Our sister magazine, The Knitter has joined forces with top designers and Macmillan Cancer Support – and now they need your help to create amazing blankets to bring comfort to cancer patients.

"Macmillan Cancer Support is our charity of the year," says Juliet Bernard, editor of The Knitter. "They do an amazing job for people who are living with cancer and many of our families will have been helped by their services.

"So important is this charity to us at The Knitter that we are launching a Nationwide campaign called the Macmillan Comfort Blanket in association with the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on 25th September and supported by Rowan."

As knitters, this is an easy charity to support. All you need to do is gather your friends and family together for a knit and natter at a Coffee Morning, and knit some squares.

"We are asking knitters all over the  UK to knit 20x20cm squares," says Juliet. "40 squares make a Comfort Blanket, 8 squares long by 5 squares wide. Each Comfort Blanket we make will be given to somebody who is living with cancer so the more blankets we knit, the more people we benefit."

Top designers including Debbie Bliss, Alice Starmore, Meg Swansen, Kaffe Fassett, Marie Wallin and Kim Hargreaves have designed squares for the campaign which will be available to download from the Macmillan website. Find out more and download the first square today.

It's so easy to help

If you'd like to support this campaign, it just takes 3 simple steps:

1. Invite your friends round for a knit and natter. (Squares are great for new knitters!)
   
2. Log on to the Macmillan website to register your coffee morning and download your free patterns. (You can also call 0845 602 1246 quoting NA3 to register your coffee morning.)
3. Send your completed blanket to: The Knitter Macmillan Comfort Blanket, Future Publishing Ltd, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW or drop it off with us at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace.

Please help us to spread the word

"Our target is 100 blankets, that’s 4,000 squares and we are planning lots of exciting news between now and October so do keep an eye on our Ravelry group, the Macmillan and the Rowan sites," says Juliet. "We will also be Tweeting regularly from the Twitter name TheKnitterMag so please do re-tweet to your followers."

It's worth mentioning the campaign to non-knitters. Squares are really easy to knit, and a donation, whether it's time or money, means a lot – remember: every penny helps.

A cancer diagnosis is never easy to hear, but knowing you have support can help. "Think how much it would mean to you – the gift of a Comfort Blanket – knowing there are people out there you have never met who stand by your side lending you strength," says Juliet.

We know you'll do a great job and we hope you'll enjoy knitting the squares with your friends. So from everyone at Simply Knitting, The Knitter and Macmillan, we'd like to say THANK YOU! for your support.