UPDATE..
I would like to thank you for the beautiful blankets that you have provided us with, our patients are thrilled with the blankets, they give the ward a very homely feel which offers a lot of comfort to our patients.I hope I’m not being cheeking but I also wanted to ask if you ever make any dementia fidget toys e.g dolls and muffs with buttons. We always have dementia patients on the ward who struggle with everyday activities and we find these really help as they like to fidget to keep their hands busy.Thank you so much again.
Tara RitchieWard ClerkWard 31RVI
We have also created this Pinterest board for ideas for other Peony pals ideas. The most important thing is that we send safe items for these folk. The soft book made from six inch squares could be an easy project, the tangy style blankets are great and easy for sewing folk. Have a think. THANK YOU!!
And the blanket side, this project is ongoing! Thank you!
Absolutely delighted to be launching The Peony project, which aims to support wonderful older folk on the Elderly Care ward at the RVI in Newcastle. We were delighted to receive a request arrived from them, have included part of the email…
We receive your lovely blankets for children and babies on our ward which are very much appreciated. (These are our Little Hugs/Chrsitmas Cwtches for Newcastle)
I just wanted to let you know that we had a call a while ago about a dementia patient in Adult PICU. He needed to be distracted and loved woollen things to keep him calm. We did take one of your larger blankets up to help and it was very much appreciated. It felt to me that the blankets were being made for the beginning of someones life as a baby and at the end for someone with this terrible desease…
It was just a thought, we do have a specific Elderly Care ward here which is ward 31 if you would be interested in helping them in any way.
Thank you again for all you do, they are so beautiful and I know how much work must go into each and every one of them, so thank you again.
Why the peony?
Generally peonies are symbolic of love, honour, and compassion amongst other things. Peonies are traditionally given on special occasions as an expression of goodwill, best wishes, and joy. Seems a perfect fit we think.
We are looking for single bed sized blankets so our usual size of 48 inches by 60 inches.
Colours and styles to use..
A lot of research has gone into dementia and Alzheimers with relation to colour. And we are indebted to Jo Schumacher for the time she gave to this, and it has informed our colour palette.
KNIT AND CROCHET EQUALLY WELCOME!
- Use bright and bold. Red, blue, pink green, purple and orange. Green is one of the last colours patients can recognise, so lots of green! But do use contrasting colours.
- We are avoiding yellow as it can raise the metabolism, potentially causing aggression.
- Dark colours can give the impression of holes and could be distressing, so avoid anything too dark, definitely no black.
- Avoid bold patterns and stripes as they can be confusing and disorientating.
If making a whole blanket, and this would be our first choice where possible, please use any soft, machine washable yarn in these kind of colours.
Simple squares are perfect, a garter knit or granny square in a single colour are absolutely gorgeous.
If a whole blanket is too much, please 12 inch squares (or 6 inch if 12 isn’t possible) in Stylecraft Special DK for consistency.
- Cloud blue
- Duck egg
- Pistachio
- Meadow
- Cypress
- Cornish blue
- Denim
- Storm blue
- Lavender
- Proper purple
- Plum
- fondant
- Magenta
- spice
- shrimp
- pomegranate
- Lipstick
This is now an ongoing project, please make and send as ready. Truly gratefukl thank you!
Post to Teddington please.
