The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
February 2007

Knitting and Beyond: Charity Knitting at St. Paul's-SLC

After a long-time faithful St. Paul's parishioner left her estate to St. Paul's Church, members of the church were organizing her household goods and came upon yarn in a basement room. Lots of yarn.

The only reasonable thing to do was to find knitters and a charity project for which to knit. After hauling the yarn back to the church, The Rev. Lyn Briggs, curate at St. Paul's, got the word out that knitters were needed.

And knitters responded! The group of knitters continues to knit each Thursday night. The original yarn stash has been depleted. Other parishioners donated yarn from their hidden stashes, or offered cash to buy more yarn.

Experienced knitters taught beginners to knit—producing 93 hats and 24 scarves. The hats and scarves were donated to the clients that St. Paul's serves through its Food Pantry, having been blessed at a Sunday morning Eucharist.

Then the knitters moved on to a new project.

The on-line knitting community shares lots of information about charity knitting projects. After meeting for dinner to celebrate their knitting accomplishments, they decided to knit over Christmas on The Red Scarf Project, sponsored by The Orphan Foundation of America.

The group sends care packages on Valentine's Day to foster children who are in college, adding a hand-knit red scarf to each package. These scarves are most likely the first hand-made item its recipient has ever received.

The Knitters of St. Paul's are literally "Knitting and Beyond." They are looking beyond themselves to yet another project, and another gathering where knitters can enjoy each other's company, sharing the gifts of yarn and skill they've been given.

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