The Multiple Sclerosis Trust

I'm not sure whether you know or not, but I have Multiple Sclerosis. I'm very fortunate in that currently I only have mild symptoms of the disease, and I'm still able to work, study and follow my favourite hobbies - well, with a bit of organisation and setting realistic goals! Okay, maybe skip that bit about realistic goals - LOL!

The MS Trust have been very helpful to me, giving me all the information I need to help me manage my condition and to understand more about my diagnosis. They have also given me the resources I've needed to talk to my family, friends and work colleagues about the impact MS has on my life.My mum especially found it very hard to come to terms with - but then I think all mothers struggle when things don't work out as they'd hoped for their offspring.

I wanted to give something back to the Trust, and I wondered what to do. I needed to be able to incorporate anything I organised into my lifestyle - and then it struck me. I share my cross stitch designs and knitting patterns on my blog. And stitchers are some of the most generous people I know. So I thought, why not ask people to make a small donation if they feel so inclined? And if I sell some of my finished work or some of my excess stash, then the money can go to the Trust too! Of course, there will never, ever be any pressure to make a donation - I've been stony broke before and I know what it's like, and how sometimes even finding the money for necessities is a struggle. And with the recession...

So, I'm mentioning it now as an option - that's all. And thank you for the support and encouragement you've given me about my designing, making this possible. Sometimes, just a kind word is as valuable as any monetary gift.

The link in the sidebar will take you to my Justgiving page. Thank you.

Hats, Hats, Hats!

There's 20 miniature hats in the picture.

"What on earth did you do those for?" I hear you cry!

It's all part of Innocent Smoothies The Big Knit

What's that? It's a fund raising campaign for Age Concern. Innocent want lots of knitted hats to put on the top of their bottles of smoothies. These behatted bottles will then go into Sainsbury’s in November and for every one sold Innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 50p to Age Concern.

Almost 25,000 older people died of cold related illnesses last winter, so it’s important to not only raise awareness, but to raise money to stop it happening again. Age Concern will use the money raised to provide support to older people in winter including hot meals, blankets and advice on how to keep their houses warm.

My gran was frugal in many ways (hey, she was Scottish!) but she knew the importance of keeping warm. I've knitted these in her memory because I'm thankful that she didn't scrimp on her heating bills, and that she was in a position that she didn't have to.

I didn't find out until very late on about the campaign, so nwext year I'm hoping to have more hats to send. If you have any oddments of double knitting wool lying around, I'd be very grateful for it!