Felting your old knitted woollen garments will make a great wool blanket

For those those of you that don't knit, felting your old woolly clothes and making squares from them is a great substitute to make a wool blanket. What is felting?

We found three old jumpers (sweaters) and a very old woollen blanket in our local charity shop and made enough squares for a 40 square blanket.

If you chose to make a blanket for yourself, you could send the leftover squares to help make a wool blanket for a child or baby in Africa.

The advantage of these squares is that they are wool and so they will be extra warm. Please consider this before throwing away the scraps.

Click here for knitting and posting instructions.

Here are the felting instructions:

1. Put the garments in a very hot wash – 60 degrees celsius (140 degrees fahrenheit) with a good scoop of washing powder

2. After the wash, check the felting process. The garments should feel matted and you should not be able to see any holes through the fabric, as you usually can when holding a knitted garment up to the light. The final test is that the fabric will not fray when you cut it. Rewash if this process is not complete.

3. Place the garments in a dryer, if you have one to continue to assist the process

4. Cut a template out of a magazine (8 x 8" square or 20 x 20 cms)

5. When the garments are dry, place the template on the front of the garment nearest one of the seams and cut out a square

6. Keep placing the template as close to each cut-out square to maximise the number of squares you can cut out of each garment.

Note: because the fabric is felted, you can cut out in any direction, over seams and different patterns and include the ribbing and neckline.

Joining: we sent the squares for the blanket pictured here to South Africa and are waiting for the craft women from the Soweto Comfort Club to let us know how they accomplished joining the squares. To find out the results please subscribe to the Square Circle ezine.

If you have experience of joining felt squares, please let us know by filling in this form and we will publish your ideas in the next Square Circle ezine. Thank you.

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.

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.