Knitting Sweaters to Help Children

Brigitte Weeks Talks About the Guideposts Sweater Project

When I was growing up in England all the women around me knit. So I knit too, starting with plain squares and graduating to a scarf that kept getting wider as it got longer. On the local bus one day a passenger put down her own knitting to show me the right way to hold the yarn. To this day I hold it exactly that way.

About ten years ago an aunt shared a simple pattern for a child's sweater, designed by a large British charity, the Oxford Committee in Famine Relief . One red-and-purple striped creation later, I was hooked. I loved the simple little garments and the feeling of connecting with needy children around the world.

Why do children in tropical countries like Rwanda or Botswana have such urgent need of warm garments? When the sun goes down the temperature drops precipitously. Children already suffering from malnutrition can die from hypothermia during the night.

That newspaper photo of a child wearing one of these sweaters inspired me to write a devotional in our annual Daily Guideposts, about the rewards of this kind of knitting, how every stitch represented a kind of prayer. Soon knitters wrote letters wanting to join in, readers sent spare yarn and, most recently, Leisure Arts, a magazine devoted to handicrafts, ran a story on the project, including the pattern, my name and Guideposts' address.

Only days after the magazine came out sweaters began to arrive in my office. As I write, we have shipped close to 3,000 sweaters via World Vision overseas (a shipment went to Mongolia) and to a variety of US agencies that care for needy children in Harlem, Appalachia and many other locations. A crochet pattern was swiftly created because, as I discovered from my mail, the United States has more crocheters than knitters.

Tucked into the garments have come moving notes. Marie in Pennsylvania, who is confined to a wheelchair, wrote, "I am 78 years old and love to knit. I want to be useful." Joyce, widowed after 49 years of marriage needed a project and found "the sweater instructions were so simple that I decided to dig out my box of wool." She sent a sweater, promising to improve with her next effort. I would find a million prayers if I could count the stitches.

And that is why this busy book editor's office is full of sweaters, and how I find myself at the head of a growing army of knitters, needles flying coast to coast.

--Brigitte Weeks
Editor-in-Chief,
Guideposts Books

Reprinted by permission from Guideposts magazine. © 1997 by Guideposts, Carmel, New York 10512

3/31/99 update: "Here is the latest update on the sweater project that you mention on your site. It is going strong!!":

Sweater Shipment List For the Guidepost Sweater Project
ORGANIZATION	DESTINATION	SWEATERS SENT
Oxfam	Africa	350
World Vision	Mongolia, Honduras, NY, various	4750
Kids in Distressed Situations	VT	450
Westhab	Yonkers	250
Northside	Harlem	515
Christian Relief Services	Appalachia	350
Bronx Episcopal AIDS Ministry	Bronx	350
World Opportunities	Ecuador)	750
Episcopal Church Services	NY, AK, VT, Nicaragua	4000
Heart to Heart	China	2050
Food For The Poor	Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Guatemala	3800
Salvation Army	Seminole, FL	540
Asian Vision	India, Laos, Romania	2300
Forrest Dale Foster Care	New York	550
St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital		100
Hogar de Cristo, Filial de Arica	Chile	500
Feed The Children		500
Bread of Life Ministry, Inc	Indiana	1000
Jewish Child Care Association		1600
People Serving People	Minnesota	500
Brother to Brother International	Louisiana, Honduras	1500
Donation Exchange Program	Rhode Island-	500
FOCAL	Alabama	500
NY Foundling Hospital	New York	1000
Goodwill of S.E.	WI	500
Senator Kyl’s Office	Arizona	1100
Hale House	New York	70
Leprahilfe	Senegal, Africa	100
Youth with a MissionSlavic Ministries	Oregon	300
Tutwiler Clinic	Mississippi	300
Canchola Foods INC	Arizona	600
Habitat Restore	Arizona	600
Eastern European Aid Association	Romania	600
	TOTALS	32875

Guideposts Sweater Project
c/o Brigitte Weeks
16 East 34 Street
New York, NY 10016

GUIDEPOSTS Children's Knitted Sweater Pattern

ABBREVIATIONS

KNITTED T-TOPS

Size Note: Instructions are written for sizes 2 and 4 in the first set of braces { }, and sizes 6, 8, and 10 in the second set of braces. Instructions will be easier to read if you circle all the numbers pertaining to your size.

MATERIALS

GAUGE

SOLID T-TOP FRONT BORDER

BODY

SLEEVES

BACK

FINISHING

STRIPED T-TOP FRONT BORDER

BODY

SLEEVES

BACK

FINISHING

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