Celebrate a charity knitting hero

Kyla Austin, Toronto, Canada

So that's my pledge to you – a square a day.

Already well versed in charity knitting, when Kyla found knit-a-square she made this amazing pledge.

She wrote: My name's Kyla, and a family friend taught me to knit when I was about five years old. I didn't enjoy it a great deal and never really kept it up. Then two years ago I found the knitting charity 'caps to the capital', where knitted baby hats were sent all over the world to keep little newborn heads warm. Determined that I could make a couple hats, I picked up knitting again, teaching myself off the internet, sitting in front of my computer in residence.

After finding knit-a-square, I gathered up all the spare yarn that's been sitting around my apartment, and whipped up a couple squares over two days. It doesn't take me long to knit up a square, and when I realized this,
it hit me all of a sudden perhaps I can make a square a day.

 

I have a long commute to school and spare time between classes. We don't have tv but we do watch movies, so there's another few hours there. It wouldn't be that difficult to make a square a day. So that's my pledge to you – a square a day.

Kyla didn't stop there though. Soon she wrote again:

Anyway, since I am knitting in class, my professor and classmates have caught on. I emailed my professor the website address, and this was her reply:

"Kyla, Thank you for this….you know, after I asked you about it last week, I spoke to my mother this weekend who, as I mentioned has been knitting for babes/children for years and she's getting me going with all kinds of wool! Sometimes we just need another reminder of what's in front of us."

So there you go! Got another one hooked just by knitting in public. I think I could start a chain.

And indeed that is exactly what Kyla is doing:

I taught my classmate to knit yesterday. She sat down next to me and asked if I could show her, so I gave her a knitting 101 introductory lesson then just let her run with it. She was really proud of herself, saying that she could start knitting her own squares as well.

She too has a long commute to school, and she said 'there's no reason why I can't do something with that time – I mean, there's children out there in the world that unfortunately make the clothes that I buy in stores, I think I owe children a lot more than a blanket,"

Many of my classmates have asked me. "why are you knitting every day in class now?" And so many of them have asked me that I sent an email out to everybody explaining the goal and the program and including a link to the site. Now they ask me "hey which number square is this?" and "how many are you going to do?" and my favorite:

"I wish I could knit," to which I reply "I'll teach you any time you like."

Finished square 14 tonight. tomorrow is square 15. (15 March 09)

Kyla has also put up her own live journal, squareaday.livejournal.com . The journal is finding all sorts people interested in contributing, Brownie troops, students and knitters and crocheters thrilled to find a project as a 'stash buster". As Kyla said: "gotta love the grapevine over the interwebs".

 

 

 

Recently Kyla wrote to explore the idea of visiting South Africa in a year when she has completed her 365 squares, help put them together and do some volunteering. We are currently in contact about how this may work.

Kyla embodies a spirit of compassion which has moved us all greatly. I hope you find her story inspirational as we do. I look forward greatly to her updates and will keep you all in touch with her progress through the Square Circle ezine.

We hope too, very much, that she will get to meet some of the children she is working so diligently to help.

And we are grateful to her college mates and tutors who have become involved as well.

Please make sure that you join Square Circle for more stories of our heroes and their efforts to help keep the children warm.

Just a few knitting stitches everyday, anytime, anywhere

Just a few knitting stitches, that is all it takes, everyday, anytime, anywhere, and you will quickly complete an 8 x 8" square.

Knitting for charity has never been easier as these committed knitters prove. Use our free easy knitting pattern or whatever knitting stitches you love to work with. As long as your square measures 8 x 8", it will soon be in a much loved and unique baby blanket wrapped around an AIDS orphan in Africa.

The goal is 400 000 squares in 2009, many hundreds of millions of stitches.

 

The showgirls of Glamour Puss Studio, backstage during their annual tap dancing extravaganza.

This would be an impossible goal, except for all the wonderful people knitting for charity around the world.

We would love to acknowledge you all, so we challenge you to send us pictures and stories of your wonderful efforts to knit squares for these children, and we will publish the best ones in each next issue of the Square Circle ezine.

 

It's going to be an amazing collection and tell the story of all of you, who have so generously contributed to making a unique baby blanket for the abandoned children and AIDS orphans of Southern Africa.

So please knit a square anytime, anywhere and take a photograph to upload with your story in the form below.

Click here too for your super easy knitting pattern and the postal instructions to make sure your squares reach Africa safely.

And if you planning to visit South Africa , you may want to consider filling in our survey regarding an accompanied tour. Thank you all.

 

Here I am knitting anytime, anywhere . . .

Please add to our collection of fabulous photos to tell us your story of knitting anytime, anywhere – watching the tennis, backstage, onstage, in a bar, up a mountain, on a boat, camping . . . or perhaps you knit just a few stitches everyday, like a prayer or a mantra, before you go to bed.

So take a photo and upload it. You know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words! And it demonstrates your generosity too, in helping the AIDS Orphans.

Why should we be surprised to see men knitting?

 

Contrary to popular prejudice, men knitting used to be commonplace and was not exclusively a female preoccupation.

In fact, many historians back the view that it was men who created knitting and contributed significantly to its development.

 

One view is based on the theory that Arabic fisherman, skilled in knotting fishing nets, probably spread the knowledge via the Mediterranean.

It is surprising that boys are not taught how to knit. As many internet blogs and sites show, there is probably a vast population of men knitting now and re-learning the pleasures of the craft.

 

Here’s a snippet from an interesting editorial written by Amy Singer, editor of online Knitty magazine which is encouraging about the increase of men learning how to knit.

"Cool knit shops like The Point in New York have boy-only knitting nights where a knitting-newbie-man will feel no embarrassment in asking for help casting on or cabling. Not that they should be embarrassed, but every new knitter I've ever met is highly self conscious until they get the hang of things."
 

Knitting for the troops

Of great relevance to our knitting project was a piece written by Clinton W Trowbridge for the Christian Science Monitor in 1997. It tells a wonderful story of American schoolboys knitting squares to sew into blankets for British troops during World War Two.

It highlights the normality of men knitting "…at boarding school during World War II, however, everyone knitted – including the headmaster, the teachers, and the whole football team. We knitted 9-inch squares, which somebody else sewed together to make blankets and scarves for British soldiers…"

And once the boys had learned how to knit "…good many of us took up knitting seriously and made socks, sweaters, and woolen hats. We would knit in bed after lights out and, some of us, even more surreptitiously, in chapel."

Knitting for Britain as a knitting project was seen by the boys as something of an escape from more serious work, but "… no one ever thought it odd that a school of 200 boys should be busily whiling away the hours in such an activity".

 

Knit-a-Square.com knitting project

We want to get thousands of men knitting again, along with boys, girls and all the men and women knitters of the world.

Like Tom (UK) knitting squares for knit-a-square, March 2009

AIDS in Africa has decimated the adult population.

There are now 1.5 million orphans in South Africa alone with over 500 a day being added to that number.

These children are destitute and cold. Many of them are infected with HIV AIDS themselves. It often falls below freezing in sub tropical Africa.

By learning how to knit, you can knit an 8 x 8"(20 x 20cm) square to send to Africa to be made into blankets for these children. This is a simple task for a great knitting project, which takes little time and costs even less.

Please take up the challenge, like the American school children during the war, and help make these children warm. Let's get thousands of men knitting again. Follow these simple instructions to knit and post your square. And also, please subscribe to the Square Circle ezine. We look forward to bring you stories of the children with their blankets, knitting patterns and tips and techniques.