Fish and Chip babies

Good afternoon everyone, just realised how long its been since my last blogpost!  Been really busy with lots of things going on at the mo and cardmaking has been put on the back burner a bit although I have managed to make a few christmas cards....as it will soon be upon us..... 6 weeks to go aarrghhh!!..... will post them sometime this week.  Meantime I wanted to show you what has been taking up my time the past couple of weeks....fish and chip baby jumpers!!!!  I am a member of a craft group at our local Age UK and the knitters amongst us have decided to make as many of these little jumpers as we can using oddments of double knitting wool.  If you have never heard of fish and chip babies......they are for the little HIV babies in Africa, these infants are known as the “fish and chip babies” because of the poverty and Aids that is rife throughout that area. A young mother-to-be goes into the local hospital to have her baby and succumbs to the inevitable, leaving the child with nothing whatsoever in this world. The child, when able or old enough to leave the hospital, is wrapped in newspaper and taken, if lucky enough, to live with relatives or at worst to an orphanage hence the name “fish and chip babies”.  The pattern is really easy and only takes a few hours to make, the only stipulation is that they must be knitted in darker colours, not pastels or white as they are unlikely to be washed very often. 

I havent knitted for years.... used to love knitting little matinee jackets and bonnets when my girls were babies and then when they were older I always knitted their school jumpers and cardies......sadly no-one seems to like hand knitted garments these days.  I am also learning to crochet at the craft group..... and rag rugging!! I remember when my mum used to make rag rugs, she would cut up little squares of old material and pull them through a large piece of hessian with a special tool.  We are making them in exactly the same way and I have to say they are really trendy!

Well I will be back again soon with some cards to show you, so enjoy the rest of your evening!

Hugs

XXXX