Purls of wisdom: knitting for peace

FALLS VILLAGE — Timing their work to coincide with President-elect (at the time) Barack Obama’s call for Americans to do volunteer work over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, knitters set up shop at the Falls Village Congregational Church to create hats, scarves, mittens and other warm, woolen items for charity.

Ashley DeMazza said many of the items are for children in the coldest areas of the world: Mongolia, the former Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan and the Lakota Indian reservations.

Warm Woolies, an organization in Denver, Colo., distributes the goods. According to the Warm Woolies Web site, in 2007 the organization delivered some 5,724 items.

DeMazza said Warm Woolies is particular about the items they send along. Wool or majority-wool blends are required for clothing items; acrylic yarn is only acceptable in baby blankets — and they need as many of those as possible.

Warm Woolies has knitting patterns on the Web site, and will send wool yarn to knitters who have already sent in at least one finished piece, for the cost of postage.

The knitting group also makes its presence felt in local schools. DeMazza, a teacher at North Canaan Elementary School, said there is a constant demand for extra mittens in winter.

“The kids leave them everywhere,†she said.

An Army medic serving in Afghanistan got in touch with the knitters, asking for goods to distribute to children in remote villages as part of the humanitarian aid side of the conflict in that country.

Between 30 and 40 people participated in the local knitting event last year, and some 200 items were sent to adults and children in need. On Saturday, about 16 people were on hand at noon. Hot drinks were served, and good aromas issued from a crock pot on the meeting room’s kitchen counter.

Akke Jasmine, master knitter and guiding light of the “Knitwits,†a group that meets monthly at the David M. Hunt Library, said she expected to have a couple of tables’ worth of items ready to go by the time all was said and done.

Linda Weidenhamer was working on a hat, made with a nubby yarn that is alternately thick and thin. She said the texture helped retain warmth and holds together nicely.

“I think it’s nice that we are doing this as part of the call to service,†she said, needles clicking.

For more information, call Ashley DeMazza at 860-824-1437 or visit warmwoolies.org.

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