Knitting and crochet are often considered rather solitary pastimes – we sit at home with our hooks and needles, creating lovely things… alone. With the recent popularity of ‘knit and natter’-type groups, things have become somewhat more sociable. Public crafting, however, is still relatively rare, so it was a delight to have the chance to spend Saturday at The Make-it Shop in Manchester crocheting and publicising the 60 Million Trebles project.
I made a weekend of it so that I could be there for the whole day and help my friend Danielle to host the event. The shop is a collection point for blankets for the project, so Saturday provided an opportunity for people to drop off completed work, plus we worked on our wips* and squares for a group blanket during the day.
We set up in the morning and wondered whether many people would come… and to begin with there were just a few of us and I managed to sit down…
the early birds
… and then more people started arriving and bringing blankets and we realised that we were going to disappear under blankets and that we didn’t have enough chairs! These two problems were quickly solved by stuffing my car full of the completed blankets and borrowing extra chairs from the café next door! Plus, I mostly stopped sitting down…
What a lovely day it was. I got to meet up with friends old and new and by the end of the day 30 people had participated, we’d made a whole pile of blue and white squares for our communal creation and collected in 45 complete blankets:
All this amazing creative work is being undertaken by kind people from all over the world who are covering all the costs and simultaneously raising money for various charities. Every blanket will be donated to a charity and we may even break a world record!
If you’d like to join in, you can donate money via this Just Giving page or you can donate yarn or squares or make whole blankets… check out this Facebook group or this web page or @Sixtymilliontre on Twitter to make contact.
-oOo-
* wip = work in progress
The Snail of Happiness 
insearchofitall
/ February 6, 2017Getting together to do solitary work and gab is so wonderful. I go to a small group in a neighbors living room twice a month and we work on our hand embroidery, chatting away and having a lunch we brought from home. It’s such a lovely time and I look forward to it. My quilting group gathers once a month and we each contribute squares to make a quilt. I’m not as good at it as so many of the others but I enjoy the camaraderie. You do have quite a stack of blankets there in every possible color. Who says there is no kindness left in the world. It usually comes from women. Have a wonderfilled week ahead.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2017I’m delighted to say that we had one man crocheting with us all day – I think it’s a first
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insearchofitall
/ February 6, 2017That makes me smile.
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MrsCraft
/ February 6, 2017That’s wonderful, well done! You should feel proud of it. Those blankets will be much loved I’m sure.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2017And it was a great way to spend the day, surrounded by happy, positive people
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katechiconi
/ February 6, 2017What a brilliant result! Did it take lots of organising, and are you planning to do it again soon? I can’t believe that huge arrangement of finished blankets.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2017Fortunately, Danielle’s shop is a good venue for such events, so we don’t have to worry on that score. In the end it was hard work, but not too difficult to arrange and everyone was keen to do it again soon. I’m not sure that I’ll manage to be there next time as it’s not right on the doorstep, but I will try.
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cathyhaescrochet
/ February 6, 2017How wonderful! Beautiful work and what a great thing you all did! 🙌🏼☺
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2017and we had a lovely day doing it!
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nanacathy2
/ February 7, 2017Oh my what a wonderful lot and I mean LOT of blankets. Hurrah for people who crochet and knit.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2017and who are SO kind… all this to help others. Highly political, but not a word of politics, just lots of people doing good things for others
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Laurie Graves
/ February 7, 2017Wonderful! It sure does my heart good to read about groups such as this. Yes, highly political even though not a word of politics. Also, in the 1960s, my mother belonged to what she called “The Knitting Club,” where she and a group of women met regularly at each other’s houses to knit, crochet, and talk,
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2017There’s a ‘Knit Night’ once a week at one of our local yarn shops – I must make the effort to go along!
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Laurie Graves
/ February 7, 2017My mother really enjoyed her Knitting Club.
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Born To Organize
/ February 7, 2017It warms my heart to see all those blankets. You’re the bee’s knees. And what a fun day. xo
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2017And I made a pussy hat too… which I gave to my niece.
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Born To Organize
/ February 7, 2017Yes! Yes, yes, yes!
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