My First Trauma Teddy

Red Cross is a charity I plan to support heavily for as long as I possibly can. You can read my experience/explanation on why, here. You may have noticed the sponsorship widget on the sidebar to the left at the top. I’d love it if you guys could please sponsor Red Cross.

One of the many things I love about Red Cross is that there are plenty of other ways to support this great charity, even if you don’t have a lot of dollars to spare. I’ll be blogging about these over time, starting today with Trauma Teddy knitting. Below is my first attempt at one:

Meet Butterbear. He’s been donated to my eldest daughter who was happy to give him a loving home. You see, he’s not quite up to the Trauma Teddy Finishing School standard. There are a few things I need to rectify before I pass these cute bears on. One, I need to use a smaller needle size so that the stuffing cannot be seen between the holes. I can knit well, but Red Cross is big on having the tension of the ‘holes’ in the fabric very close together. I think next time, I’ll pull the neck in tighter and embroider a more bear-like face on. I was going for cute kawaii, but it doesn’t really make him look like a bear, does it?

Now, I’ve seen a few blogs which have posted the pattern for these bears, but I’m not going to post it here. I’m not sure if Red Cross would want that. If you want to start knitting Trauma Teddies (please do, if you can!) then click here for more info.

Basically, what I did was to contact my area’s regional centre, and requested a pattern be sent out. They were very friendly, and swiftly sent me my pattern, the stuffing they want used on the bears and some Red Cross labels to sew on at the end of the process. They also sent me an old vest knitting pattern that volunteers used to knit for soldiers in the war. I’m game and will have a go!

Once I’ve perfected the tension of the knitting and the bear’s facials, I’ll send my first bear back so they can check it’s suitable for distribution. I love the idea of knitting for charity, obviously because I love to knit, full stop! But another reason I think it’s great is that it’s a form of at-home volunteering, if need be. Some knitters also form groups to make these bears and it can be quite the production line! It’s an inexpensive way to support Red Cross and knitters simply use acrylic 8-ply yarn, which you can pick up at the supermarket or op shop.

In my last post about the Red Cross, I talked about having witnessed childrens reactions on receiving their teddies. So worth doing.

I’ve started a Flickr group for anyone interested in showing off their finished Trauma Teddies. I’d love for you to join so we can spur each other on!

If, of course, you’d like to knit a different project (or you’re not able to knit Trauma Teddies due to living in the wrong state), I did come across this beanie drive on twitter. It’s not affiliated with Red Cross, but I’m sure it’ll interest an avid knitter somewhere!

Would you give knitting a Trauma Teddy a go, or something else for charity? If you know of any other good volunteer knitting projects, please share the link below in the comments section, so we can all find the one that suits us best!

A quick note: I want to make it clear that any funds donated to my Everyday Hero page will go directly into Red Cross’s account. I will not at any stage of the donations come into contact with your money!