Knitting for Brisbane's Needy

In January this year I joined a new group on Yahoo, Knitting for Brisbane's Needy, the brainchild of my dear friend Karen Croke.

Only 40 strong so far, already we have donated several hundreds of beanies scarves, toys, clothing and baby things to various charities in the Brisbane area. One of the charities is the former People's Mission, now known as Student Welfare. Reverend Barbie Bremner and her husband Paul work tirelessly for the homeless and the needy in Brisbane - giving up their time day and night, and using their own funds to give others food and supplies. Just recently Barbie asked me to make sweaters for three little kids, children of a heroin addict mother, who had been through a tough time. The children were very small for their ages, 4, 3 and 2 so I down sized the sweaters, and they fitted beautifully. I also had been given a huge bag of stuffed toys and found three teddies of similar size. Thought they would be nice to give to these kids, each with a scarf to match their owners' sweaters!

As I mentioned, the children were very skinny and undersized - and the mother at first thought that the sweaters were for the teddies - when Barbie visited them the teddies were wearing the sweaters, not the children. Here are the sweaters I made:

This is for the girl, aged 4 ( I had to make size 2)





















This one was for the oldest boy aged 3 ( I had to make size 18 months for him)

It has little beetle cars for buttons on the shoulders.







This was for the youngest boy, aged 2 ( I made size 1)




This was a baby surprise jacket with collar, bands, and cuffs in seed stitch


When the mother realised the sweaters were for her children she was overjoyed - however it took some persuading for the little girl to relinquish two to her brothers - she fit into them all and thought they were all for her!!


I never realised until meeting Barbie that so many people were homeless or in dire poverty. There are people actually living in caves on Mt Gravatt and under the William Jolly Bridge. Even though some are homeless from choice, there are many who are homeless because of wrong business decisions, or just from the cuved balls that life deals us sometimes. There are homeless children as young as 6 - and addicted children as young as 8 years old. If it wasn't for people like Barbie and Paul Bremner, their world would be very bleak.

Karen is the dearest person in the world. She lives in the Glasshouse Mountains, right under Tibrogargan, on a half acre. The garden is her hubby Peter's pride and joy and is gorgeous. This is the view from her front garden!! In fact wherever you go in her garden, front or back, you get a view of one of three mountains!





I can't imagine living anywhere so beautiful!!

Karen works tirelessly for this group. She has been an inspiration to me, and is a fantastic friend. Through her and this group I have met Rachel Stacy, who makes the most wonderful knitted toys, Dawn Pendergast from Beerburrum, who although paraplegic, knits for the needy too, Dawn from Jimboomba, with the best sense of humour, Cathy Williams, a little human dynamo, Cassie Lewis, and lots of others who are truly caring, wonderful friends!