For several years I have knitted a few hats to send to the Sailors Society. This charity exists to help merchant seamen, including giving warm hats to sailors working in extreme weather conditions. The Society distributes more than ten thousand hats every year. Each hat is hand knitted so that as well as giving physical comfort they give the recipient the great feeling that someone s/he has never met has spent time making knitted hats for them.
I live on an island (Great Britain) and I know we all depend on merchant seamen for an awful lot of the things we use everyday, whether it's food, or textiles or any number of other things. I rarely think of the people who bring all these things from overseas but this knitting is a little way of saying "thank you",
I try to send about ten a year but although I enjoy knitting them I hate sewing them up. Recently I've taken to knitting them on circular needles but I had three which still needed stitching up so I've now completed them and they will be in the post this week.
I must do some more of these. One year I used the pattern to knit 2 hats for everyone in the family. They each received ONE for Christmas, along with a note saying the second hat had gone to the SS for a seaman. I included info about the charity. I hope some of my relations sent the society a donation!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant idea! It was you who first inspired me to knit fr the SS. It's a neat little portable project especially now that I use a circular needle.
DeleteI love the idea of doing just that for friends this year.
DeleteThat Ang is really clever isn't she!
DeleteI boarded many deep sea vessels during my years as sn immigration officer. There are lot of poor seaman that do not go home for long, long periods of time. And work in difficult situations.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes, they face difficulties and are underappreciated.
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