About

I am Jane George. In July 2020 my husband Anthony and I lost our 19-year-old son Llŷr to mental health. In order to cope with my grief, I restarted knitting. I began making small things and giving them to anyone who came to the house. Anthony suggested we sell some to raise money for mental health charities. We were quickly overwhelmed and had to stop taking orders. Our son Alex asked for help to complete orders on his Instagram account and before long the whole world was knitting and knitformentalhealth was born. The shop opened on 3rd of February 2021 and since then we have donated over £50 000 to mental health charities with more donations yet to be made.

Knitting Network

Included in this figure is money raised by Knitting Network, the online yarn retailer, who used our story as part of the fundraising they do every month raising £8200 for the Samaritans and £2300 for 2wishuponastar. Amy, we are so grateful for your support. You have made raising money for charities part of house you do business month and have been able to donate ten’s of thousands of pounds. Thank you for all you do.

The Charities

With the love, hard work and generosity of all our makers we have been able to support  the following charities from across the UK. 

  • DPJ Foundation (@thedpjfoundation)

  • Suicide and Co (@suicideandco)

  • Pips Charity (@Pipscharity)

  • Feeling Strong (@feelingstronguk)

  • Quinns Retreat (@quinnsretreat)

  • Mind Pembrokeshire (@mindpembrokeshire)

  • Dose of Nature (@dose_of_nature)

  • Area 43 (@area43cardigan)

  • Wave Project (@waveprojectsscotland)

  • Calzy Foundation (@calzy.foundation)

  • The Open Door Charity (@theodcharity).

  • Cheviott Youth (@cheviottyouth)

  • Get boys a lift (@gettheboysalift)

  • Chris’ House (@chriss.house)

As our volunteers and customers come from right across the UK we make sure to reflect this in our donations. In the list above you will find charies from England, Ireland Scotland and Wales. Some like Pips in Northern Ireland we have returned to with multiple donations. Others like DPJ from Wales we have supported at local events who have benefited from the items we have sold on the day.

Our Volunteers

We have makers from the northern most reaches of Scotland, Northern and Southern Ireland, Wales and from across England who have given of their time, skills, yarn and fabric. Over 300 in total. Customers from all over the UK, with orders coming from abroad including Switzerland and America. A special thank you to Hannah Gilsenan (@hannahgilly1) for making every single button and to Yodomo without whose kindness and generosity none of this would have been possible. To date she has made 11 000 of them. We would also like to thank Sophie and her team at Yodomo without whose help and generosity we would never have been able to even begin our journey.

If possible, we use yarn donated to us. We want to improve the mental health of both our creative volunteers and our customers by sharing the ‘2 wolves story’ and by creating an inclusive community where creativity is encouraged and every voice is heard.

We are fundraisers for mental health charities and for every item sold a minimum of 70% will be distributed to various mental health charities chosen by knitformentalhealth. 

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey and contributed, from making, buying and helping in a myriad of ways. Together we can make a difference.

Please see our KnitFormentalhealth FAQs on how to become a volunteer knitter.