Finch Students

What an exciting year this has been teaching 5th grade students at Finch Elementary how to knit!  This is the second year Yarns of Hope members volunteered their time teaching during the students' recess break throughout the school year.  Organized by Becca Masters, she helped schedule time between the class as well as volunteers.  There were several consistent students who took up the craft and stayed all year learnng how to make squares.

This year, there was a specific goal in mind when teaching the students how to knit: how to give of their time and talents.  Many of the students at Finch Elementary are low-income families.  They are used to receiving meals, rides, clothes, etc.  Yarns of Hope wanted these students to know what it feels like to not only receive but to give in return.  While the students learned how a new talent in the hopes of carrying this throughout their life, squares were made and then joined to make a group blanket.


 


This blanket was then decided by the "designers" who to give this to. The class wanted to give this to one of their teachers who is pregnant.

The blanket was well-received and the students loved contributing to this project!

Yarns of Hope would love to teach a new batch of 5th graders next year, but we need your help!  Volunteering for an hour a week is needed from 4-5 knitters/crocheters to help give more one-on-one training and speed up the tutoring process.  Please consider donating your time in the fall and see young future crafters learn what we ourselves have become so passionate about.

Many thanks, Becca for organizing this year!  This program has certainly made an impact for years to come!

Paying It Forward

Here is a wonderful note from our own Sharon Hutchinson who attends the Wednesday evening get-together.  Thank you Sharon for sharing your own gift and making a difference within your family which has become infectious across the country!


Gina, I don’t know how soon I’ll get to come back to the knitting group, so I wanted to go ahead and tell you how much I appreciate what all you ladies are doing! As you know, I joined last summer in order to teach my grandson how to knit. In October, I visited my niece in Oklahoma and showed her my loom knitting projects. A couple of weeks later, I got a text from her saying “I just bought my first set of looms and just knitted my first two rows.” The next morning I received a text saying “Finished Brooklyn’s hat last night and starting on Lucy’s.” (Brooklyn and Lucy are her granddaughters.) Then about noon that day I received another text saying “I want to call in a substitute and go home and knit!” (She’s a first grade teacher.) Then she told me she wanted to make a hat for each of her first graders for Christmas. I discouraged the idea, but to no avail – she did it! There was a book she wanted to read them about a cap, and a few days before Christmas, I received a text that said simply “23 hats!”

The really neat thing about this is not only that my niece got “hooked” on knitting as an indirect result of Yarns of Hope, but that the first graders in Bartlesville, Oklahoma are in the “needy” category and really benefited from this gift. I believe it was Becca Masters who first told me about Knifty Knitters and brought up the image on her cell phone for me. I am eternally grateful! I gave caps to all of my family at Christmas, but that pales in comparison to what my niece Jennifer did. My 4 grandchildren, ages 5 and 7, were running around the house pretending their caps were magic and making up special games. So you might say that Yarns of Hope is truly magical! My husband says I’m a lot calmer since I learned to knit. When my kids asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said yarn, and yarn I got – enough baby alpaca and other wools to last me for months! I also have quite a stash that I’ve picked up at bargains, and I want to share it with YOH when you are ready for more.

So – thank you Gina, Becca, Jennifer, and everyone else who has been so kind and patient with me and my looms. Thank you for “paying it forward.”

Happy New Year, God bless you, and hope to see you soon!

Sharon Hutchison

Creative Ways of Donating

Sherri Jurak just turned 50 and wanted to celebrate the exciting time with friends that she loves.  Sherri also wanted to celebrate this time by not only focusing on her but a group she is passionate for: Yarns of Hope.  With a ministry dear to her heart, Sherri has contributed her time, materials, projects and actively promotes the group by adding the Yarns of Hope website as part of her signature in e-mails.  Sherri wanted to continue to give to the group by requesting yarn and items be donated in lieu of gifts.  An outpouring of yarn-related gifts arrived: 1 Crochet hook, 26 skeins of yarn, a $30 gift certificate to the Woolie Ewe and $345 to be used for purchasing more yarn and related materials!

Thank you, Sherri for your wonderful donation to Yarns of Hope!  We hope you have a wonderful time celebrating and embracing being 50!

Thanks From Moncrief Radiation/Oncology Center

This is a note that was sent to Gina expressing the thanks from the staff to the YOH group and what we do.  Our efforts truly are appreciated!

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Please forgive me for not quickly thanking you for bringing the knitted/crocheted hats recently. They are so beautiful and I have had probably 3 patients come by and request hats since you dropped them off. I continue to be awed by the volunteers who take the time to make them and I want them to know how their contribution makes a huge difference for our cancer patients. It remains a fun time for me to watch them go through them, trying them on, and pick the perfect one, two, or three! The looking and trying on brings good feelings to their day. So, please thank all of your volunteers again from all of us here at Moncrief!

Have a great weekend.

Sharon

Even Penguins Need Sweaters

Who says humans and dogs are the only ones that need to stay warm?

A yarn store in New Zealand called Skeinz worked with Animal Life Rescue to aid in knitting penguin sweaters due to a recent oil spill off the coast of Tauranga.  With the oil pouring out into the water and covering the animals, they have become sick and ALR requested jumpers to help keep them warm and prevent them from ingesting the oil as they try to preen.

Stitchers can quickly make a united front.  With online articles like HERE and HERE, Skeinz has received an over-abundance of penguin sweaters to give to the rescue.

This is one example that no matter how big, small or even the cause, there is somebody and something who can benefit from this craft with an idea, some yarn and a little TLC.