In my part of Sweden’s social media world people are talking about Hjärtekatter, “Heart cats”.
What is a heart cat? It’s a crocheted cat, an amigurumi, with a scar right across the heart.
Why is there a scar? Well, sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and a baby is born with a heart defect. The baby has to live its first few weeks or even months in a hospital. And when you’re little, insecure and scared, what is better than to have something to hold on to?
One mom wanted to give her child something that would be a reminder of the stay in Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg, a stuffed animal with the same scar as the child and a friend made her a heart cat.
Then they thought, what if they could give all the kids with heart problems a heart cat to take home? Maybe if they asked around and started a Facebook page, there could be … say 100 cats crocheted until the end of the year? A lot of cats! Would it be possible?
Today, one month later, they have collected 314 cats! The cats are crocheted all over Sweden, almost every crochet or knit blog has made or is making a cat. People are crocheting several cats in different colors and then take pictures of them before they send them away. Look at Marias Garn, Kaffebönan or Garnsligt for example. There are groups on the knitting community Ravelry and the Swedish Knitting association, Sticka has challenged all its members to make a cat. The project has been a total success and now Lund University Hospital can also give away heart cats.
Then the moms thought, what about the siblings of the sick children? Not only do their lives fall apart because another child arrives and gets all the attention that a newborn little brother or sister would, but also this new baby is sick and has to stay in the hospital and mom and dad are worried and don’t have any time for them. What if we can gave these siblings a little stuffed toy as well? A new challenge is made!
Do you want to crochet something? Contact Hjärtekatten at hjartekatten@gmail.com. If you can’t crochet, you can donate 75 SEK (about 8 Euro), choose a color and a name and someone else will crochet a cat or another toy for you!
Heart cat blog (in Swedish only)
