Sunday, October 05, 2008

Botswana, The Next Round of Knitting

I saw Dr. G this week, and he is recently returned from Botswana. He told me that our gifts were a tremendous hit with the volunteers and children.

There were so many beautiful things, that the staff divided them up. Larger items went to the orphanage near the hospital. As I think I mentioned before, 85% of those children are AIDS orphans (meaning their primary caregiver(s) have succumbed to AIDS), but only 15% of the children are actually HIV positive. All of the baby items went to the pediatric ICU at the hospital. Dr. G said over and over that our gifts were so deeply appreciated, and that the care you put into making them means so much to the recipients – much more than a donation check ever could.

So let’s do it again! Weather is getting warmer in Botswana right now, so I suggest we aim for sending knitted items as our spring approaches. Here’s the essential info:

What to knit: All items are needed, and I’m waiting for an update on any specific requests.

Fibers: Think WARM, so wool is better than cotton. Think DURABLE, as most items will be washed by hand in a tub, and hung to dry on a wire fence or similar.

Colors: Any and all colors, especially bright colors.

Our deadline is March 13th. Email me for information about sending in your donations.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am totally psyched! Christmas knitting will be occupying most of my time for a couple of months but I already have the (wool) yarn ready to go for some Botswana items and may start one soon just to have something to switch to now and then ... thanks for the feedback; so happy to hear that the handknits are being enjoyed!!

Knittah said...

Hurray for Kathy!

Anonymous said...

YAYZ, more botswana knitting!

must...go...buy...yarn...

Unknown said...

I went searching for superwash wool, and found this great deal -- $1.99 for 50g of 92% wool. I don't know the brand so I can't vouch for it, but I'm going to order some.
http://www.discontinuedbrandnameyarn.com/pages/3028/Mill_Ends.htm

Turtleknits