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
