This is the time of year that many of us think about the needs of others less fortunate. We dig out items from our pantries for local food drives, send checks to our favorite charities, and drop loose change in those familiar red buckets when we leave the grocery store. As crafters, we can also use our crafting skills year round to help others, but when you do decide to take on charity crafting, make sure to read the instructions before you get gung-ho with creating. I’m not saying that there’s anything tricky about the instructions, just that you need to make sure you follow your chosen charity’s guidelines in order to make what they need.

As an example, I blogged recently about the scarf drive for the Special Olympics. Sounds easy enough, right? Just make a scarf. Even a beginning knitter or crocheter can easily make a scarf; however, when I read the “fine print” the instructions ask that you use a specific color of blue and white available from Red Heart, Super Saver Delft Blue and Soft White, which is understandable because they want all the people wearing the scarf to have matching scarfs. Blue, especially, can vary considerably as far as hues. When I went to Michael’s yesterday to scoop up on the killer sales (Red Heart Super Saver was on sale for 2.19 plus an additional 25% off), I looked for these colors. But, alas, they didn’t have either color. I’ll keep looking, but that really put that project on the far back burner to say the least.

As I finish up my super large afghan, I am looking towards my next crochet project and plan to make some smaller blankets for the Project Linus Program. The closest chapter is a few counties south of me, but luckily, it has a very good web site with all the information I need about making and sending the finished piece, and the instructions are pretty detailed, including size requirements, types of yarn to use and not use, how to wash it (making sure not to use solutions that could be harmful to babies’ sensitive skin), no fringe or anything hanging off that a child could choke on, how to wrap and send the finished blanket, and more. Again, just like the scarf instructions, these requirements are very understandable. Who would want to harm a new born baby with their donated hand-crafted blanket?

So, if you decide to start donating your craft skills to charities (and there are lots of them out there), just remember to spend the time before hand to read the fine print so that you make a finished piece that will be appreciated as well as used.