Make to Donate: Blankets for SiMBA

A while ago a friend of mine made me aware of a local charity, Simpsons Memory Box Appeal (SiMBA). SiMBA provide a range of support services to parents who suffer the lost of a baby during pregnancy or close to birth and one of these services is to donate Memory Boxes to help families hold on to precious items of the time they spend with their baby.

Within each memory box are a number of items chosen to help create and hold on to memories. These include handmade knitted or crocheted items donated by volunteers.

This year, the Happy Barnet Craft Challenge has a MAKE TO DONATE craft challenge, encouraging our craft challengers to create something needed by a charity. I decided to make my challenge projects for SiMBA. This was much more emotional than I had anticipated as the saw the blankets take shape and as I looked at the final work. It’s very sad that these are needed but I’m pleased I am able to help the group of people who work so hard to provide much needed support to families during such a devastating time.

After making the blankets and butterflies, I posted a photo in the SiMBA Facebook craft group and a few people asked for the pattern so I have written these out fully below. I hope this helps for those who wish to donate.

If you’d like to get involved you can join their Facebook group or find out more at https://www.simbacharity.org.uk

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SiMBA blankets (crochet)

This was originally from a comment on another post in the group but I made a couple of minor tweaks including adding a border and have written out the number of stitches required for each of the three blanket sizes. For more details on blanket requirements see SiMBA directly.

Yarn: DK

Hook: 4mm

Sizes:

• Small = 10cm w X 12.5cm l (no pink or blue in this size)

• Medium = 25cm w X 30cm l

• Large = 40cm w X 45cm l

• Touched by you blankets = 15cm square (donate these in matching pairs). I have not made these myself so do not have stitch numbers in the pattern below.

Crochet terms: US

Chain: Make a chain of appropriate length for your blanket size (pattern requires even number plus 3). Adjust from my sizes below if your gauge differs. It’s important to get the correct sizes so they fit in the boxes.

• Small = 18 + 3

• Medium = 44 + 3

• Large = 66 + 3

Foundation row: 1 dc into 4th chain from hook. * miss 1 chain, 2 dc in next chain. Repeat from * to end of row.

Row 1: Chain 3, 1 dc into the centre of the V shape from the row below. * 2 dc into centre of next V shape from previous row. Repeat from * until the end of the row.

Repeat row 1 until desired length. For me these were:

• Small = 12 rows

• Medium = 30 rows

• Large = 44 rows

Sew in ends or continue and add border below.

Border: Chain 1 and make 2 sc in the side of the corner. Continue down the length of your blanket making 2 sc in the side of each stitch. At the corner make 2 sc as you have been doing, then 1 chain then 1 sc before moving on and making 1 sc in each of the V stitches and each of the gaps between V stitches along the width. Continue round the blanket until you get back to the start where you will make 1 sc in the corner and join to the original chain stitch. Sew in ends.

SiMBA Butterflies

I followed the much recommended Bella Coco Butterfly pattern. on youtube. You can also follow the written pattern for butterflies here.