Upcoming: Knitting for Tanzanian Children

Recently, we found out about Hearts in Unity (http://www.heartsinunity.org/), a charity that feeds, clothes, and educates children in Tanzania, Africa. One of our knitters will be visiting Tanzania this August and can deliver any items that we craft/collect for the children. What a fantastic opportunity to help children in a different country and continent, half a world away! (And no need to pay expensive shipping fees or risk our packages being lost in the mail!)

There's a wide variety of ways that we can help, such as donating school supplies (e.g. pencils and rulers) and health care items (e.g. toothbrushes). iKnit will be focusing mostly on clothing the children in Tanzania by knitting & crocheting items such as hats and sweaters (a new challenge for most of us!), as well as donating sewing and knitting supplies (such as fabric, yarn and buttons).

We welcome  you to join us in our new project! Since schools are off for summer break, most of us will have a lot more free time to learn new patterns and knit & crochet to our hearts' content! (:

We'll be posting up more information and updates soon. If you have any questions or concerns, though, don't hesitate to leave a comment or email us at iknitmsj@gmail.com!

A Heartwarming Thanks

About a month ago, we donated quite a few scarves and other handmade items to Abode Services' Sunrise Shelter program. Soon after, studying for various standardized tests began to overwhelm us, and with the end of school nearing, we - unfortunately - have not had as much time as usual to knit and crochet.

Thank you to the Children's Program at Abode Services for making us this beautiful card!

Today, we were reminded of why we spend our time to craft things for charity. Thank you for this heartwarming card! We are so happy to know that our efforts benefit others in our community.

Visit to Sunrise

On April 11, we paid a visit to Sunrise Shelter and donated the 27 or so items - including caps, scarves, handwarmers, and even a sweater - that we have crafted so far.


Thank you to everyone who has helped knit and crochet so far! It's been quite rainy and chilly for the past few days, so the handmade items will definitely help those at Sunrise Shelter.

At the moment, we are continuing with Stitches for Sunrise - but there's a possibly that we may begin a new project for Knit-A-Square. We'll keep you updated!



March Updates!

Greetings! We have almost reached our first goal marker! Currently we have 25 completed items for donation. Keep up the great work everyone! Here are some of our recently completed hats, scarves, cowls, handwarmers, and more:

Exciting News! iKnit will hold Quad Connection at MSJH's Bell Tower Quad! We're calling all MSJ knitters and crocheters to gather around and just sit and knit/crochet during lunch time on Tuesday, 4/3. Our goal is to raise awareness of our group's efforts and encourage more students to join in. This event will be followed up by a club meeting later in the week prior to Spring Break. 

Please join us! :)

Stitches for Sunrise

Due to the success of our first charity project for St. Anthony's (thanks to everyone who helped!), we are going to continue with our charity knitting & crocheting group! Our next project is Stitches for Sunrise! The items will be donated to Sunrise Village, Abode Services' unique shelter, which provides housing and vital services to homeless adults and families. 

Here are some basic questions and answers regarding the project:

What types of items should I make?

Please craft any knitted/crocheted item that can be immediately given to and used by the residents at Abode Services' Sunrise Village shelter, which will most likely be a clothing item.

Examples: scarves, caps, mittens, and socks

Will a small cap be accepted? How about an adult-sized cap?
The age range of Sunrise Village Shelter visitors range from infants to adults, so various sizes are acceptable.

Are there any deadlines?
Our deadline has not yet been established, but most likely in late April or early May.

Our first goal is to have 31 handcrafted items by March 31st!




We will be making a our first delivery at the end of March, but feel free to drop off any of your donations directly at Sunrise Village Shelter as you finish them!

Bring smiles and warmth to Sunrise through knitting and crocheting!

http://www.abodeservices.org/programs_sunrise.html

All Holiday Scarves Donated! Our Next Project...

On Tuesday, we donated the rest of the scarves crafted during the holiday season to the San Jose branch of CityTeam International (formerly known as CityTeam Ministries), a nonprofit group that serves the homeless and poor. It took a while for us to find a reliable organization that would give our scarves directly to those in need instead of selling the scarves, but at last, our first charity knitting & crocheting event is complete!

In early January, we presented our project to our English classes. Our project was received warmly by our peers, and they encouraged us to continue organizing charity knitting/crocheting events at our school. Although our group may not be passed as an official club until much later in the year (hopefully, before the school year ends!), we've decided to begin our next charity project!

So, what is our next project? We have a good idea of what it could be, but first, we want to hear YOUR opinion! Do you have any particular charity in mind that you'd like us to donate handmade items to? Please email your suggestions to iknitmsj@gmail.com or post on our forum!

Hello 2012!

Happy New Year everyone! It's 2012. Yay (:

Just wanted to express again how grateful we are to everyone who helped iKnit by donating materials and/or crafting scarves for St. Anthony's! In addition, on the last day of school, we received a huge donation from a local elementary school librarian, who was told about our project by a librarian at MSJHS. Thank you both! Your kindness is greatly appreciated. (: Since we'd already delivered the scarves to St. Anthony's by then, we'll be using the yarn for future charity projects instead.

By the way, iKnit is currently applying to become an official club at MSJHS! We'll keep you updated.