200 Items For Charity; My Big Charity Knitting and Craftivism Personal Challenge!

I went into 2019 with two loom knitting goals; Make at least one item to donate to every cause/organization I donated to in the previous year (if they were still accepting donations, of course), and push past last year's count of 176 to try for a whopping 200 items to be given away this year.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know all about my slow start, but surprisingly productive end of the year. Didn't think it was going to pan out really, but then I realized how close I had gotten to my goal by December, and the realization that this was in fact my last challenge of the decade motivated me to buckle down and basically make toys and dolls for a solid week (knowing you're doing nice things for kids really helps too) - All of this resulting in *boom* 200 by the first week of 2020! (Well, actually I ended up counting out 201 total,...So even better)

The pics in this post are everything donated this year. If you'd like to see every single item in detail, please head over to Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/kylelefortcreative/

Charities and positive initiative programs donated to this year include;

  St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Centers of Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY; https://www.buffalodiocese.org/st-gianna-molla-center

 Lockport Care Net Pregnancy Center in Lockport NY;
 https://www.facebook.com/Lockport-Care-Net-Pregnancy-Center-476881162376546/

CLICKforbabies, NCSBS HQ located in Utah, with programs across the U.S.;
https://www.clickforbabies.org/index.php

Welcome Blanket, the Fuller Craft Museum exhibit in Brockton, MA; https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

Mother Bear Project, HQ located in Minneapolis MN, most bears are sent to countries throughout Africa; http://motherbearproject.org/

Knit and Crochet for Charity, Warren Michigan; http://www.knitandcrochet4charity.org/

Tiny Hats For Tiny Babies/Warm Up America, sent to Texas, tiny hats to be used by doctors in countries across Africa; https://tinyhatsfortinybabies.org/ , blanket sections for WUA's box of 500 program http://warmupamerica.org/ , and also Hats to be given to Veterans through B Hooked's 2019 challenge; https://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2019/01/31/crochet-challenge-for-warm-up-america-2019/

SCM Medical Missions, based in Seattle WA, items shipped to refugee camps in Jordan; https://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/

Little Hats Big Hearts, for Buffalo NY babies; https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/little-hats-big-hearts
   

Knitting4Peace, located in Denver Colorado, but items go all over the World; https://www.knitting4peace.org/

Here we go!

11 red newborn hats

6 purple newborn hats 
2 misc. newborn hats

1 46X45" Welcome Blanket

4 adult sized hats
5 child sized hats

1 39x34" baby blanket

55 assorted preemie baby hats 
22 Peace Pals/comfort dolls (shipped)
13 blanket sections
6 cat plushies

And not shipped/ongoing projects, but finished so far;

3 Mother Bear bears

40 Peace Pals/comfort dolls
32 misc. dolls, puppets, and plushies

Oh my goodness this was a doozy of a project! We're well into 2020 with this post now and I still have a few boxes that I'm working to ship out, but I am glad I pushed myself to do this. I don't think I'm going to do a count for 2020, not officially like the past couple years anyway, but my goals are more bears for kids, more tiny hats for babies, and we'll see whatever else comes my way!

My Year of Charity Knitting and Craftivism

 Happy New Year Everyone!

There's a lot in store for 2019, but before we really get into it I wanted to take a minute to go back and a get an official count for all of the charity knitting and craftivism projects I was able to contribute to this year.

In 2017, my first year loom knitting, along with everything else I had been working on, I managed to make 13 baby hats for charity.

The goal this year/2018 was to see just how many more baby hats I could make now that I've gained some knitting experience. However, as anyone following this project over on Instagram knows, I fell down some sort of helping people rabbit hole (the best kind of rabbit hole), and wound up making all sorts of wonderful things, not just the hats.

The pics in this post are everything donated this year. If you'd like to see every single item in detail, please head over to Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/kylelefortcreative/

Charities and positive initiative programs donated to this year include;

  St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Centers of Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY; https://www.buffalodiocese.org/st-gianna-molla-center

CLICKforbabies, NCSBS HQ located in Utah, with programs across the U.S.;
https://www.clickforbabies.org/index.php

Welcome Blanket, the MODA exhibit in Atlanta Georgia; https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

Mother Bear Project, HQ located in Minneapolis MN, most bears are sent to countries throughout Africa; http://motherbearproject.org/

Knit and Crochet for Charity, Warren Michigan; http://www.knitandcrochet4charity.org/

Tiny Hats For Tiny Babies/Warm Up America, sent to Texas, to be used by doctors in countries across Africa; https://pretermbirtheastafrica.ucsf.edu/tiny-hats-tiny-babies and http://warmupamerica.org/

SCM Medical Missions, based in Seattle WA, items shipped to refugee camps in Jordan; https://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/

 

Little Hats Big Hearts, for Buffalo NY babies; https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/little-hats-big-hearts
   

Knitting4Peace, located in Denver Colorado, but items go all over the World; https://www.knitting4peace.org/

I didn't have an official start/end date, so to be part of this year's count items had to be knitted goods that were made solely to be given away, and were finished sometime between Christmas 2017 and New Years Day 2019.

So no painted rocks, artwork, or other crafts, and if you happened to buy something from me, Thank You, but it's not part of this count.

Here we go!

10 assorted newborn hats

64 purple newborn hats

1 40X40-ish Welcome Blanket

4 Mother Bear bears

3 adult sized hats

2 adult sized headbands/ear warmers

1 40x40 baby blanket

1 40x30 baby blanket

63 assorted preemie baby hats

1 38x41 misc. warm blanket

And not shipped/ongoing projects, but finished so far;

21 red newborn and preemie baby hats

2 Mother Bear bears

3 Peace Pals/comfort dolls

Total for the year; 176!

Mind you it's more than just making things - It's people being helped, in all sorts of ways. Everything from brightening someone's day, to keeping warm, to helping doctors save some lives. So while part of me thinks I had a pretty successful 2018, I also want to try and make at least 200 items for 2019. A pretty big goal, but we will see.

If you are interested in charity knitting and craftivism and would like to help any of the organizations I donated to this year, all the links lead to their contact info and if they're not actively accepting items now, they will be during drives throughout the year, so go ahead and give some of them a 'Like' on Facebook. ^_^