Sign up to the challenge by the first of October 2025. You can set your own target as to how many puddings you’ll make – if you’re a novice knitter why not encourage friends or family to sponsor you for every pudding completed.
The Knit Before Christmas
Calling all knitters – The Knit Before Christmas is back! Whether you are a seasoned knitter or wanting to learn a new skill, we're on the lookout for as many knitted or crocheted Christmas Puddings or festive novelties as possible, to keep Chocolate Oranges warm so that we can sell them at Christmas events our volunteers attend. This year we'll also be running two 'Knit and Natter' sessions at Shooting Star House, giving you a chance to meet other knitters, drop off your novelities and exchange stitching stories over a cup of tea and a biscuit. Whether you're a talented knitter or want to be one, we hope this event will raise some much needed Christmas cheer, as well as vital funds for the families we support.
Sign up
How it works
Step one
Step Two
We’ll send you a welcome pack including one of our tote bags, our knitting patterns and a knitting chart. You can also come along to our first Knit and Natter event to grab some free wool.
Step three
Start Knitting! You can either post your knits to us, or drop them off at Shooting Star House in Hampton at our Knit and Natter session in October. Please try and send all your knits to us by mid November at the latest.
Step four
Our volunteer elves will use your fabulous creations to cover some Chocolate Oranges and sell them as stocking fillers at the many Christmas fairs and markets we attend. Keep an eye on our community events page to see where we’ll be.
Knitting patterns
Christmas pudding
If you’re a more confident knitter then try our Christmas pudding pattern – this is just the basic shape, feel free to get creative, as long as it can hold a Chocolate Orange then we can sell it on our stalls – in the past we’ve seen stockings, snowmen, angels and many more. We can’t wait to see all your festive knits!
Star
If your a new knitter then why not try our simple star pattern, and challenge yourself to see how many you can make over October. Invite friends and family to sponsor you through our JustGiving page, and if you raise £50 or more we’ll send you a branded Shooting Star bag as a thank you.
Sign up for The Knit Before Christmas 2025
Frequently asked questions
Through the month of October, we are setting the challenge to knit every day to raise money for Shooting Star. Whether you are new to knitting or have years of knitting experience, we would love for you to join our community challenge.
Complete the sign-up form on this page to register your interest. If you’d like to be sponsored to see how many knits you can make you can sign up to our JustGiving page here.
If you would like to fundraise, set up a JustGiving page which will be linked to our wider Knit Before Christmas Community Page. We would love for you to share pictures and updates throughout the month.
There is no target, any donations to Shooting Star will make such a difference. As a token of our thanks, if you raise £50 you will receive a free Shooting Star re-usable shopping bag.
No, you don’t have to create a fundraising page, but if you still want to knit for Shooting Star, we would love for you to donate any knitted items for us to bring to festive events.
Here is the link to our Knit Before Christmas JustGiving website.
Follow these steps – ‘Start fundraising’, click as to whether you are fundraising in memory of someone, click ‘Just fundraising’, you can skip the question for fundraising for an occasion. The target for each individual person is around £50. It is then up to you how you personalise your page!
Of course, the more the merrier! Please email community@shootingstar.org.uk to find out more.
If you are looking for some inspiration, we will share some festive templates as part of your registration pack. We would like small festive inspired novelties to raise money for Shooting Star. Please keep to festive colours.
Yes, absolutely! We are always looking for festive inspired knitted and crochet novelties to raise money for Shooting Star.
If you select to be contacted by post when you sign up to the challenge, you’ll receive an October knitting tracker so you can tick off all your progress!
There is no set deadline, however we want to start selling knitted novelties as soon as possible, ideally selling from November.
If you cannot come to one of our Knit and Natter events, then please send it to:
Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, Shooting Star House, The Avenue, Hampton, TW12 3RA.