This weekend saw us sell our 100th hat knitted from the Harriet’s Hat pattern. It’s actually 102 as I write this, which includes the hats knitted from the pattern but in alternative colour works.

That means the MRI Maakers have raised a total of £3060 from finished Harriet’s Hats alone since they first began meeting at the beginning of May.

However they’ve also been making other hand knitted items from donated yarn including assorted headbands, fingerless gloves and even lace cowls, bringing the total raised from finished knitwear up to £3338 so far. It’s an incredible total in such a short space of time, all made possible by volunteers knitting in their spare time.

Meanwhile, pattern sales continue both online and from hard copies sold locally which is going particularly well during the tourist season. In fact, this hat being blocked was made by someone who purchased the pattern and yarn right here in Shetland, finishing it in Washington in the U.S. It’s one of thousands sold, with the current total raised from pattern sales now at £13421 (including both downloaded and hard copy versions). The odd number is due to some people paying a round £5.

The MRI Maakers have also inspired several donations, many of which go directly to the Shetland MRI Scanner appeal via the Paypal button on the donate page.  We have no way of knowing how much those are, but we do know of £292 donated directly to us from as far afield as Massachusetts in the U.S. which we mentioned before, and a very generous donation of £200 from Ann Hill and her husband David at this week’s MRI Maakers meeting.

What all of that added up to comes to is a staggering total of £17,051 in just under 2 months by the MRI Maakers, all paid directly into the MRI Scanner appeal fund. Harriet Middleton had the idea to start the MRI Maakers after spending several months selling her knitwear at craft stalls along with items donated by others to sell. She had already sent £3200 in to the scanner appeal from doing that before the fortnightly meetings along with this website started, meaning the total raised by Harriet along with the MRI Maakers since the Shetland MRI Scanner appeal began is now comfortably over £20,000. Mum always tells me I shouldn’t include that last bit, but it’s me writing this and I think it shouldn’t be ignored.

We can’t thank everyone enough for all their support, in particular the MRI Maakers who have contributed so much through their knitting in such a short space of time. It’s outstanding, thank you so much.