Woolly hats for HMP Wandsworth

 As many of you probably know by now, I've been making & donating items to homeless outreach projects since about Oct. 2018. 

I started with the fingerless gloves, or wristwarmers & then started making scarves aswell & then added beanie hats to my collection.

I make up parcels & send them out to homeless outreach projects around the UK, especially in the run up to Christmas and the start of winter.

This year, due to covid things have been a bit different. Many of the outrech projects have not been able to operate as normal so have not been out on the streets providing warm clothng & food to those who need it. However, I have still been crocheting away & making lots of scarves & beanies & stashing them away in the cupboard.

I've been able to send some out - you can read more on the website - but I was beginning to think that a lot of the items would spend the winter sitting in my cupboards.

I put the call out on Twitter asking if any homeless outreach project or other similar organisation could use some & a lovely lady got in touch to tell me about an appeal to provide every prisoner at HMP Wandsworth with a warm woolly hat for Christmas.

Apparently the prison is very old and the heating system is therefore not very efficient so many of the cells are cold. The chaplain wants to provide every prisoner with a warm hat so a FB group was set up to help organise the appeal.

Now, there are 1,476 prisoners at the moment so that's a lot of beanies. Thankfully they are already around a third of the way to their total but they still need around 1000 beanies. 

So last week I delved into my stash and made up a parcel of 18 warm beanies & posted it off.

The parcel arrived safely & today I am making up another parcel to send to them. Another 18 beanies will be on their way tomorrow.

It's been heartwarming to read some of the comments in the FB group that has been set up about the appeal & its lovely to see the hats that have been made by people who want to help.

Please help if you can by sharing this blog post or other social media posts about this appeal. And don't worry if you can't knit or crochet - the beanies don't have to be handmade. Even pre-loved hats in good clean condition are acceptable. 

Thank you.

😎