Knit together with love
by Val Jones
Images courtesy of Val Jones
If you had told Val five years ago that she would start a group that would send thousands of knitted hats to newborns – and connect people from around the UK – I imagine she might have laughed. But that’s exactly what she’s achieved. Here’s her story.
Back in the Summer of 2017, I was the manager of a local charity shop. A customer came in and asked if we had any Winter hand-knitted baby hats. I asked what they were for, as it was Summertime.
She explained that the local maternity hospital needed them to keep babies warm. I offered to knit some and so did a friend of mine. We decided to call the group hats 4 charity.
Two more people joined us. Someone offered to pay £10 a month for wool. Once we had knitted 40 hats we went to deliver them to the hospital. I decided I would like to add an extra touch so I bought some embroidery cottons and designed a label to go on each hat. The label has a rainbow and a sunshine on it and says,
“There is a rainbow of hope at the end of every storm.”
The group grew again, so we moved to the house next door to Bethesda Church. I invested in a china tea set and plates so we could have posh tea and coffee and biscuits. I set up a Facebook page and started posting the ‘Hat of the Week’, as chosen by the group. Rony Robinson interviewed me for BBC Radio Sheffield, and I wrote an article for Your Mag – our local magazine – which attracted more people to join.
We increased our sessions, running both an evening group and an afternoon group, and started knitting hats for the homeless as well as for newborns. Knitters from around the country sent hats to us, even though they couldn’t attend our group in person. People began to donate wool as well as money. In February 2020 we celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a party, including cake and a knitting quiz.
Images courtesy of Val Jones
Then, lockdown started.
I wanted to keep the momentum of the group so I made doorstep deliveries of wool, and collected completed hats. This kept us in contact with the knitters and ensured that the babies continued to receive their hats. I then set up a WhatsApp group for the knitters, posting a knitting quote each morning: something funny, or encouraging.
We began to meet over Zoom on a Monday afternoon. At Christmas last year, we sang carols for the knitters on our pick-up day. We ended up singing for some builders on a roof who gave us £7.50 for wool!
Doctors have begun to social prescribe patients to me to join a knitting group, so I have written a 10-week knitting course teaching beginners the skills they need to knit hats. This is helping to connect lonely and isolated people, improving their wellbeing.
The main group is continuing to grow: we now have 31 regular knitters, and we have been meeting in each others’ gardens since June. We have now knitted nearly 13,000 hats for the newborns.
We are hoping to meet up again inside on Mondays and drink our tea out of our china cups again soon.
To find out more, donate, or to get involved, email Val at heartofknitting@gmail.com
