Last week, some of our yarn-loving editors had the chance to attend Stitches Midwest, a show at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in beautiful Schaumbug, Ill. Between the book signings, daily door prizes, and Friday’s fashion show, there was never a dull moment. We spent all day Friday talking with designers, companies, and fiber artists about the one thing we all love more than anything: yarn.
Although there were many fascinating and inspiring trends, one thing that we couldn’t ignore was the presence of charities at the show. It’s obvious that knitters and crocheters, along with their passion for yarn, also share a passion of helping others. Check out some of the amazing charities that we spoke with at Stitches Midwest below, and scroll down to learn how you can win our awesome Swag Bag!
Project Linus: The goal of this non-profit organization is to provide love, and a sense of security, warmth, and comfort to children in need. They do this through the gifts of new, homemade blankets and afghans. Project Linus was established in 1995 and was named after the Peanuts comic strip character Linus, who always held his security blanket close. To date, Project Linus has 405 chapters across the United States and have donated more than 3,005,973 blankets to children in crisis. In July, our friends at AllFreeCrochetAfghanPatterns contributed to the cause through their Charity Blanket Drive. At Stitches Midwest, Project Linus was hard at work making blankets to benefit the Good Grief Camp for the children of our fallen heroes.
Stitch Red: This national campaign was created to raise awareness about heart disease. Supported by the Needlearts industry, Stitch Red products are created and sold by industry-wide manufacturers and designers to benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in support of The Heart Truth®. Various yarn stores show their support by carrying Stitch Red products and hosting Stitch Red events to help raise awareness. Recently, Jimmy Beans Wool and Vogue Knitting published Knit Red, a wonderful book featuring 30 gorgeous knitting patterns, personal stories about heart disease, as well as tips, resources, and recipes for leading a heart-healthy life.
Halos of Hope: Their simple mission is to give comfort to those living through the excruciating side effects of chemotherapy. Volunteers work hard for this non-profit organization to create soft, handmade caps that provide comfort, dignity, and warmth to those that experience the most apparent effect of chemo, hair loss.
A Parade of Elephants: This was a wonderful silent auction hosted by eight-year-old knitter Cee Cee Creech and Drew Emborsky (a.k.a. The Crochet Dude™). The money raised was given to Cee Cee’s favorite charity, Homes of Hope Joplin, an organization which builds homes for those who lost theirs in the tornadoes of 2011.
This is just a brief overview of the wonderful charity organizations that we met at Stitches. There are literally more than one million worthy charity organizations in the US alone.
Check out our some other charities that we work with at AllFreeKnitting and AllFreeCrochet and find out how you can make a difference.
Swag Bag Giveaway!
You didn’t think we’d go to Stitches Midwest 2012 and not bring back something for all of our lovely readers did you? We collected all the swag we could into a large Stitches Swag Bag Giveaway! We picked up some awesome prizes from Lion Brand, Red Heart Yarn, Tootsie P Yarn, and much more! So don’t hesitate; enter today by answering the question below in the comments section.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest open to US and Canada residents 18+
- One comment/entry per person per blog post.
- Contest closes Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 11:59p CST.
- Please comment on any of the Stitches Midwest 2012 blog posts to enter.
- Winners will be posted on StitchandUnwind.com and notified by email.
Have you ever crocheted anything for charity before? Leave a comment below and let us know!
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