Knitting club spreads joy
From premature babies to homeless persons and the elderly from the Katutura old age home, this year benefited from the Senior Park old age home’s Sonneblom knitting club.The club was established in February after Rina Majiedt's husband died and she was suddenly alone. “After 60 years I was alone and I couldn’t stop crying. The kids took me to the doctor and I was put on anti-depressants. I realised it was my decision and I didn't want pills. I still wanted to mean something to people out there. So, I contacted Marylyn van Zyl and the ball started rolling.
“I have loved crocheting and knitting all my life. I told Rina that I would like to teach other people as well. We decided to set up the club for everyone who is interested in learning or just getting together and crocheting and knitting,” Van Zyl said.
Other women from the home got involved and today the club is 12 members strong.
Their first project was to knit knee blankets for the Katutura old age home.
“We were still working on it when we got a call from someone who said that homeless people were getting very cold and could we please make 85 beanies for them. We made a lot more and also gave them knee blankets,” Majiedt said.
The next call came from a woman who works with children who have been victims of rape.
“Their clothes are taken away by the police for investigations and then we give them a teddy bear to hold. Something that can give them some comfort. We crocheted 32 teddy bears and we got 50 from Australia from a teddy bear project there,” Van Zyl added.
Then they started crocheting with Hester Koch Breast Buddies.
“I have been crocheting ‘breasts’ for women who have had a mastectomy for seven years already. I thought the knitting club could get involved in the project and they did. We also crocheted 4000 pink hearts for breast cancer awareness. The hearts can be worn instead of the pink bows,” Koch said.
And now the ladies have started crocheting little octopuses for premature babies.
“The octopuses are placed on the babies' bodies to calm and stimulate them.”
Next year the women want to crochet items for the children of the Side-by-Side Early Intervention Centre. “We are going to crochet gloves without fingertips, as well as beanies. We are going to make sure that every child gets a hat that fits him or her and then every child also gets a scarf,” Van Zyl said. – [email protected]