Knitting For the Needy

Like everyone else in the world, when the Coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, I suddenly found myself stuck at home with a lot of time on my hands. Realizing I needed a new hobby I considered my options.

My apartment is small so it couldn’t be something that took up too much space. It also couldn’t be too expensive. I knew everyone else was getting into cooking, but I’ve never been into it, plus I’m not very good at it. And I was having some severe back issues so it had to be something that I could do while sitting. I had tried to keep plats alive many times in the past and failed miserably.

I eventually started thinking about knitting. There’s been a few times when I was in a waiting room or a meeting and someone was sitting there knitting a hat and it always seemed like a good, productive way to pass time, plus a fun way to be creative.

I didn’t have anyone to knit for though, so I decided that I would just make as many hats as I could so I could give them away to the needy. Winters here in Baltimore can be very cold and a warm hat can make a big difference if someone is stuck outside for a long time.

Most stores were still closed because of the Coronavirus so I went online and ordered scissors, different sized knitting hooks, a couple hat looms, a yarn bowl, and yarn of various colors and textures.

I was thrilled when the first package arrived just a few days later. I found a video online for complete beginners and sat down with my supplies.

When I first started putting the yarn through the loom it didn’t look like much, but after a while I started to see something form and it was so exciting to know that I had made that all on my own.

After I watched the video about how to finish a hat, I cut the yarn with my new yellow scissors and tied the knot. Then I took a look at it.

It looked like it was made for someone with a huge cone shaped head, but I was still proud of it. I decided that since it was my first one, I would give it to my mother. After all, it was a hat that only a mother could love. The next one was a little better. And the more I made, the better looking they got.

Knitting was perfect because the back problems I was having were so excruciating I couldn’t even go for a walk to get out for a little while, so I just kept making hats. And while I was making hats a lot of things happened in the world, but I couldn’t do anything about them, so I just kept making hats.

Eventually spring turn into summer and summer turned into fall.

That November I got a blood clot in my leg that the doctor at the hospital said was one of the biggest he’s ever seen. It made it very hard to walk, even though my back was getting better by then. Between that and the fact that most places were still closed I wasn’t able to find a place to take the hats I made. I gave a few away to some people I knew, but that was it.

It’s ok though because winter will come again, and people will need hats in the future. So, I will knit some more hat for the needy. But with everything going on in the world, I don’t know how I could have gotten through 2020 if I hadn’t been able to knit hats for the needy.