February 17, 2006

The words for today: keep learning! Today we had four new residents learn how to knit. We were grateful to have our two St. Joseph's University students who have joined us all year as knitters graduate to teachers! Thanks for helping us Leslie and Anne. Leslie and Anne have been with us all year as part of their community service activity. They each worked with a new resident today in teaching them how to knit. Maryanne also worked with the new knitters.

We had two outpatients join us and they too supported the new knitters! There is lots of knitting activity going on. You can see how the intarsia scarf is growing. Each color represents the person who gave the yarn. The moebius scarves are being worked on and there are handbags of all shapes and styles. Many of the residents have learned how to purl, just about all can cast on and bind off, and they talk about how their knitted creations are admired whenever they go out. Zelphia brought a friend Gabrielle who also learned how to knit with our residents.

February 10, 2006

The topic of the day: well, actually there were three themes - cast on clinic, knitting 101,and mobius scarves. We started today with each client and volunteer introducing themselves and displaying what they are working on. We had four outpatient/residential graduates join our group today. Maryanne taught our newest clients how to knit, Zelphia worked with the circular needles, and Lucia reviewed how to cast on and purl. Zelphia has on her wrap-around shrug which she just finished - that's her modeling it in the photo! The women at Interim House continually get better and better and the fact that it is a six month residential program with new clients being admitted and discharged means that the residents continually teach each other. So the newest clients can learn in our knitting group but they have many knitting buddies helping them throughout the week until the next group lesson. As we each showed our projects one of the clients shared that she was teaching her 16 year old daughter how to knit and how special that is for her. Knitting keeps getting passed on!

I want to send a very special thank you to Meloney and Diane at Jenkintown Curves who are helping in our yarn collection. Thanks to the exercisers who have donated yarn.

I also want to thank Abby and her mom. The St. Joseph's Church Shawl Ministry also sent beautiful yarn and needles to us. The circular needles were the answer to a prayer as so many of the women are making the mobius scarves.

I wish all of you could see how excited twenty five women are when they start knitting with all of the beautiful yarn you send. Thank you.

Jan. 27 & Feb. 3 2006-Two Weeks together

The weeks went by too quickly and I didn't get Jan 27 logged on the blog so I am combining both weeks and the photos. We missed Lucia and Leslie!

I want to let everyone know about and thank Ruth of Knit Together. Knit Together mentioned Interim House in their newsletter and I want to send a special thanks to Ruth for letting people know about our continual need for any kinds of yarn or needles so that we can keep our knitting program going. Odds and ends of yarn are always welcome! For more information about Knit Together you can find them here:
http://knit-together.com/

I taught one of our newest clients to knit last week and she quickly moved to purling. She started making a scarf with knit and purl stitches that seems to have caught the interest of many of the women. We cast on 17 with two strands of yarn, then slip the first stitch, then k3,p3,k3,p3,k4, then sl the first stitch, p3,k3,p3,k3,p4 and then repeat. It is easy but the scarf it creates looks harder than it is.

Heart pillows have also been the rage. Maryanne taught one of our clients how to make a heart pillow and it is catching on with many of us now learning how to do this. I have some photos of them in various stages of creation.

One of our outpatients has been joining us and proudly showed a handbag she made and some beautiful mobious scarves made from bits and pieces of yarn. Another outpatient proudly wore a pair of socks she knitted.

An idea that I wanted to pass on to all of our community of knitters was an idea that one of our residential clients had. She is making an intarsia scarf which I have a photo of and each of the designs on the scarf is from yarn from her peers, staff, or volunteers. As she showed her scarf she named each person who gave her yarn. What a great way to be reminded of all that our clients learn about sobriety and staying connected here at Interim House.