It’s not hard to pick Hayley Reed out of a crowd of giggling middle school girls. She’s likely giggling too and joining in the din, but the Kempsville Middle School eighth-grader’s knitting needles are a dead giveaway.
Not because she’s knitting, they all are, but because she’s the only one in the room doing it left handed.
“It’s been a challenge because no one was really sure how to teach me how to do it,” Reed said. “But I really wanted to be a part of something cool.”
That something cool turns out to be the Kempsville Middle knitting club.
That’s right. Knitting.
In today’s age of cell phones and social media, Kempsville Middle librarian Leigh Simms thought something as simple as sitting in a knitting circle might help students learn to appreciate the art of communicating in a small group. So three years ago see set out to start a knitting club at the school with a little PTA grant funding to help her along the way.
But first things first, she herself had to learn how to knit.
“YouTube videos were a huge help and so was Ms. Bowman,” Simms said. “It’s tough when you have 20 kids in a room and no one knows how to knit.”
Teacher assistant Mary Anne Bowman learned how to knit as a child and has been making scarves and blankets ever since. She quickly volunteered to co-sponsor the club and set to work “casting-on” for students.
“I thought it was a lost art, you know something today’s kids just couldn’t get in to,” Bowman said. “But I am happy to say the club is pretty popular. The craftiness of it really appeals to the students.”
The Kempsville Middle knitting club was partly inspired by the national Warm Up America! foundation which makes and then donates knitted blankets and hats to those in need. Simms and Bowman focus on teaching students how to knit basic squares. The completed sections are then put together to make colorful blankets that are then donated to a local charity or organization.
In its third year, the club has a steady membership that consists of about 20 girls representing sixth- through eighth-grade and one middle school principal, Dr. Patty Jenkins.
Once a week throughout the first semester, club members gathered in the library to learn to wield the knitting needles, and eventually, make squares that could be knitted together into blankets.
Not one of the club’s finished squares is perfect, Simms said, but that’s part of what makes the finished projects so special.
“The students are so excited to be able to say ‘I made that, that piece is mine’,” Simms said. “I think the imperfections add character and show the blankets were made with love.”
“Knitting was really hard at first to learn but I stuck with it because I really wanted to make blankets,” said sixth-grader Morgan Duyos. “It feels good to say I made something that will help someone else feel special.”
Fellow sixth-grader Katherine Ramos had a more personal reason for joining the club.
“I thought it would be a good way to make some friends and to be creative,” Ramos said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
This year club members partnered with the Sentara Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and donated five lap blankets for residents in wheel chairs.
“I think it’s a great help for our residents, but more importantly it makes them feel good to know someone is thinking about them,” said Danah Kigler, a Sentara representative. “Some of our residents don’t have visitors, and it means the world to them to know these children care.”
For Simms that is the best measure of success. After all, caring- not perfect squares- is the final product she was hoping for when she first started the club.
“It’s all about a sense of community and understanding that there are people in our neighborhoods whose needs are greater than our own,” Simms said. “These girls get that, and now they have a way to give back.”
I got the privileged to be in the warm up america club in 6th and 7th grade sadley i had to move. But i am thankful that i learned knitting from the best the one and only Ms.Bowman and that i can teach many others the skill.
Daniela Alfaro
Warsaw, Poland
Hi Daniela,
What a sweet note! But, I am definitely not the best (at least when it comes to knitting!) Hope you are happy in your new home and doing well. Senora Phelps sends you her best wishes too. Take care and keep on knitting! It’s good for the soul.
Nicely done, now bring back letter writing.