Today I'm featuring our online knitting group for carers of all ages.
With all this extra time at home I’ve rediscovered my love of knitting and I felt I needed a bit of encouragement if I was going to manage to knit a whole jumper for myself, so I launched the Zoom Knitting Bee. It’s like Weightwatchers for knitters – we meet once a week and show each other our projects so it definitely spurs you on when you know you’ll be sharing your progress each week.
The best thing about our knitting bee though has been having Young Carers join us. Our older carers can show the girls how to do different stitches and help them when they get stuck on a pattern. It works brilliantly.
As well as our individual knitting projects we have all been knitting ‘Teddies for Tragedies’ and have about 40 teddies ready to post off to refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, wherever there are children in need of help.
We’re all knitting triangles for bunting to yarn bomb the outside of our Carers Centre while it remains closed, and we’ll soon be starting Christmas knits – knitted sprouts and chocolate orange covers.
We are able to swop patterns, wool and knitting needles, and I’ve done garden visits to deliver patterns and wool to carers when we have all enjoyed a chance for a real catch up.
One carer who hadn’t knitted for 30 years joined the group for something to pass the time and she said she didn’t even like knitting. Since joining the group she has now knitted teddies for all her family, and a hat for her friend who’s undergoing chemo and there’s no stopping her now.
Who’d have thought Zoom knitting was even a thing?!
Message me if you'd like to join in the fun - mairi@northargyllcarers.org.uk
No prizes for guessing what today's jigsaw is!
Stay safe and have a relaxing weekend.
Mairi