Monthly Archive for November, 2010

When I was younger, I asked my mom to teach my how to knit. She taught me how to knit a scarf, and it was terrible. It was long and made of yarn but looked nothing like something that was made to keep me warm. It wasn’t even straight. I gave up and my mom ended up redoing it for me so that I had an actual scarf to wear. It was not until I met Julie and heard about Love Knits that I thought as an educator I could inspire my students to learn a skill and use it to give back to someone in need.

Well lo and behold, I got the hang of it and I was “hooked” for lack of a better term, As did my students. Various students of mine came together to learn and collect one, two, three hats and then a couple scarves and Love Knits caught on like wildfire. My students were excited to use their own money to purchase yarn and spend their free time crocheting or knitting something that they would make for someone who needed to keep warm during the warm Canadian winters.

It was contagious. The idea of teenagers coming together for a unified cause to help someone else proves that this generation is capable of seeing beyond themselves and use what they have been blessed with to give back. We decided to give to a specific cause, Light Patrol it was.

There was a set goal that by Christmas time we would collect as many hats and scarves as possible. The deadline came and we had collected 88 hats and scarves. I am a huge advocate for projects that bring forth change and challenge thinking beyond our existence and ourselves. Love Knits gave our student body a chance to see a need and to answer with the call to give where needed and to love with our whole selves without even knowing the name of the person who would receive. We are called to love, but it is up to us to decide if we are going to respond or not.

Joni Allardyce
Mississauga, ON

http://www.joniallardyce.com

This week Love Knits took on Wainfleet, ON! I heard about Love Knits this summer and loved the idea of getting people in my community together to work towards something greater; serving those in greater need than ourselves. So I committed to having a party!! At this point in time my knitting skills: zero. Never had I touched a knitting needle, but a promise is a promise, right!? I knew I’d be held to it…

After a quick lesson my skills were below average at best. Somehow I kept managing to multiply the number of stitches I had, 16 turned to 32. So on and so forth. Regardless of my stitch count, I knew the basic knitting stitch, and felt confident to set sail in these uncharted waters!!

I proposed the idea to a couple ladies at work, and after lining up a humble abode, a sweet cake and some tea, it was time to make love knit!! I showed up with a huge satchel of donated yarn, needles and googled “how to knit” just in case! Five fun and fearless ladies gathered, and we were off; picking colours, deciding what needles to use, and eager to knit a glamorous and useful scarf, but then the questions started! Did I mention nobody in this group had ever knit before?

First question: How do you cast on? I quickly learned that this “casting on” business is a crucial part of knitting, without it apparently you cannot knit! As the “host” and “knitting instructor” of this party, knowing how to do this would have been ideal…oops! Luckily, we were relentless and adamant about our scarves and determined to figure this out. Numerous methods were had- Allison tried the “left handed loop-d-loop”, Heidi had a “hundred knot needle”, Rachelle rarely spoke, and Anita attempted numerous ways with no avail. My role quickly switched from “instructor” to “cheerleader”, as I obviously had no clue!

Now one might think that this would make for an awful experience, but we laughed, we joked around, chatted away and after about 45 minutes we figured something out, whether it was right or not, no one will ever know, but it worked!!! A short tea, talk and cake time out and we were ready to rock again. We encountered our share of problems but since we didn’t know how to fix them, we just remained positive!

All in all it was great fun! Good to get together outside of work, relax, hang out and do something new. Thinking that we would actually finish a scarf in one night may have been tad ambitious, as I’ve since learned they can take up to 10 hours, but they are in the works! Rachelle woke up early because she says she is now “addicted to knitting!,” Anita and her son are working together on theirs, Heidi is hoping to make it a weekly event, and mine??? Pssst- I didn’t even like knitting, I just wanted to hang out!

Amanda Newhouse
Wainfleet, ON

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