The Blanket for Me project was started by Chris, a community interpreter working in
hospitals and care homes in the UK, in April 2019.
The name comes from a phrase a dementia patient could remember if asked about their blanket, i.e. “it’s the blanket for me”.
At its simplest level, the group’s purpose is to create and gift colourful lap blankets to people with dementia and to increase awareness of dementia.
Through her work and as a Dementia Friend, Chris had seen first hand what a difference a bit of colour and warmth could do for a dementia patient, and so decided to dig out her old crochet hook and start making blankets.
One blanket turned into two, which eventually turned into #theblanket100challenge, and made it necessary to get more recruits!
Here Chris explains what happened next and how you can support the project...
Given the amount of people who have since volunteered to make blankets, we now have Team Leaders in both the UK and Cyprus to help coordinate the sharing out of yarn, and once lockdown is over, to act as collection points for blankets.
Blankets have already gone out to care homes in Kent and Greater London, and we are hoping to send them to other parts of the country too.
We would welcome more people getting involved by making blankets.
The blanket size is 1 x 1.5 metres and should be bright and colourful, as dementia patients respond to colour.
Other than that, we encourage you to explore new ideas, patterns and use your imagination! Yarn donations are also very much appreciated!
Care homes who care for dementia patients and would like to receive blankets should get in touch with us, either by email or through social media.
There are also many ways that people can get involved, from sharing our posts on Facebook and Instagram to getting creative yourself and making a blanket.
Even if you don’t knit or crochet you may have other skills you can volunteer that will help improve and grow our group so that we can help more people!