{"id":1735,"date":"2014-04-01T12:30:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T12:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=1735"},"modified":"2014-04-02T16:50:15","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T16:50:15","slug":"kempsville-middle-club-spins-an-unlikely-yarn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/kempsville-middle-club-spins-an-unlikely-yarn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kempsville Middle club spins an unlikely yarn"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not hard to pick Hayley Reed out of a crowd of giggling middle school girls. She\u2019s likely giggling too and joining in the din, but the Kempsville Middle School eighth-grader\u2019s knitting needles are a dead giveaway.<\/p>\n

Not because she\u2019s knitting, they all are, but because she\u2019s the only one in the room doing it left handed.\"knitting<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge because no one was really sure how to teach me how\u00a0to do it,\u201d Reed said. \u201cBut I really wanted to be a part of something cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

That something cool turns out to be the Kempsville Middle knitting club.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. Knitting.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But first things first, she herself had to learn how to knit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouTube videos were a huge help and so was Ms. Bowman,\u201d Simms said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough when you have 20 kids in a room and no one knows how to knit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201ccasting-on\u201d for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a lost art, you know something today\u2019s kids just couldn\u2019t get in to,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cBut I am happy to say the club is pretty popular. The craftiness of it really appeals to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kempsville Middle knitting club was partly inspired by the national Warm Up America!<\/a> <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Not one of the club\u2019s finished squares is perfect, Simms said, but that\u2019s part of what makes the finished projects so special.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are so excited to be able to say ‘I made that, that piece is mine’,\u201d Simms said. \u201cI think the imperfections add character and show the blankets were made with love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKnitting was really hard at first to learn but I stuck with it because I really wanted to make blankets,\u201d said sixth-grader Morgan Duyos. \u201cIt feels good to say I made something that will help someone else feel special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow sixth-grader Katherine Ramos had a more personal reason for joining the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be a good way to make some friends and to be creative,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year club members partnered with the Sentara Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and donated five lap blankets for residents in wheel chairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great help for our residents, but more importantly it makes them feel good to know someone is thinking about them,\u201d said Danah Kigler, a Sentara representative. \u201cSome of our residents don\u2019t have visitors, and it means the world to them to know these children care.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about a sense of community and understanding that there are people in our neighborhoods whose needs are greater than our own,\u201d Simms said. \u201cThese girls get that, and now they have a way to give back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not hard to pick Hayley Reed out of a crowd of giggling middle school girls. She\u2019s likely giggling too and joining in the din, but the Kempsville Middle School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1737,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1735\/revisions\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}