The Little Miracles Trust loves wool
It’s the first official day of winter and what better time to think wool?!
Did you know 100% wool is a beautiful natural fibre that importantly is breathes? (unlike synthetics and acrylics, which can cause a baby to sweat and overheat). Babies born early cannot regulate their own body heat and the use of wool is key to ensuring their body can focus on growing and developing. Neonatal babies (both premature and full-term sick babies) need to focus all of their efforts on getting better, and temperature control is a big part of this.
Each year The Little Miracles Trust hands out over 3,000 Support packs to neonatal parents. As well as information for new parents, each of these includes a knitted pair of woollen booties and a woollen beanie. To view other examples of how The Little Miracles Trust supports families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, head here for an image gallery.
Giveaway!
To celebrate the wonderful fibre that is wool, we have a beautiful woollen mobile to giveaway. Pictured above, this mobile is a great example of the flexibility of wool as a fibre, and how you can put small bits to a good use.
Do you know someone who would like this hanging in their childs room?
To enter a friend in the draw to win, head to our Facebook page and tag someone in – it’s as simple as that!
Our HUGE thanks go to the talented Larissa Banks (@lmbyeahyouknowme) who created this for The Little Miracles Trust. In Larissa’s words:
Using natural fibres like wool is wonderful for handmaking crafts as it’s so soft on your hands while still being durable and easy to work with. From a sustainability point of view knowing that these creations, the birds in particular, will have a positive environmental impact is really important to me. They will break down well over time, so if they are loved to bits it’s okay!
The Alpaca wool is incredibly soft. The combination of softness and strengh in the 4 ply yarn made it a lovely product to work with.
The Little Miracles Trust is grateful for the support of Douglas Pharmaceuticals.
The wool for the mobile is 100% Alpaca wool, and comes from the great team at Douglas Pharmaceuticals. They have an ‘Alpaca’ medication blister packing robot, which is designed to help patients on multiple medications by enabling convenience and medication management. Douglas kindly ran a promotion with pharmacies using the ‘Alpaca’ robot, where for every point they gain, Douglas donated Alpaca Wool to The Little Miracles Trust (to give to knitters to create items for neonatal units/families). For more details on this, and examples of some of the knitted items created, head here.
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The benefits of knitting
Knitting and crocheting are often associated with friends and family. The craftwork in progress may be intended for a loved one or perhaps it is being created while in the company of friends, family or a social knitting group. Knitting is a fantastic hobby for individuals and the basic stitches are very easy to pick up.
The act of knitting is recommended to peoples of all genders and ages as it provides unexpected benefits for both physical and mental health – with the enjoyment and satisfaction factors on top of this.
Here are 5 things to know about knitting:
- It can help with managing stress, anxiety, and depression
- It keeps your brain healthy
- It can help your motor skills
- It is a meditative act
- It instils pride upon completion
Read more details on the benefits, in a document easy to print or share, here.
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How else can I help?
If you’re a member of Fly Buys, did you know you can use your points to help those going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey?
Through using your Fly Buys points, you can support neonatal families with great woollen items such as:
These items will help keep neonatal babies warm and also provide a pick-me-up for families who are going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey. This is another example of The Little Miracles Trust helping to support neonatal families. To see others, you can view a gallery of other examples of our meaningful and practical support.
To view all of the Fly Buys rewards available, please head to www.pointsforpurpose.org.nz/give/#start-of-life
To learn more about Points for Purpose, and/or to view a webpage you can share with your friends and family, head to: staging.littlemiraclestrust.org.nz/points-for-purpose
