We’re excited to launch our 2021 Warm Things Drive as part of November’s Give Back Sunday! With the chills setting in on the wet coast, we have started sorting through the various hand-knit donations we have received over the past few months and are happy to share with you that we were able to distribute over the past week:

• This donation of over 100 purple handcrafted infant hats that go to the Purple Cap Campaign. This is a fantastic initiative put on by Click for Babies. Their goal is to give out a tiny purple hat to every baby born in the province of BC to help raise awareness about the Period of PURPLE Crying and prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome.

• 23 pairs of knitted knockers: handmade breast prosthesis for women who have undergone mastectomies or other procedures to the breast. The Knitted Knocker Campaign has been quietly coordinating volunteer a quiet army around the world for many years now of volunteer knitters and crocheters. Locally championed by the West Coast Knitters Guild.

• 98 handmade hats, cowls, scarves and shawls for each resident of the Álewem units (2021), including these lovelies…

• 52 pairs of hand-knit socks for the residents of Margaret Mitchell Place (2021)

Please join us in collecting hats, mitts and scarves as part of this year’s Warm Things Drive over the next month. Adult gender-neutral hats and socks in various sizes seem to be the things most often requested, but any handknots you would like to pass along we will do our best to find a loving home for!

Here’s our current tally on donations of hand knits to the newly housed residents of Vancouver’s Modular Housing Program:

• 52 pairs of hand-knit socks for the residents of Margaret Mitchell Place (2021)
• 98 handmade hats, cowls, scarves and shawls for each resident of the Álewem units (2021)
• 52 pairs of hand-knit socks for the residents of Nora Hendrix Place (2020)
• 98 handmade hats for each resident of the New Beginnings units (2020)
• 58 pairs of hand-knit socks for the residents of Naomi Place (2020)
• 52 handmade hats for each resident of the tə cecəw (The Beach) TMH in Little Mountain (2019)
• 52 handmade hats to the Hummingbird Place Temporary Modular Housing in the Olympic Village area of Vancouver (2019)
• 39 hand-knit cowls and shawls to the Aneki House womens-only modular housing unit (2018)
• 39 pairs of hand-knit socks for the Chartrand Place Modular Housing residents (2018)
• 52 pairs of hand-knit socks for the 52 new residents of the Kaslo Modular Housing when those units opened (2018)
• In addition to a large number of hand-knit donations to the Downtown Eastside Womens’ Centre and other recipients since 2009