Need leads on donated/inexpensive superwash

[Mamatoto2]

My DD's Waldorf school is going to be doing a "knit a thon" as a fundraiser this spring. Children old enough to knit/crochet and needle-crafty parents will get pledges from family/friends for every square block that they knit and then all of the blocks will be joined together into blankets at the end. The money will go to tuition assistance at the school and the blankets will be donated to organizations that help homeless families transitioning to housing, children dealing with traumas (loss of loved one, illness, parent deployed, etc.), and children in long-term hospitalization.

Because the school focuses on natural materials in handcrafting we want to use wool, but we need a superwash to make it practical for the recipients. Does anyone have great suggestions for who we can approach for donated/discounted superwash? It can even be cosmetically imperfect as long as the quality is still good. Any vendors contributing would get logos on all material related to the knit a thon (web pages, pledge sheets, etc.)

I'd appreciate any suggestions since we really need to minimize supply costs to make the fundraiser a success. Feel free to spam me via PM if appropriate.

Thanks!

[moondiapers]

I'm not sure about your average person being comforted by an itchy wool blanket. What about cotton yarn?

[moondiapers]

Oh, I think wool would be fine for the other situations (homeless families that need warm blankets, and families trying to furnish new homes) but the kids in the hospital need something to cuddle with.

[Mamatoto2]

I'm open to cotton too, although it does require some degree of care when washing/drying so as not to shrink. We'll be talking more specifically with the recipient organizations about the preferred fiber content once we hammer down exactly which organizations we're donating to (we have 4 on the short list at the moment). I agree that if the goal of the blanket is to keep someone warm, wool is better although cotton might be softer. Hopefully, the wool that we can get will have a fairly soft hand too.

All that aside, any thoughts on where we can get natural fiber, easy to care for yarn for free/minimal cost?

[annettemarie]

Have you tried contacting the yarn manufacturers and explaining your project? Maybe they would donate some.

[Mamatoto2]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Have you tried contacting the yarn manufacturers and explaining your project? Maybe they would donate some.

That's the plan in part. I guess I'm asking if people have suggestions for who to contact at the manufacturer or store level. I intend to contact Cascade, Brown Sheep, Elann.com, and knitpicks.com as a start.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by moondiapers

I'm not sure about your average person being comforted by an itchy wool blanket. What about cotton yarn?

The average superwash isn't itchy at all. Although the average mercerized cotton is.

You may want to track down a wholesaler - you might check with your LYS for names of wholesalers. I know my LYS has offered to let me buy undyed from her wholesaler at cost (in bulk).

[brightonwoman]

knitpicks has very inexpensive regular wool (the 'wool of the andes' worsted is $2/ball) so if you had a pattern that allowed for felting, that's a fairly cheap option...
their superwash is about $3.60/ball, depending on weight...you could ask them about a bulk discount though. They have some gorgeous colors (and I can vouch for it being soft!!)

Another thing you might try is if you have a joanns near you, anyone who is on their mailing list gets a 40% off coupon every month...it's only good for one item, so it would only be one ball of yarn per person...but if a lot of people got together on it you could get quite a few balls on the cheap. (I live in the middle of nowhere so I don't use my coupons very often--just online occasionally...I'd happily mail my next coupon to somebody who could use it if you have the time to wait, and want to PM me about it)

[lilyka]

Some places won't accept wool so definitely check with your recipients. I know here organizations prefer acrylic.

[Mamatoto2]

Thank you all for the great suggestions thus far. We're trying to find creative ways to accumulate yarn at minimal cost in addition to trying to get donated yarn. I'll keep you posted with the progress as we make it, and please keep the ideas coming.