About the Blanket Box

The knitting group said, " how do we reproduce what we have here? " In the early days of our group we had decided that eight people was the right size, partly because we meet round my kitchen table, and partly because that seemed a good way to make sure that the quietest voice is still heard.

Soon we had overflowed and group members were being asked to take knitting into the community so, how to do it? Our great elder-stateswoman "J" had made a beautiful blanket for us to sell around this time and it occurred to me that blanket squares were an ideal model around which to build this scheme.

New knitters get overwhelmed at the thought of large projects and need to learn skills to gain confidence. The more experienced knitters that a group needs would be frustrated and need challenge.

The idea of a group project overcomes the inevitable problem of new knitters coming with unsuitable yarn, patterns or equipment and is designed to encourage independent knitting. Dear "B" told me about UnLtd, and, amazingly we were given enough money to make up 10 boxes and train knitters as group facilitators. Each box contains 30 ball of pure new wool in natural shades, 8 sets of needles, 8 row counters and a fantastic book called "Knit Your Own Afghan " The book shows a range of knitting skills well and 63 different squares to make, all worked out to end up the same size, so that every skill level can be attempted and the resulting squares can make a blanket.

We are also building a set of instruction sheets to help new knitters. (This has nothing to do with the country of that name, but refers to the generic name given by American knitters to the knitted blanket.)

Part of the funding is for 10 knitters to take a day's training, this will be provided by a local counselling college and will help us to make the groups work without anyone leading. The Box can also go unsupported to any group or organization, such as an O.T. department.

We have two ways of funding this scheme.

The box can be bought outright, or a deposit paid, returnable at the end of an agreed time minus the cost of yarn used. This can be covered by the knitters who attend the group as subs, or bought outright for an individual project, say a cushion cover.

We hope to develop the scheme to include the Hat Box, the Sock Box, etc. To find out more about the Blanket Box and how you or your group can be involved email me at mamaruth@hotmail.co,uk

Or ring 01392 411700.