Keeping others warm: knitting for a good cause

It’s a cold day in the middle of a Calgary winter and you forgot your warm, cozy gloves and you can’t afford to buy a new pair. Unfortunately many people do not have these items readily available in their everyday life.

Yarn Twisters initiative

Lisa Overby and Michelle Hemmaway, owners of Yarn Twister, a locally owned knitting accessory store, are determined to change this problem. Their partnership with the Women’s Centre Of Calgary has enabled them to help many families with donations of knitting projects from their customers. 

Lisa says that “sometimes there’s knitters out there that like to knit, but they don’t have anybody to knit for” and this program has given these knitters an opportunity to knit for a good cause. As we approach the holiday season and the colder weather, it is a good reminder that giving always helps, why not learn a new hobby at the same time? Yarn Twister even hosts knitting workshops and knitting nights on Thursday evenings. The knitting nights are a great way to improve on your craft and socialize with other people who also are avid knitting enthusiasts.

Help is always needed

The owners of Yarn Twisters have been involved in this project with the Women’s Centre Of Calgary since the 2020 pandemic. According to the Women’s Centre Of Calgary, over 56,000 women were helped in 2023 alone, “providing direct assistance with basic needs 26,739 times”. 

Yarn Twister  has gathered over 50 items to donate to the Women’s Centre Of Calgary this year.   

The Canadian Women’s Foundation says that “according to Statistic Canada, 10% of women in Canada live on low incomes”. This shows that it is crucial to help others in need if you are able to do so.

Accepted donations

Although you can donate your knitting project year round, there are some items that are more useful for the colder weather. Lisa and Michelle say that these items are in higher demand right now:

• Socks
• Gloves
• Mittens
• Scarves
• Cowls
• Knitting supplies

Some of the knitted projects from Yarn Twisters customer that are going to be donated to the Women’s Centre Of Calgary. (Victor Labeaume, CMRU.ca)

The Women’s Centre also accepts donations for these basic need items: 

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• body wash
• Toothpaste
• makeup, and more

Source.

Thank you to everyone who donated this year

I had the opportunity to interview Lisa and Michelle and ask them some questions about their approach for this project and what the help of their community has been able to provide to others.

Personal reflection

This last segment is a reflection of my experience doing a community learning service project and what I learned from participating in this project. 

Before I got in contact with Lisa and Michelle I was struggling to find a partner that would put their trust in me for this project, I had multiple potential partners fall through. My mom actually introduced me to Lisa and Michelle and I have to be honest, I was very excited to get this project started. I am still actually very surprised by the support they receive from their community of knitters. Having the opportunity to shoot B roll footage during one of those knitting nights tied in with the community aspect of this project perfectly. I am confident that they’ll be able to use the video I made if they want to. I hope the video and this blog is going to empower their current donors (and hopefully future donors) to continue their support and to donate even more items! During this project I learnt to listen to the people I work with but then go from our basic ideas and go above it. It was also the first time I was confident with the interviewer sandwich setup (especially the lighting). I did have to do some slight post editing color

editing but that was not a problem at all. It was a pleasure working with Yarn Twisters for this project and I really enjoyed the more creative aspect as well. I hope that this helps them help even more women in need for the Women’s Centre Of Calgary.