Friend of CRAFT and knitting super star, Vickie Howell, recently launched the Purple Stitch Project, a charity to help raise awareness of epilepsy and to support kids with seizure disorders by crafting purple (the epilepsy awareness color) plushies for them.
These gifts will serve as a reminder that they are not alone — that they have community support. To do this, Purple Stitch Project has teamed up with Craftsy to be able to offer free patterns and project ideas for volunteers to work from.
The project is near and dear to Vickie’s heart.
In 2011, Vickie’s youngest son, Tristan was diagnosed with epilepsy after an EEG test proved that the tonic clonic (“grand mal”) seizure he’d had in front of his big brother had not in fact, been a fluke. Since then it’s been an emotional roller-coaster of anti-seizure drug side-effects, alternative treatment options, academic challenges, and dealing with the emotional strife a child feels when he’s not in control of his own body. Tristan is a brave kid, though and is getting better every day.
Vickie is also hoping crafters can help provide 40+ children each with purple plushies at Camp Brainstorm, “a 5-day experience for kids, ages 8-18 who have seizure disorders” that’s happening in Bastrop, Texas next month. You can download a pattern for cute knit or crochet ninja, plush many other designer-donated patterns through the Purple Stitch Project pattern database on Craftsy. For full details and updates on the project, follow the news page on the PSP web site.
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