If you have a hook, you’ve got it made: that’s the motto of Eileen Kellogg, one of the members of Bonney Lake’s Knitpickers. The hook Kellogg refers to is the one used in crocheting, a yarn craft similar to knitting.
The Knitpickers are a boisterous group of like-minded women who get together at the Bonney Lake Senior Center every Wednesday morning to knit clothing and blankets for traumatized children up to 19 years old. The Bonney Lake group left its partnership with national charity Project Linus along with the rest of the former South Puget Sound chapter of the organization. The chapter has now become From Our Hearts, based out of Des Moines, Wash.
The Knitpickers have recorded 677 donated items during the last eight years.
“Most of what we make if for From Our Hearts,” Leila Miller said. “Some of the girls do something for themselves, or as gifts to their family. But when they’re not doing something for themselves they are making blankets for From Our Hearts.”
By withdrawing from Project Linus to work with From Our Heart, the Knitpickers are free to create more than blankets, though blankets still figure prominently into their projects and they will break away from knitting or crocheting to sew quilts. They are now able to include clothing and hats in their donations.
A project can take anywhere from a week to a month to complete, and some of the women will work on four to five projects at a time, Miller said. Most of the members came to the group with years – perhaps decades – of knitting or crocheting under their belts.
“Way back, my aunt used to crochet and that caught my interest,” Eileen Byram said. “I was in second or third grade and my teacher got together with the boys and girls in my class to make Mamie Squares. I’ve been at it ever since.”
Others, like Nell Snodgrass, taught themselves to crochet. Snodgrass bought a book and began practicing while riding on the bus. Now she has a box full of patternbooks.
Group members operate on their own personal stashes of yarn, but mostly from donated yarn.
“Sometimes people have yarn left over from a project they did once and they don’t know what to do with it, so we ask them to give it to us,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg also commented on the social aspect of the club: “We’re a group of gals that share the same interest, so we like to get together and practice and…”
“Gossip,”Albina Nichols said.
“No, don’t say gossip,” Kellogg said with a stifled laugh. “We get to have a little enjoyment and fun and share what we love to do amongst ourselves.”
