Thursday, June 24, 2010

Our awesome ladies...

There is an article in today's Chronicle Herald about the Stitch and Bitch club. Thought I would post it for posterity. (The online articles go away after awhile)




LUNENBURG — Elmer Beck wants to know what’s going on.
He’s sitting in his wheelchair in the veterans unit of Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg waiting for a game of bowling to begin when he notices a couple of ladies chatting off to the side.
"We’ve brought afghans," Ellen Hunt said as she walks over.
He thinks they’re attractive.
"My wife’s upstairs," Beck
said, referring to the alternate level of care unit on the floor above where he lives.
He would like to pick an afghan out for his wife. It is a sweet gesture.
"This one here would be nice," he said, lifting open a striped
pink, blue, white, green and burgundy afghan.
"What’s the price?" he asks.
But Hunt assures him there is no price and she will make sure his wife, Nita, gets the afghan.
The afghans are made by a group of women who get together at a local campground every Sunday morning. The LaHave River Campground Stitch and Bitch group has grown to 13 members in the two years since Verna Lowe started it.
Lowe, a 73-year-old widow, has always enjoyed crocheting and
knitting. There were times she had bits of yarn left over that weren’t enough to
be useful, so she started bringing them to the campground, where she has spent
her summer weekends for the past 10 years.
She had a close group of friends and asked the women if they could bring along some odds and ends, too, so that could pool their resources to make afghans for the sick and elderly in homes and hospitals.
Lowe all but blushes at the name the ladies picked for their club, saying she is almost too embarrassed to say it out loud.
"You know what gets done the most," she giggles.
They "get together every Sunday morning at 10 o’clock" and natter about anything that comes to mind, except politics and religion, as they work away on their squares of yarn.
They’ve become so well known among their circle of friends and family that people drop off donations at the campground’s office.
So far, the group has distributed 97 afghans. The ladies, ranging in ages from their late 20s to 70s, have enough squares for another three afghans, so they’ll hit the 100 mark soon.
"We want people in the community to know not to throw their yarn out in the garbage but to give it to us; no matter how tiny the balls are we can use them," Hunt
said.
"They’re all so beautiful," said Paul Falt, 89, a resident of the veterans unit.
Hunt gives him first pick of the afghans and tucks it around his lap. Moments later, they’re chatting about Falt’s home community of Petite Riviere, Lunenburg County.
Hunt promises she will be back to listen to memories of the people and places so sharp in his mind. He is looking forward to that, the thought warming him as much as the colourful blanket on his lap.

1 comment:

  1. great article...

    (the photo needs to be resized a bit, bc the article is in a long string... fyi).

    ReplyDelete