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16 May 2012  Woolsack is being picked up by the national press now.  First an article in the Sunday Telegraph that included Woolsack, and today there is a great article in Private Eye (p29, issue 1314) covering some of the challenges of being a LOCOG Inspire project.  These challenges are explained in more detail here.

29 March 2012  Newsletter 6 is now being mailed out.  You should receive yours within 24 hours.  If it doesn't make it to you then please contact Jane using the General Queries option here and I'll email it to you manually.  One of the important items of news in this newsletter is that as distribution plans have evolved we've been able to extend the deadline for completing cushions to 31 May, with opportunties to make and stuff cushions specifically for the Paralympic athletes going on into June and July.

Another item in the newsletter is that we still have plenty of the free lovely British breeds wool yarn that has been donated to the project.  Please contact us if your group would like some of this. (we do have to ask for the minimal cost of posting it to you please)

Also lots of information about distributing the cushions.

28 March 2012  See what pupils at three of Ormskirk's Primary Schools have made!  Click here.

9 March 2012 Woolsack Project now in National Media Museum through the Your Life Online Project

22 February 2012

The cushion census email is going out to everyone on our email newsletter list.  You should be receiving your email within the next 24 hours.  If you don't get an email, or you get one that is difficult to read (some servers do funny things with formatting), then please contact us here, using the general queries option, and we'll  manually send it out to you.  When entering your email address on the Contact Form, please double check that your email address is correct.  Thank you, Jane

3 February 2012

We have been given a large donation of British wool yarn that we can pass onto people for just the cost of posting it to you.  Full details here.

27 January 2012

The Winter Youth Olympic Games were awesome - our Team GB athletes excelled themselves, and from the tweeting and comments they had an amazing time and gained valuable experience for the future.  Then there were the medals - who said UK athletes couldn't excel at winter sports!!

You can share the whole wonderful experience by watching the special British Olympic Dreams programme at 1pm on Saturday 28 January on BBC1.  This is one programme you won't want to miss.

If you did miss it, then you can still watch it on BBC iPlayer

12 January 2012

The winter cushions arrived safely at BOA before Christmas.  Just before Team GB left for Innsbruck and the Winter Youth Olympic Games that start tomorrow we received this lovely photograph and message from the athletes.

"We couldn't believe it when we were given the Woolsack cushions.  They're
really cool and we're taking them to Innsbruck with us to have on our beds
in the Village.  We'd like to thank all of the volunteers very much who
spent so much time knitting them for us". 

17 November 2011

Newsletter 4, short update, has been emailed out.  We now have 30 cushions finished, being made or promised.  There is a free pattern available that allows a group of people to make a cushion between them.  Contact Jane through the website for more information.

New sections on the website include images of cushion makers and Press

ETA  The problem of some people not getting newsletters has now been solved as far as we can establish.  So everyone should have received Newsletter 4 during the night.

Unfortunately, due to a problem with the mailing list software we were using, up to 7 out-of-office replies that should have come just to me were sent to some people on the mailing list.  We've been able to identify the cause of this and it won't happen again.  We are no longer using this software.

I do apologise for any concerns this has caused anyone.

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14 November 2011

Just over half way to the 40 cushions needed.

Newsletter 3  has been mailed out.

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4 November 2011 - 10 cushions already pledged for the Youth Olympic Winter Games - the race is on!

2 November 2011

The BOA (British Olympic Association)  approached us to ask if we could possibly do something very special for the Youth Olympic Winter Games; Innsbruck 2012.

The time scale is tight but we're confident that our cushion makers can make 40 special red, white and blue Woolsack cushions in time for them to be finished at the Harrogate stuffing event, 24-27 November.  This is a very personal way in which we can help these young athletes feel supported as they represent the UK in Innsbruck.  Full details are in Newsletter 2.  Contact us using the link below if you would like a copy of this.

Woolsack Newsletter 2

The second Woolsack Newsletter has gone out to everyone on our mailing list.  If you think you haven't received it, then please check your spam folder or similar depending on your email programme.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list, or have copies of this and the first newsletter, then please contact us.

Don't forget you can get the latest news in the Woolsack Facebook Group, in the Ravelry.com Woolsack Group and soon we will be tweeting.

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IMPORTANT NEWS!

On 21 July 2011 Woolsack was granted the Inspire Mark and officially became part of the Cultural Olympiad.

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THIS IS THE SITUATION AS OF 22 JUNE 2011.

PLEASE ALSO FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK GROUP, OR AT THE WOOLSACK GROUP ON RAVELRY

Summary
This project will make cushions from British Wool to give as a welcome gift from the people of Britain to each of the Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  This will require up to 20,000 cushions.
The cushion covers may be knitted, crocheted, embroidered, woven, felted, etc. wholly with British Wool supplied by each maker.  They will be directly stuffed with clean new or recycled British wool which has been supplied via an anonymous donation.  Patterns and designs are available on the above websites.

Each cushion will be accompanied with a personal gift card (templates will be provided, including a logo) from the individual or group who made it, saying “I/we made this for you ...” and telling the story of the particular cushion, including sourcing the materials, designing, marketing, etc.  We hope this will be a comforting physical memento and recognition from us all of the enormous personal effort each athlete has made to get to the Games.

The project includes schools, colleges, community groups, individuals, designers, craft groups, smallholders, breed societies (there are over 60 different recognised British sheep breeds), British Wool yarn producers and processors, hand-spinners, dyers, the knitting, crochet and craft press and media.  

Latest updates
Woolsack has been adopted as a project by the Knitting and Crochet Guild of Great Britain and also has support from The Campaign for Wool, the British Wool Marketing Board, the Crafts Council, RBST, NFU,  and individual WI federations.  British Wool yarn producers across the UK are being added to the list here. 

Prototype cushions have been trialled with athletes in the UK and their response has been most positive.

After a period of consultation with Inspire and LOCOG the formal Inspire application is about to be submitted.

Vision
Making these cushions will help people to use or gain craft skills using a sustainable material and also to learn about the production of British Wool, on which the British economy and early industry were originally founded.  Cushions may be collaborative or individual projects (e.g. a whole primary school class or WI group might work together to produce a cushion, while designers, craft makers or design students might make them as individuals).  The project can thus involve a wider range of people, able to be inspired by Olympic aspirations but not necessarily inspired by or able to participate directly in sports and athletics.

Background information
Support has been secured from the knitting and crochet press and pattern designers to provide free cushion pattern designs, general news, promotion and some competition prizes.  In addition, yarn manufacturers will be providing free patterns.  For certain groups, and beginners, knitting/crochet starter kits may be provided free of charge to enable everyone to take part.  Also sheep breed societies, the National Sheep Association, The Campaign for Wool, the British Wool Marketing Board, the NFU, British furnishing and knitwear producers and designers have been invited to participate, publicise, sponsor prizes and provide designs, etc.  It is planned to have cushion stuffing events at wool and craft shows and other locations across the country, to enable people to bring and display their work and provide a stuffing distribution and cushion collection system.  A list of the current events is available here.

Each cushion will be a standard size of 16”, 40cm square, but the designs are entirely up to the makers (subject to the rules of the London Olympic organisation as summarised here.  

It is estimated that each cushion will cost from £7 to £20 to make and the makers would be expected to donate or fund-raise the cost of materials.  There will also be the opportunity to use up wool stashes, or re-cycle wool, but the use of British Wool is the key criterion.  Clean new or re-cycled wool stuffing has been donated and will be provided free at stuffing events and for 20,000 cushions it is estimated that 6 tonnes of wool will be needed (0.3kg per cushion).

Re-cycled knitting needles can be provided to groups requiring them, together with basic knitting patterns for cushions.  Contact us for further details.  British yarns can be obtained from a wide range of producers from large companies to yarns from local farms across the country.  All suppliers of British wool (yarn and spinning fibre) that we have been able to identify so far are listed here.

Background Numbers
There are 6,500 WI federations with 205,000 members; the NFU has some 20,000 members, the circulation of the combined knitting and crochet magazines is around 100,000 monthly; the 1 million strong international on-line Ravelry community has some 61,000 members in 721 groups in the UK (this is just those noted as being in groups and may include duplication, there are also groups listed for England, Scotland and Wales, not all of which are included in the UK listing).  There are 17,000 primary schools, 500,000 members of the Girl Guides, around 400,000 Scouts, while UK youth has 7,000 affiliated groups representing some 700,000 members.  

Sue Blacker & Jane Cooper, 22 June 2011