I decided to make some Teapot covers, some blankets and some Chocolate Orange Christmas covers. This was to keep my mind active and the blankets were made to give to Charity and the Chocolate Orange covers for sale to raise money for the Welcome Centre Christmas appeal 2020. I also made some masks as we realised that soon we would have to wear them to visit the supermarket etc.

I did buy wool for the blankets and teapots, mainly up cycling old bits of wool that I had been donated, however the Orangutan was from a kit I ordered from the Internet during lockdown. The face masks were made from upcycling material I had.

I chose to knit the orangutan as we had been to visit Borneo in Dec 2019, we had been to an orangutan sanctuary and the next day were privileged to see a wild orangutan and her baby. So knitting this brought back happy memories.

The Welcome Centre said:

‘We were delighted to see such a creative way to raise money for our foodbank during the pandemic. The chocolate orange covers knitted by Lepton Church helped raise much-needed funds for our foodbank, during what has been our busiest ever year.

The Welcome Centre supports local people in crisis with essential packs of food, toiletries, household items and bedding. During the last 12 months, demand for our service has risen significantly and we have provided more than 280,000 meals worth of food to people in crisis. We are supporting more and more families than ever before and need the support of our community to enable us to do this. Funds raised for The Welcome Centre are used to help us buy stock for our packs, to pay for the running costs such as rent, our van expenses and run two centres. We also use funds to provide advice, guidance and support service for our clients, offering them help with benefits, housing, debt alongside making grant applications for furniture and white goods.’