Join our charity craft appeal for Knit for Peace!

I love how crafts can be used as a force for good! Several years ago we did a charity craft appeal for blankets for the homeless and I've been itching to do another one, so here we are with our craft appeal for Knit for Peace - I hope you would like to join in!

Knit for Peace is a wonderful organisation that donates knitted and crocheted goods to those in need. But what also caught my eye is that they teach vulnerable people (including people in women's prisons and those left bereft by war) the skill of knitting and sells their knits so they can support themselves. What an amazing way to use crafts!

I asked Knit for Peace what they most wanted and the response was large blankets, so I'm asking you to knit or crochet squares which can be made into 2 blankets (one knit and one crochet) for them.

Knitted squares

I've chosen mitred squares for the knitted squares pattern because they're fun to knit and really speed up towards the end! They are knitted with two sides on your needles at one time, and then bend up into a square as you k2tog up through the rows. Please use DK yarn and 4mm needles for your squares. Here's the pattern:

Cast on 48 stitches

Row 1: K24, place marker, K24

Row 2: K to 2 stitches before the stitch marker, K2tog, slip marker, K2tog, K to end

Row 3: K to marker, slip marker, K to end

Repeat rows 2 & 3 until you have 4 stitches left on your needles (the rows get shorter so it's quicker to knit!)

K2tog, remove marker, K2tog

K2tog

Cut yarn and pull the end through the last stitch to secure

And that's it! Your finished square should measure approximately 12 x 12cm.

If you'd like to see this knitting pattern in action, check out my Instagram post here.

Top tip: if you forget which row you're on, look at where the tail is on your first row. For me, the corner with no tail was at the beginning of the K2tog row and the corner with the tail was the K row (this might be the other way round if you did a different cast on)

Crochet squares

For the crocheters amongst you, we are doing Granny squares! I crocheted my first ever Granny square for this appeal, and I was so pleased with how easy it was and how lovely it looked!

We are doing 5 rounds of treble crochet and one round of double crochet to finish (both UK notation) on our Granny squares. If you haven't crocheted one before, you can follow this tutorial, you just need to do one more round of treble crochet compared to the tutorial. Please use DK yarn and a 4mm hook. Your finished Granny square should measure approximately 13 x 13cm.

What do with your squares

If you knit or crochet some squares for our appeal, please drop me an email and I'll give you my address to send them to. All squares should be with me by mid August 2024. Thank you!

Rachel x