The Early Days by Linda Maltby
Knit-a-Square was founded in October 2008 after a family reunion in Melbourne, Australia in June of the same year.
It is based on the grim reality of 2.4 million children orphaned, abused or abandoned in southern Africa. They live in dire poverty. They lack love, shelter, food, education and warmth.
In conversation with her niece, Sandy, during the family reunion, Ronda identified one of the many basic problems for orphans in South Africa as a chronic shortage of blankets, especially at altitude in the cold high-veld winters. The problem is common to many other poor communities in South Africa. She explained she regularly handed out blankets to cold children on the side of the road at night.
Read more about the formation of KAS and its history from this DISCUSSION in our archives.
Part 2 can be found HERE.
We have started off the last quarter of the year with a bang and 2 distribution.
Visit our newest DISTRIBUTION DISCUSSION to see all the photos and maps.
Our October Theme has produced some truly amazing squares, blocks and blankets. Many thanks to Rebecca for hosting this swimmingly successful month. See more photos by visiting the DISCUSSION.
In September, Estelle told us The Barn had completely run out of Hand-Warmers and our volunteers were making distributions without this item. Our incredible international community has come together and we have met our goal of 500 pairs before the end of October. We would still love to see your photos and add to our count until October.
Visit the discussion HERE
Our Blanket Room is always filled with lots of colors
and incredible creations.
See the latest photos HERE.
Packages and arriving weekly now and The Barn is full of color and laughter.
Visit this discussion to read about all the news and see all the photos.
News from Aunt Nellie
Hi everyone - I've stopped by today to remind you that our KAS Shop values your support!
There are some superb items available starting at low prices, which if you could spare a few dollars on, would make all the difference to our cause. Why not help the Gogos by purchasing a small basket of yarn for as little as $5 for example...........
As always covering the postal handling fee is an appreciated donation too. The mail is flowing quite smoothly at present, and this payment ensures our parcels can be forwarded when they are needed regularly.
Thanks for your interest crafters. Take Care, Auntie Nellie xx
We reported last month of the passing our our devoted KASer Jeanne Haessler. Andrea has reported that her daughter found a box full of squares that Jeanne had made and would be sending them to South Africa.
Many members of our community would like to honor Jeanne by sending in Royal Blue or Sapphire Blue squares to be joined with Jeanne's squares for as many blankets as possible.
I've made this snowflake square for Jeanne because I remember some photos she posted a while back showing how deep the snow got where she lived. From Patricia
Please clearly mark your squares "For Jeanne's Blanket", our volunteers will be looking out for these squares in the coming months, and soon will be get to see the ends results on the Forum.
Visit this DISCUSSION for more information.
During September we recorded 129 parcels containing 6.432 squares, equal to 183 blankets.
Many other items were received, such as hats, hand-warmers, cuddly toys and other goodies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~A HEARTFELT THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS~~~~~~
Please find below the squares list as an attachment: 2022 SEPTEMBER SQUARES LIST.pdf and click on it to open it:
2022 SEPTEMBER SQUARES LIST.pdf
Here is the KasShop report for the third quarter (July, August and September).
Money raised…July: $569.70, August:$237.61, September: $186.32
To our newest member from the USA.
Mary Katherine Stillwell
Wyley
Our November Theme is
What's Your Favourite?
Do you have a favourite colour...pink or blue?
Do you have a go to pattern...granny squares or diagonals?
Do you have a favourite texture you like to use...
...ribbed stitches or bobbles?
Then this is the month for you to stay busy making squares for KAS.
Our Color of the Month is BROWN, and Bev. from Australia, will be hosting.
The three seasons of KAS Podcast
have been put into the archives.
Leanne is busy at university working towards her degree. We hope to have these wonderful podcasts and interviews up and running again in the future.
Replies
A belated thanks Amy for this colourful and interesting Snippets. I haven't been on the forum much the last couple of months. Between lots of family stuff going on (all good) and poor health (nothing serious, just very tiring) so I'm trying to catch up. My biggest problem at the moment is that I have mountains of stuff to send, and our Postal service has upped the price of parcels to Africa by 25%. This means that a 5kg parcel, which cost 66€ in June, now costs just on 89€. I will send what I can manage now. The rest will have to wait a while. I give thanks to Mireille Legros and Catherine Meyer who have been a great help in contributing not only the fruits of their knitting, but also considerable help in meeting postal costs.
Amy, thank you so very much for pulling all these pieces together and presenting them in this neat package. Your hard work on this - and all that you do on the forum - is greatly appreciated ... xo
Thanks ever so much for this newsy discussion and informatiin. I enjoy taking time to read through each section avidly, Kxx
Thanks Amy for this informative edition of KAS SNIPPETS. I missed the fabulous big underwater square I’ll have to go back and catch up on Rebecca’s theme.