Last Thursday at the second MRI Maakers meeting of 2020, amidst the usual chat and click of needles, an online pattern sale nudged the total raised so far over £81,000.

It was quite a meeting all in all with much to talk about. It was also Marina Robertson’s birthday, who has been helping Harriet since before the MRI Maakers started. So it was quite fitting and light-some to share birthday cake with her as we announced our new total.

With just over 4 months until the MRI Maakers itself has it’s own anniversary, some have begun to speculate what will have been raised in connection with this group of volunteers in their first full year.

We’ve already raised more than we thought possible from the sale of patterns and finished knitwear made by a still growing team of volunteers. That, along with the events and contributions they have inspired from around the globe has helped us get where we now are. We’re all incredibly grateful for everyone’s support, in whatever form, wherever in the world it comes from.

Going Forward

To that end the momentum carries on, we have a busy year ahead, but the offers of help continue from near and far. The Harriet’s Hat pattern is now also being translated into German, Dutch, and Japanese. Just today we released a conversion for loom knitters which was kindly donated to us by Ruth Airey, who organised the Loom Knit along last year.

We now also have the 264 baubles and gnomes, etc. sent to Jamieson’s of Shetland for their Christmas window display. We’ll auction them after the Lerwick Up Helly Aa festival has passed. So we’ve set up the facility in readiness.

To test it out, we launched an auction yesterday of a hand made Harriet’s Cowl. It was made by none other than Gracie Arthur, who is over 85, from Fernlea Day Care in Whalsay. You can see how well that’s going here – Handmade Harriet’s Cowl Auction. There could be no better way for something that can’t be made routinely available for sale on the site. It’s not possible to make such a big finished project available the we sell hats, headbands and other finished items.

We’re also delighted that Margaret and 11 others from Norway will be joining us in August for a week. So we really do have much to organise throughout the year on top of everything else. They have another event taking place to raise funds for us in Oppdal on the 29th. See here – Norway To Host Second Event Supporting MRI Maakers.

The overall Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal is well over a third of the way towards it’s goal, all efforts combined. 2020 is looking good.

Many thanks for everyone’s continued support. Truly breathtaking. Thank you.