Helping Hats

I am making Helping Hats, to support Oxfam’s & Save the Children’s artwork at the awful crisis in Yemen, and to support other charities too.

Find out more about what’s happening in Yemen and what work is being done to help, at these links:

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/emergency-response/yemen-crisis

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/middle-east/yemen

Helping Hats project – what it is, why it is, how to get involved

Here’s how I decided to do the Helping Hats project (text from my original facebook post about it):

I have had a helping hat idea.

I had been wondering about making more hats (now my experiments are getting a bit neater and more reliable!) and selling them, as an extra way to support myself and also to raise funds for an important cause.

I had been thinking about raising for various important causes, such as a chronic illness charity, as one of the reason’s I’m making hats is as part of managing my own chronic illness. However I am most moved to support charity work helping those affected by the crisis in Yemen. So this is where I send the donations (50% of the price paid for any Helping Hat/Not-Hat), unless buyers prefer a different cause to be supported.

Weaving to ease worry. Hats to Help raise funds for those affected by the crisis in Yemen.

So, if you’d like to buy a hat from me, a bit like the ones pictured, for whatever you can afford between £10 and £40 (£15+ if possible), plus postage if I’m sending it to you, then once you’ve paid me I will donate half of what you pay for the hat, to either the Oxfam Yemen link or the Save the Children Yemen link, and send you my receipt so you can see it’s gone through. If you prefer a different charity to be supported i will certainly consider that, provided it’s easy enough to donate to and that i support its values.

Hats can be whatever colour you like, provided I have / can find / can afford the yarn. You can have hats especially made for you, or you can find out what pre-made hats I currently have available by contacting me.

For hats made especially for you, giving a rough head size is helpful. This would mean tape-measuring where you’d expect a winter hat brim to go – down to nearly neck at the back, diagonally up and forward to forehead at front. But if you don’t want to do a head measurement we can do our best with an estimate!

Hats currently take me two to three hours to make, and require buying yarn too, so speed will depend on what else I have going on and my varying circs etc.

An alternative hat style you can ask for is the pointy witchy hat (see pics below), or a taller hat with a pom pom on it (see various pics on this page). These are priced a little higher (suggested £30 – £50 or whatever you can afford near that price range), as these hats takes more yarn and time. If you can’t afford this price range, let me know and we’ll figure out what’s doable for both of us! Whatever you’re paying for the hat, half of that will be my fee and half of that will go to work at the crisis in Yemen, or your charity of choice.

You can also ask for finger-knitted Not-Hats, and see if I’m up for and up to making them! Such as the rainbow necklace, the flower, the ‘ocean splash’ bracelet, or the rainbow scarf below (prices for these are negotiated on an individual basis):

There is also the option of requesting a print of a piece of my art as a Helping Not-Hat. See art page for browsing. PLEASE READ THE CONTENT WARNINGS AT THE TOP OF THE ART PAGE BEFORE SCROLLING ON DOWN. THANK YOU!