Getting Shawls on Shoulders!

Thursday in Dunnet Church Hall was one of those quiet celebrations that represents the culmination of a lot of work as we got the shawls that have been made, displayed, and blessed in packages with labels and care instructions.

Now they are ready for distribution throughout the areas covered by the Central Churches of Caithness. Thanks to our partners, Central Churches and Project Linus UK, we can concentrate on the knitting in the confidence that our knitting will go to welcome homes.

As we knit and stuffed and chatted, I was reminded that no one knew the whole history of the shawls that led to the shawl ministry for Northern Loops.

It started with a book. Angela had the book, but Ruan (being a librarian) is often the one who brings books to us, so it might have started with her. This book was about knitting for peace. That was perhaps the first thread in the shawl ministry.

Another book -- one of very few about knitting collaboratively--had a pattern for a shawl made out of triangles. Now if this were a panto, I would expect to hear boos and hisses from the crowd because we did an awful lot of triangles, and then as a consequence, an awful lot of sewing up. I might not have mentioned triangles --folks rightly are a bit twitchy on the subject--if I had not run across the original paper templates I used to try to design with in the boot of my car. No one will be surprised to hear that I find forgotten things in the boot of my car, but just to let you know that this was found because I was tidying up--honestly!

Olive and Angela are shown here working to get the shawls into the packages. As with triangles, it sounded easier than it turned out to be.

Lastly I include here a photo of the wool recently donated to Margaret. It will start the cycle all over again because the shawl ministry will keeping putting shawls on shoulders.

Oh I forgot to mention another thread of the shawl ministry. When we started down this path, I put Northern Loops on the map of the international shawl ministry from a reference in Angela's book to the ministry, the first in Scotland! So the shawl ministry is one of the ways a handful of knitters in the far north of Scotland help make a better community here in our own backyard and beyond.

It was a busy Thursday. Tomorrow I'll blog the latest in Patreen's pockets.

Naptown Knitters--using knitting for re-entry

A friend from Indianapolis sent me a link to a story about how knitting is being used in a prison in Indianapolis. (www.wthr.com/story/14637117/prisoners-pitch). They call themselves the Naptown Knitters (Indianapolis earned the nap of Naptown in the notorious ganster era when Chicago hoods went the 200 miles south to lay low from the scrutiny of police or other gangs.)

I like to think that people who have strayed can find their way back into the social network that holds us together.

I also like this story because recently I have been baffled as to how to get people to understand the power of knitting. All too often it suffers from the image of Nanas who knit matinee jackets for babies or posh hobbyists buying expensive imported wool to make playthings for themselves.

Since its inception (probably not as early as some texts claim, but knitting has been around at least 500 years), it has been practiced by the upper classes or lower classes or men or women or children and gone in and out of fashion dozens of times.

Throughout that varied history,k nitting has been a powerful force for change--both personal and social. It meant eking out a meager income for herring girls and their families or keeping troops alive at Valley Forge. It also meant learning control and achievement. The meditational and therapeutic benefits are beginning to get attention outside the knitting magazines, which is another reason why I was chuffed to see about the Naptown Knitters.

Northern Loops is about that power to take control of some small part of your life and to put your knitting needles to work on a project of your own choosing. When that is a project for the community in which you live, it has the added benefit of reminding us all that we can do something for ourselves and our community. With a little knit and a purl and a laugh or two that's what we're up to at Northern Loops.

Blankets--the Real Stars of the Term

We smiled gleefully into the camera yesterday at our luncheon and enjoyed laughing, talking, and talking about knitting, but the real stars of the term sat largely ignored in a large plastic box at the head of the table.

Northern Loops teamed up with Project Linus to make blankets for the Caithness and Sutherland ambulance service.

Today I tried arranging them to display the colours, the careful stitching, and the snowy backdrop symbolizing the comfort that we hope to give with our blankets.

I perched my unfinished squares at the top both to say "I'm working on it" and to represent all the stitches and all the squares made by those who did a square or a bit of one and someone else picked it up and finished it off or tucked it away for finishing in front of the fire.

Caithness has a reputation for looking after its own--in part because we have to and in part because we want to. These blankets are a part of that Caithness way of life.

Nearly a year ago Northern Loops began as a good idea without even a name. NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) offered funding as part of their Age Unlimited program. Their goal was to find and encourage would-be social change agents in their 50s and 60s to help reduce social isolation for older people.

A few fellow knitters and I filled out the application and the idea began. Along the way, it gained a name, a focus, and now we can wrap up the first term of charity knitting and look forward to the next steps--this blog is part of it, along with a proper web page, and in time a book of our own tips, tricks, and patterns.