8 Minutes a Day Are All You Need to Help This Canadian Blanket Charity
If you’re a Canadian who loves to knit or crochet and want to help folks in need, Blankets for Canada would love your assistance
“I have a reason to live as long as someone still needs me.”
This powerful statement is one that Blankets of Canada founder Nancy Panting says her organization has heard again and again.
It’s not surprising; charity knitters and crocheters are people who feel a deep need to help others. And just as often, we want to create for charitable causes because we have few other avenues open to us.
Charity knitters and crocheters often have at least one of three strikes against them:
- Not as much money as they wish they could donate
- Not as much ability to offer their hands and feet for service as they would like
- Not as much time as they wish they had to help others
This is precisely what makes knitting or crocheting for an organization like Blankets for Canada so rewarding!
The Simple Secret to Knitting for Blankets for Canada
Blankets for Canada calls it the “Simple Secret”: the 8 x 8 x 8 rule.
From the Blankets for Canada website:
The secret to making a blanket is very simple: just spend 8 minutes a day crocheting or knitting. Soon you will have an 8″ x 8″ (20 cm x 20 cm) square. When you have 48 squares, you sew them together and will have a blanket that measures 48″ x 64″ (120 cm x 160 cm).
What this means, of course, is that you don’t need much money, mobility, or time to contribute to Blankets for Canada. All you need is the desire to knit or crochet for just 8 minutes at a time until you have enough squares to sew together a blanket!
You’ll find more charities that accept blankets and blankets squares here!
How You Can Help
Blankets for Canada has made it as simple as you can imagine to participate in their mission to warm needy Canadians. For starters, if you need a pattern, they have pages with patterns for knitting, crochet, and quilted squares.
They have chapters all over Canada, so shipping is unnecessary! Just visit their Chapters List and select one of the provinces listed on the left to find your nearest chapter.
Need inspiration? Take a look at one of their Blanket Galleries and see all the beautiful work volunteers have already completed.
You can keep up with the organization’s happenings via their Facebook Group. And if you’d like to knit or crochet for Blankets for Canada but don’t have a nearby chapter, you can start your own!
Also, be sure to read the history of Blankets for Canada — you’ll find it inspiring, too.
This is such a wonderful opportunity for Canadians to help keep their fellow citizens in need warm, especially during some of the most bitterly cold winters in the world. So if you have 8 minutes to spare per day, why not get started?
Click here to sign up for my free email course, Getting Started with Charity Knitting, and subscribe to the free Knitting Nuggets Newsletter.
Hello, I am a Girl Scout Troop leader in Virginia (USA) and I have some Girl Scouts (7th, 8th, and 10th graders) who are interested in learning to knit and crochet to make blanket squares for your organization. We would have to ship the squares to you. Would you please provide an address?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Jeanie! I do not run a knitting charity, but you should be able to send your squares to Warm Up America. You can find guidelines here, as well as the shipping address. (Scroll to the bottom of the page and look under “Make.”) Thank you!