“I just absolutely love knitting and crocheting, but I think what I like the most is that it benefits someone,” said Orange Purlers coordinator Dianne Percy.

The Orange Purlers are a 50-strong group of local knitters who work tirelessly throughout the year to make blankets and beanies for those less fortunate.

Last year the group distributed 606 blankets and have already created 115 blankets in the past few months.

“We mostly do rugs and they go to about 85 different organisations in Australia plus overseas to disaster areas, et cetera — they'll go wherever they are needed,” said Dianne.
“A lot go locally to Housing Plus or out to the hospital, plus we do hats for heroes, that is for the armed forces, and we also do hats for the homeless in Orange and beanies for premie babies.”

While the Purlers are on track to beat last year’s blanket total, they could really use a hand and are asking for donations of 8-ply wool or acrylic yarn to continue their valuable work.

“We desperately need more donations…..of wool and yarn”

“We desperately need more donations. because a lot of the ladies are pensioners and it is very expensive to make a rug,” said Dianne.

While full balls of yarn are preferred the Purlers will happily accept any leftover yarn, which can be the joined together with a magic knot and put to good use.

“We get all the tiny scraps and turn them into balls — we call them cupcakes. The girls wind them together and we end up with these lovely balls and beautiful rugs,” said Dianne.

Donations can be made at the Orange City Library, where the Purlers meet every Thursday morning, or you can come and say hi this Saturday at their annual ‘Knit-in’.

“Our annual Knit in is to show people what we do and to try and get some more wool donations,” said Dianne. “We also teach knitting and crocheting, so if you want to learn, we can show you and we give you a pattern and needles or if you don’t have them yourself. Everyone’s welcome!”

The Orange Purlers’ annual Knit will be held at Orange City Library on Saturday 11 May from 11am until 3pm.