Friday, January 09, 2009

Busy Hands

Knitted HatsBernice, a Southside volunteer, is a super-fast knitter. The kids in her neighborhood come to her apartment while their moms are at work and one day she said to one of them, “Where’s your hat?” Well, it turned out that the kid didn’t have a hat so Bernice knitted him one. The next thing she knew she was knitting hats for a whole slew of kids. They became a club called “The Hats” which meets regularly for simple but fun activities at Bernice’s. When I first met her she was working on a cozy for a hummer. I kid you not!

Knitting HandsCharity knitting projects are great for those of us who have already gifted just about everyone we know with one of our precious yarn creations but we still feel compelled to make more! My mom knits for Project Linus which has already delivered more than two and a half million blankets to kids in need! Blankets for Project Linus can be dropped off at the Sewing Center of Santa Fe. They have recommended dimensions so be sure to contact the Sewing Center for more information. Ethel, another library volunteer, keeps crocheting baby blankets and whenever she finds out that she knows someone who knows someone who is having a baby, she passes on a hand made treasure.

Cozy Knitted SocksI think my favorite part of knitting is the inspiration and planning stage. This involves perusing lots of patterns, both in books at the library, the leaflet stash at home, and of course the plethora of free patterns on line. After the pattern is selected comes the very best part of all: fondling all the yarn at the local crafts stores. The Yarn Harlot, whose blog is laugh-out-loud funny, has an obsession with knitting socks. This seems to me an uncommonly wonderful idea since I am lately enamored with wearing wool socks under my boots. At lunch time today I took my Christmas money and purchased some bamboo dpns (double pointed needles) and some self-striping wool sock yarn, then printed off a simple pattern. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get good enough to knit some for other people too!

by LW @ SS

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