Land’s End Knitting Charity….

September 21, 2009 by Terrye

Lands’ End Invites Customers To Knit A Charity Hat For Chilly Sailors

Lands’ End is calling on customers to grab their knitting needles, cast-on and help sailors cast-off in a cosy new hat.

Sep 17, 2009 – The home shopping clothing specialist has teamed up with the Sailors’ Society and is aiming to provide hundreds of knitted hats for the merchant seafarer charity’s Woolly Hat Campaign 2010.

The retailer has put together a free ‘knit-a-hat’ kit; providing customers with everything they need to create wonderful woolly hats. The new hats will warm the cockles of merchant sailors’ hearts – as well as their heads – as they battle the elements to ship our consumer goods around the world.

The kit contains Lands’ End’s exciting new feelgood yarn – a specially sourced blend that knits into wonderfully warm and cosy clothing. Enough of the feelgood yarn has been put aside to enable the business and its loyal customers to hit their target of 1,500 hats to be distributed to sailors during Woolly Hat Week – February 7-13th 2010.

Lands’ End UK Managing Director Tim Curtis said: “We’re proud to pledge our support to the Sailors’ Society as it works to enrich the quality of seafarers’ lives in the UK and around the world and we’re sure our customers have all the necessary skills to get knitting and make a difference.

“Sailors and sailing is close to our hearts at Lands’ End – our US founder Gary Comer was a world-class sailor and our business grew out of its roots as a yachting equipment retailer into the global clothing brand it is today.”

Jan Webber, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at the Sailors’ Society, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Lands’ End. Many people forget that without the seafarer, everyday essentials that we take for granted would not reach our shores. These people often spend many months at sea in harsh conditions, sometimes not even speaking the same language as their colleagues.

“A simple act of gratitude can mean the world to someone far from home and family; by knitting a woolly hat you are spreading the work of the Sailors’ Society and directly benefiting the seafarer at the same time.”

For more details, contact Rachel in the Lands’ End Press Office on 0870 600 3870

www.sailors-society.org or visit www.landsend.co.uk/feelgood

Comments

Turtle says
September 21, 2009 at 5:58 pm
bummer, the link discontinued. i would have loved to participate. hubby was in the navy 15 years, would love to give back this way.
June says
September 22, 2009 at 5:35 am
if you copy the link http://www.landsend.co.uk/feelgood it works. The one in the article is not working for some reason.
DR says
October 5, 2009 at 1:30 pm
if you copy the link http://www.landsend.co.uk/feelgood it works. The one in the article is not working for some reason.

Have you read?

Knit Little Fish to Use Your Yarn Scraps

I rarely understand why something becomes a trend in crafting. Gnomes and geese are both cute I guess, but I never thought we’d be making them for all seasons. (See, for example, this collection of gnome knitting patterns, or these knit geese.)

Another one I don’t totally understand is sardines or little fish more generally. Sure, they’re cute, and the shape is fun, but I had no idea when I was sharing this pattern for a fish-shaped pouch last year that it would become a hugely popular pattern that people are still searching for on the site. It is pretty cute, though, so if you weren’t around then or don’t remember you should got check it out.

Recently another fishy knitting pattern crossed my monitor: the little knit fish from Classical Songbird Designs.

Just as the name suggests, these fish are little, about 4.5 inches or 11 cm from end to end. They look like little sardines and take about 12 yards of sock yarn to make.

You can even make a two-tone fish and use just 6 yards of each color.

This sounds to me like just about the perfect use for the yarn that’s left over after knitting a pair of socks, or a mini skein or several that have been sitting around unused in your stash.

The fish are knit flat in one piece, which makes it easy to stitch on the eyes with more yarn or embroidery floss before stuffing, and you can stitch up the sides while you stuff (though it’s not a very big piece so you could probably stitch and then stuff, finishing with the end of the tail).

Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one wondering, I measured an Altoids box and as the pattern is written the fish are a little too big to fit in it (the box is about 4 inches/10 cm long). But you could make the fish a little smaller if you want to make a box of them. Or just make a fishy bag to put them in!

You can grab the free pattern for the little knit fish at Classical Songbird Designs.

[Photo: Classical Songbird Designs.]