"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

12/5/12

The December KnitWits Meeting

As regular readers know, I belong to a charity group here in my area called KnitWits. I joined it 5 years ago, I think. It may have been 6. It was after I closed my needle craft store in 2006 but I can't remember exactly how long after. But I'm digressing.

KnitWits is a group that knits and/or crochets items for charitable donation. We make all kinds of things for various organizations in the local area. We make afghans, baby things, toys, hats, gloves, mittens, shrugs, shawls, sweaters, socks, scarves, etc. Whatever is needed someone in the group makes them. We meet once a month where we bring what we've finished to the meeting. Our esteemed leader, Jan, takes what we make and stores it at her house. She also brings yarn every month which we pick up and take home to make more items.

At the December meeting, we don't do the yarn part. Jan brings everything we've made for the whole year carefully bagged and tagged for each organization they are going to. Then the recipients come and pick it up. It's my favorite meeting because I get to see how much we've made, and I get to see it being donated. Here is what happened at this years December meeting.




That's a lot of things we've made! About 1992 items. (A few more were added after the official tally, so it's actually just a bit more.)

Here is daughter Ruth standing among the piles, organized by who gets them. This year we had 13 different organizations who asked for donations from us.



This is Jan, counting to make sure it's all there.



Some of the group members milling about. A couple brought new items in and they were placed on this table. I like this pic cuz it represents a LOT of what happens each month. We stand around the table of finished things brought in, admiring, discussing, and asking each other "what pattern did you use?" What yarn is this?" My friend Tami was taking pics of the piles like I did. ;-)



Jan is about to get a hug from one of the very grateful folks we make things for.



Another happy recipient with her bags thanking Jan and my daughter.



After this pic, I sat down with my fellow members and we knitted/crocheted, chatted, and ate Christmas cookies while celebrating the day. Another year of goods distributed. It was a good day. It makes all the work worth it.

Live long and prosper. \\//


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