The Middlemore Foundation Wool Programme has been going for 23 years, with over 2,000 dedicated knitters nationwide lending their knitting skills to the Counties Manukau community.
Knitters donate beautifully knitted booties, hats, mittens, vests and blankets to keep premature babies and newborns in the hospital and the community warm.
They also create larger knitted items to Kidz First Children's Hospital, and to community partners to distribute to tamariki and whaanau in our community.
Additionally, warm woollen items get distributed to our older patients, who are particularly vulnerable during the winter months.
A group of sewers are also part of the programme, who make beautiful hand-made quilts and hundreds of other items for the community each year.
Several times a year, many of the knitters get together for a knitting circle at Middlemore hospital, also known as a Knitter Knatter.
“These Knitter Knatter events are a wonderful opportunity for the Foundation to celebrate our knitters and sewers. We invite speakers from the hospital and community to share the incredible impact these exquisite, knitted items have on the people to whom they are gifted” says Margi Mellsop, CEO of the Middlemore Foundation.
“We love the fact that the knitters use this as an opportunity to sit together, admire each other’s’ work and have a good old natter!”
Last year, the wool programme distributed 8,500 woollen items thanks to the knitters.
If you would like to join the wool programme, email info@middlemorefoundation.org.nz or join their Facebook group Middlemore Foundation Knitters.
