Knitting for Charity

There are so many wonderful knitting projects out there, but I only have so many people to give knit items to. (I know that my colleagues in lab would love for me to knit things for them, but as we usually do not exchange gifts that would be a little odd.) I know that there are a variety of knitting charities, so I decided to do some research to see how I could feed my hobby and help my community at the same time.

• Wool Works - This page summarizes (by state) different charitable organizations that accept knitted goods or knitting supplies. This website has also assembled patterns suitable to use for charity.
  
• Interweave Knits - Here is another list of charitable organizations.
  
• The Knitting Connection (Based in MA) Volunteer your time (with knitting), your extra yarn or your finished projects.
• Newborns in need (http://www.newbornsinneed.org) - Help dress newborns in need with your crafts.
• Women's Educational and Industrial Union (no website listed... Fiber Arts Department, 356 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116. Contact: Alice Lam, ext. 156, 617 536-5651.) They reportidly have a knit-a-thon makin 6 in squares to help battered women's shelters... If anyone has any more information about this I would appreciate it.
• Pine Street Inn (A Boston Homeless Shelter) has had a knit-a-thon the last two years around Thanksgiving... hopefully they'll do it again!
  
• Knit-a-square - Help keep an AIDS orphan in Africa warm by contributing 8x8 knit (or crochet) squares.
• http://www.cubsforkids.com/ - Helping homeless children. Knit clothing for teddy bears. The charity provides the bears, and distributes the bears to children at holiday time.
  
• http://www.chemocaps.com/ - These hats are distributed at hospitals to cancer patients. The knowledge that someone took the time to hand make a hat for them is encouraging to the patient.
• http://www.stitchesfromtheheart.org/ - helping preemies around the nation
• The Purl Foundation - Helping homeless individuals through the winter in NYC. A friend of mine is involved with this charity, so although it is not Boston-centric, I wanted to give it a shout out.
  

I have not even scratched the surface of knitting charities that are out there... but it is something to think about. If anyone knows of any upcoming knit-a-thons in the Boston area, please let me know. I would love to rally people to participate. If I had more friends who knit, I could set one up of my own... Maybe it is time to find a social knitting group...

Basically, if I make something, ANYTHING, there are not a shortage of places to donate the knit items.