We recently hosted our first SuperJam Tea Party in Bolton, the hometown of Peter Kay.
The tea party was very kindly hosted by the teachers and pupils of Canon Slade School; who got excited about SuperJam after I visited their school to share my story. About seventy elderly people from the local community came along and enjoyed a performance from the school band.
I'd like to say how impressed we were at SuperJam about all of the work the pupils put into the event; they even baked the scones themselves during their lunch break!
Hopefully this will become a regular event and will grow and grow over the coming months and years.
If you would like to run a tea party in your school, workplace or community, please get in touch. We will do everything we can to help you; not least provide you with some delicious SuperJam!
The Minginish Community Hall on the Isle of Skye in the north of Scotland recently hosted a fantastic SuperJam tea party. You can see all of the pictures here.
The elderly guests enjoyed plenty of scones and SuperJam, sandwiches and pots of tea. There was even a performance from the school choir from the local primary school - Carbost Primary School.
We are hoping that there will now be a more regular tea party there, as it was the first we've had on the island.
Thanks a million to Graham Campbell, who put in a huge amount of work to make the event happen.
If you would like to run a SuperJam tea party for older people in your local community; please get in touch and we will support you in every way we can to make it happen!
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Last week, I shared the story of the SuperJam adventure with a few hundred school kids at the Changeworks Make Waste History Conference at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh.
I also spent the day running workshops for four groups of pupils, giving them the opportunity to come up with their own enterprising ideas to try and reduce food waste. They then pitched their ideas to the whole group, 'Dragon's Den style', and one team was voted the winner.
The pupils came up with all kinds of ideas; from feeding food waste to pigs to creating a website to help shoppers predict what they need to buy better; helping them to reduce the amount of stuff they throw away at the end of the month.
The event coincided with the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen and the hundred of kids who came along definitely left with good ideas on how to reduce food waste. You can read more about it here.
Over the festive period, we have been having some really fun Christmas Tea Parties; with mulled wine, champagne and mince pies.
The guests have enjoyed the usual live music and dancing, as well as performances from local carol singers and at two of the larger tea parties in Edinburgh, we served up a whole lunch for everyone. As always, the events were completely free for the guests to come along to and really brightened up their days.
One of the tea parties, held at a sheltered housing complex in Edinburgh, was filmed by Channel 5 and Sky News and will be broadcast at some point between Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Thanks a million to all of the people who gave up their holiday time to come and help out at the tea parties!
Our Joe, seen here sporting a mustache-less face, has been working at SuperJam for a few months. His favorite flavour is Raspberry & Cranberry and the highlight of his job with us so far was meeting Sir Terry Wogan..
Joe has very courageously decided to grow a sponsored mustache throughout the month of November ('Movember'), to raise money for prostate cancer research. SuperJam is going to chip a few hundred pounds into his effort and it would be really wonderful if you could maybe donate a few pounds to the cause here.
Hopefully Joe will raise a lot of money for a really worthwhile cause and not too many people will laugh at his silly mustache.
(We'll post a picture of his mustache at the end of the month!)
Last week, I was very kindly invited to visit Wick, which is a few miles from John o' Groats (the most Northernly point of mainland Britain).
The reason for the trip was to give a few talks at local schools, including to over 300 kids at Wick high school. I also had the pleasure of visiting the Laurandy Centre, which was hosting the most Northerly ever SuperJam tea party for 30 or so elderly guests.
It was a really lovely trip and I was shown around by Professor Iain Blaikie, a friend of mine, who organised the trip and is a big believer in getting entrepreneurs, inventors, astronauts and political figures to speak to pupils at the local schools.
We even went for lunch on the shortest street in the world, which is in Wick and is about one and a half meters long!
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It was knitted by Dorine Berks, who is a member of the Contact the Elderly group in Aylesbury. She is a big fan of our tea parties and of SuperJam and knitted this wonderful tea cosy for us.
It is in the style of a 'Lyon's Nippy' - a waitress from the Lyons Corner Houses of the 1950's.
Jolly good.
If you'd like to see your tea cosy featured on the SuperJam blog - please get your needles out and send one in. All the tea cosies that we get sent in are used at the tea parties and the knitters are given a selection of our SuperJams.
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On Sunday, as part of our sponsorship of The SuperJam Great British Race Day at Brighton Racecourse, we served up cream teas to the crowds.
We used Rodda's clotted cream and freshly baked scones and it went down a treat. The races on the day, which you might have seen on Sky Sports or elsewhere, were named after the flavours of our jams.
Over the Summer, we'll be serving up cream teas at events all over the country, so please do pop along and say hello. Next up is the Cockington Proms on 12th July, in Torquay, which we're also a major sponsor of.
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We've been running a 'knitathon' for some time and have now picked a winning tea party group, from Wales. They knitted an incredible four hundred or so squares.
You may have read in a previous post that these squares, and the thousands of others that have been knitted at the tea parties, have all been sewn together to make hundreds of blankets for Indian orphans.
The knitathon has also raised over £600 for the orphanage, which will be spent on much needed supplies. If you'd like to, you can donate to the orphanage here.
The winning group, pictured here, were very generously sent an amazing chocolate hamper from our friends at Kshocolat.
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I spotted this at a friend's flat and though it was definitely worthy of taking this week's crown.
It is a sort of rubbery tea cosy and looks funkier in real life than it does in this picture I took.
Of course, if you would like to knit a tea cosy to help support our SuperJam Tea Parties project, which is growing fast and really needs more cosies, feel free to knit one and send it in. We'll send you some jam to say thanks and feature your work on the blog.
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Recently, Eteaket tea boutique opened its doors on Frederick street in Edinburgh. They serve a range of wonderful teas, cream teas, afternoon teas and home baking, soon to include our jam! You should definitely pop in for a cuppa if you're in town.
Eteaket have very generously agreed to support the regular SuperJam Tea Parties in Edinburgh and will be serving their wonderful teas, alongside the scones and SuperJam. With their help and support, we are hoping to make the events even bigger and better. The guests at last week's tea party (picture here) thoroughly enjoyed Eteaket's teas. You can check out their website, order some of their products or learn more about their philosophy here.
As you know, as part of The SuperJam Tea Parties, we have been running a massive nationwide 'knitathon'. The elderly guests of our tea parties have been very kindly knitting thousands of squares, which we've sewn together to make blankets for these orphans in Gwalior, central India.
Every child at the orphanage, about seventy, have already got a blanket each and we still have more than four hundred squares to be sewn together - which will be sent to other orphans in India.
The orphanage, SuperJam and everyone who has been involved in putting everything together really wants to thank everyone who took the time to knit squares. The kids are over the moon with their blankets and the Sponsor a Square fundraiser (feel free to click here and sponsor the squares for £1 to help raise much needed money for supplies for the orphanage) has so far raised over £600.
You can see some more photographs of the kids with their blankets here.
The next SuperJam Tea Party is this Thursday, 2nd April 2pm-4pm at Meadowbank Sports Centre, London Road, Edinburgh. Please do come along and feel free to bring some home baking!
What's more, our FaceBook fan page crossed the 200 fans mark today. To celebrate, we're having a some scones and tea this evening and probably some bubbly.
Today I came across a rather remarkable story. As you know, knitting is something that I write about a lot and we have a Tea Cosy of The Week competition.
You may already be familiar with Jo Eglen, who has been in the media a bit recently. She runs the 'Little Hen Rescue Centre', a home for 5,750 ex-battery hens.
A lot of the hens are bald when they get to her, so she came up with a novel and frankly brilliant solution; knit jumpers for all the hens!
The article in the Telegraph says: "The response was incredible and she has now kitted out 1,500 birds with woolly jumpers to keep the warm in the winter months.
"Some battery farms have up to 10,000 hens of the same age. They get quite thin and bald because of the stress and heat. About 60 per cent of the hens that come through are bald."
"We have patterns on our website that are straight-forward and simple. We've had 1,500 jumpers come through in just the past two months. So many different kinds - Christmas-themed jumpers, multi-coloured ones, some with bows and stripes."
As you know, I write quite a lot about the world of knitting. The guests often knit at our Tea Parties and we encourage readers of the blog and subscribers of the email newsletter to send in hand-knitted Tea Cosies, as part of our 'Tea Cosy of The Week Competition'.
Today, I found out about a very cool knitting shop in London, called I Knit, that is hosting 'The Knitting in Film and Television Awards'. The awards were set up to celebrate knitting, crochet and needlecraft in film and television.
From the site:
"The first ever KNIFTAs will be announced at our party on Sunday 22nd February 2009 at The Crown and Two Chairmen, Dean Street, Soho, W1D 3RZ (upstairs bar). From 4pm to 10pm. Only one thing is certain...Kate Winslet won't win one."
This week's Tea Cosy of The Week is a lovely yellow flower design, kindly donated by one of our local knitters.
The SuperJam Tea Parties have been growing at a great rate recently and, having now hosted well over 100 events in Scotland, England and Wales, a lot of elderly people are benefitting from the opportunity to have a laugh over a pot of tea and make some new friends. Of course, the SuperJam and scones always go down very well!
If you would like to support this very worthwhile project, please feel free to pop along to the next event - you can register your interest in getting involved here.
Alternatively, if you are a keen knitter, we'd be delighted if you could send a hand knitted tea cosy for us to use at the events. We will feature your cosy on the website and send you a case of SuperJam to say thanks!
I'm going on a trip to a massive trade fair in Dubai in a few weeks. I was talking about it with my friend Anne and she told me about the rather odd obsession that the city has with Tea Pots.
I was sent some pictures of the gigantic tea pots that they have in Dubai. It seems like a pretty wacky place, I'm looking forward to go on a little drive around the roundabouts there....
I have today been spending a bit of time watching the amazing talks and lectures you will find on the 'Do Lectures' site. The speakers include the inventor Trevor Bayliss, author and bread expert Andrew Whitley and Guy Watson of the Riverford Organic box scheme.
The idea behind the event is that 'People who DO things can inspire others to DO things'. Every year, the event invites DOers from business, the arts, campaigning, inventing and so on to share their stories and give insight about what inspires them, what motivates them and why they do what they do.
The event is sponsored by the wonderful Howies company, who produce a great collection of ethical clothing.
David Hieatt, co-founder of the event says "When you listen to their stories, they just light a fire in your belly to go and Do your thing, your passion, the thing that sits in the back your head each day, just waiting, and waiting for you to follow your heart.
To go find your cause to fight for, your company to go start, your invention to invent, your book to write, your mountain to climb."
The event takes place in West Wales and all of the 60 delegates camp out over the course of the days. For more information, check out the website.
The SuperJam Tea Parties featured on The Five Thirty Show...
At our most recenttea party for the elderly, our guests enjoyed the company of a TV camera from STV, filming a feature about the Tea Parties project for the Five Thirty Show.
We've now hosted well over 100 Tea Parties all over the country and there were over 110 elderly guests at last week's Tea Party, at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh.
You can watch the feature here, which was broadcast today, 27th January.
We've got a lot of Tea Parties planned for the coming months and the whole project is just growing and growing. The events are very well received by the elderly guests and, for some of them, it is the highlight of their week.
If you would like to get involved, click here to visit our Facebook group.
You may have seen this film in cinemas last year. It is about a group of elderly people in Northampton, Massachusetts, who have formed a rock band. They have a combined age of over 2,000 years.
They have grown in popularity so much over the past few years, especially after a film was made about their story, that they play to sell-out crowds all over the world.
MSNBC Says:
"Some of what they sing shouts the honest part of growing old. Their concerts are intelligent and deep. Ninety minutes nonstop, constantly shifting from laughter to tears.
"Nothing to do and nowhere to go,” they croon. “I want to be sedated."
It took standing ovations for director Bob Cilman to convince the chorus to sing the songs they used to tell their kids to turn down."
This is, of course, similar to the story of the British group 'The Zimmers', who shot to fame last year following the release of their single 'My Generation'.
These stories are inspirational because they demonstrate that, regardless of how old you are, you can still be entertaining, funny and try to improve how other people are perceived and treated in society.
Of course, through The SuperJam Tea Parties, I hope that we are able to bring fun and motivation to the lives of thousands of elderly people who are living alone, are housebound or who live in care.
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I've been a bit lazy with the 'Tea Cosy of The Week' contest over the past few weeks and haven't awarded any for a while.
However, this tea cosy is just so wonderful that I had to put it onto the blog. The amount of work involved in making a tea cosy as complicated as this is undoubtedly huge.
We get sent a lot of tea cosies for The SuperJam Tea Parties project and the elderly guests at the events really enjoy admiring them.
Feel free to send in your own hand knitted creation. If it is particularly good, i'll feature it on the blog and send you some jam!
Winners of The SuperJam Tea Parties Knit-a-thon Announced!
As you know, as part of the hundreds of SuperJam Tea parties for the elderly that we have been running over the past six months, we organised a massive 'knitathon'.
The guests at each of the tea parties all over the country were invited to knit squares, with the group who knitted the most winning a massive hamper of luxury chocolates from our very generous friends at Kschocolat.
All of the thousands of squares have been sewn together to make blankets for an orphanage in India. There are now enough beautiful hand knitted blankets for every single child at the Gwalior Orphanage for disabled children to have one each. We've even been sent some knitted jumpers, teddies and a couple of extra tea cosies for our ongoing 'Tea Cosy of The Week' competition.
The winning group was headed by Audrey Hughes in North Wales, who knitted an incredible 346 squares!
As part of our ongoing SuperJam Tea Parties project, we helped to put together a big event at Queen Margaret University, with the afternoon hosted by the international students society.
The guests enjoyed hearing about the diverse range of countries that the students all came from and learning about how life and culture is so much different elsewhere. Everyone also took part in a countries quiz, to see who was paying attention!
Of course, there were plenty of scones and SuperJam and lots of laughter. Our next SuperJam Tea Party is this Thursday, 15th January, at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, from 2pm-4pm - feel free to come along to give us a hand making the teas!
We've had a few great tea parties recently in Edinburgh and elsewhere, thanks for everyone who came along and made them so much fun!
Folks are still very kindly sending in hand-knitted squares for October's 'knitathon'.
We now have well over a thousand squares, which are currently being sewn together to make blankets for the Gwalior Children's orphanage in India, which is a wonderful charity that provides education, healthcare and love to disabled orphans. You can 'sponsor a square' online and donate some much-needed funds to the charity.
This week's 'Tea Cosy of The Week' is a very classic floral number, kindly sent in by one of the local Edinburgh CSV-RSVP volunteer knitters.
Please do feel free to send in a knitted tea cosy for use at our increasing number of tea parties all over the country - if it's a nice one, we'll write a wee story on the blog about it.. fame awaits..
Last month, as part of our 100 SuperJam Tea Parties all over Scotland, England and Wales, we organised a massive 'knitathon'.
Everyone who came along was invited to knit a square, with all of the squares eventually getting sewn together to make blankets for an orphanage for disabled children in Central India.
We have been overwhelmed and touched by the number of people who have rallied behind the cause. We have received literally thousands of squares, hats, gloves, jumpers and a few other bits and bobs that people have knitted to be sent over to the kids.
It has taken hundreds of man hours to stitch the squares together and my friend Fiona, who is a volunteer for the orphanage, has been leading the effort.
We thought it would be a nice idea for folks to 'sponsor a square', by donating £1 for each of the squares that have been sent in. That way, the kids can also get much needed clothes, books and medical care. You can donate a couple of quid online here - all funds go straight to the orphanage.
On behalf of the orphanage and the kids, thank you so much to everyone who has taken part in this, it has been really wonderful!
This week's favourite is this lovely floral number. It keeps tea snug as a bug and makes a cracking hat..
The mountain of hand-knitted squares keeps on growing - thanks very much to everyone who is sending them in. We'll soon start sewing them all together to make blankets for the Gwalior Children's Orphanage.
If you like, you can 'sponsor a square' online and help to raise much needed funds for the orphanage.
As part of our 100 Tea Parties across the UK, we have been running a massive 'knitathon'. The guests at all of this month's SuperJam Tea Parties have been invited to knit as many squares as they can throughout the month. So far, about 1,000 squares have been donated, which is quite incredible.
It was tricky to take a good photo to demonstrate how many squares that is, but I promise it is a lot!
My friend Fiona will be hosting a 'sewathon' in a few weeks' time. The squares will all be sewn together, once they have all been collected in, and taken to the Gwalior Orphanage in Central India, which Fiona helps to run.
We thought it would be a groovy idea to try and have each of the squares 'sponsored'. If we can raise £1 for each square that has been knitted, we will be able to help fund the amazing work that goes on at the orphanage. To sponsor a square and read more about the orphanage, please click here.
I've lazily skipped a few weeks' worth of the delights of 'Tea Cosy of The Week', because of all of the madness surrounding our 100 Tea Parties across the UK.
This marvelous 'Moose' (mouse, for our English readers) Tea Cosy was kindly knitted by one of the Edinburgh CSV-RSVP volunteers who came along to the Tea Party at Meadowbank. She also kindly knitted quite a few squares for the 'knitathon', which will be sewn together to make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India.
As always, if you have the knitting bug, feel free to send in a Tea Cosy for The SuperJam Tea Parties project. If it's particularly groovy, i'll pop it on the blog.
If you need any inspiration for your cosy, you might want to check out some of the funky knitting patterns from: Knitting Pattern Central.
Please beware; apparently (according to the Internet..) tea pots injure up to 4,000 people every year. Tea Cosies make them a bit softer..
This is very exciting! We just hosted our first SuperJam Tea Party in Wales.
There were quite a lot of people who came along to the tea party at Llandudno West Shore, for tea and scones and SuperJam. There was much laughter and new friendships were made.
Audrey, the host, and the elderly guests are going to knit squares over the coming weeks and bring as many as they can to the tea party next month. Of course, we'll be sewing all of the squares together to make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India, which is something we started doing as part of our 100 Tea Parties Across the UK a couple of weeks ago.
Please get in touch if you would like to help host a SuperJam Tea Party in your local community...
You can have a look at the pictures from the day here.
There were about 100 guests and we all enjoyed the wonderful music of Shamisen Club, food from Waitrose and tea from our chums at Today Was Fun.
Some of the boys from the school helping out were dressed in their full tailcoats, with top hats and walking canes. Their help with serving the tea was much appreciated.
The Mayor and Mayoress of Harrow came along. The Mayor was wearing his chain (bling!), which the guests enjoyed talking to him about.
The free raffle caused great excitement, with prizes donated from Jordans Cereals and Famous Grouse, as well as tea and jam.
All in all, it has been quite a week. A hundred tea parties, thousands of scones, thousands of cups of tea and hundreds of balls of wool. A lot of people had a lot of fun because of all of this and we'll soon start work on sewing together all of the squares that were knitted, to be sent over to our friends' orphanage in India, as blankets for the kids.
Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible; especially Contact the Elderly, Waitrose, John Lewis,
Almost 500 people came and 500 scones were buttered and jammed...
Yesterday we hosted our biggest ever SuperJam Tea Party, at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, with the support of our friends at Edinburgh Leisure and the City of Edinburgh Council.
Around 500 people came along for tea from Today Was Fun and scones and cupcakes from Waitrose. Everyone took part in our massive 'knitathon' and we knitted over a hundred squares, which will be knitted together to make blankets for the Gwalior Children's Orphanage in Central India.
There were plenty of people dancing all afternoon to the wonderful music of Moira Hepburn, who was playing her keyboard.
We've got about 100 tea parties planned for this weekend, including a massive event for about 100 people at Harrow School in North London, again supported by our friends at Contact the Elderly , Today Was Fun , Waitrose and John Lewis .
*The picture is of myself with Dan Orr, who is 100 years old. We were overlooking the 47 advice stalls and hundreds of guests drinking tea!
Launch of the SuperJam Tea Parties at Stewart's Melville College
Today we hosted our first SuperJam Tea Party at Stewart's Melville College, in Edinburgh. There were about thirty guests and we all enjoyed singing from the students, as well as a pipe band and highland dancers. Of course, Waitrose kindly came along with some cupcakes and scones, which were served with SuperJam and lots of pots of tea.
Hopefully, we will start running a monthly event at the school. The elderly guests really enjoyed chatting to the students and the young people were amazed by the stories some of them had to tell. One of the guests, Dan Orr, had recently turned 100 and told everyone the story of getting a telegram from the queen and cutting a huge '100' cake with the Lord Provost, as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the state pension.
On the 5th October, we are hosting a Tea Party at Harrow School in North London, as part of our series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week'. The event at Harrow School will be the finale to a week of spectacular events all over the country, which are being run with the help of Waitrose, John Lewis and Contact The Elderly, to celebrate 'International Older People's Week'. We are also being helped out by our chums at the ethical tea company, Today Was fun and will be serving their amazing range of teas at all of the parties.
There will be a few musical acts at the event on the 5th, with perhaps the highlight of the show being Shamisen Club. The band is an instrumental world music group of electric-accordion, mandola and darbuka playing original materials and rearranged folklore songs from South East Asia, Middle East and Mediterranean countries with a touch of 1950's retro-electro dance hall music style.
I think the traditional Scottish pan drop, such as those produced by our friends at Millar-McCowan, is the ideal sweet to eat when you're spending an afternoon knitting. The kind folks at Millar's have donated hundreds of bags of their brilliant traditional sweets for everyone at the tea parties to enjoy...
A preview to our 500-person musical extravaganza Tea Party..
Starting from the 1st October, we are hosting a series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week'. The largest of these events will be at Meadowbank in Edinburgh, from 1pm-4pm and is being run with the help of Edinburgh Leisure and the local Council, as well as Waitrose and John Lewis.
We will be having a number of musical acts along on the day and, in the week running up to the event, I thought it would be nice to feature some of the acts on the blog and in our newsletter.
Twenty-two year old Jake Cogan from Lanarkshire, Scotland has been performing from a very early age, her songs and singing are wholeheartedly honest, at times raw and powerful at others witty and humorous- reflective of her character and West of Scotland upbringing. She is quietly becoming one of Folk Music's most exciting new voices. A servant of the traditions she keeps alive, she belongs to a rare breed of selfless performer-those who live to let tradition breath through them.
You can have a look at her website here or listen to some of her beautiful tracks on her myspace.
I'm really looking forward to her performance on the 1st October at Meadowbank..
Another week, another cosy. This is a pumpkin-esque tea cosy, and one of the best that has been sent in so far to support The SuperJam Tea Parties project. Feel free to whip out your knitting needles and come up with a masterpiece; we'll send you a bunch of jam and some general love in the post.
Knitting is, of course, becoming very cool. On the coolness scale, its around about yoga, or perhaps sushi, i'd say. Nothing beats a scarf or a jumper that someone has spent weeks knitting, with love and care. I might even just take up knitting myself. I've no idea how to knit but i'm going to get someone to teach me at the next tea party.
As part of our series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week', we are encouraging all of the thousands of people taking part to knit as many squares (30 stitches by 30 stitches) as they can, for us to sew together and make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India. We're aiming to put together hundreds, maybe thousands of blankets - so please please, feel free to knit a few squares and send them in to us.
You can find out more about knitting groups and knitting in general from the brilliant website UK Hand Knitting. It is 'National Knitting Week' on the 12-19th October so there will no doubt be all kinds of crocheting, cross-stitching an speed knitting going on.
Last week's tea party was our biggest yet, with about eighty guests coming along to Meadowbank stadium. It all went very smoothly, as ever, with the kind support of Waitrose and Edinburgh Leisure. At one point, there were about thirty-five people on the dance floor, lapping up the music of the brilliant accordionist, Jan, who did a great job of entertaining everyone throughout the afternoon..
On the first week of October, it is 'International Older Peoples' Week' and we will be celebrating the occasion by hosting 100 tea parties all over the UK. You may have read about this in an article in the Evening News this week.
The biggest event will be held on the 1st October at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, from 1pm-4pm. We are aiming to attract up to 500 elderly guests for an afternoon of live music, dancing and, of course, scones and SuperJam. The event is being supported by Edinburgh Leisure (who are providing the venue and also running several activities in the morning) and will also see the brilliant 'Get up and Go' brochure launched; which showcases activities and events throughout the year for the older generation.
After kicking off at the Edinburgh event, we will be hosting 100 smaller events all over the country, in partnership with our friends at Contact The Elderly and the tea company Today Was Fun. The whole week of fun will be rounded up at an event for around 100 guests at Harrow School in London.
Of course, the event is being supported by our chums at Waitrose, who are kindly providing the food and drink and by John Lewis, who are helping us to organise a massive knitathon.
Everyone at the events will be provided with wool and needles and taught how to knit (if they don't already know), by some expert knitters from John Lewis and the local CSV-RSVP knitting group. Everyone will knit a square, we'll sew all of the squares together and produce hundreds of blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India.
Lots of folks have been kindly sending in beautiful tea cosies to help suppport our fast-growing social project, The SuperJam Tea Parties.
Knitting is no longer just a hobby for Grandmothers; it seems that the skill is one that is seeing something of a renaissance. I personally think its very cool. I was looking up the worldwide knitting championships, where knitters from all over the world come to find out who is the fastest knitter.
This year's winner is Hazel Tindall from Shetland, who knitted a mighty 262 loops in just three minutes. You can watch some BBC Scotland coverage of her preparing for the competition, here.
If that inspires you to take up some needles, feel free to knit a tea cosy that we'll put to good use at our tea parties. If we particularly like your work, we'll even feature your cosy as our Tea Cosy of The Week and will send you a bunch of jam as a thank you. Worldwide fame awaits you.
As part of The SuperJam Tea Parties , we've been receiving donations of hand-knitted tea cosies. This dainty little floral number was knitted by one of the Edinburgh CSV volunteers. You can check out their website here to find out about volunteering opportunities in your area.
Feel free to whip out your knitting needles and create a tea cosy for the cause, we'll feature it on the blog and send you a whole bunch of SuperJam goodies...
As part of The SuperJam Tea Parties , we've been receiving donations of hand-knitted tea cosies. This pom pom masterpiece was knitted by one of the Edinburgh CSV volunteers. You can check out their website here to find out about volunteering opportunities in your area.
Feel free to whip out your knitting needles and create a tea cosy for the cause, we'll feature it on the blog and send you a whole bunch of SuperJam goodies...
As part of The SuperJam Tea Parties , we've been kindly receiving donations of various hand-knitted tea cosies, made especially for the project by various dedicated and incredibly skilled knitters. I've decided that it would be wrong not to feature these knitted marvels on the blog. Each week, i'll put up the best one and the winner will get a whole bunch of jam. Feel free to get your knitting needles out and create a masterpiece!
This bumble bee-esque beauty was knitted by a member of the Edinburgh CSV. You can have a look at their website here and find out about all kinds of volunteering opportunities in your area.
I was inspired to get involved in entertaining housebound elderly people by my Gran (who also taught me how to make jam).
When she originally made jam, she would make jam and scones and cakes and take them to all the elderly people in her area. These were people who didn't ever get out of their homes and rarely had visitors so my Gran would take my brother and I with her and we would play our musical instruments or share stories with them to brighten up their day.
Caring for lonely elderly people in our area was something that we were always brought up with so I thought it would be nice to continue the theme on a big scale by setting up a project to run tea parties for the elderly.
Since April 2008, we have run well over 100 events, with up to 500 guests at each, all over Scotland, England and Wales. We have live music, dancing and, of course, SuperJam and scones! The guests have a wonderful afternoon every time, and are grateful of the opportunity to make new friends. One guest even said that it made him 'feel like a person again', since he had made a new group of friends.
We also run a 'Tea Cosy of The Week' competition, where anyone can send in a hand knitted tea cosy for us to use at the events and be rewarded with a case of SuperJam.
If you would like to get involved in the Tea Parties project, you can read more here or sign up to receive details about upcoming events here.
The other week, I was invited to a tea party held by our friends at Today Was Fun . They are a very cool and ethical tea company based in London and donate a lot of money to Contact The Elderly .
Anyway, the idea was to invite elderly people from the local area, who perhaps couldn't get out of the house much and were maybe quite lonely, round to their office for a tea party. We all ate lots of lovely cakes, drank pots of 'Friendship Tea' and had a good old chat and a laugh. Everyone went home with a 'goody bag' with a bag of tea, an Innocent smoothie and a jar of SuperJam.
I think Today Was Fun are a very good tea company and the work of Contact the Elderly is wonderful. Loneliness among the elderly of this country is an often forgotten problem and one that is close to my heart. I think tea parties like this are a great idea.
