Last year, I taught free knitting classes...All of the supplies were gradually collected (donated by those with lots of extra acrylic yarn stashed, or granny's inherited yarn). I collected size 7-8 needles, which is a standard for the majority of these yarns.
I had many willing students; the only catch was that their first project went to an orphanage in Mexico! This project was very successful...110 articles went to the ophans!
Here is how I did it. Using all of the various colors, and odds and ends yarns, we made chainlink scarves. Perhaps you have seen this style. You knit little rectangles, of various sizes, and sew them together. Unfortunately, I didn't end up with a picture of the happy recipients! (I will include a similar photo, however.)
The beauty of this, is that you use up yarn; naturally, benefit a great cause; give kids a "cool" and colorful, handmade gift!
This project is ideal for beginners. First, they learn casting on and binding off very well, as they do it over and over, and their knit pieces are small. These are skills often forgotten after the actual knitting begins. They also learn to make seams well.
Second, this is a great project to learn multiple stitches on. They can learn garter stitch on a few links, then graduate to stockinette, ribbing, etc. Because of the style, it all looks great! They can graduate to learning hats, because learning ribbing/knit + purl.
Third, the gauge isn't crutial at all! Mistakes are easily hidden.
The approx. size of the rectangles I made was 11" x 2 1/5". But, again, it isn't crutial!
If shipping cost is a concern, you can ask for a small donation for this. After all, you are teaching the class, and donating your time!
The shipping costs for Mexico were going to be a lot...We ended up making scarves and hats for each person (which I wouldn't repeat); this would have been a huge package. Luckily, there were some people from a local church going to that particular orphanage, who offered to take them!!
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