The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada has gratefully agreed to accept any donations of baby blankets made by the Canadian branch of the Oddball Baby Blanket KAL - KnittingHelp.com.
The hospital has certain requirements for these blankets. They must be 3 foot long (36 inches) by 3 foot wide (130 stitches) and must not be either yellow or green. They must be knit with acrylic yarn. The journals that go with the blankets, that tell the child or child`s family the journey the blanket has made to get to them, must not have any reference to religion or any get well wishes.
The hospital has good reason for all these special requests. The requested length and width of the blankets is because they use the blankets to cover the isolettes during the daytime so the babies can sleep better, and this is the size they need for total coverage of the isolette. They also wrap the child in the blankets for cuddle time. They have found that yellow and green clothing or blankets make a sick child look much more ill. They deal with many types of people so they dont want religion mentioned in case it goes against the familys beliefs. They dont want get well wishes in the journal because some of these children will never get well so they dont want hopes elevated unnecessarily.
Ill start the journal and the blanket. Ill CO and knit 6 inches and then mail the blanket to the next knitter, who will add their six inches, and so on and so on, until there are 30 inches knit. Each knitter will have two weeks to complete their part of the blanket. The blanket will then come back to me and I will knit the last six inches (in the same yarn the blanket started with), bind it off, wash it and package it for delivery to the hospital along with the journal for each blanket.
If you are a Canadian knitter and are interesting in participating in this project, please PM me or leave me a message here and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Let`s show Toronto, Canada and The Hospital for Sick Children just how much Canadian knitters care about their younger generation!
cloud9
P.S. So far we have three members. I am hoping to see that number grow. There are a lot of sick babies in that hospital. It would be nice to give each one a blanket!
I’m not Canadian, but I think it’s neat that you’ve started this! 
My part of [B]Powder Puff [/B]is finished and will be shipped to the next knitter tomorrow.
Yahoo! That next knitter is ME. I can’t wait.
I’m in too after Knitgal. Come on Canadians, show your heart and help us with this project.
I`ll send you the tracking number tomorrow when I get back from the post office knitgal. Thanks for becoming a member!
Thanks Sue, you`ll get the blanket when knitgal is finished her knitting on it, so be on the lookout in a few weeks. Thanks for becoming a member.
Come on Canadian knitters! Let`s get busy and get those babies blankets to snuggle up with!
Christine,
You need a button for your signature – to promote this KAL. I’ll add a link to it on my blog later.
Calling all Canadians. Where are you?
Maybe y’all could try posting a note in the General forum.
Powder Puff is on the move!!! Knitgal, the tracking number is 0435 4810 0022 8663. For this one time only I sent it Express Post which means you will get it tomorrow. I wanted to get our project on the move because we area all so very excited about it.
I went to the store today and got another set of US 9’s and a lovely ball of soft worsted weight yarn. The colours in it are brown and beige and pink. I think this will be a good start for Flower Garden, which will be the next blanket we knit.
Come on Canadian knitters, lets see your hearts!!!
P.S. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of our first blanket before it left my hands. Perhaps we can persuade Ms Knitgal to do that before she starts knitting on it!!! Please…
Hi!
Count me in. Saw the thread about this in the general forums and thought it sounded like a good idea. I’ve already PM Christine and know the general requirements for the blankets but I have a couple of questions.
How much yarn does it take to knit the 6 inches? I want to make sure that I have enough of the yarn on hand when it’s my turn.
Is there a specific type of yarn I should use? Other then acrylic worsted-weight that is. Is Bernat Super Value alright? Can someone recommend something softer?
TIA
Yahoo another member!!!
I found it didnt even take a quarter of a skein. You could always store that part which you dont use for future Canadian KAL blankets.
Red Heart Soft, Caron Simply Soft, Bernat Super Value are all good choices. So long as the yarn is worsted weight, and soft, and NOT yellow or green you will be fine.
Welcome to our group and thanks again for joining us!
Now this is more like it. Canadians are showing their hearts!
Another new member has joined our KAL. Welcome MommaG! I hope you enjoy working on this project. Thanks once again for joining us in this worthwhile venture.
I am so pleased to see some more Canadians joining us.
Me too Sue! I knew that more people would join us once they knew about it. Now what’s our membership like?
We are six strong right now. We are all the way across from Ontario to the west. The journals will have interesting stories to tell the children and their families. This is wonderful! The only thing that would be more wonderful is having a couple of blankets on the go at once.
Come on Canadians, show us your hearts!!!
Can’t wait for it to get to me. I know first hand how much good hospital like Sick Kids do. My son spent some time at Mac this past year. Maybe we could do some for them too in the future.
:knitting:
Welcome to our group. Thanks so much for joining.
That sounds like a good idea. First we have to finish the first blanket and see how that turns out. We’ll branch out once we have a few more members.
Once again, welcome, and I will let you know when it’s your turn.
Should it do it’s Ontario tour before it makes it to the West?
