Susan Roberts - Writer
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Knitting It All Together

3/19/2014

12 Comments

 
The index finger of my left hand is bent and sore, and the end joint is badly swollen, but I can’t stop knitting. Knitting? I’m supposed to be a writer and this blog is supposed to be about my progress and process, so why am I knitting instead of writing?

The seventh draft of my current novel is finished, and finally it’s in a state that I’m not ashamed to show to other people. It’s gone to five of my trusted friends and I await their comments. I have also finished the final proofread of my earlier novel The Epidaurus Inheritance so that paperback copies can be printed. Now it’s time to think about the next novel.

One of the best ways to free up your mind to do some creative thinking is to give your hands something to do. Two months ago I joined an initiative I had read about on Facebook: to get enough people to pledge to knit a blanket for some underprivileged person who doesn’t have one, and to do it before winter sets in. Winter in the southern hemisphere, that is.

Driving this venture are two remarkable women. Zelda la Grange was for many years the personal assistant to the late, greatly-mourned father of our nation, Nelson Mandela. When journalist Carolyn Steyn asked her what she would like people do in his memory, she answered that she would like 67 blankets to be knitted for poor people who would otherwise not have one.

Carolyn Steyn took up the challenge and invited people around South Africa to join her in making 67 blankets by July 1, in time for Mandela’s birthday which is on July 18. While anyone is more than welcome to buy and donate blankets to any charity of their choice, this is different: these blankets have to be made with your own two hands, either knitted or crocheted.

Like many good things in this internet age, the request went viral and over the last few months individual people and groups from all over the country have signed up and are either knitting or crocheting. Housewives and mothers, ballet dancers, schoolchildren, even butch rugby-playing men – there are no limits. As people’s friends and contacts on Facebook have read about it, others have joined too, and some members live as far away as Japan, Australia or America.

As of today we have 983 members. Many who started earlier have already finished their first and are onto their second or third blankets by now. The first handover is scheduled for April 7, so more than 1000 cold people are going to be warmer this winter. Now that’s enough to give any hardened, cynical person a warm, fuzzy feeling, isn’t it? Even a writer like me.

When I first signed up, I had no idea just how much knitting I would end up doing. I started with 5mm needles and some leftover double knitting yarn. I cast on 35 stitches and knitted until I could fold it diagonally to form a square. With my tension that’s 70 rows, which makes a square about 21cm by 21cm. Then I moved on to the next colour. I’m not very good at joining up, so I decided to knit my squares in 7 vertical strips of 10 squares each. My 70 squares will make a blanket that’s roughly 147 cm by 210cm. So far I’m on square number 24 and still have a long way to go.

Constructing a blanket stitch by stitch, square by square, reminds me of constructing a novel word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter. But knitting is much easier (apart from the physical pain of the swollen joints) because you don’t have to do seven drafts of a blanket and re-do almost every single stitch before you are brave enough to let someone else look at it. I will finish this blanket in the next two months, whereas a novel takes me about two years to complete. And my blanket will keep someone warm for much longer than it takes to read one of my novels.

The beauty of something that is handmade speaks for itself, and no one minds a dropped stitch or a wonky seam, because its primary purpose is to keep people warm. If at any time a knitter feels discouraged, a quick visit to the Facebook page results in messages of camaraderie and inspiration, and beautiful pictures of the blankets that others are making with their own two hands. Suddenly the pain in my joints isn’t so bad. Another cup of ginger tea and I go back to the knitting.

Sore joints are not all this blanket has given me. Another thing I didn’t realise at first was how – unlike my novels which serve only to entertain – knitting a blanket could actually serve a basic need and help one person get through winter. Other ordinary people like me can make a difference just by doing this small thing of taking up two needles or a crochet hook, getting a few balls of yarn, and casting on that first stitch.

Have a look at what people have created in Mandela’s name by going to Facebook and typing “67 Blankets for Madiba Day” in the search box. As Carolyn Steyn says in one of her many posts to encourage and support all who partake in this venture: “Stitch by stitch we will be keeping people (around the world) warm this winter!!!”

Maybe you’d like to join us?

12 Comments
Steph link
3/19/2014 01:59:01 am

Lovely sue :-)

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Susan link
3/19/2014 05:12:59 pm

Thanks, Steph.

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Sue link
3/19/2014 09:07:59 am

I agree wholeheartedly Sue. Very well put. It is amazing how creativity blooms with busy hands and of course I like the way you've likened blanket construction to novel writing. Getting those colours just right it almost as difficult as plotting. I wish!

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Susan link
3/19/2014 05:18:04 pm

Plotting the blanket colours has been a work in progress, and has given me new respect for the weavers of Persian carpets. Apparently they always put one tiny defect in each carpet so that they are not perfect, because that would be disrespectful to Allah. Well, I've got plenty of defects in my blanket and none of them were intentional!

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Marita
3/19/2014 06:09:02 pm

First the practical: Fastum is a rub that will ease your joints immediately!
Secondly, knitting is probably the most spiritual activity I can think of. As you stitch your thoughts, prayers Hopes and ideals into something that will have value, letting the colours and textures flow through your fingers, you heal not only yourself, but the person who will be warm. What a wonderful project this is.

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Susan link
3/19/2014 09:20:40 pm

Thanks, Marita - I'll get some of that today. I think the knitting project is turning out to be as uplifting for the knitters (and the crocheters) as it will be for the recipients.

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Tina
3/20/2014 10:55:29 pm

As you know already I was inspired to take up knitting a blanket for this cause too. Admittedly the last week of Le Miserable rehearsals have not allowed me much knitting time, but I just wanted to let you know that you inspired me to really give it a go. I often find myself thinking of friends, family and those connections that bind us when I'm busy knitting - and consider myself blessed to count you as one of the special people in my life.

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Susan link
3/21/2014 04:06:47 am

Thank you, Tina - you must know that you are special too. I also understand what you mean about friends and family. I inevitably think of my mother when I knit, because she taught me, and was so good at it herself.

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Shelley Olivier link
3/23/2014 03:27:40 am

Lovely meeting you today Sue, hope we get a chance to knit together again soon :)

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Susan link
3/23/2014 04:07:52 pm

Great meeting you too, Shelley. It was good to connect with other knitters and we had a fun afternoon. Looking forward to the next knitting party!

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jacky
4/12/2014 04:45:21 am

I admire your diligence Susan - especially when we're in a heatwave to beat all others! Hermanus has an ongoing project Keep Hermanus Warm (or words to that effect...), which is very successful. It happens all over town, especially in one funky coffee shop which has an open fire in winter. People drop off wool in baskets provided, and all customers are invited to pick up a bit of knitting and carry on where the last person left off - until the square's complete. It's working well, the blankets are colourful and very appealing, especially when displayed on the walls of the shop prior to being distributed. The Friends of the Library got involved last year, but somehow all the squares were different sizes, so we knit over coffee now, instead.

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Susan link
4/12/2014 07:12:31 pm

That sounds like a really good idea, Jacky. When I was a child and my mother took me to the doctor, there was a charity knitting box in the waiting room where people could add to the squares already started by other knitters. I always wondered why my mother brought her own knitting to do when the squares looked like such fun, but over the years I've realised that she probably didn't want to pick up any germs that might have lurked from someone coughing over the knitting in the previous twenty minutes or however long those cold and flu germs stay alive. Putting the box in a coffee shop is a much healthier idea!

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