
http://www.savethechildren.org.au/about-us/contact-us/our-offices
Warm Wishes