It's Valentine's Day and if your cold, bitter heart has not been melted in a furnace of love by this point, then why go on? Your sneaking suspicion that there is, in actual fact, nothing warm and fuzzy in the world is true. Or is it? There is a small pocket of the universe that will soon be wrapped in a few hundred metres of woolly scarf, all knitted by hand, with love and good will. In Watford, to be precise.
Watford's Peace Hospice is raising funds for itself by asking goodhearted people to knit enough scarves to wrap around its building and around Watford FC's Vicarage Road stadium. The knitting project has been going since December and so far, 100 metres of red and yellow woollen loveliness has been collected and just over £1,000 raised; however, a further 1,100 metres is needed before these two Watford landmarks can be enveloped thoroughly in handknitted scarves.
Keeping two buildings in Watford warm for charity is not unusual when previously fundraisers have knitted a river. It's clearly the way to do your bit. Knitters for the Peace Hospice fundraising campaign can be sponsored or can self-sponsor in order to raise funds for the hospice and, to pile on the warmth of this charity effort, the scarves will be untied at the end of the project and sent to people in the third world via ADRA, an independent humanitarian agency.
For those wanting to make a contribution towards this fundraising project and perhaps to practise your skills with a pair of needles, more details can be found here. Balls of wool can be collected free from Wilkinson's in Watford or from the hospice and the hospice shops around the town; all scarves need to be 66 stitches across in garter stitch and just under 1 metre in length, with all scarves stitched together before submission. Now, pick up your needles and do something warm and fuzzy.
Image of knit stitch courtesy of Knitting Help.
