Amigurumi

I can’t claim the nails, that’s the group coordinator. In the UK at least you join the local OFAP group. The group coordinator is responsible for holding irl meet ups, checking all the octopuses made by her group, washing, drying and packaging them, and dropping them off at local neonatal units who request them. She gets audited from time to time too.

My group leader was a really lovely woman, but I think she was definitely on the stricter side. I’d see people from other groups post theirs that had passed with gaps much more visible than mine. So that was frustrating - especially as they don’t give them back. “Rejected” ones were offered to grieving parents, but they weren’t a lot of takers, understandably. So there’s an awful lot of time, effort and money sitting in boxes somewhere going to waste.

I actually switched to making flat ones in the end like this: I didn’t enjoy making those. I thought they were a bit ugly! And I still had about 5-10 of those rejected for pinprick gaps at first - even though there’s no stuffing!

You’re absolutely right about having to err on the side of caution, you just can’t take risks with these tiny ones. But after a while it becomes really disheartening, or at least it did to me. I’m glad I joined for the couple of years I did, but I definitely don’t have the money now to risk so many going to waste. The overall leaders in the UK were pretty unlikable - you’d get a lot of criticism and very little thanks. They’d berate us for not making enough each month and push us to buy yarn from them at a mark up. I believe the scheme started in the US, or Canada so hopefully it’s a bit better run there!