As most of you know my oldest son Austin is at the Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati Ohio. The Shriners have several hospitals throughout North America for burn care & orthopaedic care. All care provided to children is free as well as housing for the family while the child is hospitalized. I think it would be a great way for us to say thank you to these wonderful folks by knitting some blankets & other items for the kiddos who are in the hospitals. I for one have a boatload of Caron SS yarn which is nice & soft but durable too. I have talked to the nurses here & as long as the yarn is able to withstand being washed in hot water any yarn will do. You can visit www.shrinershq.org to find a local chapter near you to donate them to or to find addresses to all the hospitals & send to the one of your choice. I am not affiliated with the Shriners in any way other than being extremely thankful for the wonderful care they are providing my son.Some of the items they can use are: blankets - they have patients from infant to 18 years old so any size will do, they hadn’t thought of this but said they would be great - caps for the kids who have had their heads shaved to use skin from the scalp as donor for burned areas - this I believe would be especially distressing for little girls, kids in the Acute Unit cannot have handmade toys but those in rehab & outpatient can have them - teddy bears are especially loved by the younger kids. These items do not have to be knitted they can be crochet & for the blankets quilted too. If anyone is interested in participating let me know here or PM Auburnchick or me. Thank you in advance to anyone who participates.
The shriners are WONDERFUL people! My son has been to the Shriners in Shreveport Lousiana. Lane was pigeon toed and bo-legged so he was sent there to see if it would correct itself as he got older or if he needed intervention.
I will look into my shriners and see what items they might need. Thank you for the wonderful suggestion!
~danielle~
Thanks for posting the guidelines for us!
I’m sure that several of us will be contacting Shriners Hospitals in our area to give them our hand-knitted items.
here’s the link…
http://www.shrinershq.org/shrine/
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a one-of-a-kind international health care system of 22 hospitals, dedicated to providing pediatric orthopaedic specialty care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs.
Children up to age 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment at no charge—regardless of financial need.
If you know of a child Shriners Hospitals might be able to help, please call our toll-free patient referral line:
In the U.S.: 1-800-237-5055.
In Canada: 1-800-361-7256.
How you can help Shriners Hospitals for Children
Rabbit can we send items to you to so you can give them to your hospital?
yes- anyone is welcome to send things to me & I will happily pass them on. 
I am all for this idea. BUT here is my thought. we do Odd Ball Blankets but with a twist. Knitted squares. The squares will still have a theme. By doing a blanket from squares we can make bigger blankets for the older children and teens. If each blanket has 36 8 inch squares the blankets will be 42 inches square. This is a nice size blanket for an older child or a teen.
If this is a good idea I am very willing to help organize this and get it going.
I am happy to have the help! Thanks!! I don’t have much of my stash here with me but I’m working on getting some of my massive Caron supply sent up to me. I’m sure I can get lots of squares done while we’re up here - I might even get some out of Ben. Did you want to do squares for the younger kids too? 
Mitichie, Please pm me and let me know what an oddblanket or knitting square is…and how to go about this…It will take me to long to do a normal blanket, but if I can do a square and that goes into a blanket for Austin that will make me so happy and proud to be a part of that…Grandma
Rabbit we can most definately do a squares oddball for the littler kids. Let me sit down and do some thinking(yeah I know don’t hurt my self) and come up with some sizes and all.
Maria Pm’ed ya.
I have been playing around with numbers and sizes. I’ve come up with 4 sizes.
Baby: 9-8inch squares = 24 inch square blanket
Toddler/small child: 16-8inch squares = 32 inch square blanket
Child: 25-8inch squares = 40 inch square blanket
Bigger Child/Teen: 36-8inch squares = 48 inch square blanket
This is just a rough idea and can be changed but it gives you a good idea of what we are looking at for sizes.
Mitchie, I got the yarn for Austin square and will get stated on that tonight…It is sage green so I hope he will like it… Grandma. 
:knitting:
Rabbit I made a hat for you to give to your hospital.It’s made out of 100% cotton so they can wash it and dry it. I will be making more, so when I get a few more made I will mail them off to you.:cheering:
Hope your family is doing well
Adorable hat! 
WOW!!
What a cute hat!
Momwolf, that’s one cute hat. 
I think I wrote in a thread here at KH that my son was seen at the Shriner’s in Salt Lake City. It is an amazing place, and I’m more than willing to have anything I knit or crochet go to one.