Welcome to Knitting with a Purpose

This is going to be separate from my real life blog, hosted elsewhere. I'm not working to keep this anonymous, I just want to do some writing about some things apart from the mundane, everyday things I tend to write about there. I'm not trying to Write, if you know what I mean, I don't think that's my craft. Rather, I just want to spend some time focusing on other things. The higher picture, rather than the details.

I chose the name because of a project I just started. I wanted to do some volunteer work, but couldn't figure out how to do it, what with being a SAHM to my two boys, and having no regular babysitter. Then it occured to me that perhaps there was a way to volunteer without actually leaving my home. I contacted the NICU at Children's Hospital in Boston, and asked if they might want knitted items - specifically, baby hats. The nurse manager was very interested in this, and I agreed to make some hats for them. I chose the NICU because that's where my younger son was treated for jaundice. Those first few hours, when he had some abnormal liver function test results, were among some of the lowest of my life (and I've had some big ones). Once that straightened out, and it turned out it was just simple, phsiologic jaundice, then it was just difficult and tiring, but not terrifying.

I started last week, and it's been so...fun! I am combining several loves here - knitting, babies, and service. It's been interesting to be knitting these hats. I've been thinking about what their needs might be - different sizes, different types of hats, and just excited at the thought that something I made might make a difference in someone's life. Not a big difference, I know. If your baby is in the NICU, that's just Not Good. But if I could make something pretty, something sweet, something whimsical or fun, and if it gave someone in a bad situation a moment of lightness, that would be worth something to me.

It's important to me, I guess, to be doing something useful and helpful in life. I've been lucky. In my pre-baby life, I was a therapist, and I know that I made a real and important difference in a number of my clients' lives. Nowhere near all of them, of course, no one is that good, but there were some...Being a mother, while so important to me, isn't giving in quite the same way. I can't quite articulate it, and maybe I'll work on doing that here.

So, knitting. I'm not an artist, really. My art has always been interpreting other people's work (music) and looking at what's there (photography), rather than creating (except for a short time where I wrote some poetry, some of it even good, if I do say so myself, but that part of me seems to be on a long-term hiatus). I've always loved crafts. I love taking a pattern and the materials and creating something. I learned to knit when I was young, but hadn't done it in years, until two years ago, when I decided to knit a pumpkin hat for my older son for his halloween costume. I was 8 weeks pregnant with my younger son when I took my "Knitting Fruit Hats" class (I was the only student). I was wanting a new craft, since previously I had been a cross-stitcher, but needles and toddlers/young babies seemed a bad mix to me. I fell in love. I've been pretty damn good about finishing projects, which is amazing for me. I've got several cross-stitch pieces yet to be completed, but only one knitting project hanging over me (a simple sweater knit before I discoved knitting from the top down). I love seeing the things I've made worn and used! I may be slipping into One Sock Syndrome, but once I get a fair whack of these hats done, I'll get back to the socks.

So, the hats. So far, I've completed a soft fuzzy plain pink hat, a pumpkin hat (the proportions are wrong on it though so I may not give it), and a fun hat - a deep purply blue microspun with a few rows of coordinating fun fur. I think it's adorable, and hopefully someone else will too.

I'm calling this blog Knitting with a Purpose because, I suppose, that's what it feels like I'm doing with these hats. Not just for me, or for my family. I feel good to be connecting with that part of me that wants to give.