"It's like a drug"

I really enjoy knitting for charity, it gives me chance to make some things I might not otherwise make, I can try out new stitches and techniques, if it's to be worn it doesn't have to fit a specific person it will always fit someone, it eats into my stash and lets me do what I like doing best.

I knit for various causes, if I see an Appeal that, er, appeals then I will join in, but there is one consistent cause I knit for and that is Knit-a-square. I feel it would be comforting, if I had nothing, to be able to wrap myself in a handmade blanket. I think it would give me physical and emotional warmth, and that's what I hope my squares will do for someone else.
I also knit hats and the occasional toy for them, and just because a blog post wouldn't be right without a photo, here is what I made in January....



So what's the connection with the heading? I hear you ask. Well, I was reading All for Orphans (the blog where you can follow the issues of the aids orphans and abandoned children that we are knitting for) and the latest post was about the article in the South African on line paper, City Press, in which they quoted Lindie Ngwenya – one of the leaders of the knitting movement in Soweto and part of Knit-a-square as saying

“Its like a drug,” Ngwenya explains, “When you are making a blanket, you think about the child who will receive it and that makes you happy.”

and that just about sums it up for me.

(You can read the whole post here and if you want to find out more there is information on the All for Orphans blog, on the main Knit-a-square website, or there is a friendly group on Ravelry.)