Mad knitting
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon knitting with a group of about twenty women at a local drug and alcohol treatment center. This is amazing to me: just around the corner of my building is this facility--Interim House--where these women eat, sleep, receive treatment for their addictions, and knit the rest of the time. It is a veritable hive of knitting. I thought I knit a lot. These ladies knit pretty much constantly. They sucked up a bunch of yarn at last week's meeting, and this week they spit out afghans and scarves, hats and even mittens. They are amazing.
The social worker there had this bright idea last year that she would teach the women how to knit so that they would have something to do to keep busy. (People struggling with addictions often need things to do in order to keep their minds off of whatever they are addicted to.) Pretty soon the house rules required all the women to attend the weekly knitting group, whether or not they decided to participate. Some of them resist at first, but eventually all of them take up their needles. And it works. Many of them report that knitting brings them so much pleasure and relaxation, they can't imagine making it through the rehab program without it.
The only problem is that they are so ravenous for yarn, the house can't keep any kind of stash around. These women will knit with anything, even that crappy brown red heart acrylic yarn you never thought you would use--they will find some use for it. They will make something beautiful of it.
What the women really love, however, is any kind of fun fur. Sorry, yarn snobs. I brought a few balls of fun fur today for them, and would you believe it they had to draw numbers out of a hat to determine which of the women would get these precious few balls.
So if any readers out there have some yarn you won't or can't use, please send it to us. If you send it to me, I'll make sure it gets delivered. Or drop me a line--I can tell you how to send it directly to Interim House. The ladies will be so grateful. Really.
The social worker there had this bright idea last year that she would teach the women how to knit so that they would have something to do to keep busy. (People struggling with addictions often need things to do in order to keep their minds off of whatever they are addicted to.) Pretty soon the house rules required all the women to attend the weekly knitting group, whether or not they decided to participate. Some of them resist at first, but eventually all of them take up their needles. And it works. Many of them report that knitting brings them so much pleasure and relaxation, they can't imagine making it through the rehab program without it.
The only problem is that they are so ravenous for yarn, the house can't keep any kind of stash around. These women will knit with anything, even that crappy brown red heart acrylic yarn you never thought you would use--they will find some use for it. They will make something beautiful of it.
What the women really love, however, is any kind of fun fur. Sorry, yarn snobs. I brought a few balls of fun fur today for them, and would you believe it they had to draw numbers out of a hat to determine which of the women would get these precious few balls.
So if any readers out there have some yarn you won't or can't use, please send it to us. If you send it to me, I'll make sure it gets delivered. Or drop me a line--I can tell you how to send it directly to Interim House. The ladies will be so grateful. Really.
posted by Unknown | 6:40 PM
2 Comments:
Hoo-boy! Did you catch ME on the right day! I'm cleaning out some things and have decided to get rid of the yarn in my stash that I bought that I'll never use. Stuff like Peace Fleece (can't stand it, too scratchy). Are half balls ok and single orphan balls ok? There are some projects that I have a whole ball left over, but I either didn't enjoy using the yarn (alpaca especially...ugh) or can't imagine what I'd do with it. Email me. stitchinseminarian [at] yahoo [dot] com. With an address to send them to.
This is near and dear to my heart. My father is a recovered alcoholic of 35 years so I would be very happy to send yarn. Email me at alteredarts@excite.com with the address and I will send yarn!
P.S. Found you via stitchinseminarian
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