February 16 and February 23, 2007

The words to describe these past two weeks: Amazing and Fun!
We have received many notes from the podcast and are so grateful for all of the good wishes we have received. We are also grateful for all of the de-stashing and passing on of yarn to us!
I read all of the notes during the knitting group and all of the good wishes and support mean so much to the women in treatment here. I try to send a written thank you to everyone but some of the packages didn't include a return address (just the address of the postal office) so please know that if you didn't get a written snail mail thank you that is why!
This is a vest that Zelphia was working on and finished in the photo way down. Zelphia is a volunteer.

This is a blanket in progress!
This woman has been here one week. She is proudly modeling her scarf.
Cara, our art therapist, finished her felted bag on her last day here. She is leaving us--she is having a baby! She learned how to purl just in time!

This felted handbag felted much more than we thought. You never know just exactly how a felted bag will turn out!
The simply soft blanket is growing.
Scarves above and short rows below by our outpatient client who joins us each week.

Welcome Amy! She volunteered with us today - It was fun to hear how she didn't plan to ever knit! Look at her now!
Zelphia is modelling a sweater completed by our outpatient who joins us each week.

We have a woman who loves crocheting all kinds of hats!

These little purses and scarves were completed by a client during her second week here and she never knitted before!


Zelphia showed the clients ankle warmers that she just completed and she said were fun to knit on double pointed needles!
Maryanne is taking a sock knitting class and will proudly show us them when they are completed, I'm sure.
Maryanne came today. She showed the clients a vest she completed for her niece. Maryanne is a volunteer! We love it when she can make to to our group!



The blanket grew from the photo above in one week's time.
This is a shrug that a client is working on.
This is the vest completed. I have it way above as it was the week before.

This is the blanket that our client has been working on for months. She finished it!


Here is the blanket and I wanted to leave in the smile as she proudly showed us how beautiful it is.
This is a very beautiful baby blanket!

February 2 and February 9, 2007

The world has become much smaller over the past few days. I have learned some new technology as well thanks to Lisa in New Jersey (who is kindly explaining podcasting to me) and Brenda Dayne of Cast-On Podcast who mentioned us in her podcast. I have explained all of this to our clients as well and I plan to have us listening to podcasts shortly. So thanks to Brenda and to the knitters who have written to me about donating yarn to the program. We very much appreciate it and I hope I have captured some of what we are doing in our knitting program. Many of the women say it has helped them sit still, learn a new coping skill, make beautiful things, and connect with others. We have volunteers who come steadily each week who work with the women and teach and inspire us. Lucia, Zelphia, and Leslie have been coming just about every week for more than two years now. Megan has joined us over the past few months. And the clients now teach new members and new staff to knit. So, thank you all who have written, who have sent us yarn, and who have volunteered with us!

Here is a collection of scarves by one of our new knitters.
This woman completed our program and is now outpatient. She has involved herself in knitting and has taken advantage of many of lessons taught here. She now knows how to knit mittens, socks, hats, felted bags, and is proudly modeling a vertical scarf mixed with many yarns. This was her last day but she plans to come back and help teach the new clients!
This is a first project by a new knitter. A very long washcloth.
here is another collection of scarves by a woman who has almost completed her six months of treatment here.
This hoodie scarf was completed by a graduate/volunteer. She is teaching one of our staff members how to knit and purl .This is a baby hat among many other things!
These scarves were completed by another graduate/volunteer who comes back each week to knit with us.

One of our clients calls this her "recovery blanket". Our client has been working on it for months and says she is going to keep going until she completes her six months. It is beautiful with many mixtures of yarn. Often when I arrive in the morning she asks if I have any new colors for her blanket. She said when she lays it out on her bed, it is just beautiful. She has worked on this in garter stitch with a size 9 circular!
This is a first project by a new knitter using camoflauge yarn.
The above blanket is in simply soft in many colors.

This is a client/graduate/now volunteer modeling a sweater in progress.