Where there’s a wool there’s a way for charity knitters

A tight-knit group facing a looming festive deadline has issued a special appeal for volunteers to give their charity knitting campaign socks.

For months now, members of an enterprising knitting group in East Cork have been beavering away on their ambitious Knit Happens campaign to knit 5,000 miniature Christmas socks in aid of the East Cork Rapid Response emergency service.

With help from pupils in local schools, they have cast on and cast off their way through hundreds of metres of leftover double knit yarn to produce an incredible 4,300 socks so far.

However, with just over 60 days left until Christmas, the group needs to give it socks, literally, if they are to reach their target.

Lora Millar, who runs the Knit Midleton shop just off Main St in Midleton and who devised the fundraiser last January, has now urged people to get on board for the last big push.

“We would like to hit our target within a week or two,” she said.

“It’s a very simply basic pattern — something that people of all knitting abilities could do.

“It should take about 15 minutes to knit and about another 15 minutes to sew up.”

Ms Millar appealed to people to download the pattern from her blog and whip out a pair of 4mm knitting needles to help them reach the magic 5,000 number.

The socks can be used as Christmas tree decorations, or as gifts to post to loved ones. They hope to sell the socks in local shops for €2.

But some of the knitters expressed their creative side, and a selection of their stunning socks will be sold for €5. All costs of the campaign are being covered by sponsors. The group hopes to raise €10,000 for the charity.

The Knit Happens sales drive will be officially launched at the Midleton Park Hotel on Wednesday, November 5.

“To raise such an amount from waste wool is incredible and Lora deserves huge recognition for her efforts, especially in the current climate where people are encouraged to support local,” East Cork Rapid Response spokesman John Coleman said.

The rapid response service complements and supports existing emergency services and is called upon to respond to serious medical emergencies such as traffic incidents, industrial and farming accidents, or cardiac arrests.

lDownload the Knit Happens sock pattern from knitmidleton.com.