The Minnesota Knitters' Guild kicked off 2010 with a year-long guild service project to knit hats, scarves and mittens.

Members and non-members can knit hats, scarves and mittens or any combination of these and donate the items at any of the monthly meetings this year. Each quarter at a meeting (March, June, October and December) the items that were knit that quarter will be shown at the meetings so people can look at/touch them and get inspired to knit more for the charities.

The charities this year are Parents In Community Action, Inc (PICA) which is a private, non-profit agency designated by the federal government to operate Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Hennepin County. The agency was founded in 1969 by Head Start parents. Today PICA serves nearly 2,500 children and families and offers a variety of programs and services for children and families in addition to Head Start and Early Head Start. To learn more see their website www.picaheadstart.org.

The other charity is the White Earth Reservation Community, which is near Detroit Lakes, Bemidji and Park Rapids. The reservation was established March 19, 1867 with the Mississippi. The White Earth Band of Ojibwa has 19,506 enrolled members. To learn more see their website www.whiteearth.com.

When knitting for PICA you are knitting for kid’s age 0 – 5. Any type of yarn and any color are OK.

When knitting for White Earth you can knit for kids, teens or the elderly. They would like items in washable wool or wool/acrylic. They would really like warm felted mittens. It gets cold up there (recorded temps range to minus 51 and the frost can penetrate to a depth of greater than 8 feet).

Want to know more? Want to get started? Check out our blog:

http://mnknittersguild.wordpress.com/.

You can also contact Michele Germanson at 952-927-9906 or email her at with specific questions.