KasSnippets - August 2014
REPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
KIDO'S CUTE KIDS REPRESENT KAS!
A few months back we decided we needed to take some updated photos for the purpose of marketing Knit-A-Square. As we are mindful of not to be seen to exploit these orphaned and vulnerable children while promoting the purpose of KAS, we approached Julia at Kido’s and asked her whether she could obtain written and signed permission from the guardian/s of some of the children who attend her Day Care, for us to photograph them for our marketing purposes.
They were only too happy to assist, so in due course Wendy and Wandi set off for the photo shoot/distribution.
One little girl could not work out why Wendy was taking a photo of the back of the blankets and she could not resist a peek!
To read the full Report, also discussion comments :
Other recent reports : Getting Organised on the Ground
KNIT-A-SQUARE SHOP
Ronda mentioned in a recent Report from South Africa that they had totally run out of reams of paper to distribute to the creches and day centres, so we thought it was a good time to promote this valuable and well received item!
Give the kids the chance to share their creativity by providing paper to draw and write with.
KAS REACHES GREAT HEIGHTS FOR CHILDREN
A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD !
This challenge is going to take us around the planet whilst reaching great heights & piles of squares - 178,000 to be precise, in order to reach the top of Table Mountain, Cape Town in South Africa!
We are going to need 50 squares for every foot climbed!
We haven't quite reached the half-way mark, but are not far off with the current total being 80,670 squares!
Mostly this past month we have whizzed back and forth from the USA to the Orient, with a stop-over by the Mediterranean Sea to reach the top of the Rock of Gibraltar!
Here is our 137th target - Shanghai World Financial Centre
China
Thanks to help from Aline in Switzerland we have been able to fill in some gaps and added several new targets this month!
Here is the link to KAS Reaches Great Heights for Children
Andrea Palmatier's KasBlog
Behold the Evolution
It was February 2009 when I received the email from Lion Brand Yarns introducing me to the world of Knit-a-square. Can you believe I actually emailed Sandy to ask if they’d accept crocheted squares? I had no idea what an impact my small amount of 8″ squares could make, nor the impact KAS would have on me.
To read more of this lovely blog click on KasBlog
WHAT'S GOING ON IN
SOUTH AFRICA?
SORTED IN SOUTH AFRICA
- THE OFFICE
IEMAS
From Ronda : Yesterday (1st August) we received a HUGE pile of (store-bought) blankets along with squares and woollen blankets from IEMAS – a company far south of Johannesburg, who started contributing last year – for their Mandela Day effort !
Wonderfully generous – we have already found a suitable “home” for the adult sized, commercially made blankets – a very happy Pastor who works in Diepsloot among the poorest of the poor and is coming (also) on Monday to collect.
It’s wonderful the way it all comes together !!!!
To view more office photos and arrivals of goodies please go to
67 BLANKETS FOR NELSON MANDELA
lead by Carolyn Steyn
This wonderful project has really got the Rainbow Nation using their needles or crochet hooks and skills to produce at least
4,000+ blankets !
which are being distributed to children, needy families and the elderly. Because of the enthusiasm, many people who contributed to the project are continuing and creating more blankets for 2015. Many groups have been formed and it is wonderful to see the team-working developing from all the races, cultures and sexes in South Africa.
Above are the photos of the Grahamstown distribution - 45 blankets. Thank you, the Grahamstown Youth Committee of the Presidents Award for Youth Empowerment, for identifying needy recipients and carrying out the distribution.
Knit-a-Square will keep adding to the discussion page, and, report here from time-to-time on the progress or developments. We send our congratulations to Carolyn Steyn and the incredibly hard working and vibrant support team for making this such a successful and purposeful campaign!
To see more of the blankets and distributions that have been taking place please go to the : 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela
discussion page.
REPORT FROM MAMA N'TOMBI COMMUNITY PROJECTS
To read more on this and other associate groups please go to
KAS FACEBOOK PAGE ON THE FORUM
The JBay Recycling Project for Children & Stitch Witch News
These two friends worked together and collected enough in 4 weeks to 'buy' 2 pre-loved bicycles!
The Stitch Witch Group at Jeffries Bay, branched out : 7 of their blankets were handed out to a "family" of homeless teenagers and adults on Saturday 10th August.
To see more of the photos from the various Monday sessions please click on
JBay Recycling Project for Children
Cedarwood School Vision - To be the best that you can be!
Ronda reports that Cedarwood School has been the most supportive and prolific school knitting project in South Africa. For four years now the whole school community has been involved.
Link to mini-report and photographs
SPREADING THE WORD,
MEMBERS & GROUP NEWS!
Spreading the Word in the Midrand district of Johannesburg
We are trying to get to chat to businesses in South Africa and get them involved in various ways with KAS. Ultimately, we would love to get funding from them obviously, but will start by hooking them first and developing the relationships so that as soon as all our necessary legal paperwork comes through we are ready to receive their funds.
I was recently asked to do a presentation to 4 businesses in the Midrand area. Ronda and I packed all our show and tell goodies and headed there one Friday afternoon to join them for an afternoon event they had arranged.
They had challenged their staff to bring in various items to donate to KAS. Very many of the items were not what we would traditionally collect and there was a lot of second hand clothing, but it all worked out well because Ronda had received a request for second hand clothing and food for an organisation called Cradle of Hope who were trying to assist families that had lost everything in a shack fire.
To read the feature in full Please click here
THE AUSTRALIAN SHEEP & WOOL SHOW
FULL REPORT !
18th, 19th and 20th July 2014
lead by Erica Smith
Late last year, hopeful but only cautiously optimistic, I got in contact with the organizers of the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, one of the largest of its kind in the world and held in Bendigo, Australia once a year. After a few email conversations, I was delighted to find that, not only was the Australian Woolcraft group happy to have us attend the show, but they would actually provide us with some space in the community section of the show to share the KAS story and invite people to knit squares.
The big event finally happened recently, and as you might have guessed from the number of new Australians who joined the forum a few weeks ago, it was a huge success!
For me the whole thing started on the Thursday afternoon, day zero. We had some time to set up our display, and to meet the others in our pavilion. It was freezing cold, but I was excited anyway.
FUND RAISING ACTIVITIES
TEA PARTIES - UK
Pam and Elaine, the Knit for Life team, held another fundraising Tea Party and ran a "Bring & Buy" table which helped swell the coffers! The ladies (and one gentleman) helped top & tail squares to finish them to save the teams in South Africa valuable time. Also they counted and created 70 square packs ready for shipping!
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was good to meet Jill (Twinge) and friends who came up from Tewkesbury to assist!
Gumnuts Group - Australia
With cost of postage being a regular discussion point wanted to let members know that the Gumnuts continue their strong fundraising efforts to be able to send around 300 squares a month. Yesterday we held a soup kitchen and made over $500. We also buy single serve cookies that we leave in kitchens around work which can make an additional $50 a month for us.
GROUP FOCUS
by Anne Powell
Hats off this month to a very active group of knitters from Rolling Hills Community Church in Texas. Forum member Marietta Fuess started this group in 2010. When I contacted her, she very kindly sent me the following article which she had written for their local paper :
I saw a small reference to the Knit a Square project on Facebook in the spring of 2010. I had belonged to a prayer shawl group at a previous church, but that did not seem like the right mission project for our small church in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin, TX. So I researched the KAS project, reserved a meeting room at our church, and started advertising the first meeting.
The Rolling Hills Knit Wits started in June, 2010, with 10 women at the first meeting. The group has been growing ever since (30+ now). We gathered yarn scraps, taught the beginners to knit and crochet, and learned how to ship yarn squares, hats, sweaters, baby cuddles, and scarves to South Africa. We were thrilled to find this way to use our skills with yarn to help the orphans.
Along the way we connected with two former South African Peace Corps workers, Megan Owen and Keri Dodge, who told us about the weekly funerals, the living conditions, the hopeless situations of nearly 2,000,000 children in South Africa.
They told us how much the Knit a Square blankets mean to the children who receive them. We meet every Monday morning and spend an hour making squares and building friendships. Many squares come to us from friends, cousins, snowbirds, other knitting projects. We have 8 octogenarians in our group.
On March 31, 2014, we mailed our 10,000th square to South Africa. We have been so richly rewarded by this mission project.
We pack the squares into long Tyvek bags as tight as we can and we pray a blessing over each package before we mail it that says in part: "May the one who receives these squares be cradled in hope, kept in joy, graced with peace, and wrapped in love."
We are grateful to the RHCC Outreach Committee for their major contribution towards our postage expenses. We are very happy to be sending our lovingly made squares to South Africa for the children. We are blessed beyond measure by participating in the Knit a Square project here at RHCC.
Thank you Marietta! KAS is blessed to have you and your group
THE BLANKET ROOM COLLECTION !
Christine Johnson has kindly taken on the regular task of posting the blankets into the discussion, and, this month has added an enormous quantity to the collection, please do check them out as quite a few members have recognised their squares, now inserted into blankets!
KAS MONTHLY CHALLENGES
THE BEAUTY OF THE BLUES
lead by Susan Haines (USA)
The blues have been very 'happy blues' this month and there have been some wonderful stitching designs and vibrant squares! Members have certainly taken up Susan's suggestions of blue skies, blue eyes, blue flowers and a whole lot more!!
Here is a selection of the recent single colour squares - which are the backbone of KAS blankets and provide a wonderful frame for the above more exotic squares:
Here is the list for the rest of the year!
OCTOBER – FAVOURITES – favourite yarn, patterns etc - Gloria Grandy
NOVEMBER - BUGS, SLUGS & HUGS - Linda Maltby
DECEMBER - UN-CHALLENGE - time to relax, have fun, and get ready for the holidays - Susan Haines
TALLY or ITEM COUNT NEWS
The Square Lists for July are now available!
Squares received in July totalled 17,615 (530 blankets) !
The graphs for beanies and tops are available at
2014 Monthly Squares List discussion page
Good news for hat makers ! The supply of hats is down to a manageable size, but our mantra still needs to become "one hat per blanket". Ronda, we will try to keep the flow to a trickle rather than a deluge.
360 pairs of Hand-Warmers were received in July.
The children are thrilled to have warm hands while they are playing or working in school.
From January to July 2014, almost 100,000 squares have been received. [94,022 squares] This translates to 2,686 blankets.
SEPTEMBER PATTERN OF THE MONTH
by Linda Maltby
Wendy’s Slip-Over- a knit garment pattern
by Wendy Hinson (Australia)
This lovely slip-over will keep the child’s body warm during cold South African days.
If possible, Ronda would appreciate the addition of a long-sleeved tee shirt to keep the arms warm.
[The children don’t necessarily have a long sleeved
garment to wear under the vest.]
This version was made with wonderful fluffy yarn.
It makes a beautiful, soft, cozy vest but must have been
difficult to knit !
is one of the many patterns to be found in the
If you see another pattern in the book you would like to try, please do!
SQUARE HEART OF THE MONTH AWARD
The Square Heart Award for August 2014 is for
Lorinda - South Africa
Lorinda joined the Forum in August of 2012. She discovered KAS on the web whilst working with projects through her church outreach - aimed at reaching out to orphaned and vulnerable children in the Sabie area. She said she would love to have some KAS items to distribute on our behalf.
To read the rest of the award please click here
KAS FACEBOOK PAGE
THE GREAT KAS CONTEST RESULT (KonTest??)
created & lead by Anne Powell
From June 12 to July 28 we had a 'Kontest' running on the forum. The object was to guess how many squares I could make in that time from the contents of my stashbasket.
Check out her discussion at The Great KAS Contest (KonTest??)
Two prizes were offered - First Prize - a $25 shopping spree in the KAS Shop for guessing correctly how many squares I could make. Second prize - $10 to spend in the shop for anyone making more squares than I did in the same time frame.
Wendy Hinson won both prizes - she guessed correctly that I would make 35 squares and she managed to make 63 squares herself in the same time frame. Wendy chose to spend her winnings on Fuel for the KAS Van ($30) and Support for a Gogo ($5)
There were even other benefits for the Shop - Sharon B. guessed 22 squares and offered to sponsor me $1/square for anything over that. Sharon purchased a Month of Communications ($15)
Our other Sharon (sorry - I don't have her last name) pledged $1 for every square I could make and has made a donation of $35.
This was a contest where everyone wins - KAS, the kids, the members who joined in the fun and my depleted scrap basket!
It also proved how tight-lipped I can be no matter how hard Gloria tried to trick me into giving hints about my progress!
Thank you to everyone who participated
FINAL THOUGHTS
"Crochet or knitting keeps our hands busy so our minds can rest.
It is a gift to help quiet the world around us, if even for a moment.
To create -- and think of those we create for --is a quiet prayer of hope, love and dreams all wrapped up in a hook, a book and a ball of yarn." ANON
Replies
Thank you for all the updates, which we love reading.
Brilliant newsletter:) The time and effort you take is very much appreciated:)
Great report, as always, Pam.
All the bits and pieces that we all do, from the knitters and crocheters to the sorters and sew-ers to the paperwork people. It all adds up, a little at a time. Three cheers to everyone! *\0/* *\0/* *\0/*
WOW!!! What an amazing report Pam! What great stories and information; thank you SO much for the time you take to put this all together for us!
I'm just back from my very lovely month with mum-in-law, where I was computerless. What nicer way to be welcomed back than through KAS snippets. It really felt like coming home! I also had the added surpise of 2 parcels of wool and squares waiting for me. I had a lot of fun opening them.
What a difference a year makes. How fantastic to have all this development with more and more help in South Africa with the driving force of Ronda the Wonderful and her great team.
Thank you for another rich KasSnippets Pam.
Just lovely Pam full of exciting news. My how KAS has grown !
I get so excited when I get the email saying this newsletter is in my inbox! I make sure I have ten minutes to sit and read it quietly so I can fully enjoy all the news. It gives me inspiration to knit more. Love it x
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